LITMIR.BIZ

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too.”

      Julie perked up a little at that. Trev was always happy to see her at Tiff’s. And even Alan didn’t look particularly peeved at the notion. So Hadley stuck her head quickly in the office. Spied Stu. “I’m taking Evie’s bunch home with me. Since when is Charlie’s father coming to visit?”

      Stu shrugged and kept right on stacking small boxes of auto parts in their places. “Who knows? I gotta get this delivery stocked and then I’m meeting a guy about a truck I want. Couldn’t have taken her kids with me if I’d wanted to.”

      “How is Wood’s car coming along?”

      He finally looked over at her. “Slow. Original parts are hard to come by, and he’s insisting on them. The guy’s a pain, but he does know cars. Heard you and Wendell went to church together this morning.”

      “Don’t go there, Stu.” It wouldn’t take much for her anger to rear its head all over again. “I’m not doing anything together with Wendell.”

      “Aw. Come on. You’re perfect for each other. He’ll take good care of you, Had. He’s a good guy. And you’ll never have to worry that he’ll treat you like Charlie treats Evie.”

      That was probably true, but hardly the point, as far as Hadley was concerned. She also knew that Evie didn’t allow interference in her life from their brothers, no matter what. Even though Hadley’s concern for her sister lately was increasing, she still envied her sister that ability. “Why are you so set on pushing me at him, Stu?”

      He shoved a few more boxes into place, though she hardly could see how, considering how full the stock shelves were. “Maybe ’cause we want to see you happy, Had, and not flitting off somewhere again like you did last summer!”

      “I didn’t flit off. I was taking a class!”

      “Class,” he muttered. “Like you’re gonna be some famous writer someday. Run off and find your fame and glory or something.”

      She pressed her palms to her stomach. “I’m not planning to run off, Stu.” Not like his mother had. Beau’s first wife, Evelyn, had left him with three children well before Hadley’s mother had come on to the scene, and she’d never come back. “And even if I were, shoving Wendell down my throat at every corner isn’t likely to make me want to stay!”

      “You oughta be married and having kids of your own by now,” he said gruffly.

      “Well, you’re thirty-five. Where’s your wife and kids?” She shook her head, annoyed all over again, and not even having some sympathy for the roots of his behavior was mitigating it. “Stop messing in my life, Stu. I’m warning you.”

      At that, he smiled. “I’m quaking in my boots, Had.”

      She turned on her heel and strode out, slamming the door behind her hard enough to knock some of his carefully towered boxes right back down again. “Come on,” she gestured to the kids who were waiting. “Let’s go.”

      “Had, wait.” Stu had followed her out. “Your truck is good to go.” He tossed her the key. “Until next time, anyway.”

      Hadley caught the key and waved the kids toward her truck. Having her transportation back in working order was something, at least.

      The kids piled in and she drove back to Tiff’s.

      Once the children had left no question that there would not be any leftovers from the lunch Hadley had prepared, she settled them in the kitchen with cookie makings. Before long, Mrs. Ardelle and Joanie joined them, and within an hour the smell of sugar cookies was filling the kitchen.

      Hadley left them long enough to finally change out of her church clothes and into her usual jeans and a white T-shirt. Then the phone rang. She stared at it for a moment, hoping against hope that it wouldn’t be Wendell. Didn’t matter. She still had to answer the thing.

      “I’m looking for a, um, Wood Tolliver?” The voice was feminine and very husky. A phone-sex voice.

      Not that Hadley knew what a phone-sex voice sounded like. “Can you hold on for a moment and I’ll see if he’s in his room?”

      “Of course. Thank you.”

      Hadley carried the cordless unit with her and knocked on Wood’s door.

      He yanked it open a moment later, looking a trifle harried. As if he’d been raking his fingers through his hair a few dozen times. His sleeves were shoved up his arms, and she could see papers scattered again all over his bed. She wondered anew what it was that necessitated so many notes. He seemed to have more of them than her latest manuscript attempt did. “Phone call for you.”

      He stared at the phone she extended as if he’d never seen one before. “Who is it?”

      “I didn’t ask.” Some woman. Maybe the woman you were with last night. “And I’m busy.” She pushed the phone into his hand and turned away.

      Unfortunately, she didn’t move fast enough to miss his impatient “Hello” followed by his much less impatient “Hey, there, sweetheart.”

      Well, of course, she told herself.

      Guys like Wood Tolliver naturally had a “sweetheart” somewhere. She was just fooling herself to think otherwise.

      He may have kissed her, but she was the type of woman the Wendell Pierces of the world wanted, not the Wood Tollivers.

       Chapter Seven

      “Your sleigh, Miss Day.” Hadley grinned and waved her hand at the horse-drawn sleigh waiting beside Tiff’s.

      Nikki Day’s jaw dropped ever so slightly. “I didn’t think it would be so—” She broke off and waved her ivory-gloved hand expressively.

      Alan and Trev and Julie were all practically dancing around the sleigh, and she knew one of these days she was going to have to make arrangements to have them taken out.

      “It is pretty grand,” she agreed. “Every time I see it I get a little shiver.” The ornate blue sleigh was like romance on gleaming runners with a plush red seat and velvet blankets with gold tassels. “And Ivan, here, will make sure his horses don’t get too rambunctious, right, Ivan?”

      The old man standing beside the two beautifully matched Morgans smiled and tipped his hat. “We’ll take good care of you, miss. I’ve been running sleigh rides in the winter and hayrides in the summer since I was a lad.”

      Nikki smiled, but to Hadley it seemed forced. And the other woman’s face, surrounded by a long cloud of auburn hair, looked pale. But maybe that was just because Nikki wore ivory from head to toe.

      “Thank you.” Nikki took Ivan’s hand and stepped up into the sleigh and arranged a blanket over her legs. Hadley called back the kids and they reluctantly moved out of the way while Ivan climbed up onto the slanted driver’s bench and picked up the reins. With a cluck of his tongue and a jingle of the horses’ riggings, the sleigh set off over the open field, toward the line of trees in the distance.

      “It’s so pretty,” Julie sighed. She was a dreamer. Like her aunt. Hadley hugged her narrow, young shoulders, and steered everyone back inside.

      “Wash your hands before you touch any more cookies,” she ordered when they got to the kitchen.

      “What are all the cookies for?” Alan had asked the question a few times already. He wasn’t satisfied with Hadley’s explanation that she’d just felt like baking. Not with Christmas and dozens of cookies still a recent memory.

      But she couldn’t very well tell the children they were for their mother’s surprise birthday party, or there would undoubtedly be no surprise. “We’re making them for Grandpa Beau,” she blatantly lied, and hoped it wasn’t a terribly punishable offense.

      And despite the holidays just past, she knew Evie would still appreciate the homemade storybook

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