Page 236 of The Way I Hate Him
Mac steps up now and hands her a handmade card. “This is for you, Aunt Hattie.” I take the box of donuts from her so she can open the card. Inside the folded paper is a stick figure drawing of a woman with wings and a halo over her head. “That’s Mommy watching over you.”
“Oh, MacKenzie.” Hattie squats down to her level and pulls Mac into a hug, tears falling. “Thank you. This means so much to me.”
She squeezes her hard and then lifts up.
She holds the picture out and says, “I’m going to frame this and put it next to the card that your mom made me for my birthday. I’ll hang them by the register.”
“Will you really?” Mac asks as Ryland pulls her into his side.
“Of course.” She stands taller, glancing between her siblings. “Thank you for putting up with me as I navigated through all of this.”
“No need to thank us. We’re here for each other. We’re in this together,” Ryland says.
“And you’ll do great things with the store,” Aubree says.
“Andyou’lldo great things with the farm.”
She smiles softly. “Now that I can focus my attention on it, I know it will be better than ever.”
On a deep breath, Hattie turns toward the store, and with her key in one hand and a picture of Cassidy in the other, she opens the door to The Almond Store.
I know this woman loves me and will always love me. But this place is her heart, her passion, and an equally important part of her future. Something grown from love. Something that brings joy to others. She’s going to do great things with her life, and I’m going to walk beside her every step of the way. Because that’s what love does. It stays. It protects. It fortifies.
Lookingfor more alpha heroes like Hayes? Keep reading for an excerpt fromRight Man, Right Time
Excerpt - Right Man, Right Time
Prologue
SILAS
“I don’t know, dude. Maybe I should have gone with the princess cut,” I say into the phone as I head up the elevator to my penthouse apartment that offers expansive views of the Burrard Inlet.
When Sarah and I found this place, she told me we had to get it. Not only were the views everything we could have asked for, but the privacy was also a huge bonus, especially since privacy doesn’t come so easily anymore. Not when you’re the star right wing from the Vancouver Agitators.
“Do we really have to go through this again?” Pacey Lawes says through the phone, clearly irritated with my inability to settle on the right ring.
“I want to get this right.” The elevator shoots me up to the penthouse. “I know Sarah has been waiting for this, and I’m finally in a place in my life where I can get her the ring she deserves. I want to make sure it’s perfect.”
“How many times do we have to go through this? She sent you pictures of that halo ring. That’s what she wants, and what you got matches that. Don’t change anything.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I sigh. “Shit, I’m nervous.”
“Are you doing it tonight?”
“No.” I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “I have to figure out her ring size first.”
“That would have been job number one,” he says just as the elevator dings and the doors begin to part.
“Probably.” I scrub my hand over my face as I step off the elevator. “This is my first and last proposal, so I’m not quite sure of the timetable here.”
“Don’t think that’s part of a timetable. Just common sense, man,” Pacey says as I set my keys on the side table next to the elevator, kick off my shoes, and then head toward the kitchen where I find one of Sarah’s bras discarded on the counter.
That’s weird.
She’s a bit of a neat freak, so finding something like a bra on the counter and no other laundry feels out of place.
“You there?” Pacey asks.
