Page 14 of Craving You

“Actually, everything’s great. She wanted to congratulate us on the pregnancy and to see how I was feeling.”

“That was very nice of her.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Billie said, her smile turning a bit devious as she looked directly at Max. “But the main reason she was calling was to ask if she could come and visit.”

Now his eyes went comically wide, and his heart raced a bit.

“I hope you told her she’s always welcome,” his brother replied, but Max could feel him looking at him as he said it.

Great. All eyes on me. Awesome.

“Oh, I did. She’s flying up on Wednesday and I told her she could stay here, so…I hope that’s okay with everyone.”

It was too much—all the staring and smirking! “Just say what you’re all thinking,” he snapped.

“What?” Billie asked innocently. “I’m just saying what Hailey and I discussed. Why? What do you think I’m thinking?”

Frowning, he said, “I think you’re waiting for me to react, so here it is. I’m actually happy that Hailey’s coming to visit. I had planned on texting her today. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to reach out and realized I was overthinking it. Did she say why she was flying up? Is she okay?”

Shrugging, Billie sat back down. “She didn’t say anything was wrong. All she said was she felt the need to get away and this was the first place she thought of. The weekend of our wedding, she mentioned that she was considering moving out of Florida.”

“Didn’t she also mention that to Chloe and Tanner when she saw them on their way to their honeymoon?”

“I think she did,” Billie agreed before looking at Max again. “Since we all know what happened between the two of you, I guess I want to make sure that you’re not going to feel awkward with her coming and staying here. If you are, I can ask if she can stay with either of my sisters. I wouldn’t ask Levi and Jade because they’ve got their hands full with their boys.”

“You don’t have to ask anyone anything,” Max assured her. “It’s not like Hailey and I ended on bad terms. Logistics just weren’t on our side, that’s all.” Pausing, he took a sip of his coffee. “Did she mention how long she was going to stay?”

“No, but I told her she could stay as long as she liked. This house is too big for just the two of us, so it will be nice to have someone getting some use out of one of the guest rooms.”

“We really need to talk about which one we want to use for the nursery,” Marcus said. “I know it’s too soon, but I’d rather designate it as such and maybe let Hailey use one of the other rooms.”

“The largest room upstairs already has an en suite. We always knew that room was going to be our main guest room, so…”

At that point, Max tuned them out.

His brother was interested in investing in a bar with him.

And Hailey was coming back to Sweetbriar Ridge.

It suddenly felt like his life was about to become a whirlwind of the best kind of chaos—like everything was potentially falling into place. And the only surprise was how nothing else could surprise him. Every plot twist he could imagine had already happened.

It’s all upward from here!

It was mid-afternoon before Max was back up in his apartment, and he knew he needed to reach out to Hailey. Now that he knew she was coming to visit, he was curious if maybe he was part of the reason for her visit.

Max: Hey, Hailey! It’s Max. How are you?

“Ugh…that was so lame. Why didn’t I say something charming or at least less generic?”

Max: I hear you’re coming to visit this week. I would love to see you again.

“Okay, that was slightly less generic,” he murmured, and hoped she’d respond so he could figure out what to say next.

It took about fifteen minutes, but she did.

Hailey: Hey, Max! I’m fine and hope you are too.

Hailey: Yes, I’m flying up on Wednesday and I was hoping we’d get to see each other.

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