Wednesday's Word: HURRY. An Excerpt from Small Town Secrets

 Welcome to Wednesdays where I share an excerpt from one of my books using the previous day's word from the New York Times' game WORDLE. Yesterday's WORDLE was HURRY. This is an excerpt from Small Town Secrets, now available on the Kindle Vella platform. (You can read it here.)

Caden picked me up at Mom’s. His cobalt blue suit matched his eyes and showed off his broad chest and tapering hips. His eyes widened when he saw me, letting me know he liked my dress. “We match,” he said.

If only…

I hurried out the door before Mom could emerge from kitchen. Taking his hand, I pulled him toward his truck. If he thought my behavior strange, he didn’t comment on it. I breathed a sigh of relief when we were both buckled up and headed out of town. “Where are we going?” I asked, hating how breathless I sounded.

“Lavender House? Are you familiar with it?”

“Yes. I went to a wedding there. It’s lovely.” The nineteen-twenty Victorian home had been turned into an event center. Meticulously preserved, it was best known for the lavish tea parties it hosted four times a year. “Will there be a lot of people there?”

“Simone doesn’t have a lot of family, so I’m guessing it’ll be mostly Haywoods.” Caden shot me a glance. “How is it living with your mom?”

“It’s temporary,” I said. “Any update on the landslide?”

“It should be all cleared by next week.”

My heart lifted. “That’s great. Any luck on finding a place?”

“I called your friend, Piper.”

Of course, I already knew this. Piper had relayed the conversation practically word for word.

“She suggested I convert the upstairs of the office to an apartment. I was really impressed.”

“With what?”

“Well, most agents would try to sell me something. Instead, she offered me a perfect solution.”

“Is it perfect though?” Because I really wanted him to live out on Jordan Trail with me…I caught myself. Not with me, of course, but across the pasture.

As if he could read my thoughts, he said, “Of course, it’ll take some time for the renovations, so I’m staying at the cabin until it’s finished.”

“How?”

“I leave my truck at the west side of the slide and walk. I enjoy it.”

I thought of the brightly colored autumn leaves and realized maybe I could it enjoy that, too. “Is the power back on?”

He slid me a grin. “Yep.”

“I have to go back.”

“I think that would be a good plan.” He cleared his throat. “How’s Buster?”

“He’s great, although.” I didn’t want to talk about Buster. “Tell me about everyone I’m meeting today.”

“Some of them you’ve already met. There’s Max, he’s the CEO of the Haywood Foods, and Alex—he’s the newly engage accountant, and Simone, his fiancée.”

Was it my imagination, or had Caden gotten choked up? He didn’t pause long enough for me to assess.

“Jamie is in the military. He’s also an attorney. Chloe is at the University of Washington studying social work and Dallas is at Western Washington. His major is undecided, but he’s leaning toward marketing and will probably go into the family business with his brothers. And then there’s Phebe. You have to meet her. She’s hard to describe, but she’s still in high school.”

“You’re lucky.”

“Sometimes.”

“I always wanted to belong to a large. It’s just me and Mom and since she was also an only child, family reunions can be a bit of a snore.”

“There’s not a lot of snoring going on when my family is around,” Caden said. “Not even in the middle of the night, when there should be.”

“Did your parents want a large family?”

Caden chuckled. “I hope so. My dad was from a large family, as well, but my only had one brother, so I think she wanted what my dad had.” He paused. “In more ways than one.”

“What does that supposed to mean?”

“My mom was an attorney. My grandmother was an uber-successful attorney and thought my mom would follow in her shoes. Instead, Mom ditched a job working for a prestigious Chicago, created Haywood Farm, and had eight kids.”

“Wow. She sounds like an over-achiever.”

“The woman doesn’t possess a lazy bone.”

“I can’t wait to meet her.”

“You two will like each other,” Caden said with total confidence.

“How did your parents meet?”

“My grandparents moved to Cascadia when my mom was in high school. My grandpa wanted to be a rancher. I think my grandmother tried to embrace small-town living, but eventually, she gave up and went back to the city, taking my mom and her brother with her. When my mom, who had followed my grandmother’s example and had become an attorney, burned out, she came back to my grandfather’s ranch, fell in love with my dad—who, I think, had always had a thing for her, and the rest is history.”

“It’s pretty romantic.”

“Life is messy and a ranch is a whole less romantic than it sounds. It’s smelly, for one thing, and for good reason.”

“Do you have horses?”

“We do.”

“I’ve always wanted to go horseback riding.”

“Then we’ll go.”

“Honestly?”

“Absolutely. You pick the day.”

Caden had so many funny horse stories, that by the time we arrived at Lavender House, my eyes were wet from laughter and I forgot to be nervous about meeting so many new people.

It’s not a date, I reminded myself.

The Victorian-style home had been painted in shades of violet and blush pink. It sat in a meadow surrounded by trees vibrant with autumn leaves. The sun skimmed the distant mountaintops and cast long shadows over the lawn. Conversations, music, and the clink of cutlery floated through the windows and the open door.

Caden put his hand on the small of my back to guide me up the porch steps. “We’re not really lying. You could call this a date so we can say we’re dating.”

“I get that you hate…” I paused, searching for the right word, “pretending in front of your family.” I wanted to add, but why is it necessary? Why did you feel you needed a pretend girlfriend?

But as soon as I say Caden’s face when we walked in the door, I knew.

Music swirled around the room. A beautiful blonde stood beside a baby grand piano, a microphone in hand. Her voice was so powerful, it made my head ring.

Dozens of emotions flickered across Caden’s face. Pain. Loss. Hopeless longing.

Scanning the room, I found Alex lounging on the sofa with one ankle propped over one knee, his expression the direct opposite of Caden’s. He looked smug and jubilant.

Suddenly, I felt for this beauty with the stunning voice. Somehow, she’d landed herself in the middle of an intense brotherly rivalry—something I knew nothing about since I not only hadn’t any brothers, I also didn’t have any siblings.

I skated Caden a glance, wondering if anyone else could read the naked hunger in his eyes. I touched his hand. “Is that Alex’s fiancée?” I whispered.

Caden’s head fell more than nodded and his shoulders sagged. I laced my fingers through his.

“Remind me of her name?”

“Simone,” he rasped.

“She’s beautiful, and incredibly talented.”

Simone’s song came to an end and the woman at the piano lifted her fingers, closed the lid, and strode from the room. The stiffness in her shoulders made me think that maybe she was angry. Applause filled the air. One of Haywood brothers clapped Alex on the back and congratulated him.

Caden leaned my way and said in a low tone, “Libby told me Simone has been offered a record deal.”

I whistled. “I hope she’s taking it.”

Caden’s lips tightened. “That was Libby, Simone’s sister, on the piano.”

“She’s talented, too.”

“Caden, sweetie, is this your new neighbor?” a woman asked.

I turned to find a middle-aged woman with thick curly dark hair and startling blue eyes striding our way. She wore linen black pants and a copper-colored blouse that complimented the auburn threads in her hair.

“Mom!” Caden stooped to give his mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “This is Sadie and Sadie, this is my mom, Carly Haywood.” His voice rang with pride.

Carly took my hand in her own. “It’s lovely to meet you, dear. How are you finding life out on Jordan Trail?”

“Because of the landslide, I’ve only spent one night in my house.”

“I’ve been promised that the road will be open by the end of the week,” Caden said. “And the power is back on, thank goodness.”

Carly’s eyes met mine before she returned her attention to her son. “I’m so glad you two will be neighbors again.” Something in her tone made me suspect she knew about Caden’s feelings for Simone. Did she see me as someone who could rescue Caden?

Did I see myself as someone who could rescue Caden? Did I even want to try?

Carly took my hand. “Let me introduce you to my family. They’re going to love you.”

How could she know that when she barely knew me?

Carly answered my unspoken question. “I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you, and Caden won’t stop talking about your soup. What kind was it?”

“Wedding soup?”

“Goodness, how appropriate.”

Why? Why was that appropriate? What did Wedding Soup have to do with anything?

I tried to keep all the names and faces straight, but all of the Haywood brothers looked alike. Big. Brawny. Dark curly hair. Eyes in varying shades of blue. Straight noses. Strong jaws. Broad shoulders and tapering waists. The girls, Phebe and Chloe, were easier to tell apart. Phebe, the youngest, was more outgoing than her shyer and more reserved older sister. Both had their mother’s dark curls and curvy builds, but Phebe had died pink strands into her hair, making her the most memorable Haywood.

Except for Caden…knowing his feeling lay helplessly elsewhere meant I had to either help him see why crushing on his brother’s fiancée was a bad idea and that I was a much healthier choice, or write him off as a lost cause.

As an only child of an only child, sibling rivalry always fascinated me. Piper is from a large, noisy family I love being surrounded by their chaos. Marlene, Piper’s mom, juggles it all with humor and grace while Joe, Mr. Cain, typically hides out in the garage with the lower half of his body poking out from beneath a late-model car. (He emerges for meals.)

Was Carly like Marlene? Doubtful.

Had Caden’s dad, Christian, been like Jo? Also, doubtful.

And yet, they had both chosen to have large, boisterous families.

And what about Caden? Did he want a houseful of children too?

“And what about you?”

I started. Simone had asked me something and I had totally blanked. I blinked at the blonde beauty. I could see why Caden thought he loved her.

Caden’s hand warmed the small of my back. “Sadie’s a nurse.”

“She’s my nurse!”

I whirled around to see Mr. Gerard toddling toward us on his cane. “And a darn fine one, too.”

Mr. Gerard, a spry eighty-something, stopped before Caden and wacked him in the shins with his cane. “Are you making moves on my girl?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t know she was your girl.”

Mr. Gerard winked at me. “We get down and dirty every Thursday.”

“It’s true.”

“It’s just me and this pretty little thing and fun in the tub,” Mr. Gerard said.

Simone looked horrified, but Caden seemed curious.

“Grandpa, are you causing trouble?” Mr. Gerard’s grandson, Brit, a thirty-something wanna-be rock star sporting a man-bun and a vintage Van Halen t-shirt, ambled up.

“Sadie,” Brit ran his gaze over me, “It’s weird to see you in normal clothes…and dry.”

“See? I wasn’t joking about the tub part,” Mr. Gerard put in.

“How are you connected to the Haywoods?” Brit asked.

“She’s with me.” Caden dropped his arm around my shoulders. “Mr. Gerard and my great-grandfather were fishing buddies,” Caden told me.

“Before my son moved me to that condo, I lived next door to the Haywood farm for more than sixty years.”

“You like the condo, though, right?” Brit asked.

“I like it fine when you and your cohorts aren’t whooping it up in the garage.”

Brit looked sheepish and slid Simone a sideways glance. “It’s not forever, Gramps. Just until we get Micah’s studio finished. Come on, let’s check out the artichoke dip. You love that stuff.”

Mr. Gerard sniffed, but allowed Brit to lead him away to the buffet table.

“You bathe old men for a living?” Simone asked.

“It’s a dirty job and someone has to do it,” I replied, trying to inject some humor into my tone.

Simone shivered as if she’d just escaped from a haunted house. “I can’t even imagine bathing lecherous codgers for a living. Old people give me the willies.”

“Mr. Gerard isn’t a codger,” I said, heating up, “and he certainly isn’t lecherous.”

Caden, sensing my rising anger, pulled me against him.

Simone laughed, but it sounded brittle. “Speaking of lecherous,” she pointed her goblet at Caden, “when did you two start dating?”

Caden and I exchanged glances.

“It’s new,” I said.

Caden dropped a quick kiss on my cheek. “Things can heat up pretty quickly when you’re stranded together on the south side of a landslide.”

Simone blinked.

“Simone darling,” Alex waved at her from across the room.

“You’re being summoned,” Caden said.

Simone gave me a brief, insincere smile, and Caden a lingering confused glance before striding away to join Alex and a cluster of twenty-somethings.

“Friends from high school,” Caden told me. “Would you like to meet them?”

Alex’s friends were all tall and beautiful. The women looked like they could pose for Victoria Secret and the men as if they’d walked out of a GQ Magazine.

Before I could answer a splash of something cold hit my chest.

“Gramps!” Brit chided, HURRYing over.

Mr. Gerard battled tears and offered up an almost empty goblet. “I was coming to offer you something to drink.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Gerard,” I pulled the sopping wet blouse away from my skin. “As you know, I’m waterproof.”

Caden, who had left my side, sprinted over with a handful of napkins.

“But that blouse might not be,” Brit said with a smirk.

I glanced down at my wet and now completely sheer white blouse. Today, I realized, the pink bra had been an unfortunate choice.

Caden must have had the same thought because he stripped off his own shirt and draped it over my shoulders. Suddenly, I was enveloped in his warmth. I moved to shrug it off because now he didn’t have a shirt…and we had become the focal point of the party’s attention.

“Caden,” I protested. “You’ll be cold.”

“Keep it on,” he growled. “I have a jacket in the car.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and steered me toward the door.

“I hope you’re not leaving on Gramps account,” Brit said.

Mr. Gerard stared at us with a sick expression on his face.

“I have a jacket in the car,” Caden said without breaking stride.

“I have a coat, too,” I told him.

He chuckled. “That’s right, you do. Where is it?”

I motioned at our table where my coat lay over the back of where I had been sitting. With his arm still around me, Caden guided me to the table, plucked my jacket up, and led me to the foyer.

“In here.” Caden led me to a small parlor off the main entry. A pair of velvet pink Bergère chairs flanked the fireplace. Someone had laid a fire and heat radiated through the room.

I balked. “This looks like it's private.”

“The owners are friends of ours. They won’t mind.” He shifted from foot to foot, making me wonder if he were nervous. “I bet if you take off your blouse and put it in front of the fire, it’ll dry pretty quickly.”

“Or I could just go home.”

“No.” I heard don’t leave me here alone in his tone. He closed the door as if to keep me from bolting.

I stepped near the fire. “Okay, turn around.”

He grinned. “I am a doctor.”

“You’re not my doctor.” I made a circular motion with my finger.

Still grinning, he obliged.

I shrugged out of his jacket, tugged off my wet blouse, and slipped into my coat. After dropping onto the chair, I held my shirt up before the fire. It reeked of champagne. It could have been worse. Instead of champagne, it could have a red wine and my blouse would have been ruined.

“You should go back to the party,” I told Caden’s backside.

“Can I turn around now?” he asked.

“And go back to the party? Sure.”

He snuck a glance at me, saw I was safely tucked into my coat, and joined me beside the fire. His bulky frame dwarfed the fussy chairs and he looked as if he was sitting in a doll house.

“It’s your brother’s engagement party. You should be there for him.”

Caden pushed his fingers through his hair. “I’m right where I want to be.”

“Chicken.”

He flushed and studied his fingernails as if they could predict his future. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Simone. She’s the person you’re in love with.”

Caden sighed and looked at the ceiling.

“For how long?”

He leveled his gaze to look at me. “Forever.” He dropped his tone to an almost whisper and I felt my own heart sinking, as well. “Is it so obvious?”

I ached for him but felt compelled to be honest. “I picked up on it. I’m pretty sure your mom knows. Does Alex?”

“I don’t know.”

“You two aren’t close?”

Caden rolled his eyes. “He’s only about thirteen months between us and he’s just…” He racked his fingers through his hair again—making me wonder if this was a nervous tick. “I haven’t always been kind to him,” he admitted.

“Why not?”

He shrugged and studied the fire. “He’s…or at least, he was, embarrassing. He’s a show pony.”

I laughed. “I don’t even know what that means.”

“It means when we were kids, he was always galloping around the playground and acting like a horse.”

I laughed harder. “It’s not funny. When you’re trying to be cool and wanting to be taken as a serious athlete while playing four-square, having a brother who’s acting like the Black Stallion is a handicap—to say the least.”

“I bet you were really good at four-square.”

“I was.” He paused as if lost in thought. “Things weren’t a lot better in high school. In fact, they were worse.”

“Why?”

“Alex hung with the theater crowd. Called himself a thespian and went around talking like Shakespeare.”

“Did you know Simone then?”

Caden look pained. “She was so beautiful and popular. Every time I got close to her, I could barely speak.”

“And Alex? What was he doing?”

“Staring in all the theater productions. Singing all the solos in the choir concerts.”

“With Simone?”

He blanched.

“So, even though their engagement seems super quick, they’ve actually known each other for a long time.”

Caden bounced to his feet, strode across the room, and went to look out the window. The stiffness in his back told me I’d struck a nerve. “Her sister, Libby, you met her, she thinks the engagement is a bad idea, too.”

“Why Because of the recording deal?”

Caden turned back to face me. “You’re smart.”

“Thanks,” I said. I also wanted to tell him it didn’t take a genius to read the emotions he wore on his face, but maybe I read him better than others? I fingered my damp blouse. “What would you think if I called an Uber?”

“I would think that was silly.”

“And you called me smart…”

“You are smart, but calling an Uber would be silly when I can drive you home.”

“I want you to go to your brother’s engagement party.”

“And I told you, I’d rather hang with you.”

I stood up. “Well, let’s go then.”

Caden dug his keys out of his pocket and jingled them.

“Not a chance, Lancelot. We’re going back into that party.” I pushed against his broad chest.

He staggered and I wasn’t sure if it was from surprise or from my weight.

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to prove to your brother and all those people in that room that you can be happy for Alex.” And not jealous.

Although I had to admit, jealousy was just about tearing me apart.

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