Why had she come home? Really?
She had a great life…. She had a life she’d worked hard for…. A life she’d dreamed of…
Why had she walked out on it and come back?
Haley woke to the sound of hushed voices and multiple sets of footsteps clomping down the wood floor of the hallway.
She’d just pushed her head out from beneath the covers when a crowd appeared in the open doorway. Her grandpa stood in the front, as tall and lean as a beanpole. Stanley stood beside him, shorter and softer around the middle. They were flanked by Esther Mae Wilcox and Norma Sue Jenkins. All of them were gaping at her with open mouths and wide eyes.
Oh boy, there was nothing in the world like the puppy in a pet store feeling to snap a person out of a groggy fog.
Haley sat up and gaped right back.
Instantly, Applegate’s wrinkles lifted into a grin. “Haley Bell, youngin, we heard you’d snuck yourself into town and we come to see about-cha. To see if it was true.”
As usual he spoke louder than needed because his hearing was so bad. He’d worked thirty years in the oil field as a driller before semiretiring as a rancher. The loud machines had ruined his hearing early in life, but he wasn’t fond of his hearing aids and didn’t always turn them on. Now, in an unusual show of affection, he bent down and engulfed Haley in a hug.
As Haley returned his hug, she realized that though there was still strength in his bony frame, he’d grown thinner, if that was possible. She was overcome with shame for all the long-distance phone calls and excuses for not being able to come home for a visit. She was a slug.
His thinness reminded her of their last phone call, the call that had alarmed her enough to make her finally come home. He’d mentioned a bad report from the doctor, but he refused to share details about it. That had been the most important thing, but one of many that had sealed her spur-of-the-moment decision to head her car this direction as she sped out of the chapel parking lot. She still wasn’t certain about anything else, but she was glad that she’d come if for no other reason than to see about her grandpa. Will was right. She’d been selfish.
“I’ve missed you too, Grandpa,” she said, blinking back tears, overwhelmed by how much. Fighting to control her emotions she smiled and nodded toward the others. “But, um, what’s with the show?” She lifted her eyebrow when her audience crowded closer then swamped her with enthusiastic hugs. She couldn’t get a word in as she was smothered, squeezed, cooed and clucked over. Her cheeks were even pinched by Esther Mae, making Haley feel six years old all over again.
After a moment they stepped back and studied her again—as if they couldn’t believe she was really here. Haley studied them, too, knowing that to them she’d never grown up. She’d always been their little Haley Bell and it was obvious that she’d been right all those years ago to realize that some things would never change.
To them she would always be the adorable little girl with the Shirley Temple hair who tripped over her shoelaces and knocked over the buffet table at church socials. Among a host of other mishaps that she’d never been able to live down while living in Mule Hollow.
“We were all having coffee at Sam’s when Nate Talbert came in with the news that you’d come to town.” Robust in body and soul, Norma Sue beamed the broad smile Haley remembered so well.
Haley leaned her head to the side. “Who’s Nate Talbert?”
“Nate’s trailer was blocking the road,” Esther Mae offered, patting her short red hair. It had gotten flattened on one side during all the hugging. Haley noticed instantly that Esther Mae had had a make-over since the last time Haley had seen her. There was no forgetting the long hair Esther Mae had always teased and sprayed into a mountain on top of her head. There had always been the threat of a rock slide with the way she bobbed her head as she spoke. Now it was shorter, more-up-to-date and saucy—like Esther Mae herself.
“Nate said you ran poor Will off, surprising him like that,” Stanley boomed. He, too, had a hearing problem.
Ran him off!
Haley’s shocked gaze met Applegate’s just as his bushy brows suddenly dipped together.
“Youngin, what in the world do you have on?”
“Oh!” Haley gasped as everyone’s attention dropped to the rumpled wedding dress she still wore. She cringed and wanted to crawl under the bed. Why, oh why, hadn’t she taken the time to change?
Yes, she’d been dead on her feet, but this was really getting ridiculous. This was going to be one more Haley Bell tale to add to her already notorious dossier…. “Um, well—”
“Look at that, Norma Sue. That is a wedding dress!” Esther Mae exclaimed. “Haley Bell’s been at it again. Again—”
“Esther Mae, get a hold of yourself!” Norma Sue barked, rendering the room silent as she placed her hands on her ample hips and studied Haley. “Is that a wedding dress?”
“Yes.” The word came out in a squeak as Haley dropped another year from six to five years old. This was not good. A month ago she had mentioned to Applegate that she was thinking about getting married. She was getting older, after all. But he’d gotten so agitated by the news that she hadn’t called him back to say she’d decided to go through with the wedding rather than wait. After all, she was a grown woman. It had been ten years and she’d grown up. She didn’t need him or the town telling her once more what she should and shouldn’t do.
“You didn’t go through with it, did ya?” Applegate asked, his face drooping into a scowl.
“No, Grandpa, once again I didn’t go through with it.” To her surprise a collective sigh passed from everyone in the room. Of course, she realized suddenly by their reactions, Applegate had shared with everyone that she’d been contemplating another wedding. One that didn’t include love.
“I’m glad ya come to yor senses and didn’t go through with it,” he said, nodding his head. “Haley Bell, darlin’, you gotta love the one you marry and that’s all thar is to it.”
“That’s right,” Stanley added. “Even if it takes lookin’ foolish a time or two fore ya know where yor heart belongs.”
Haley bit her lip at that one. There was nothing like the brutal honesty a girl got from the ones who’d practically raised her. From the ones who might not ever let her grow up, but loved her in their own smothering way.
She sighed, gazing from face to face…. Welcome home, Haley. Welcome home.
Will stared at the eight-foot sheet of steel that was the canvas for his art. Intently he studied the scene he’d just finished chalking out. It was a small herd of cattle grazing beneath several oak trees. Once he cut it out with his plasma cutter, the welding torch he used, he would mount it in a frame of steel bars. After grinding the edges and adding a black powder coating, it would become an entrance gate for a wealthy ranch owner out of Wyoming.
“So, can you do it?”
Will turned back to Norma Sue and Esther Mae waiting impatiently for an answer. They’d arrived only moments before beaming with excitement. He’d known he was in for it the instant he saw Norma Sue’s truck winding up his drive. This day had started out on the wrong foot with his early morning run-in with Haley and now this….
“Norma Sue, I’d like to help with the Christmas production, but like I said, I have commitments.”
“Well, it’s really not a lot that we need,” Esther Mae whined, her feelings obviously hurt as she glanced from him to her cohort. “Tell him, Norma.”
Norma Sue cleared her throat.