Hayley - Kathryn Shay Page 0,33
right. Maybe we jumped into this thing between us too fast before we really got to know each other.”
“I didn’t say that at all, Hayley. Besides, you can’t change the past. We did get involved.” He waited for a response and when it didn’t come, he said, “I guess we’re at a stalemate.”
“You won’t give in on this?”
“I can’t live with you going off on me if I make a mistake.” His voice raised a notch. “I don’t lead my life that way.”
“I didn’t go off on you. But call it whatever you want. I don’t date men who get mad like you did over an innocent incident, either.”
“This was a special circumstance to me.”
“Which I have to live with? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I need time to process everything.”
“All right, Paul, take all the time you need. But I won’t be comfortable in your company right now. And know I’m not going into a relationship with any man where I have to worry about what I say.”
“So, I’m any man.”
“And I’m just another woman.”
They were adversaries again, which was how they started out. Realizing that, he stood. “I’m leaving.”
“I think that’s best.” She stood, too. “Call me when you have things straightened out. If I’m free, I’ll see you again.”
“What the hell do you mean if you’re free?”
“Exactly what that implies.”
He raised his arm with an open palm. “Now we have an ultimatum and a threat. You’re two for two, girl.”
Instead of responding, she left the room. He heard the front door swish open. He walked to the entrance and right outside. He didn’t turn to her again. He couldn’t, because he feared he’d give in before he figured things out with his family.
* * *
“Hey, cuz, good to see you.” Rafe met Haley at the front door of his house. She’d never seen his place, though Seth said Rafe owned it for twenty years. “We’re so happy you could come to the picnic.”
“Thanks. I’m psyched, too.” She hugged her cousin, grateful to be with people who cared about her today.
Anything, that would make her forget the scene with Paul yesterday morning. In the afternoon she found a way not to second guess herself. But she’d slept poorly. Today, she’d distract herself with her cousins.
And wow, were there a lot to take her mind off things, she thought as she went out onto Rafe’s new deck. All four cousins were around the pool, along with their children. She counted seven kids. Funny, though, she thought as she looked at the adults. None of them were married, except for Rafe, who’d tied the knot only a couple of months ago.
“When did you put the pool in?” she asked him.
“Right after we went to your cottage. Tommy couldn’t stop talking about your pool, so we got one.”
“That was quick.”
“Life’s short, kiddo.”
Discomfort wormed its way inside her. As a firefighter, of course Rafe knew that. Hayley forgot sometimes. Had she been rash yesterday with Paul?
“Did you wear your suit?”
“Yeah.” Under a sage green cover-up that Paul said highlighted her eyes.
“We’re planning a rousing game of pool volleyball before we eat.”
“I’m in.” She was still a pretty good athlete. She’d been on the swim team at the private prep school she’d gone to and college at Radcliff.
Alessia sat on a chaise halfway down on the slate deck of the pool, watching the kids swim. Hayley joined her. “Hey, Ali. Want some company?”
“Sure.” Hayley leaned over and hugged her cousin.
Just as she straightened, she heard, “Hey, Hayley, catch.” She turned fast but not quick enough and the beach ball hit her in the face. “Ouch.”
“Sorry,” Seth called out. He stood in the water on the other side of the pool with Gideon, both cousins wearing bathing suits and Ray Bans. “You okay?” Seth was not referring to the beach ball.
“Yeah, sure.”
After removing her dress, she stretched out in the chaise next to Alessia.
“Where’s Finn?” Ali asked. She was his age.
“I wish he could have come. I called yesterday and reminded him of the invitation, but he was taking his boat on an overnight down the coast with a friend. He would have changed his plans, otherwise.”
“Too bad.”
Hayley scrunched her nose. “And I wish Ronan was here, damn him. I miss my oldest brother.”
“I’ll bet. I can’t imagine not having Rafe in my life.”
“He’s a gem.”
“That he is.” Rafe’s wife, Kate Cassidy Casella, had come up to them. She’d gotten a bigger baby bump since the picnic at the lake house