The Very Naughty List

36. Hailey

36

HAILEY

By seven-thirty, the party is in full swing, and I’m slowly nursing my second glass of mulled wine.

The first glass, I drank so fast that I practically scalded my mouth after my mother basically told me she thinks all three of the Cooper brothers are falling for me… and that I’m falling for them too.

Oh god.

My stomach pitches like I’m on a rollercoaster, and I take another quick sip of the spicy, sweet wine.

I make my way through the living room, greeting a few friends of the family who haven’t seen me since I got back. Several of them exclaim at how happy I look, and no one mentions Dylan or his family at all, which I appreciate. I’m sure they know that shit wouldn’t fly in this house. And besides, my parents’ true friends aren’t the types to take pleasure in gossiping about painful moments in my life.

Once I escape a small group of people who want to know if I had any fun celebrity sightings in LA, I make a beeline for the couch, where Grandma Dee and Pippa are sitting with their heads together, laughing quietly.

“What’s so funny?” I ask, sitting down on Grandma Dee’s other side.

“We’re playing ‘never have I ever.’” Pippa grins, her eyes sparking with mischief. “Turns out Grandma Dee has a very sordid past.”

“Oh, hush, you.” Our grandmother swats at her, but she’s laughing, her cheeks flushed.

“All right.” I grin. “I’m in. Who’s turn is it?”

“Grandma’s,” Pippa informs me, and we both turn to our grandmother expectantly.

“Hmm.” Grandma Dee purses her lips. “Never have I ever… jumped out of an airplane.”

Pippa smirks and takes a sip of her drink. She and a friend of hers went skydiving last year. She sent me a video of it while I was in LA, and just watching the recording made me feel a little queasy. Definitely not for me.

We keep playing as the party continues around us, laughing and joking in our little corner of the room. I glance up after a while and see all three of the Cooper brothers talking to Lucas and another teacher from his school. As if he’s somehow sensed my gaze, Nick looks over, meeting my eyes.

I smile, giving him a little wave, even as butterflies burst to life in my stomach.

After that conversation with my mom in the kitchen, my thoughts have been churning over and over. I can’t stop thinking about what Sebastian said earlier, when he offered to come help get ready for the party.

We take care of what’s ours .

What would it be like if I was actually theirs? Not just pretend, and not just shared in their beds, but theirs in all ways?

What if we made this thing between us real?

Is that even possible?

“Earth to Hailey! Are you even listening?”

I’m so lost inside my head that I don’t notice my sister trying to get my attention until she jabs me in the side with her elbow.

“Sorry.” I yank my gaze away from the Cooper brothers before anyone can notice me staring. “I was just thinking. Must be the mulled wine. What did you say?”

“I just prompted us with a never have I ever. Want me to repeat it?”

“Yes, please.”

My sister flashes me a shit-eating grin, then says, “Never have I ever had a four-way.”

My heart stops. Oh, no she fucking didn’t.

“A four-way?” Grandma Dee looks slightly confused. “Like a four-way radio? Do they even make such a thing?”

Pippa stifles a giggle and waits for me to respond, looking pointedly at the glass of mulled wine in my hand.

But instead of taking a drink, I pick up one of the little throw pillows on the couch and whack her with it. She yelps, dissolving into laughter, and Grandma Dee looks at both of us like we’d lost our damn minds.

“No, Grandma,” Pippa informs her, blocking another blow from the throw pillow as a few people glance our way. “It’s not a radio. Let’s see…” She ducks again, pursing her lips and shooting me a look. “How would you describe a four-way, Hailey?”

“You little brat.” I drop the pillow and roll my eyes. “Grandma, it’s not a radio. It’s something dirty.”

It suddenly dawns on Grandma Dee what Pippa was talking about, and her eyebrows shoot up, her mouth forming a little ‘o’ shape. I flush, but I can’t stop myself from chuckling a little as Pippa cackles. Grandma Dee starts to laugh too, and it isn’t long before the three of us are giggling like children.

It actually feels good to laugh like this, a moment of normalcy and levity that actually does manage to break me out of my thoughts for a while.

I poke Pippa in the side when we finally get ourselves back under control, but she just gives me an innocent look and throws her arms around me, pulling me in close for a hug.

“Love you, sis,” she singsongs, and I grudgingly hug her back.

“Love you too. Brat.”

The game continues, and after a few more raucous rounds—during which my sister behaves, thank goodness—I tell them to go on without me while I get a refill of wine.

I walk past the Cooper brothers, flashing Reid a quick smile, then head into the kitchen. But I stop short as I enter.

My mom is standing near the stove, and my dad has one arm around her as he speaks to her in a low voice. I have a sudden flashback to when I walked in on my parents in the kitchen at the diner, and just like then, my stomach drops.

“Oh my gosh, what’s wrong?”

I race into the room, and they both look up. My mom wipes at her eyes, a guilty look flashing across her face, as if she feels bad for crying at her own holiday party when she’d normally be playing the happy hostess.

But I don’t care about that. I care about what’s got her so upset—especially because I’m pretty sure I know what it is.

“It’s the Montgomerys, isn’t it?” I demand. “What did they do now?”

My mom shakes her head, fluttering one hand toward the door. “Sweetheart, everything is fine. Go back out and enjoy the party. Your father and I were just getting a few things to bring out to the refreshments table.”

“Bullshit.” I don’t budge. “You can tell me. This involves me too, and I want to save the diner as much as you do. Please.”

My voice drops a little on the last word, and my mom sighs, her shoulders sinking as she seems to deflate a little.

“The grant isn’t going to work out,” she admits quietly. “And it’s looking like the Montgomerys are going to raise our rent again in the new year.”

“We think they’re trying to force us out,” my dad tells me, anger coloring his voice. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this pissed off. “They want to develop that block, and they probably think they could get a more lucrative deal if they tore down the diner and replaced it with something else. So they’re squeezing us.”

“Can you just move the diner?” I ask, crossing my arms as my mind races. That building has been the location of the diner for years, and I hate the idea of them losing it, but they could try to start over somewhere else. “Find another location?”

“We’re looking into it.” My dad isn’t crying like my mom, but he looks beaten down and grim, the friendly ease he greeted us all with earlier gone. “But the Montgomerys own a lot of the prime real estate around town, so it won’t be easy.”

My mom reaches out, brushing her thumb over my cheek, and I realize a tear has slipped through my lashes too.

“Don’t worry about it for tonight, okay?” she says softly, giving me a little smile. “I don’t want it to ruin your holidays. And no matter what, Hailey, we’ll be okay. I promise. We’ll figure something out.”

I can tell she’s trying to reassure me, but although I give her a weak smile and a nod, it does nothing to banish the tight knot in my gut.

There’s literally no way that we can fight against the Montgomerys. They’ve got a tight grip on this town, and with all of their money, they can outspend us for the rest of our lives.

But no matter how powerful they are, that doesn’t mean I’m going to back down and let them destroy my parents’ business.

I’ll just have to find some other way to fix this .