Operation: Married by Christmas (5 page)

T
he following day, with a mixture of dread and an undeniable nagging sense of curiosity, Haley pulled up the drive to Will's house. She kept reminding herself that she was making her grandpa happy and doing Mule Hollow a service while she was in town relaxing.
Relaxing, ha!

She hadn't known just how much she'd needed a break until now. Her life had become a whirlwind of meetings and showings, a race to secure the right clients and sell the right properties. After only a few days in Mule Hollow, with its slow pace and country charm, she was startled to see just how much she'd needed to slow down. At least for a few weeks. And she was relaxing…when she didn't think about Will.

She could help with the props for the production even if she wouldn't be around for opening night. Already, her bosses were pushing to know when she was coming back. She'd hedged, but she didn't know how long that could go on.

She pushed that aside, though. Today, she was here to discuss sketches. Leave it to Applegate to suggest she and Will work alone the first week designing the sets. When they were ready they could call the rest of the team in for the actual building and painting. Haley wanted to protest, but she kept her mouth shut. Will hadn't protested or made any kind of complaint, so she certainly wasn't going to say anything. She didn't want it to look as if she had any reason for not wanting to work alone with him. So here she was at his house.

About to be alone with him.

She wouldn't focus on that. Instead, she studied his house and tried to settle down. White sandstone with cedar posts and a green metal roof. It was the same home he'd grown up in, but she could see that it had been updated. The metal roof replaced the more traditional shingles, and the room that was lined with floor-to-ceiling windows along the right side of the house was also a new addition. She studied it as she followed the drive around the house. When they'd made plans to meet today, Will had told her to pull her car around back to the shop. The concrete drive spread out into a large round circle at the back of the house. The “shop” turned out to be a smaller version of the house. It sat on the far side of the drive facing the back of the house. Its two garage doors stood open despite the cold.

After parking her car, Haley climbed out then walked toward the sounds coming from the shop. She found Will standing with his back to her as he worked, Alan Jackson's song “Remember When” blasting from the radio speakers next to the door. Haley stood still, startled by the sight of Will and the poignant song. She could do nothing but watch Will for a moment.

He wore boots, scuffed and worn, just like a cowboy liked them. His jeans were pale blue with a white crease line running up the back that marked many washes and stiff starches. She knew the same mark would run parallel up the front of the jeans, accenting the lean length of his legs. Legs that were still, after all these years, so perfectly proportioned with his trim waist and wide shoulders. In his hand he held a torch, and Haley watched as he used it to cut along the sketch on the huge sheet of steel. It was immediately apparent that he was far from a novice at using the flame like a scalpel. She was instantly fascinated watching him work his craft.

It took her a moment to realize her heart was doing a drum solo inside her chest, completely at odds with the slow hypnotic voice of Alan Jackson imploring her to “remember when.” She readily complied, her memory tumbling back—easily remembering Will's laugh as they raced along the dry riverbed during the first thunderstorm of the summer. The first feel of his arms as they came around her. The first kiss they'd shared…oh, she remembered all right.

As if sensing he wasn't alone, he turned around. Slowly, he lifted the protective glasses he wore and met her gaze with steady eyes.

“Haley.”

Haley snapped to, managing a tight smile. “I didn't mean to startle you,” she said, her heart thundering.

He shut down the torch and laid it on the steel beside the protective glasses. His hair was flat against his forehead, giving him a youthful appearance—just as she remembered…

Haley pushed the memories away and walked over to look at his work, hoping her expression didn't show that she'd just taken a long slow walk down memory lane.

Looking at his art gave her the cover she needed. She was astounded by it. He'd always been creative and artistic, and she'd admired his own entrance gate when she'd turned onto his drive. Like the piece she was looking at now, she'd been blown away by the intricacy of it.

“This is phenomenal,” she said, looking at the cutout of a cowboy riding a bucking bronc.

He turned to stand beside her. “Thank you.”

She couldn't help reaching out to touch it, to trace the outline with her finger. “It's round,” she said, stating the obvious. “What will you do with it?”

“I'll make a steel band that it will set in, and then I'll mount it in that. Like a cameo.”

He gestured toward a rectangular gate frame filled with bars except for the center. It was going to be a massive gate. A piece of art itself.

To her relief, Will moved away from her. “I'll set it today, then powder coat it black and mail it out next week.”

Haley followed him with her gaze then studied the rest of the room. There were many of the rectangular frames already built in various sizes around the room. Though they were empty, she couldn't help wondering what would end up in them.

Applegate had told her that Will was very busy. She could see why. Her gaze boomeranged back around and met his.

“Did you bring the play and Lacy's wish list of scenes?”

Unnerved by his closeness, Haley put on her game face and waved the notebook. “Where do you want to discuss it?”

He continued to study her for another minute, his expression blank. “Come up to the house. It's warmer there. I tend to work with the doors open.”

She wanted to say no. That they should just get to work and get this over with. Instead, glad to leave the awkward moment behind them, she followed him in silence up the walk, past the flower beds that were brimming with pansies, their little purple and yellow faces calmly holding their own in the cold morning air. Will had always had a way with plants, a trait he'd inherited from his father. It was a quirk she'd liked about him. Not many young men actually enjoyed fiddling with flowers. Will hadn't ever seemed to mind that the other cowboys teased him about it.

Looking at his handiwork, Haley took heart from the strength of the dainty flowers facing the chill. “So,” she said, turning to the safety of small talk. “I love what you've done with the place. Where are your parents now?”

“They moved to Austin a few years back. They wanted to be closer to my sister and her kids, and Dad wanted to get my mom closer to her doctors. She's had some health issues.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.” And she was. His parents were lovely people. His mother was an especially gracious and godly woman. “I'm sure being near Terri and the kids is good for her.”

“We think so.”

He held the door for her, and she brushed past him as she stepped into the kitchen of his home. It was an odd feeling to step into the house she'd thought she would share…. Haley pushed the thought away.

She was a strange, strange woman. A week ago she'd been about to marry another man, and here she was now reminiscing about Will Sutton.

“Can I take your coat?”

She jumped at the sound of his voice so close beside her and at the touch of his hands on her shoulders. He was only touching her to help her out of her coat, for goodness sake.

“Oh, sure. Thank you. It's warm here…I freeze—”

“I remember.”

She met his gaze over her shoulder and a ridiculous little tremor raced along her spine. He remembered.

“Yes, well,” she laughed, her nerves showing. “I'm sure you would. I complained enough.”

Yanking her arms free of the coat, she all but ran away from him, totally mad at her weak knees. But he smelled so good. Always had.

Lifting her chin, she walked to the far side of his kitchen, putting as much space between them as possible. She leaned her hip against the counter, wrapped her arms across her waist and watched him hang her coat on the rack next to the door. The room rang with the silence.

There was nothing between them.
Nothing.

Hadn't been for almost a decade, yet she was at a loss for words. She'd better get over it or this project wasn't ever going to get finished. Besides, he wasn't showing any emotion at all.

“Can I offer you something to drink? Coffee, soda?”

She shook her head. “No thanks,” she said, intent on getting to work. “How did you start doing gates?” That was not what she'd intended to ask. She'd intended to tell him it was time to get to work. She didn't need to know any personal details about his life.

He opened the refrigerator and turned his back to her as he studied the interior. “After you left, I went ahead and used my degree in architecture, but I wasn't happy with my work. So, when I discovered a way out I never looked back.”

“I see.” Haley nodded, thinking she heard a double meaning to the words
never looked back.
She decided now was a perfect time to put them back on track…before she said something she might regret. “I think the drawings will be fairly easy to sketch out,” she said, feeling stiff and awkward.

He turned, holding a pitcher of tea. The man had always loved sweet tea. It was amazing with all that sugar that he'd kept such a sleek physique—that she had no business admiring. What a dope she was!

She swung around, flopped open the notebook she'd laid on the counter and studied the first idea. She concentrated hard on it. They were going to open the story up with Mary and Joseph arriving home after becoming man and wife. They needed a backdrop of the interior of their home. There was also a small bridge in several scenes. “Have you thought any about the bridge?” she asked, listening to him fill glasses with ice and feeling as if she was coming down with a case of the shakes.

“Actually, I already started it. I couldn't sleep after the meeting last night so I went out to the shop, and the next thing I knew I was building a bridge.”

She smiled at him over her shoulder, despite her growing discomfort. “You never were much of a procrastinator.” He didn't smile, but the corner of his lips curved slightly. A frog suddenly settled in Haley's windpipe, and she was grateful for the tea he handed her. Their fingers brushed as she took the glass, and Haley felt the touch all the way to her toes. Will pulled his hand away, seemingly unaffected.

She was obviously crazy.

“I don't have a lot of time to waste,” he said, sipping his tea.

The clock above the stove ticked the seconds out as they stared at each other. “Then we're in the same boat. I have a job to get back to. So the sooner we get it done, the quicker both of us can get on with our lives.” There, she felt better. She met his steady gaze straight on.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

“Right,” he agreed.

Haley watched his Adam's apple bob.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

“Sooo, let's get to it,” she said, swinging back toward the papers on the counter.

When Will stepped up beside her, leaning over the papers to study them, her heart jumped—again. What was she doing? This was crazy. She couldn't take it—“Okay,” she snapped, pushing away from the counter and the inch that separated their arms from touching. She stomped across the room to the far counter and swung around to glare at him. “I can't do this.”
No, Haley, no!

He turned to stare at her. All it took was the blank expression on his face to send her blood pressure through the roof! “That does it! Stop with the blank looks. You're the one who blew up at me the other day and now every time I'm around you look like a wax dummy in a museum. We are walking on eggshells, and I can't stand it.”

He lifted a perfect thick eyebrow. Other than that, his expression didn't change.

“Say something. You had plenty to say when we had an audience.”

His brows creased, and his lips flattened. “All that was just reaction from the shock of seeing you after all these years. That's all it was. We have been put on a project together, and all I want is to get through it like two adults and move on. I realized that there really is no sense in rehashing our sordid past.”

“Sordid. Meaning my walking out on you.”

“Call it whatever you want. I don't really care.”

“I get that clearly. I got that clearly all those years ago and that's why I left. You never really did get it.”

The room grew silent again all but for the ticking of the clock and the sound of Haley's heart pounding in her chest.

“Look, I really can't do this.” She headed toward the back door. There was no use fighting this. He was bent on trying to make her feel bad and she wasn't going to give in to that. She refused to just pretend it wasn't happening. He knew and she knew that he could take care of the drawing of the props without her, so there was no sense in her having to stress out over being around him.