“No, thanks,” he said. “Just leave all this and I’ll clean it up later. I’m going to the gym for a while.”
Of course Hallie didn’t leave the cleanup to him. After the kitchen was tidy, she thought about what to do. The big TV was still in the living room and she could watch it, or she could go into the tea room and read the research Cale had assembled.
But Hallie couldn’t bear to go into that room. Jamie’s clothes were still in there, piled on the sofa, and she didn’t want to see them. The clothes she’d purchased for herself were still in bags in her bedroom.
As always, when Jamie wasn’t around, the house seemed big and empty. Like my life, she thought, but then brushed the thought away.
By nine Jamie still hadn’t returned to the house. Hallie was tempted to go out to the gym, but she didn’t. Instead, she went upstairs and got into bed, planning to read one of the novels on her eReader. Instead, she fell asleep so deeply that she didn’t hear Jamie come up the stairs.
A pounding woke her. At first she didn’t know what it was and she lay there for a few seconds before she realized it was someone at the front door. “Jamie!” she said, thinking that something was wrong with him. She leaped out of bed and ran to the stairs.
But Jamie was already halfway down, clutching the banister, his crutches nowhere to be seen. When he turned to her, his face was white, and she knew what he was thinking, that something horrible had happened to his family.
“Stay back,” he said. “I’ll handle this.”
“Your family wouldn’t knock,” she said as she hurried past him and flung the door open.
A young man she didn’t know, college age, was standing there. The goofy grin on his face made her realize he’d been drinking. “He said he was staying at the Hartley house. We had a hard time finding the place.” His words were slurred. “If you’re Hallie, he says he loves you.”
“Who says that?” she asked.
Jamie was behind her and opened the door wider. He was taller and could see over the boy’s head. Behind him were two more college boys holding a man upright. He was in his thirties, rumpled suit, dirty blond hair, and was clearly feeling no pain. “How much has he had?”
“A lot,” the boy replied. “He said he wanted to go back to college and do everything all over again.”
“Who?!” Hallie asked again.
The boy stepped aside.
“Braden!” Hallie ran to him.
“Hallie,” Braden said, smiling, his eyes half closed. “You are beautiful. I don’t remember you ever before looking this good.” Grinning, he looked at the three boys around him. “Didn’t I tell you she was great?”
“Yeah, you did,” the first boy said appreciatively, then looked at Jamie. “Can we leave him with you?”
“Take him upstairs to the bedroom on the left,” Jamie said.
“But that’s your room,” Hallie said.
“I have a feeling you’ll want to be near him tonight and there’s no place for you to sleep downstairs.”
“But you—” She stepped aside to let the young men toss Braden’s luggage in, then push-pull him up the stairs.
“Don’t worry about me,” Jamie said. “Take care of your friend.”
Part of Hallie was pleased at Jamie’s words, but part of her was annoyed. What happened to that delicious jealousy of his?
“And put on some clothes!” he added.
Hallie glanced down. Her big T-shirt exposed her bare legs. When she walked up the stairs in front of Jamie, maybe she swayed her hips just a tiny bit more than was necessary.
She went to her bedroom to pull on jeans and apply a bit of makeup to her sleepy face. It was Braden! He was here!
When she got to the hall, the college boys were just coming out of the bedroom. “That guy sure knows his stuff,” one of them said.
“Braden?” Hallie asked. “Did he give you some legal advice?”
“Him? No.” They were laughing. “He told us to stay away from women forever.”