A gleam she could only read as a challenge flashed through his dark gaze, and to her horror he stood up.
“App’s right, Haley. The least I can do is give you a hug.”
Before she could do anything to stop it, she found herself wrapped in Will’s arms. Oh my. If she’d thought she was confused before—well she was a mess now. Because though it had been ten years since she’d left him at the altar, she had never forgotten how right it felt to be held in his embrace.
“See thar, ain’t that nice,” Applegate thundered.
As quick as it happened, it ended. Will suddenly dropped his arms and stepped back. Haley had been so stunned by the embrace that her arms remained limply at her sides. Where they belonged, she reminded herself.
His expression was unreadable and though she knew he’d hugged her to pacify her grandpa, the oddest sensation came over her when she looked into his stony eyes. Had those eyes really once looked at her with love? They were so distant now that it was tough to imagine such a thing.
“So how’s your new ex-fiancé?”
His clipped words were spoken in a low voice, but those standing around watching them had no problem hearing them. Like a deflating balloon, Applegate’s smile drooped into a heavy frown and a ripple of gasps could be heard behind her.
Startled, but not really surprised, she met Will’s unflinching gaze with one of her own as she straightened her spine. If she’d learned one thing over the last few years, it was to stand her ground.
She lifted her chin. “I’m fairly certain that Lincoln is celebrating at this very moment. After all, he dodged a bullet.”
Will lifted his eyebrow. “I can understand that perfectly. As I’m certain fiancé number two would, as well.”
So he wanted to make a scene. So much for him being a gentleman, she thought, as her blood pressure inched upward. “Is that so?”
Not breaking eye contact with her, Will pulled money from his front pocket and slapped it onto the counter by his plate of uneaten eggs and bacon. “Believe me, darlin’, the day you walked out on me was the best day of my life. I figure it saved me a costly divorce and a valley of trouble in between.”
Haley’s hands knotted into fists to keep them from shaking as darts of anger and humiliation shot through her. Other than the pounding of her heart that Haley hoped no one else could hear, the room had become as silent as a tomb. Why had she come home? It certainly hadn’t been for this…this melodramatic confrontation.
With one last cold stare Will walked through the small crowd as it parted to make way for him. He never looked back as he hit the swinging door and disappeared into the cold morning light.
Which left Haley at the counter to face her friends alone.
As mad as she was at Will, she couldn’t help thinking that it was about time she was the one being walked out on. She’d be the first to admit that she deserved it. At least in part. But that didn’t mean she liked it, and it certainly didn’t mean she was going to take that kind of treatment like the timid little mouse she’d once been.
“Ha!” she huffed in delayed reaction, then stormed out of the diner after him.
He was opening his truck door when she buzzed down the steps toward him. The loud shuffle of feet could be heard as the diners filed out onto the sidewalk behind her.
“Will Sutton,” she snapped. “You can judge me and be angry at me if you want to because I left you standing at that altar ten years ago. But hey, guess what? I didn’t see you coming to get me.”
She’d almost gotten married three times, and the truth was that the only man of the three she’d expected or wanted to come after her had been Will. And he hadn’t.
Why was that? He’d said he loved her. If you loved someone, didn’t you try to hang on to them? Didn’t you fight for them? Despite their argument and her bruised heart, she’d expected him to care enough to come after her. To try and make things right.
His cold stare raked over her. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I came after you. You’d made your choice.”
Speechless at his coldness, Haley watched him climb into his truck, back out onto Main Street then drive away. “It might have,” she whispered into the chilling wind, knowing it was true. She’d been a young woman struggling with self-esteem and identity issues everyone around her seemed oblivious to. Especially the man who professed to love her. Despite what he thought, his coming after her would have mattered. That he didn’t think so still stung. And, amazingly, proved he continued to have the ability to hurt her. Even after all these years.
Chapter Four
Haley bit her lip as she realized she’d just made a scene in front of everyone standing behind her. How could wounds so old feel so raw and fresh? She closed her eyes and struggled for calm. She and Will had planned to marry a week before Christmas ten years ago. Their almost wedding anniversary was coming up and, truth be told, there hadn’t been a Christmas season that didn’t pass without her thinking about what might have been…if only he’d cared enough.
Reeling in her emotions, Haley clasped her palms together and plastered on a smile as she watched him disappear down the street. She was determined that no one would know just how much she’d been shaken by Will Sutton’s condemnation.
Condemnation.
Just who did the man think he was? She frowned, and her temper started escalating again. Sucking in a cleansing breath of cool air, she had to really concentrate to put on her saleswoman’s face—the everything’s-going-my-way face.
It was hard to do sometimes, but she wasn’t making her way up the ladder of success by accident. Nope, she’d faced harder people than Will over the last few years, kept her wits about her and come out on top. She learned early on that many of her fellow real-estate agents would weasel and lie and connive to take her sales at every opportunity. Five-and six-figure commissions tended to bring out the worst in people. It had taken being tricked out of a few commissions and having to eat peanut butter for a month, but she’d finally smartened up and shucked the small-town gullibility…on the inside. On the outside she learned that her open and friendly face was her number-one moneymaker. Once she’d learned to watch her back and not trust anyone but herself, things had started to happen. Haley could smile with the best of them and charm her way right to the bank. The saying Don’t Get Mad, Get Even went a long way toward the truth.
Haley spun around, smile in place. “I don’t know about all of you, but a good fight in the morning makes me so hungry I could eat a bear. How about it, Sam? It’s been far too many years since I had your bacon and eggs.”
To her surprise, everyone was smiling at her even before she’d turned around. It was a bit disconcerting, but instantly her fake smile turned genuine. She had forgotten just how sweet Mule Hollow residents could be.
“One plate of eggs and bacon coming up, Haley Bell,” Sam said, holding the door for her as everyone parted and let her enter the diner first.
“See, what’d I tell y’ all,” she heard Applegate say to Norma Sue and Esther Mae as she passed by him. He was grinning, and Haley’s heart felt good in that moment. Since her grandma Birdie had died, he just hadn’t been the same. And though he didn’t say much about it when they talked, Haley knew he missed her something fierce. Again, guilt settled on Haley’s shoulders.
Before she could sink with the weight of it, the majority of people started telling her goodbye, streaming back out of the diner on their way to work. The exuberant salon owner, Lacy, whom Haley would easily have recognized from Molly Popp’s description in the newspaper columns, threw her arms around her and hugged her. Then she dashed off. It was as if she were standing there one minute and—poof—she was gone with only the swinging door to prove