Chapter Sixteen
Haley paced back and forth in the kitchen while she waited for the kettle to boil, her hands tightly gripping the hem of her sweater as she did so. Her stomach was tied in knots and she couldn’t remember a time when she had felt more nauseous.
“Hales, you need to calm down,” Nathan said using a quiet voice, both in an attempt to calm her down but also so the older couple currently sitting in his living room wouldn’t overhear despite the door being closed.
“Calm down? How can I calm down, Nathan? These are two people I never expected to see suddenly standing on your doorstep. I just don’t understand how--”
“My mother must’ve called them,” he interrupted before continuing, “I mean, how else would they know you would be here?”
Suddenly it all clicked into place for her and she stared back at her husband open-mouthed. “She called them.”
“She must have done. You hadn’t told them you’d moved out of your apartment, right?”
Nodding her head, Haley replied, “Right. I-I kept putting it off. I knew I had to tell them but I just… I just didn’t know how I was going to explain that not only had I moved in with a guy I didn’t know that well, but that I’d married him. And all without talking to them about it first. I figured I’d tell them everything when we went up there at the weekend.”
Walking over to her, Nathan wrapped his arms around and hugged her to him, his fingers idly stroking through her hair. “I’m so sorry I’ve gotten you into all of this and--”
Bringing a hand up to his face, she covered his lips with her fingers. “Don’t apologise, Nathan. I know certain aspects of this are a real mess but I’m not sorry I married you. These past couple of months or so have been…”
“I know,” he said, interrupting her once again, his lips curved up in a genuine smile. “I’m not sorry I married you either; I’m just sorry my Mom has started channelling my Dad. This is the sort of crap he would’ve done if things had turned out differently.”
Raising herself up onto her toes, Haley kissed his lips softly before drawing back and smiling up at him, a determined look etched upon her face. “Well, we’re not going to let her win. She probably thinks my parents will drag me back home and that they’ll force us to annul the marriage and that’ll be the end of it.”
“Would they do that?” Nathan enquired as his fingers slipped beneath her sweater and traced lazy circles on her lower back.
“No. I know they’re not going to be happy with us, me more than you to be fair, but they’ll respect whatever decisions I make. And anyway, I’m over eighteen so even if they wanted to force me to go back home, they couldn’t.”
Nathan watched her face carefully and he couldn’t help still feeling guilty for getting her involved in this whole situation. Her parents had a right to feel angry and hurt and he knew things weren’t going to be easy at all. Here he was, a grown man of almost thirty years old, marrying a girl who hadn’t yet turned twenty-one. If he was in their shoes, he had a feeling he’d be feeling the same way as them.
“Nathan?”
“Sorry. Are you absolutely sure you want to stay with me? I’d understand if you wanted out,” he told her. He held his breath as he waited for her response.
“Do you want me to back out?”
“What? No, no, I don’t. I just don’t want you to feel that you have to stay with me if it’s not what you really want to do.”
Biting her lip, she slowly brought her hands up to cup his face between her palms and she looked him straight in the eye. “I want to stay with you, Nathan. I-I thought we’d decided that this was a little more than just a business deal now but if…”
Her words were cut off by his lips urgently pressing against hers as he kissed her hard and deep, his tongue slipping into her mouth to tangle with hers. One of his hands spanned her back under her top while the fingers of the other one ran through her long, thick tresses.
Breaking the kiss several minutes later, Nathan rested his forehead against hers and he smiled warmly at her. “It is more than just a business deal,” he told her honestly. “I meant everything I said to you when we talked about this before, Hales.”
“Good, I meant everything I said to you, too.”
They kept smiling at each other before Haley broke the comfortable silence between them.
“What do you think Deb’s told them?”
“I have no idea except it probably isn’t good. She could have gone one of two ways in that she’s either put me down to them, telling them about my philandering ways all through school and college or she’s made you out to be a little gold-digger.”
She thought about what he’d said for a moment before speaking. “My guess is that she wants them on side to help her break us up so it's more likely she's opted for badmouthing you to them. She’s going to know that bitching to them about their own daughter isn’t going to get them on side so…”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. So, I’m going to have to be on my best behaviour, huh?”
Haley giggled. “When aren’t you, honey?”
The couple exchanged another kiss, this time being a little more leisurely now that they knew where they both stood with one another.
“C’mon, let’s finish making the coffee and get back out there before they think we’ve made our escape out the back door,” he said teasingly.
“You think we’d get away with it?” she teased back.
“Somehow, I think we’d be hunted down and unfortunately there aren’t too many places to hide in this town. Just one question though, your dad’s not a violent man, is he?”
Haley giggled. “Aww, honey, where would be the fun if I told you that now?”
Beneath the joking banter, they both felt anxious at the conversation they knew they would be having in just a few minutes time but they also knew that as long as they stuck together, there was a chance that things wouldn’t turn out as bad as they feared.
Once the tray containing the cups of coffee together with a plate of cookies was assembled, Nathan picked it up as Haley opened the kitchen door.
“You ready?” he asked and although she nodded her head in reply, he could clearly see how scared she was. Giving her one last kiss, he picked up the tray and followed her as she made her way into the living room, a silent vow running through his head. There was no way he was letting his mother get away with what she had done this time.
* * * * *
“How long does it take to make coffee?” Jimmy James complained to his wife as his eyes roamed around the living room, taking in the expensive décor.
Lydia sighed. “I’m sure they’ll be back in a few minutes.” Shifting on her seat, she faced her husband and warned, “Let’s just give Haley a chance to explain things to us in her own words. I’m sure there’s a very good reason wh--”
“A good reason why she got married without telling us first? We didn’t even know she was seeing anybody, Lyd, and I just don’t understand why she hasn’t talked to us about any of this. If it wasn’t for that phone call we got last night we’d still be in the dark, you know that.”
“I know but I also know our daughter and I’m sure she had her reasons.”
Jimmy slowly shook his head. “I thought I knew her but after this… I just don’t know what to think.” Pausing for a moment, he then added, “You don’t think she’s in some sort of trouble?”
Lydia’s eyes widened. “You mean pregnant?”
“Damn! I hadn’t even considered that. I meant some other form of trouble, like she was forced into marrying him or something.”
“Forced by who? This isn’t the dark ages and one thing I know for sure, Haley doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
“So it’s probably the pregnancy thing, then. At least this guy had the decency to marry her instead of taking off like so many guys seem to do these days.”
Suddenly hearing approaching footsteps, she whispered harshly, “Whatever it is, let her tell us herself, okay? Don’t go jumping the gun and accusing her or Nathan of doing something. We need her to know she can talk to us about anything that’s bothering her.”
This time it was Jimmy who sighed. “Fine, I won’t say a word for the moment but I don’t like this, I don’t like it at all.”
The older couple watched as their daughter entered the living room followed by their new son-in-law carrying a tray, both of them wearing what could only be described as uncertain looks on their faces.
“Uh, sorry about the wait,” Haley said. “We brought some cookies but I could make us something to eat if you--”
“Haley, why don’t you and Nathan take a seat so you can start telling us how it is that you’ve gotten married without telling your own family?”
While the older woman was trying to stay calm, inwardly she couldn’t believe that her youngest child, her baby, had been so secretive about all of this. Having her daughter living in Tree Hill was the first time they had been separated from her what with her having lived at home during the time she attended college.
Nodding her head, Haley finished handing out the cups to her parents before taking Nathan’s hand and squeezing it, and then leading him over to the opposite couch. Once they were both seated, she looked at her parents and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She tried a couple more times but still the words wouldn’t come. When her father finally broke the silence and spoke, her mouth dropped open with shock at his first question.
“Are you pregnant? Is that why you got married so fast and without a word to your own family?”
“Jimmy!” His wife exclaimed. “What did I tell you?”
“Daddy, no! I’m not pregnant.”
“Well, that’s something at least.”
“We didn’t get married because we had to. We got married because it was what we both wanted.”
“But why so fast?” Lydia asked before taking a sip of her coffee. “We didn’t even know you’d met anyone.”
“I… It felt right, Mom.” Turning her head, she smiled at Nathan and then faced her parents again. “I met Nathan when he came home to Tree Hill to visit his family and we just…clicked. We pretty much started dating straightaway and when he proposed… I don’t know, it just felt right.”
“You keep saying that but I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell us about it. Your own parents,” Jimmy stated. All he wanted was to make some sense of why his daughter felt the need to keep all of this from those closest to her.
“Because you would have tried to stop it from happening,” Haley told him. “I know up until a few months ago I was living at home, but it doesn’t mean I can’t make my own decisions.”
“I never said you couldn’t.”
“No, I know but you and Mom both thought I was making a mistake in moving here. You didn’t seem to understand how hard it was for me living at home with everyone knowing our business, knowing that I couldn’t afford to stay at school.”
“So, you’re saying you were embarrassed of us?”
Haley shook her head. “No,” she replied vehemently. “I could never be embarrassed of you or of our family. I just… I needed to get away, be someplace else. You know how bad things got with some of the people I considered friends and--”
“I know,” Jimmy said quietly. He would never understand how people he had considered good friends of his daughter’s could ridicule her just for the simple fact that he had been laid off work along with several of his colleagues. Seeing her putting a brave face on things had weighed heavily upon his heart and although he hadn’t wanted her to leave home, he knew that it was probably for the best, for a short while at least.
“Mr and Mrs James, I know you probably won’t believe me, but--”
“I wondered when you were going to pipe up,” the older man said after Nathan had started speaking.
“Daddy!” Haley exclaimed at the same time as her mother shouted, “Jimmy!”
Nathan nervously ran his hand through his hair. This was the one of the main reasons he never got too involved with anyone. Parents. Seriously, who needed the hassle.
“C’mon then, what were you saying?” Jimmy prompted before taking a long drink of his coffee.
“We were coming up to see you and Mrs James this weekend to talk to you about what we’d done.”
“Oh, okay. Well, I guess that makes everything all right,” he said sarcastically. “What I’d like to know is why you felt the need to rush into getting married in the first place? From what we’ve heard, you don’t exactly do relationships so we’re a little confused as to why you’ve suddenly changed your tune and gotten married.”
Picking up his own coffee cup, Nathan took a big sip of the now tepid liquid. God, what he wouldn’t give for a glass of scotch right now or even just a beer. Coffee wasn’t really doing it for him.
Jimmy impatiently waited for the other man to speak and as he did so, he couldn’t fail to notice how tense he was. However, as soon as his daughter placed her hand on his knee, giving it a squeeze, he saw him instantly relax and, in that moment, he realised just how comfortable they were with each other. Oh, he still wasn’t happy with the situation but for the first time since they had entered the house, he wasn’t feeling as uptight as he had initially.
“I’m guessing it was my mother who called you, am I right?”
Lydia nodded. “Yes. She felt we had a right to know that Haley had gotten married.”
“She’s right, you do have a right to know but Haley and I wanted to be the ones to tell you. That’s why we were coming up to see you at the weekend. Before you say anything, I know we should have told you before the wedding but we didn’t and I take full responsibility for that.”
“Nathan…”
“No, it’s okay, Haley,” he said turning to look at her before his gaze returned to the older couple sitting opposite them. “When my Mom called you, she wasn’t doing it out of the kindness of her heart. She knew we were planning on coming to tell you in person but after I had an argument with her last night when she…” Nathan trailed off, not wanting them to know how far his mother had gone in attacking their daughter.
“When she what?” Lydia prompted when he didn’t say anything.
“Nothing. It was a pretty bad argument and she must’ve called you out of spite more than anything.”
“You always fight with your mother?” Jimmy enquired, wondering just who Haley had gotten herself involved with.
“You want the truth? Yes, pretty much. I never had the best relationship with my parents and it’s mainly due to having witnessed their destructive behaviour towards each other that had me swearing off marriage from an early age.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “My mother was right when she said I didn’t do relationships but I’ll bet she didn’t tell you that she has a part to play in that.”
“What changed? I mean, regarding your change of heart towards marriage.”
Nathan couldn’t help smiling at his mother-in-law’s question. “I met your daughter.”
Lydia looked at Nathan and took in the way he had interlaced his fingers with Haley’s, his thumb stroking over the back of her hand while his face seemed to light up as he smiled at her child. Something within her relaxed at the way the young couple interacted with each other, although she was still hurt at not having been told beforehand of her daughter’s marriage plans.
“I know it probably sounds incredibly cheesy and a cliché to say this but from the moment I met your daughter at my Mom’s café, I knew she was the one.” Nathan felt bad for lying to his in-laws, although technically it wasn’t a total lie. After all, it was true that he knew very early on after having met Haley that first time that she was the one to help him with his plan. He had a feeling though that he might soon be meaning the words in the context that he was deliberately wanting the older couple to believe.
Haley blushed at his words and gently squeezed his hand. Despite her knowing the true reason behind what he was saying, she couldn’t help wanting them to be true on all levels. The more time they were spending together, the stronger her feelings for Nathan were becoming and she had a feeling it would only increase once they were living in Chicago.
Jimmy and Lydia watched the way their daughter and her new husband looked at each other and while they still had strong reservations, particularly given her age and what they had been told about Nathan, they knew Haley was a good judge of character.
“Nathan, what exactly did your mother do?” The older man asked.
Glancing over at Haley and receiving a small nod in response, he took a deep breath before speaking. “She hired a private investigator to follow Haley. Apparently, my mother thinks she has an ulterior motive for marrying me.”
Lydia’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “What ulterior motive could she have?”
“Money,” Haley replied simply. “Nathan is a very successful businessman plus he has money that he’s inherited and Deb thinks I married him to get my hands on it, particularly given my circumstances.”
“She knows why you moved away from home?”
“Yeah, she does, Mom. I told her a little about myself when I moved here but I never thought my words would be used against me.”
“Oh, honey.”
“You never doubted Haley’s reasons for marrying you?” Jimmy enquired.
“No, Sir, I didn’t. Maybe I would’ve done if she had been the one to propose to me,” he quipped which earned a small smile from the other man. “I may not have known your daughter very long, but I know for certain she didn’t marry me for my money and before you ask, yes, I knew about you being laid off from your job and her having to leave college.”
“So, you were feeling sorry for her, then?” Jimmy knew the answer to the question but he wanted to hear the younger man’s response nonetheless.
“Haley’s a proud young woman and there’s no way she would have agreed to marry me had that been the case, but, just for the record, it wasn’t.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” he replied.
“We’re still not happy about all of this, honey,” Haley’s mother said, her eyes looking at the couple sitting before her. “We missed out on your wedding and--”
“I know, Mom, and I’m sorry. While our wedding day was lovely, it wasn’t the same as having the two of you and the rest of the family there,” the auburn haired young woman said.
“We were thinking of, uh, having a blessing so that our families could all attend,” Nathan suddenly announced.
“What!?” Jimmy exclaimed as he turned to look at his wife. Her face registered her complete surprise at Nathan's sudden announcement and he had a feeling he was sporting the same look. Actually, the shock and surprise from Deb Scott's phone call last night were probably still etched on his own face since it had yet to wear off.
“Nathan, I…”
Looking at his wife, Nathan smiled at her. “I know we hadn’t agreed anything, Hales, but I think we should definitely do it,” he told her. He hadn’t planned on saying it but somehow it felt like the right thing to do and seeing the smiles on the others’ faces, he was pleased he had gone with his gut feeling. It wasn’t as though he and Haley weren’t actually married and if they timed it right, maybe things between them would have changed so that this time it would be a real wedding for them.
“Are you sure about this?” Haley asked as her eyes searched his face.
“I’m positive,” he replied warmly. “So, Mrs Scott, you feel up to marrying me again?”
Turning her head, she regarded her parents who were watching her and Nathan and she smiled at them before looking back at her husband. “I’d love to.”
* * * * *
“That was really nice of you offering to let them stay over,” Haley said later that evening as she and Nathan prepared one of the guestrooms for her parents.
“Well, I figured pushing them out of the door wasn’t the best way of staying on their good side,” he teased.
“Hmm, that makes sense.” Pausing in straightening the comforter on the bed, she nervously twisted her wedding ring around on her finger. “Were you serious about us having a blessing?”
“Yes.”
“But… We don’t have to do that an--”
“I know we don’t, Hales, but I want to.”
“Why?”
Instead of answering her verbally, he walked over to her and kissed her lips softly, his hands settling on her hips as he pulled her in closer to his body. Haley responded eagerly; her arms twining around his neck while she pushed herself up onto her toes for better access to his mouth.
“Did that answer your question?” Nathan asked, his fingers lightly trailing over her cheek.
“I…uh… I still don’t understand. What exactly are you saying, Nathan?”
He nervously ran a hand through his hair as he took a few steps back and went and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I-I’m not sure, to be honest. It’s just…this thing between us and… The way I feel about you… I don’t want it to ever end. There, I’ve said it.”
Haley stared at him incredulously, her heart thumping a mile-a-minute.
“Who knows, maybe when we’re living together full-time in Chicago, I’ll feel differently…we’ll both feel differently about all of this but, personally, I don’t think that’s going to happen. At least not for me.”
“For me either,” she whispered.
“Really?”
She giggled at the almost shy tone to his voice and closing the distance between them, she sat down on his lap, his arms automatically coming around to hold her. “Really.” Lowering her head, she kissed his mouth, retreating before it could become too heated. “I’ve got a suggestion to make.”
“Okay, let’s hear it.”
“How about we hold off on the whole marriage blessing thing for a little while. Let’s carry on getting to know each other like we originally planned. If, say, by Christmas we still feel this way about each other, we can start planning things and maybe set a date in the Spring. What do you think?”
Nathan’s face practically lit up. What she had come up with was perfect. If things worked out the way she had outlined, by the time they had the marriage blessed almost a year would have passed so it wouldn’t be as if they were rushing into anything.
“I take it by that smile you’re happy with my suggestion?”
“Definitely,” he told her, pulling her down for another kiss as he fell backwards onto the bed so he was lying down with her on top of him. “You think your parents will be okay with waiting a while or…”
“Or will they want to start planning it all immediately?” she joked before saying, “I think they’ll be fine with waiting.”
“Good,” he whispered against her lips before seizing them once more. When the need for air became too strong to ignore, he broke the kiss and once his breathing had returned to normal, he said, “You do realise we face a bit of a problem with them being here at this point in time.”
Haley shook her head with confusion. “How do you mean?”
“Well, we’re a married couple yet we’re not sharing a bedroom. All of your stuff is in another room and I’m sure they’ll notice and wonder what that’s all about.”
“You’re right.” Thinking fast, she suggested, “Okay, why don’t you finish getting this room ready for them and, in the meantime, I’ll bring as much of my stuff into your room as I can. Anything that I leave in there we can say is just being stored while we sort things out for the move to Chicago.”
“Good thinking. We’d better move fast since they’ll be returning from their walk soon.”
“Okay,” she said, smiling as she planted one last kiss on his lips before moving off of him.
Going their separate ways, Nathan made sure everything in the guestroom was okay while Haley made several trips between her room and Nathan’s, carrying armfuls of clothing together with as many of her other personal effects as she could.
Entering his bedroom again, he helped Haley hang her clothes up and put her things alongside his on the dresser and on the unused nightstand.
“I’m so sorry about this,” she said apologising again.
“Nope, not listening,” he teased before continuing, “You’ve got nothing to apologise for so I don’t want to hear you say it. My mother on the other hand…”
Haley couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity of the situation and she was relieved when he joined in with her. “At least my parents are only staying overnight and…I know this sounds weird, but in a way I think your mom has done us a favour. I mean, we’d be spending the rest of this week worrying about what their reaction to our news would be so at least this way they’ve made us face up to it all sooner.”
He smirked. “Yep, you’re definitely a weird one. I guess you’ve got a point but it still doesn’t excuse what she did.”
“I know,” she said, leaning up and kissing his cheek. When he started laughing as they began to make their way downstairs, she regarded him curiously. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m just thinking about my Mom. She’s probably rubbing her hands with glee thinking about what the confrontation between us and your parents might be like.”
“I’ll bet. Actually, she probably thinks I’m halfway home with them right at this moment.”
Suddenly, a thought popped into Nathan’s head and his smile grew wider. “I’ve got an idea; how about we take your parents to the café for breakfast in the morning? It’s only fair they get to meet her, don’t you think?”
“You’re terrible, you know that.”
“Yep,” he said, smirking. “So how about it? You up for a little fun tomorrow?”
“Oh, definitely,” Haley responded, joining in with his laughter.