“Oh, it’s okay,” Hailey said. “I just got some bad news from my designer.”
“Designer?” Ransom echoed.
“He wanted me to renovate the whole house,” she told him, sighing. “I just wanted to paint and add some decor and fixtures. He says he won’t do it.”
“Maybe money’s no object for you,” Ransom said carefully. “But I’m sure you can get everything done at a much more reasonable cost if you use local contractors. And they won’t mind sticking to your list.”
“Money is definitely an object,” Hailey told him.
“Then we can do the painting ourselves,” Ransom said immediately.
“What?” she asked. “No, no I want it done right.”
“Do you seriously think I don’t remember painting sets with you for the play?” he demanded. “You’re a perfectionist with a paintbrush and I doubt there’s a painter in Trinity Falls who will be more motivated to make your new home shine.”
She looked up at him, wondering if he might be right.
Ransom’s dark eyes were fixed on her face, and there was such care in them.
He really has changed,she thought to herself without meaning to.
“You can do it,” he told her gently. “And I’ll be here every step of the way.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I owe you,” he told her, looking away. “I was an idiot back in school.”
“That’s not a nice word, Daddy,” Mae chimed in as she headed off to explore the side yard with her brother.
“I’m sorry,” Ransom replied. He was talking to Mae, but he was looking at Hailey.
“Kids break up,” Hailey said lightly, training her gaze on the house. “It happens all the time.”
His words hit hard. But she wasn’t about to let him see how much he had devastated her, or how much she still thought about him. She still had her pride, or at least some of it.
He didn’t reply, and when she stole a glance at him he was gazing at the snow at his feet.
What they had felt was deeper than the puppy love you were supposed to have in high school. At least that was what she’d always thought. She assumed she had been wrong about all that when he dumped her, but now she wasn’t so sure.
“Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad,”Travis yelled as he ran around the side of the house with Mae at his heels. “There was acaton the back porch.”
“Oh yeah?” Ransom asked him. “I wonder where he came from.”
“He came from a mama cat,” Mae said wisely.
Travis howled with laughter.
“What?” Mae demanded. “It’s not funny.”
“You’re right, Mae,” Hailey told her right away. “But I think your dad meant to ask where the cat was before he was on the back porch.”
“A mama cat,” Travis echoed, breathless with laughter.
Mae joined him, unable to resist her brother’s good spirits.
And suddenly Hailey was laughing too. It was almost impossible not to, just looking at the pure joy of the two children.
Ransom’s eyes met hers again at last, his warm smile lighting up her heart.
