“Not at all,” she said. “I always make way too much food anyway.”
“Well, thank you for having me then.”
Mrs. Roberts opened the door wide enough for me to step inside and as I passed Hailey, I gave her a smile, but she wasn't having it. She simply rolled her eyes and sighed loud enough to be heard.
She was definitely going to be a tough nut to crack.
CHAPTER ELEVEN - HAILEY
Not having time to change – and frankly, not having the inclination to – I sat at the table in my comfy clothes, not really caring what he, or my family, thought about it. Still, even though my parents were wearing casual clothes as well, I felt incredibly underdressed with Cason sitting there in a nice suit.
In front of us at the table was my mother's pot roast, potatoes, and cornbread. All homemade and honestly, one of my favorite family meals. But my stomach wasn't having any of it tonight and I picked at my food as my parents made small talk with Cason.
He kept trying to engage me in conversation, by asking questions that I really didn't want to answer just yet. I just wanted the meal to end so I could go hermit away in my room.
“So Hailey,” he asked, turning his light brown eyes to me. “What do you miss most about California?”
Choking down a bite of cornbread, I gave the most obvious answer I could think of, “The weather.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked, cocking his head to the side with a curious grin on his face. “The weather here isn't all that bad. What's so great about the weather out there?”
He had a point. It's not like it got terribly cold in South Carolina, not compared to other parts of the country. But it was still an easy question to answer – one that didn't require a lot of mental taxation – so I went with it.
“The lack of humidity, for one thing,” I said. “I didn't have to worry about sweating all the time. Especially not in October, like we do here.”
“True,” he laughed. “But aside from the weather, what drew you out there in the first place?”
I took another bite of my cornbread and chewed slowly, giving myself a little time to think about my answer. I didn't want to open any doors I wasn't willing to walk through, but I knew if I didn't give him something, I'd be stuck there all night. And I was getting tired of the cat and mouse game we were playing.
“I wanted to act,” I said.
My mom butted in. “She was in a couple commercials,” she said, beaming with pride. “And weren't you an extra on some TV show, dear?”
“Yes,” I said. “A non-speaking role. I was literally in the background for all of about ten seconds.”
Cason looked impressed nonetheless. He leaned forward, not even touching his food. He seemed far more interested in me than in what was on his plate. It made me uncomfortable and yet thrilled me at the same time.
“Wow, that's great,” he said. “Why didn't you stick with it? It sounds like things were starting to pick up for you.”
I froze and looked over at my mom, hoping she might save me from that question. Even she didn't know the full story, but she knew it was something I didn't want to talk about. Knowing my mom, the way I did – and her knowing me – she knew that whatever it was, had to be bad. She wasn't forcing me to speak about it, trusting me to come to her when I got my head wrapped around it all.
However, she just sat there looking at me, looking like she had no idea what to say to derail that line of questioning. It was my dad, who jumped in and saved the day.
“It was time for her to come home,” he said sternly.
“Yes, it was,” I said.
“Ahh, well, I'm certainly glad you did,” he said. “It's been so long since we hung out, I –”
“We never hung out, Cason,” I laughed, pushing my roast around my plate with my fork. “You were my lab partner. We studied after school a few times, but we never hung out like we were friends or something. It was always about our lab work.”
That shut him right up. I watched his jaw clench and his smile was gone. He just sat there and stared at me, an inscrutable expression on his face. I felt bad for being so blunt with him since I could tell my words had hurt him.
He looked like I'd slapped him across the face, but it was the truth – whether he cared to admit it or not. Suddenly, and completely out of the blue, the McCormick brothers were interested in me, and all three of them were lavishing me with attention. While it was flattering at first, it quickly became overwhelming and I was incredibly nervous about their intentions.
I was so nervous that my stomach roiled, and a wave of nausea hit me hard.
“Excuse me,” I said quickly.