“Hailey, stop,” Grant swallowed, so softly, he wasn’t sure he had actually said it.
Hailey brought her hands to rest in Grant’s hair, staring down at him, a strand of her curls tickling his shoulder. “It’s okay,” she shook her head. “We don’t have to stop.”
As though rendered helpless by those words, Grant raised his hands to her cheeks, easing her back toward him and meeting her with a paralyzing kiss.
Hailey let Grant guide her hand down toward the band of his boxer briefs, her heart thumping but her mind made up. As Hailey’s kisses gained confidence, Grant ran his fingers up the back of her thighs, admiring the toned accidental sexiness of her body.
Grant sat up, panting. “Stop,” he said with conviction, sure he would hate himself later.
“Why?” Hailey seemed genuinely confused. Her mind began to race, and self-doubt consumed her. Had she done something wrong? Were her kisses not as perfect to him as his were to her? “Is something wrong? Just show me what you want me to do.”
Grant lay back, working to catch his breath, his hands clinching chunks of his own hair. “Put your clothes on,” he demanded.
“What?” Hailey swallowed, suddenly embarrassed as she reached for his shirt to cover herself. She couldn’t believe her ears. Surely her mind was playing an awful trick on her. Had he just suggested that she put her clothes back on? That she get dressed? That they not make love? She felt the tears rise fast, nearly choking her with their veracity.
“Hailey,” Grant sighed, his voice carrying a compassion that Hailey found at once reassuring and mocking. He wasn’t looking at her. That much she knew. There she was soaking wet, sweaty, panting and covered only by his t-shirt, and he was making a point not to look at her. Hailey felt an emotion rise in her that she couldn’t define. It wasn’t hate; she knew she didn’t hate him; it wasn’t just anger; it was more than confusion. Hurt, shame, fear, embarrassment, disappointment, uncertainty; they were all jostling for top billing in her fit of rage.
“I finally let go of my inhibitions and offer myself to you, and now you don’t want me?” Hailey screamed through her tears, her voice scratchy and fraught with emotion. She stumbled in her hurry to pull her clothes back on. She picked up a shoe and slung it at Grant, barely missing from such short range that she herself knew it had been by design.
“Yes, I want you,” Grant gulped, “more than anything, I want you.” He was looking at her now, his eyes longing yet resolute.
Hailey’s tone softened as she sank down next to him. “Well this is your chance,” she cried. “No more cold showers, no more lusting after the girl you can’t have.”
“I can’t,” Grant frowned, looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. “We can’t.”
“Are you kidding me?” Hailey exclaimed as she watched Grant begin to dress. Her tears were flowing so hard it made her words difficult to make out. “What is the problem? That’s it? Game over? Does it give you some cheep thrill to know that you had me right where you wanted me, and you got to be the one to deny me this time? Is it payback? Revenge? Or does the fact that I wanted it somehow make me less attractive to you? Would you rather I was still playing hard to get? Guys like that challenge, right?”
“Hailey, stop,” Grant shook his head. He reached for her, forcing her into his arms. “Listen to me…you’ve got it all wrong…”
“Shut-up,” Hailey fought to free herself. “You just shut-up! Don’t talk to me right now! Grant, let go of me! Do not touch me!” Grant refused to let go, and he could feel Hailey start to tremble as she gave up fighting and moved easily into place in his arms. “I’m so embarrassed,” she cried.
Grant lifted Hailey’s chin. “Shhh,” he whispered as he kissed the top of her head. “Don’t cry, Hails…please don’t cry.”
“I don’t understand,” Hailey cried. “I thought this is what you wanted…”
“I did too,” Grant swallowed. Then realizing how easily Hailey could misinterpret his words, he blurted, “it is; you are!”
Hailey looked deep into his eyes. “Then why…”
“Because,” Grant’s voice cracked, and Hailey could see he was holding back tears. “I know how important this is to you, and I don’t ever want to be that guy you look back on as the biggest mistake of your life. If we sleep together right now, I’m afraid that’s what I’ll end up being…a mistake in a barn on a stormy night. I can’t be that guy, Hailey. I can’t be the guy at the heart of some teenage romance you live to regret… because I want to be the guy who gives you the perfect wedding night you’ve always dreamed about… I want to be the man you wake up next to every morning for the rest of your life.”
Hailey closed her eyes and gone was the anger and the resentment, the indignation and the animosity. Though she remained mortified; she also felt more content than she had ever felt in her life. She had so many questions she knew she would be asking of herself later. The one question that she didn’t have was about the commitment of the arms wrapped around her and the heart pounding beneath her cheek.
“I didn’t stop this because I don’t love you,” Grant said, his voice full of that steely confidence Hailey had come to admire so much. “I stopped it because I do.”
His left hand on the wheel of Hailey’s rundown Chevy pickup truck, the ripped interior and crumbled yellow foam that protruded resting beneath their hands, woven together on the seat, Grant made a mental note that the first order of business before moving to Boston was to buy himself and Hailey new automobiles.
At the same moment, Grant and Hailey saw the rising flames, the plumes of black smoke in the air, a gathered crowd of onlookers and a volunteer fire department consisting of every able-bodied, pick-up truck owning male in Hope Hull. Jim was standing with his arms around both Maude and Maybelle, watching the diner burn, and Hailey breathed a sigh of relief knowing everyone must have gotten out safely.
Grant eased the truck to a stop on the shoulder of the dirt road. Hailey slung the passenger’s side door open, running to join Misty, Paul and Billy Wayne, who were huddled, helplessly watching flames engulf a beloved hangout that was rooted in their childhood.
Billy Wayne began shouting when he saw Hailey and Grant approaching. “Hey, y’all, look…it’s on far! Maude’s is on far!”
Grant rolled his eyes. “It’s pronounced fire, Billy Wayne…long i.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “It’s pronounced really?, Grant…long walk home.”
“Come-on,” Paul urged, as he started running toward the burning building. “I’m sure they can use as many hands as they can get.”
Billy Wayne lugged behind Paul, glancing back over his shoulder to motion for Grant to follow.
Grant stood transfixed on the fire, his thoughts lost amongst the flames.
“We’re going to help too,” Ricky Lee announced as he and Jimmy Ray took off running after Paul and Billy Wayne.
“You stop right there!” Misty called after them scoldingly.
“But, Sissy,” Jimmy Ray protested. “Daddy’s over there.”
“And he’d appreciate it if you two knuckleheads would stay out of his way,” Misty snapped, pointing the boys back to her side, her eyes daring them to make another move in the direction of the diner.
Defeated, Ricky Lee and Jimmy Ray did as they were told, eventually running off toward The Country Stop where Barbra Harper was sitting outside in a rocker, petting Lazy Jesse, tearfully watching Maude’s burn.
Hailey stared into Grant’s eyes, which had been locked on the blaze since they arrived. She saw something in his eyes that made her mind drift back to the day in the hallway at school, when Paul accused him of being responsible for starting a fire in North Carolina.
“Grant, what’s wrong?” Hailey whispered.
