It would. She couldn’t be sure about a lot of things because they changed in an instant. People fell in and out of love every minute. Tastes changed, friendships shifted. But Hailey could count on her shop, on things continuing to go well because that’s where her focus—her heart—belonged.
22
“I think you need to go on your own date. Stop worrying about him being on one.” Piper pulled a tray of cookies from the oven.
Hailey snuck a cooled one from the rack, breaking it in half and shoving the other half in her mouth just as her cousin turned around.
“Hey! Now you have one less to decorate.”
She shrugged, popped the rest in her mouth. When she finished, she took a drink of the soda Piper passed from the fridge. “I’m not worrying about him being on a date. I just thought it was weird that she showed up at the store.” She could have called in her order.
“Who showed up at the store?” Nick, Piper’s husband, came into the kitchen wearing a Lakers hoodie and a pair of checkered pajama bottom pants. He gave Hailey a kiss on the cheek. “How’s it going? Who came into the store? Someone famous?”
“Do you know someone famous, Auntie Hailey?” Cassie, one of Piper’s eight-year-old twins, asked. She’d followed on her dad’s heels. Her bright-red hair was up in two ponytails and she wore an apron.
“Not anymore. I used to,” Hailey said, tapping Cassie on the nose, then sneaking another cookie to share with her.
“No more, or we won’t have any to decorate,” Piper said, her stern mama voice wavering.
“I don’t want to decorate cookies,” Alyssa, the other twin, said, coming in from the other side of the kitchen. She wore an outfit nearly identical to Nick’s. Her red hair had been cropped to her shoulders. It was equally adorable.
Jason, their six-year-old son, who actually had Nick’s dark brown hair, followed behind. “I do. I want to make mine look like Iron Man.”
Nick scooped him up. “You want to make gingerbread look like Iron Man?”
Jason squeezed his father’s cheeks together, nodding seriously.
Nick smiled at Piper in a way that made Hailey’s heart muscles stretch too tight. “We’ve done everything right.”
Piper laughed. “Alyssa, if you don’t want to decorate, you don’t have to.”
“I’ll decorate yours,” Cassie said.
Alyssa shrugged, happy to let her twin do the work. “Can I play Animal Crossing?”
“Nope,” both of her parents said in tandem.
Hailey hid her smile. She loved being around their family whether it was low-key and sweet like this or high-energy and chaotic like one of the kids’ school events.
“Who came into the store?” Nick asked again, setting Jason on his feet.
“No one. Just a woman who wanted to order some lunches for her company.” Hailey hoped that would be the end of it.
She’d mentioned Wes’s date tonight in passing, but of course Piper wanted to dig deeper, pull out her feelings on the issue. She didn’t have any. Lies. You have too many. It was fine. What did she care? It had felt weird at the time but everything was normal. As it had been before Ana showed up. Except that he was on a date with her tonight instead of reminding Hailey what she needed for groceries.
Nick looked back and forth between Hailey and his wife. “Guys, go wash up in the bathroom if you want to decorate. Alyssa, you too. Even if you aren’t doing cookies.”
The kids groaned but took off down the hall. Nick put an arm around Piper, kissing her neck. Hailey’s heart spasmed again. Sharply. Just because she missed that particular feeling didn’t mean she was upset about Wes being on a date.
“Did you ask her?”
Hailey groaned. “No. She did not. What?”
Piper frowned. “Hey. Why did you say it like that? It’s a good thing. There’s someone Nick wants you to meet.”
“Let me think about it,” Hailey said, tapping her index finger on her chin. “I think I’ll pass.”
Nick laughed. “That’s not how I would have phrased it but, told you.”
“You can’t just pass.” Piper put her hands on her hips.
“I think I just did.” Hailey grabbed some food coloring, mixed it into one of the little bowls Piper had set out for icing. “I don’t want a date.”
“No. But you do need to meet Nick’s friend because he asked us to come to Finnegan’s with him. He works with Nick and is friends with the head chef. He jokingly asked Nick if he knew any women as pretty as me. Nick immediately thought of you.” Piper leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist.