The Very Naughty List

37. Hailey

37

HAILEY

A few days after my family’s Christmas party, I offer to run some errands for the diner to help take some stress off my parents’ minds. It’s the least I can do, considering that I don’t have the money to just buy a way out of this mess, and I also don’t have any brilliant strategy for how to fix it yet.

But I’m committed to helping them save the diner somehow.

I just need to figure out how .

As I’m walking out of the hardware store, my phone rings in my purse. When I dig it out, I almost drop it on the sidewalk as I see the name on the screen.

Dylan .

What the fuck does he want?

I stare at the screen as it continues to ring, mentally debating whether to answer it or not. When I do pick up the call, I don’t say what I really want to say, which would be something along the lines of calling him a selfish prick who’s unjustly targeting my parents’ business. Instead, I grimace and try to shove all of my anger into a tight little box in my chest. I can’t really afford to piss him off, not when his family has so much power over mine. It would make things worse for my parents if I aggravated an already shitty situation.

“Hi, Dylan,” I say, forcing my voice to sound pleasant.

“Hailey, how are you?”

“Fine.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” His voice has that smooth, charming quality that fooled me for a long time when we first started dating. “Listen, I’d love to talk to you about something.”

I frown, stepping aside when I realize I’m blocking the door to the hardware store. “What do you want to talk about?”

“It’s not really a conversation for over the phone. Could we speak in person? You could swing by my house. I’ll be here most of the day.”

I hesitate, because the last place I want to go is Dylan’s house. I used to spend a lot of time there, but like everything else that got tainted when he cheated on me, I don’t have any good memories from that place that I want to hold on to now.

But all I can think about is the tears in my mother’s eyes the other night at the party, and the hopeless look on my dad’s face. Running errands for them might take a tiny bit of pressure off them in the short term, but in the long term, it’s not really fixing anything.

If I have a one-on-one conversation with Dylan, maybe I can convince him to talk to his parents, to get them to ease up on my folks and back off the diner.

It’s worth a shot anyway, even if it means completely swallowing my pride.

“Yeah, okay,” I say, my voice a little stiff. “I’ve got some stuff to do today, so I can come by in the late afternoon, if that works.”

“That’s great.” I can hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll see you soon.”

We hang up, and I spend the rest of the day finishing up the stuff I promised to do for my parents. The guys are all at work, and I don’t text them to let them know I’m going to be meeting up with Dylan. As long as our meetup is quick, I should be able to make it home before they get back, and I know they’d all want to come with me if I told them where I was going.

But with the three of them glowering at him from over my shoulder, I know there’d be no chance at all of convincing him to spare the diner.

When I get to Dylan’s house, I pause on the front step.

The place is a bit bigger than the Cooper brothers’ house, even though Dylan lives here alone. Unless Brielle has moved in, which I suppose is a possibility. They’re engaged, after all, so if she hasn’t yet, she probably will soon.

“Unless he decides to build them a brand new mansion for their happily ever after,” I mutter under my breath, snorting derisively.

I don’t feel jealous thinking about that possibility. I know I dodged a bullet by walking away from our wedding, and I also know that there’s no house big enough that it could’ve made me happy in a marriage with Dylan.

Taking a deep breath, I ring the bell.

When the door swings open, Dylan stands in the wide entryway with his designer shirt unbuttoned a few buttons and his expensive shoes shined to perfection.

“Oh, Hailey. Thanks for coming.”

“Sure.”

I nod, keeping my expression schooled into something neutral, even as I privately wonder how I ever found this man all that attractive. Everything about him seems so artificial now. The way that his hair is so perfectly styled without a single strand out of place, and the way his lips always tilt upward just a little, like he’s smirking at the world.

Sure, he’s good looking in a conventional sort of way, but I’d take Sebastian’s messy after-sex hair, or Reid’s crooked dimples, or Nick’s scruffy beard any day of the week. The Cooper brothers are so imperfectly and authentically masculine that it makes Dylan seem like a cardboard cutout.

Maybe that’s why he was always putting me down so much—because he knew that, at the end of the day, he didn’t measure up.

“Come on in,” he tells me, sweeping his arm out and holding the door open wider.

I follow him inside, and he leads me into the living room and gestures for me to have a seat on the couch. He sits down beside me, and I cringe internally, wishing he’d sat down first so that I could’ve taken a chair or something. Sitting on the same piece of furniture with the guy who fucked my ex-best friend makes my skin crawl.

“So how have you been enjoying your time since coming back home?” he asks, cocking his head a little. “Does it feel weird being back again? Or have you settled into a new normal? It seems like you’ve been keeping busy.”

I get the feeling that he isn’t just asking me how I’m liking the Montana winter or enjoying holiday time back home with my family. He’s talking about me and the triplets.

“It’s been nice being back.”

My answer is plain and simple, purposefully keeping things vague as I opt for a non-answer to his implied interrogation.

Dylan studies me for a second, as if he’s trying to figure out some hidden meaning behind my answer. Then he clears his throat, shaking his head.

“Listen, I called you because I wanted to talk about something a bit… sensitive. That’s why I didn’t want to speak on the phone.”

I nod, tensing a little. “Okay. Well, I’m here. So let’s talk.”

“I know that my family has had to raise the rent on The Griddle House by quite a bit. It’s unfortunate.”

He makes a sympathetic face as he says that last word, and I tap my fingers on my thighs to keep from curling my hands into fists. Unfortunate is one word for it. Extortion is another.

“Yeah, I’m well aware of that,” I tell him coolly. “What about it?”

“Well, I know what a staple of the community the diner is. And I know how much it means to you. So I’d like to discuss some possibilities with you. I want to find a solution.”

In spite of myself, I can’t help the little ray of hope that bursts in my chest.

“I would appreciate that,” I say carefully. “What kind of solution are you thinking of?”

He smiles. “Well, I think I could get my parents to drop the rent back down to what it was a few years ago.”

My eyebrows shoot up. A few years ago, business at the diner was great and my parents were bringing in a healthy profit after all of their expenses. Everything was great, and if they could go back to that…

“That would be amazing,” I say, torn between excitement and wariness. “What would you need from them?”

“Nothing.” He waves a hand. “I’m not doing it for them, Hailey. To be honest, I’d be doing it for you. For old time’s sake.”

My stomach tightens a little. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t you remember?” His eyes warm a little. “We met at The Griddle House. So that right there makes it worth saving.”

Oh fuck .

Something in his eyes is tripping all the alarm bells in my head, and when he reaches up to cup my jaw, I jerk backward.

“What are you doing?” I ask, my voice sharp.

He reaches for me again, sliding his hand around the back of my neck and through my hair. “I want you back, Hailey. Ever since you came back to Chestnut Hill, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. Every time I see you with one of those damn Cooper brothers, it gets under my skin. Because you don’t belong with any of them. You belong with me.”

He leans in as if he’s going to kiss me, and I shoot to my feet, backing away several steps.

“What the fuck?” I stare at him in shocked disbelief. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Oh, please.” He stands up too, shaking his head. “Are you going to try to tell me you don’t feel it? That you don’t feel the connection between us? I know you’re only parading around town with the three of them to make me jealous. It’s so fucking obvious.”

“ What? ” My hands curl into fists. I’m so stunned that I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience, adrenaline flooding my veins. “The connection between us? I left you, you asshole. You cheated on me, and I left this whole fucking town just to get the hell away from you. Why the hell would I ever want to get back together with you?”

He stares at me, unblinking. “Oh, come on. Don’t you think you’re being a bit melodramatic? All couples have their ups and downs.”

“We didn’t have ups and downs, Dylan. You were the down . I don’t want you. I don’t want to ever be with you again. And there isn’t anything in the whole, entire world that you can dangle over my head that will make me forget what you did. You cheated on me with Brielle and now you’re trying to cheat on Brielle with me. That’s seriously fucked up. What kind of lowlife scumbag are you?”

“Are you… rejecting me?” Dylan’s voice makes it very clear that he’s in shock over the fact that I’m turning him down.

Whether he thinks that he is god’s gift to women, or simply that he can force anyone to do whatever he wants if he throws enough money and power their way, he was definitely not expecting me to stand up to him like this.

“Yes,” I bite out.

He blinks again, the shock in his expression turning to anger. “You’re making a big mistake, Hailey. You really think that you’re too good for me? What, do you think those Cooper brothers are better? Are you really fucking all three of them?”

My jaw clenches. “That’s none of your business.”

Dylan’s nostrils flare, and his face twists with jealousy, as if he can’t bear the thought that I’ve moved on to not only one other man but three . We’ve all played our parts so well that Dylan is practically seething with envy. He can’t stand that he’s lost and the triplets have won.

“I don’t even know why you’re acting like this,” I say quietly. “It’s not like you ever even wanted me when we were together. You treated me like shit.”

I shake my head even as I speak. I shouldn’t even be arguing with him because he’ll never see outside himself. He’s incapable of it.

“And you think that those orphaned brutes are going to treat you any better? None of them are half the man that I am. None of the three of them have the money, status, or power that I do. They can’t give you any of the things that I could have. You’ve really messed up, Hailey.”

His words hit me hard in the chest—not because he’s right, but because of how fucking wrong he is. Maybe none of the Cooper brothers can give me what my shitty, rich ex can—but they can give me the things that matter , and they already have.

I stand up and march toward the front door of the huge, sterile mansion with my emotions roiling.

Just as I put my hand on the doorknob, I whip around to say one last thing. Dylan stands in the hallway, looking as if he’s going to double down on his efforts to make things difficult for me and my family now. But as much as I want to do anything I can to help my parents save the diner, this is one thing that I can’t do.

“I will never ever get back together with you, Dylan. So you can go fuck yourself—or Brielle, or whoever else you’re going to use next.”

With that, I wrench open the door and stride outside.

My hands shake as I grip the steering wheel on the drive home. I’m so strung out and upset over my interaction with Dylan—and more than that, I’m worried about what he’ll do now that I’ve angered him even further.

When I walk into the Cooper brothers’ house, Bruno comes right up to greet me, and I drop down to my knees to hug him. I pet his head and feel my emotions welling up as I bury my face in his fur. He lets me, and I feel like it’s a sign that our bond has solidified. Animals have a sixth sense when their humans are upset, and Bruno is more sensitive than anyone has given him credit for.

The guys must’ve heard me get back, because they come walking toward the door altogether. It takes them less than a second to realize that I’m upset.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Nick’s voice has a hard, protective edge.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to us, Hailey,” Reid scolds me gently. “You know we can tell when you’re upset, and you look pretty damn shaken up right now. What is it?”

As much as I want comfort, I don’t want to tell them that I went to meet with Dylan alone. And I don’t want to tell them what he said and did, because they’ll likely want to go beat the shit out of him, and that will make matters even worse than they already are. I also don’t want to tell them how I’ve probably just escalated the bad situation my parents are in with the diner.

“I don’t want to talk right now.”

My voice is trembling as I stand up from petting the dog and look at all three of the brothers, suddenly filled with the intense desire to be held by all of them.

“I just… want you to kiss me,” I whisper. “Please.”

Sebastian steps forward and pulls me into his arms, embracing me and planting a soft kiss on the side of my temple. The other two men follow suit, and within moments, I’m encased between the three of them as they take turns kissing me over and over.

I cling to them, letting their touch and their closeness soothe the raw parts of my heart.

This is where I feel safe. This is where I feel at home .