“Not at all,” he told her, wishing he had the right words to explain. “It sort offeelsthe same, even with the changes.”
“That was my goal,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “I’ve always loved your house, and the way a person felt welcomed in and comfortable from the moment the door opened. I’m trying to accentuate that, not lose it.”
“Well, you’re doing a great job,” he told her. “You always do.”
That had her looking down modestly, her cheeks darkening slightly as his heart raced.
“When can we see Hailey again?” Mae asked that night at supper.
“She’s fun to hang out with,” Travis added.
“Soon,” Ransom told them. “She invited us to her party this weekend. We’ll all have to be on our best behavior.”
“What party?” Mae asked suspiciously.
“She’s fixing up the farmhouse so that lots of people can have parties there,” Ransom reminded her. “This weekend, she’s having some people over to see if they like it. If they do, they might tell their friends.”
“I don’t know if my friends would want to have a party at someone else’s house,” Travis said worriedly.
“No, that’s not whywe’regoing,” Ransom told him with a smile. “We’ll just be there because we’re her friends.”
“Is Hailey your girlfriend?” Mae asked casually.
Travis turned to him too, apparently very interested in the answer.
“No,” Ransom told her. “She’s not my girlfriend. What made you think of that?”
“Nick’s daddy told his mommy that she was your girlfriend,” Travis said quietly.
That actually made sense. Ransom realized he probably should have talked to the kids about their history already.
“That’s because when we were in high school, we were boyfriend and girlfriend,” he explained. “But not now.”
It was the truth, there was nothing going on between them anymore, but it still stung to say it out loud for some reason.
“Did youbreak up?” Travis asked, looking horrified.
“Yes,” Ransom said. “We were young. I was going to join the Army and she was going to go to New York to be an actress, so we broke up.”
“That’s sad,” Mae said softly.
“Itwasvery sad,” he heard himself admit. “It took a long time for me to start to feel better about it.”
Honestly, he still wasn’t sure he really felt a whole lot better about it.
“But she can be your girlfriend now,” Mae said reassuringly. “Because you’re not in the Army anymore and she wants to be a person who has parties at their house.”
“Well, it’s more complicated than that,” Ransom said.
“No it isn’t,” Travis said. “Why don’t you want her to be your girlfriend? She’s really nice.”
“And she likes us,” Mae added approvingly.
There were about a thousand reasons it wouldn’t work, but he wasn’t really sure how to explain it to his kids. He didn’t always even understand it fully himself.
“She’s really scared of dogs,” Ransom reminded them, landing on something simple that might satisfy them.
“She could get used to them,” Travis offered.
