Page 36 of Finding Hayes
“You beckoned, Shortcake?” Hayes’s voice called out from somewhere outside the room before he appeared in the doorway.
I glanced around. “Is this your room?”
“It is.”
“Did something happen between us?” I asked, panic coursing through my veins. I would know if I slept with someone, especially Hayes, wouldn’t I? But what was I doing in his bed?
“Relax, Sav.” He came around my side of the bed and handed me a mug of coffee. “I carried you in here after you puked morethan any human ever should, because it’s the only room with a bathroom attached. I slept in the guest room.”
“Oh.”
“Oh? That’s your apology for basically asking if I took advantage of you?” he grumped, before making his way back toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to get to work. I left a spare key on the counter for you. You’re going to need it when you move in here in a few weeks anyway. Your car is in my driveway, and the keys are on the table.”
He’d thought of everything. He’d taken care of me, and I was being rude.
“I’m an awful human being, and if you want to make a citizen’s arrest and tell the whole town that I pulled that fire alarm back in the day, I wouldn’t blame you.”
“Nah. That would hurt my chances of getting promoted to captain if my fake wife was a fire-alarm-pulling criminal. I’ll be working for the next three days, and then it’ll be showtime again. River thinks we should do this whole dating thing for three weeks and then get hitched. We don’t want to do it on the day of the cutoff because that’ll look a little too obvious. So, we take it to the next level this week.”
“Okay. I can do that. I’m going to get dressed and head out to the farmhouse now,” I said, taking a sip of coffee as he started to leave the room, and I climbed out of bed. “Hey, Hayes.”
“Yep.” He glanced over his shoulder at me.
“Thank you for taking care of me last night.”
He didn’t answer. He just nodded and walked away. I heard the door close behind him, and I had a flashback of me telling him how I’d hated him all these years.
Why do I feel guilty about that now?
I had every reason to despise Hayes Woodson. Just becausehe was being nice now didn’t mean that what happened in the past didn’t happen.
We were just two people with a history that were helping one another out right now.
I pushed out of bed, looking down to see I was fully clothed, and I remembered him taking my boots off.
I remembered him rubbing my back while I puked.
I had a flashback of him carrying me to his bed.
Why did he have to be so damn sexy, too?
It only made me want to hate him more.
I made my way to the bathroom and splashed water on my face. I glanced over at the bathtub and stared at it for a long moment. The hot water wasn’t working at the farmhouse, so I’d been taking really fast ice-cold showers the last few days. The thought of a hot bath sounded really nice, especially considering I had a hell of a migraine. I ran the bath, turning the water on extra hot.
He wouldn’t care, would he? He let me sleep here. I would be living here soon.
I let the tub fill, and I walked out to the kitchen and refilled my coffee. Hayes’s house was not a typical bachelor pad, but that didn’t shock me.
He’d always been very clean. His house was decorated with minimal décor, but there was thought behind it. He took pride in his home. He’d always hated the chaos in his childhood home, so I wasn’t surprised that he’d made a comfortable home for himself.
I moseyed down the hall, smiling when I took in one of the guest rooms that was clearly for Cutler. It had a bookshelf, a few puzzles, and some stuffed animals.
Hayes was always adamant that he didn’t want kids after the way he’d grown up, and I wondered if that had changed. As his future fake wife, I could probably ask. The way he was withCutler made me think he may have changed his mind. Just seeing them together made it clear how much he loved that little boy.
