Page 52 of Until Then

“Listen, Hayley.” Gingerly, I place the dessert plates on the counter. “I’m sorry about all this, I really didn’t?—”

She snorts, interrupting me. Her shoulders tremble again. Brow furrowed, I step to her side. She has a hand over her mouth, tears squeezing from the corners of her eyes, but she’s . . . laughing.

I smile. “What’s so funny?”

She breaks. Hayley folds onto the counter, her forehead resting on top of her wrists, and laughs.

I can’t help it, and do the same.

When she finally catches her breath, she spins around, wiping at her eyes. “I’m sorry, it’s . . . it’s not even funny,but . . . your face the entire time”—she lets out another rough gasp—“you need to brush up on your acting skills, Pretty Boy. You looked ready to puke or cry the second anyone asked you a question.”

“I did not.”

“You did. My mom even sent me a text to save you while I still could.”

We share another laugh. Hayley sighs and presses her palm to my heart again—quickly becoming my favorite sort of touch. “You survived the interrogation.”

“Barely.”

She smiles. “No one has done that, you know.”

“Meaning?”

Hayley slowly unravels the knot behind her head, raking out her long tresses with a sigh of relief. “I mean, guys I’ve dated in the past, well, they always find a reason to skip the family gatherings. Always had an excuse to do things off the ranch.”

“How?” I lean my back against the edge of the countertop. “You were engaged to the troll?—”

“I’m a fan of your Jasper nicknames, by the way.”

“Good, they’ll keep coming. But seriously, how did you get by without having your fiancé at the table?”

She pops one shoulder. “I don’t know. He never tried to get close to my family. Now, looking back, I can see he tried to keep me closer to him and his crowd.”

“How did you even meet this guy?”

“Like I said, the ranch has been struggling. For some extra income we leased out our pastures to the studio he works for to choreograph riding scenes and to train horses they needed for their movies. One of the days, Jasper came with some of the crew.”

“Ah. Is that where the whole we-hate-actors thing started.”

“It’s not actors,” Hayley says. “There have been some experiences with cruelty from people in the industry, and it’s made them leery. Jasper didn’t help.” She pauses and looks at me like she’s seeing someone new. “They took right to you.”

I look at the patterns on the linoleum floor. “They seem like really good people, Wildfire.”

“They are.” There’s a gentleness in her voice when she speaks about her family. Hayley dries her hands in the sink after I load the final plate in the dishwasher. “Well,” she says. “I’m going to change. Then, if you want, I can show you around a bit.”

“I would love that.”

She smiles and heads for the back door. “I actually have my own house. There are four different houses across the fifty acres. I’m on acre two by the first pasture.”

We walk down a gravel path, shoulder to shoulder, and pause at a little red house with white windowsills. It’s quaint and a single level. The flowers in the pots are vibrant and this plot of land has a big tree in the front yard with a tire swing.

“I’ll be just a minute.” Hayley pauses at the door. “You can come in if you’d like.”

I place my hands in my pants pockets and smile. “I think I’ll wait for you right here. I’m in my ranch heaven right now.”

She rolls her eyes. “That’s right, you’re a wannabe cowboy.”

“Correction, I am a cowboy.”

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