Ever After (36 page)

“Who says I will recover?” There was anger in Jamie's voice.

“You will,” Todd said. “That's not the problem. You know that I was all for her, but now that I've seen her…I don't know, there's something missing. I think she's falling in love with our family, not
you
. You should have seen her today when the wedding was on. She was flirting and sharing secrets with Raine so much anyone would have thought they were a couple. I'm not disparaging her as a person. I just think she hasn't made up her mind about who she wants.” Todd paused for a moment. “Hallie's had a life with almost no family. She desperately wants a family like ours. Right now, what I'm seeing is that she might take any one of us who asked for her hand in marriage.
Or maybe she's set on Braden.” Todd's head came up. “You haven't had sex with her, have you?”

“That's none of your business.”

“Great,” Todd said sarcastically. “I hope you used protection. Where is she, anyway?”

“Shopping with Mom and some of the girls.” Jamie's voice was heavy.

“Then she'll be back soon,” Todd said. “She'll want to tell you how great our family is. I better get out of here. She doesn't like me.”

“Right now, neither do I,” Jamie said.

“Just think about all this, will you? You're a prize catch and I just want to be sure who the fisherman is.”

“I think you should leave now,” Jamie said.

“Okay, I've had my say and I won't mention it again. I'll see you tomorrow.”

Hallie was still leaning against the shelves. She heard the back door open and close, then after a moment she heard Jamie get up and go outside.

It was a while before she could push away from the shelves and walk back into the tea room. The clothes she'd so joyously spread out for Jamie to see were still there. When she picked up a sweater, her hands were shaking.

Had she really made a fool of herself in front of his family? She remembered dancing with them, laughing—and the massages! Had they all thought Hallie was just trying to worm her way into their beautiful,
rich
family?

She folded Jamie's clothes and neatly piled them on the couch. Todd said he thought she was so desperate for a family that she'd accept any man who asked.

And Raine! Even Cale had asked what was between her and Raine.

Hallie picked up her shopping bags. On the top was the
pretty sundress Lainey and Paige had chosen for her. Had the girls laughed at her too?

She walked to the door at the far end of the room. It was closed.

“Okay,” she said aloud, “I heard what you wanted me to, so now let me out of here.”

She wasn't the least surprised when the door opened by itself.

“Thank you,” she said and went up the stairs to her bedroom, closed the door, and locked it.

Thirty minutes later, she was in bed, wide awake. The joy of the shopping trip was gone and all she could think about were Todd's words. What made her so deeply angry, what hurt the most, was that Todd was right. She
was
desperate for a family. She
had
been flirting with Jamie's relatives. She hadn't recognized it until now, but she realized that every moment since meeting them, she'd imagined being part of the big Montgomery-Taggert family.

But Todd was also wrong. She liked Jamie the best. From the first day they'd met, they'd worked together, talked and laughed as though they'd known each other forever. His injuries were the least of it. His laughter, his concern for others, all that was what she liked so very much.

As for Todd saying she'd marry
any
of them, that certainly wasn't true. Adam was too remote. Hallie thought a woman would have to work too hard to really get to know him. Ian had the air of someone who would be happiest living in a tent on a mountainside. Raine…Well, there wasn't anything wrong with Raine.

Except that he wasn't Jamie.

As for Todd, she did
not
like him. How could he be Jamie's brother? They didn't even look alike. And the more she was around him, the less attractive he seemed.

But Hallie knew that what she thought about them wasn't the problem. It was how
they
saw
her
.

Throughout her life, she'd always had goals. The only time she came close to giving up was when she learned that her father had allowed her college fund to be spent on Shelly's many lessons. It had been a dreadful scene. Ruby had cried and said that when Shelly was a famous actress or singer or model she'd repay everything. “You'll get it all back,” Ruby said, tears glistening in her once-pretty eyes.

Hallie had been devastated. As usual, her father dealt with the turmoil by getting in his car and driving away. As he went out the door, he mumbled, “Sorry, Hallie. I thought the money would be replaced by now.” She knew that Ruby had talked him into believing that Shelly was always just a day away from great success. But then Ruby knew enough to never let him attend any of Shelly's lessons.

But Hallie had seen and heard them. Shelly couldn't carry a tune, her acting was flat, and she was stiff in her dancing lessons. She couldn't even master the runway walk in her modeling classes. It was Hallie's opinion that the harder Ruby pushed, the worse Shelly did at every lesson—and furthermore, Hallie thought Shelly failed on purpose.

One time, when Hallie was driving her stepsister home from a session, she said, “If you don't want to take all these lessons, then you should tell your mother so.”

“I guess
you
would do great at them, wouldn't you?” Shelly said nastily. “Are you hiding some fabulous singing voice?”

Hallie'd just sighed. It was no use trying to talk to Shelly about anything.

On that horrible day when she'd been told that the money that had been put aside for her college tuition was gone, Hallie
had gone into shock. Her dad left right away. Ruby was holding Shelly as though to shield her, her eyes daring Hallie to say something negative.

But Hallie knew that going into a rage wouldn't put the money back in the bank. She went outside and without even thinking about what she was doing, she went across the street to the Westbrook house.

Only Braden was home. By that time he was in law school and had a girlfriend. He answered the door to Hallie but barely glanced at her.

“I've got something on the stove,” he said.

She followed him to the kitchen and sat down on a stool at the counter. She was too stunned to be able to speak.

Braden slid an omelet onto a plate. “I came home unexpectedly, but Mom still left for the weekend,” he said. “Looks like the honeymoon stage is over. I'm having to fend for myself. The worst thing is that I only know how to cook omelets so I've been eating them twice a day.” He put the plate in front of Hallie. “There. Eat it.”

“I can't. It's…” She was afraid to speak for fear she'd start crying. “If your mom isn't here, I'd better go.”

“No,” he said firmly. “You and I have to eat because we need our strength for what's coming.”

She looked at him.

“I know I'm not Mom, but you're going to tell me every word of whatever Shelly and Ruby did to you this time.”

Hallie stared in horror. “I can't…” she whispered.

“Can't talk to a friend? I don't believe that. Are you old enough to drink coffee?”

“I'm eighteen.”

“Are you?” Braden said. He had his back to her as he made a second omelet. The toaster popped up. “Could you get that? And put a lot of butter on mine. I need the energy for when I tell you what my girlfriend did to me.”

Hallie got off the stool and went to the toaster. “What did she do?”

“Nope. You first, but I bet I can top whatever you have to tell.”

“My dad let Ruby and Shelly take the college fund my grandparents set up for me. I don't know how I'm going to pay for school.”

Braden halted with a plate in his hand and stared at her. “Hallie, that's serious. Is all of it gone?”

“Every penny.”

“Did your dad leave?”

“So fast that he's probably in Texas by now.”

Braden shook his head. “That's some family you have. Come on, let's take this into the study. We have to figure out how to get a brain like yours into school.”

She followed him down the hall and they spent hours figuring out what Hallie was going to do. Braden made calls and looked online.

In the end, Hallie didn't get to attend the school she'd dreamed of, but she did go to college. And she did so well there that she qualified for a partial scholarship for the second year. But the summer after her first year, her father and Ruby were killed in a car accident and Hallie had to put her education on hold to take care of Shelly.

The sound of Jamie on the stairs brought her back to the present. In spite of his crutches and the brace, he made little noise. He went into his bedroom and she heard the shower running. There was a bit of quiet, then she heard him go downstairs.

A few minutes later he was again on the stairs, but his gait was hesitant. Her first thought was that he'd reinjured his knee, and her impulse was to run to him.

But she didn't move.

When he tapped lightly on her door she didn't respond, but
then it was as though Todd's words were screaming in her head. Playing over and over.

“Hallie?” Jamie said. “I made us some tea. It has lots of milk in it, the way we like it.”

Don't be a coward, she told herself, then she got out of bed. She grabbed her robe from the back of the closet, put it on, and opened the door.

To her dismay, Jamie was shirtless. He had on gray sweatpants that were barely hanging on to his hips. A tiny tug on the drawstring and they'd fall to the floor. In spite of all his scars, he looked so good her heart started pounding. If Todd's words weren't in her head, she would have dragged him back to bed with her.

But she didn't. Instead, she smiled pleasantly and took both mugs of tea from him. “How did you manage to get up the stairs on crutches with these in your hands?”

“Juliana and Hyacinth carried them up for me.”

She didn't laugh, and when he took a step forward as though he meant to go into her bedroom, Hallie slipped past him to the sitting room. She sat down on the window seat, put one mug on the sill, and began sipping from the other.

She saw the frown he gave as he turned and took the other end of the seat. “Aren't you cold like that?” she asked.

“I'm still sweating. I did two workouts today. The first one was with Todd and Raine.”

My enemy and my supposed lover, she thought but didn't say. “I'm sorry I didn't work on your knee today.”

“What you did this morning was the best therapy I've ever had.”

“I guess I'm good at my job.” She heard the underlying anger in her voice.

“Are you okay? Did something bad happen?”

“I think I'm a little homesick,” she said. “I guess being around your family makes me miss my own. My dad's birthday
is in a few days and I really miss him. He and I used to drive from Boston to Fort Lauderdale to see my grandparents. We'd spend a week at a time with them.”

“Did you?” He sounded surprised. “You never talk about your father or your stepmother, or Shelly.”

“I guess I don't. Maybe it was because my mother had passed away, but it made my dad and me closer. He bought me my own cell phone when I was just five and he called me every day. When I got older, he included me in his work. By the time I was ten I was pretty much his secretary.”

“Isn't that asking a lot of a child?”

“I loved it!” Hallie said. “It made me feel needed. He'd call and say someone had a question about some drug. He knew I'd have read all the info on it so I had the answer. My teachers used to laugh at the way I rattled off the scientific names of prescription drugs. There was an anti-drug campaign at my school and I was called on for advice.”