Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

“I told you that sweater would look fantastic on you.” Tatum’s smile was smug. “I’m gifting it to you as a thank-you for helping me with my social media ads today.”

“Wait, what?” Ginger nearly spilled her espresso martini. “You’re helping Tatum with her social media? Can you help me, too? The studio could use a boost. Ever since the local paper shut down, we get no coverage about our recitals, much less our class offerings. I’ll be lucky if anyone but family shows up for The Nutcracker later this month.”

“Of course,” Elle replied offhandedly. She was resisting the urge to suck down her Long Island iced tea. Given how this evening had been going, she’d be justified in getting a good drunk on.

She’d be damned if she lost her head over a stupid guy again, though. Hayden’s mother, well, that was another story. Except even Claire Lovell wasn’t worth the pain that would follow.

Elle tracked Hayden as he moved toward one of the pool tables. Her stomach clenched as she recalled his earlier comments. What had she done to make him so angry with her about living in New York? Or was it simply that he was mad about dropping out of the Turkey Trot? Because that was his choice. She hadn’t encouraged his white knight act the other day. And he was being a little childish if that was what had him acting like a jerk. Now Elle was angry because, really, she hadn’t done anything to warrant his surly attitude. She might have been the catalyst for his life getting derailed ten years ago, but she was tired of shouldering the blame for everything else.

Hayden handed off his pool cue and headed to the back of the bar. Out of the corner of her eye, Elle saw Bernice winding her way purposely through the crowd, headed straight for her. Word had probably already spread about the help she was giving Tatum. Bernice likely wanted to get in on the action, too.

Elle set her drink on the table and slipped past Ginger. “I’ll be right back,” she said to no one in particular.

She headed away from Bernice, moving toward the restrooms at the back of the bar. It took her a hot minute to navigate through the crowd. She arrived just as Hayden was coming out of the men’s room. Elle barely stopped herself before she plowed into his chest. The peeved expression he wore when he saw her was her undoing.

“We need to talk,” she said as she wrapped her fingers around his arm and tugged him into the storage closet.

“What the hell is going on with you?” he demanded when she closed the door behind them.

“That’s exactly what I’m wondering about you?”

There wasn’t much room to maneuver in the tight space. With barely a foot between them, his scent was everywhere, soapy and fresh. And, dear God, was he wearing cologne? She couldn’t quite place the fragrance, but it suited him perfectly.

“Nothing is going on with me. Except for my date could be arriving any time now while I’m back here arguing with you about who knows what.”

Livi. She’d forgotten all about Livi. Was he disappointed that the evening wasn’t going the way he’d planned? Or was he worried about her safety? Of course, he was. His reaction was the same the other day when she got injured. She’d been thinking his over-the-top response was for her. But he would have behaved that way for anyone who needed help. That was who Hayden was. His foul mood had nothing to do with Elle.

She mentally smacked herself. “I’m sorry. I just had the impression you were angry with me about something. It makes sense that you’re stressing about Livi.”

He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry about the way my mom treats you, Elle. She has no right to blame you for everything.” He lifted his lids. “I’m not angry with you. For anything.”

Elle heard the inflection he put on the word “you.” It should have doused her fears. Only it didn’t.

“But you are angry.”

“I believe I just explained why I’m stressed out tonight. Making matters worse, West is sitting out there on a date with my aunt.”

She studied his face. The square jaw and straight nose were so familiar. The closed-off expression in his blue eyes was not. And she didn’t dare even let her gaze land on his full lips. Lips she now knew from her embarrassing episode were firm and quite intoxicating. She shook her head slightly, attempting to refocus her thoughts.

“Yeah. Weird,” she said.

“Are we good here? Because . . .” He gestured with his thumb at the door.

“Sure.”

He turned to leave without even giving her so much as a smile. And that seemed to detonate something inside her. Elle wasn’t good. She wasn’t good at all.

“Why did you disappear the other day? When you took me to the ER?”

He froze with his back to her, his hand on the doorknob. “Can you just let that go? It didn’t mean anything.”

“Seriously? You made a whole scene. Dropping out of the race. Rushing me to the ER as if my life depended on it. And then, boom, you ghost me. That didn’t mean anything?”

Hayden turned back around to face her. “Yes, Elle. It didn’t mean anything. Just forget it ever happened.”

“Like you forgot about me kissing you?”

Oh, hell. Why was she bringing that back up again? She should be grateful he didn’t want to make a big deal about the way she’d thrown herself at him that night. Why couldn’t she just forget it like he asked?

Because it stings that he could just “forget it.”

“I mean, was it that bad?” she babbled on, her brain clearly on a suicide mission. “I haven’t had any complaints before.”

He was so still that she wasn’t sure he was breathing. “You don’t want to have this conversation, Elle.” The words were spoken so quietly, she almost didn’t hear them over the noise from the party going on right outside the door.

You’re right. I don’t, her brain cried.

Too bad her heart was driving the crazy bus right now.

She jerked her chin up, willing it not to tremble. “Clearly, I’m doing something wrong if men forget me so easily.”

“Don’t you dare lump me in with that asshole, Jeremy,” he growled.

“It’s kind of hard not to when you both rejected me.” She hated the hiccup in her voice.

“Dammit, Elle.” He closed the distance between them, his body pressing hers against the wall. Her nerve endings sizzled to life at the contact. She’d known this man for decades. How had she not realized the exquisite pleasure his muscled body was capable of? He reached up and trailed a finger along her cheek. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

He was right. She didn’t know anything right now. The only thought in her head was that he must keep touching her.

Everywhere.

“Hayden?”

Her whispered plea got his attention. “Mm-hmm.”

An instant later, his lips crashed down on hers. She was pleased to discover she hadn’t imagined how full and firm they were. When she’d let herself go back to the memories of that night, she’d always remembered his kiss had been the type to make her stomach drop—as though she’d just gone over the first hill of a roller coaster.

This one was no different.

Best of all, Hayden wasn’t kissing her like a man repulsed. Nope. His lips were greedy and demanding as they feasted on her mouth. It was almost as though if he didn’t kiss her, he might expire on the spot.

She could relate to that feeling.

He let out a satisfied groan as he threaded his fingers into her hair, angling her head for better access. Elle dug her fingers into his shoulders to keep from falling, her knees were suddenly wobbly. A sigh escaped the back of her throat, giving Hayden all the opening he needed. His tongue slipped between her parted lips, sliding against hers seductively.

Elle was nearly overcome at the rush of need that buzzed through her body. She skimmed her palms along the back of his neck, desperate to keep their mouths fused together. Even though other parts of her began to ache for his attention.

When Hayden tore his mouth away and stared down at her, he looked as confused as she felt. “Elle.”

Her name sounded like a confession coming from his lips. She didn’t want to hear what came next. All she wanted tonight was to feel. So she stretched up on her toes and pressed her lips to his once again.

She felt more than heard the low rumble deep in his chest. His hands left her hair to explore the curves of her hips. He eased one hand beneath the hem of her sweater. The heat of his touch had her gasping into his mouth. His other hand cupped her ass, lifting her body against the hard length of his erection. She nearly lost herself then and there.

When he broke off the kiss this time, he swore violently. Elle struggled to regulate her breathing while he took a giant step away from her. She immediately felt the cold in the unheated room. Her stomach clenched at the look of raw anguish she saw on his face.

Hayden shook his head, and her heart sank. No!

“We can’t do this anymore, Elinor.”

He was out the door without another word.

“It lives,” West said when Elle sneaked into the kitchen to forage through the brunch leftovers the following afternoon.

The irritating man had taken over the round kitchen table with his laptop and an assortment of notebooks spread all over it.

“My mom has a perfectly good study she designated for your use,” she grumbled as she filled the tea kettle at the sink.

“I’d make a comment about you not being a morning person, but it’s already afternoon,” he quipped.

The kettle clanged against the gas stove’s burner when she set it down. Elle would not let this man shame her for having a pity party alone in her suite last night. One that had lasted well into today, it seemed. Her emotional well was totally depleted after pretending for the rest of the party that everything was fine. That she was fine. The pretense was difficult to maintain in front of her family and a town full of people who’d known her all her life. It helped that Hayden had vanished from the bar.

Hayden kissed me.

Her hand shook as she fished through the tea tin for a bag of chamomile. He’d kissed her, and it changed everything. How could she go on simply being “just friends” with Hayden now that she knew what it felt like to have his tongue tangled with hers? Or his bare hands sliding along her skin? Or his hard length pressed against her?

He’d wanted her last night. There was no mistaking that. And then he’d left her.

We can’t do this anymore, Elinor.

His words had been like water dousing a flame.

What did they even mean?

Had he left the party to “forget about it” just like he claimed he’d done after last New Year’s?

How did someone even do that?

“A woman named Bernice was here looking for you,” West announced, cutting into her thoughts.

Elle froze as she reached for a mug. “She isn’t here now, is she?”

Bernice was camped outside the storage room when Elle emerged last night. It had been a good fifteen minutes after Hayden had stormed out. Fifteen minutes where Elle had been too numb to react. Luckily, she was able to stave off the waterworks until she got back to the inn.

But Bernice always saw too much. And even when she didn’t see things with her own eyes, she was quick to surmise the basics of the story, which she then would spread around Chances Inlet as gospel. The little devil had coaxed a deal out of Elle last night. She’d keep her mouth shut as long as Elle helped out with the social media for the entire town.

“She left about an hour ago. But not before delivering strict instructions for you to report to the mayor’s office at nine tomorrow morning. Sharp.”

“Fabulous.” Elle pulled the whistling kettle from the stove and poured the hot water into her mug.

“Does Helen know you’re moonlighting while on assignment here?”

Elle aimed a glare at the man. “It’s only moonlighting if I get paid. And the only thing Helen cares about is you finishing your book.” She sat down at the table. “I’m supposed to give her a status update this week. Can I tell her you’re almost done?”

“Tell her whatever you want,” he replied.

She fingered one of the notebooks before West slapped his hand down on top of it. “At least you’re working on it, right?” she asked.

Please say yes!

Something about West’s expression made her suspicious. She reached for his laptop and turned the screen to see it.

“Oh. My. God! You’re designing gingerbread houses?”

“I told you I intend to make a good showing.”

Elle dropped her forehead to the table. “Do you realize that if you stopped dilly-dallying and put more effort into writing, you’d be finished by now?”

“Do you realize my dilly-dallying gets you more time in Chances Inlet with your family?”

“Maybe I don’t want to spend the entire season stuck here!”

She quickly glanced around the kitchen making sure no one witnessed her outburst. The last thing she wanted was to hurt anyone’s feelings. They’d never understood her need to keep up with the Fab Four.

West contemplated her over his steepled fingers. “Maybe you just want to avoid a certain deputy sheriff?”

Elle could actually feel the blood draining from her face. What did this man know about her and Hayden? More importantly, how did he know?

Damn Bernice.

It didn’t matter. She was tired of West and his insolent attitude. The only thing that mattered was him meeting his deadline and her getting the career opportunity she needed to hold her head up among this family.

“Helen didn’t send you here to psychoanalyze me any more than she expects you to build gingerbread houses. Or wear ugly sweaters. Or to swipe right,” she told him. “You’re here to finish the book you’ve already been paid a crap-ton of money to write. So please, do us both a favor and open that file and make the magic happen.”

His patented arrogant look remained in place. “‘Make the magic happen.’ As in, wave my magic wand and the words will appear?”

She took a sip of her tea to keep from screaming.

“Have you written a book before, Gidget?”

Why must he call her that?

“No, I have not. But it can’t be that difficult when you already know how the story goes. You lived that ending. Just write it.”

Something shifted in his expression. It grew darker. His lips formed a grim line. West gathered his notebooks and shoved them into his backpack before slamming his laptop closed.

“You’re exactly right. I do know how it goes.” He slung the backpack over his shoulder and stood with such force that the table teetered. “In fact, I get to relive it every night. In vivid detail.”

Guilt washed over her as he stormed out the back door. What was it Kate had said the other day?

You both have the same telltale battle scars.

No telling what the correspondent had experienced during his months embedded with troops. Or simply witnessing conflict. None of it could have been pretty. Was that what was keeping him from finishing the book? Trauma?

She dropped her forehead to the table again. Badgering a man who was wracked with pain wouldn’t get them anywhere, especially since Elle was now consumed with guilt. West could be annoying, sure. And she would only get the job she coveted if he finished his memoir on time. But did the end justify the means? The last thing she ever wanted to do was cause anyone more discomfort when they were already hurting.

“That bad, huh?”

Lamar’s voice had her snapping her head back up. She sighed.

“Why does life have to be so complicated?” she asked.

The irony wasn’t lost on her that she’d asked her father the very same question the other day. Hopefully, her stepfather would be a little more forthcoming than a dead man.

“I’m guessing that if I said ‘that’s what makes it fun,’ it wouldn’t help.”

Elle shot him a look. Lamar chuckled as he sat down in the chair West had vacated.

“West giving you trouble?” he asked.

“What was your first clue?”

“He was stomping down the driveway as if he were trying to make wine from the gravel. My guess is he doesn’t appreciate your doggedness at keeping him on task.” He reached over and patted her hand. “Don’t let him get to you. And try not to take it personally. You’re simply doing the job that was asked of you.”

She sighed. “Except I think I might have become a little too sharp of a thorn in his side.” A thought popped into her head. “Does your veteran’s group take walk-ins?”

Lamar leaned back in his chair. “Hold on there, Elle. West hasn’t made many friends among veterans with some of the things he’s written in his book.”

“Yeah. Hayden mentioned that. But I think he’s hurting, too. I suspect the things he saw have affected him the same way it has you all. Maybe talking about it would help. I know I’m grasping at straws here. Anything to get him to finish the book. Except if it is trauma holding him back . . .” She shrugged.

Lamar studied her for a long moment. His smile was filled with wonder as he shook his head. “You are your mother’s daughter. There’s not an injured creature out there that you two don’t want to rescue.”

He was referring to a young teen in town her mom had fostered. Cassidy was in Scotland for the year, studying literature at St. Andrews, thanks to a generous grant from the good people of Chances Inlet. Elle’s sister-in-law, Lori had also spent some time under her mom’s protective wing. Until Miles stepped in to take over the job.

She toyed with her mug. “Of course, there’s no guarantee West even wants any help.”

“Mmm.” Lamar got to his feet. “That’s possible. But for you, I’ll make the effort.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “It’s not what you become in life. It’s who you are at your core. And you, Elinor McAlister, are one of the all-time good ones. Don’t you ever forget it.”

“My dad used to say something like that,” she said around the boulder in her throat.

“Your dad was a wise man.”

Lamar was nearly out the door when she called after him.

“Is Hayden on duty today?”

She wasn’t sure why she asked. It wasn’t like she had the emotional bandwidth to face him today. Or ever. Except he’d disappeared again last night without a word to anyone. It was the second time he’d done that this week. She couldn’t help but worry about him.

“Nope. He came by earlier to pick up some of Livi’s things. The ferry is back up, and they are spending the day on Bald Head.”

Well.

Elle tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her belly. Was that what Hayden meant? They couldn’t “do this anymore” because he was with Livi? She groaned softly as she buried her face in her hands. Was he kissing Livi with the same ruthless passion he’d shown her last night? Her stomach seemed to close in on itself at the very idea.

She had no one to blame but herself. The heartache she was feeling was all her fault. After all, she’d pushed him toward Livi, believing they would be a good match. Only she wasn’t feeling so magnanimous now. And it sucked.