Page 60 of An Inconvenient Plan
Her voice went soft. “And now this thing with my mom. I’m so worried.”
He kissed her gently, trying to comfort her. She turned her head away. He cupped her cheek and turned her back, gazing into her eyes, a direct message that he cared about her.
“I can’t keep doing this with you!” she cried and pulled away. She scooped up Rose.
He jammed a hand in his hair. “We do have something more than just sex. If you could just open your eyes, drop this fantasy the prince is trying to pull over on you, you’d see that.”
“Nobody is pulling anything over on me, Josh,” she snapped. Then she marched out the door.
He swore under his breath and went back to work behind the bar. If he knew how to fix it, he would. All he knew was that he was not going to try to top roses, diamonds, mansions, castles, and whatever the hell else the prince threw at Hailey. She had to want him for who he was or not at all.
He leaned against the bar, suddenly exhausted. Hailey was right. They had to stop battling, except he’d never known peacetime with her. How could he let his guard down when she was always ready with the next killer jab?
Hailey organized a girls’ night at her place the next night. She was desperate for some perspective. She’d hardly slept at all last night, trying to figure out how to work this thing out with Josh or step away from him forever. Except their lives were way too tangled to ever completely separate. Their parents were getting married (maybe), they had a lot of the same friends, she was best friends with his sister, and they both lived in town and owned a local business. A breakup would be awkward at best, excruciatingly painful at worst.
Everyone was here, even Claire with her bodyguard, Frank, posted at the door and her driver waiting out front. Hailey’s text to her friends must’ve sounded pathetic and desperate.Emergency meeting to figure out my life!had had a bigger impact than she’d realized.
She set out the chocolate chip cookies she’d baked, along with fresh veggies and dip, and a chips and salsa platter. Everyone had already passed around the bottles of wine. Claire had sparkling water on account of her pregnancy.
Hailey took the seat at the end of her floral sofa, and Sabrina promptly sat next to her, probably because she was a relationship counselor and planned to give her some advice. Clearly Hailey had relationship troubles. Mad was on Sabrina’s other side, probably ready to jump in and defend her big brother’s case. It occurred to her suddenly that she hadn’t heard a thing from Mad about her dad being upset that she and Josh had gotten involved. Was it possible Mad had kept it to herself? Maybe she’d been too busy with school to connect with her dad. Had everyone kept it quiet? She’d thought for sure after Josh had showed up at the club, the news would spread like wildfire. Was Joe still in the dark? Maybe he’d given Josh hell and just gave Hailey the cold shoulder. She hadn’t heard from Joe. And Josh might not have shared that bad stuff with her out of some protective instinct. Ugh. She much preferred to have all the facts.
She stroked Rose’s little head, returning her focus to her friends. Most of them were sitting on the floor around the coffee table. “Should I bring in the two kitchen chairs?”
Her friends declined.
“Everyone have enough to drink?” she asked. “Or eat? Maybe I could make a cheese and crackers platter. I’m pretty sure I have crackers, or I could toast up some crostini?”
“Quit stalling!” Mad barked.
Hailey smoothed her hair and took a sip of wine. Mad always saw through when Hailey was fussing to avoid hard topics.
“Is Josh being a dick?” Mad asked bluntly.
The women all looked at her expectantly.
How to answer? He wasn’t doing anything bad. He just wasn’t doing anything at all. Zero effort. The contrast to Phillip’s romantic efforts was stark indeed.
“Men are stupid,” she finally said.
Mad spoke around a cookie. “Let me just point out that all of my brothers are clueless in the romance department. They never read the manual.” She swept her finger through the women who knew her brothers best. “Right, Lauren? Charlotte? Sabrina? Claire? You know it’s true.” Lauren and Charlotte had married her brothers Alex and Ty respectively. Sabrina was engaged to her brother Logan, but Hailey didn’t think that should count since a relationship counselor was naturally good at relationships.
Hailey looked across the coffee table to Claire. This was the woman who could explain it best. She should’ve gone straight to Claire in the first place with this untenable situation. Claire had married Josh’s identical twin, and the men were probably very similar relationship-wise, except she was sure Josh was a zillion times worse than Jake.
Lauren demurred in her sweet way, tucking her long light brown hair behind her ears. “Alex was in mourning over his fiancée. He let me know he loved me once he was ready.”
“Ty was clueless,” Charlotte announced, her brown eyes bright. “No question.” She smiled. “But sometimes he just came out with the sweetest things that made me melt.”
Josh had called Hailey a warrior once. That was almost sweet.
“I have no complaints,” Sabrina said diplomatically.
“Jake was not romantic,” Claire said. “He was hardheaded, arrogant, aggressive, and demanding.”
Hailey sucked in air. That sounded just like Josh! Beast twins!
Claire smiled at Hailey. “Sound familiar?”
“Uh, yeah.”
