Independence: #4 Hayley by Karen Nichols Page B

all the wrong places and I’d freak when I needed something and couldn’t immediately put my hands on it.”
    If he was still considering his decision to try, a bit of it slipped past consider when he looked down into a pair of doe-soft eyes.
    “I won’t…and if I don’t know, I’ll ask, okay?”
    Jack hadn’t moved or spoken when she went to her toes and kissed his cheek before returning to the truck for more bags.
    “I think she has you pegged,” Dane commented with a crinkle of plastic as his bags joined the others. It had been a few weeks since they actually did more than just ‘pick up a few things’ and the cabinets were fairly bare. No excuse, he thought, just other things to do than shop. “Maybe we should take our own advice and hire a part time housekeeper. We can make a list and they could shop for us when we’re too busy. Three people living and working together, need all the help they can get, especially if they’re as involved as we are.”
    “This is the last of it,” Hayley said, the door closing behind her. She shivered as the warmth caught up with her body. “Winter…” she stood near the counter, the bags in her hands and gazing around. “You don’t have a tree.”
    “Uhh…” Dane raised a brow, looking expectantly at Jack for ideas.
    “We’ve never had one,” Jack answered slowly. “This is the biggest place we’ve ever lived in…we had an apartment back east…but didn’t really spend much time there.”
    “We’d go off to relatives or hide out during the season,” Dane added, wincing when he realized she was staring at them both with confusion and a little sadness. “We’re okay with it, Hayley.”
    “Oh…then that’s a good thing,” she said quietly, setting the bags down and gazing to the hall. “What should I wear tonight?”
    Dane and Jack exchanged looks. “Pick something, Hayley. I’m pretty sure anything out of the collection will do very nicely.”
    “I have to go home for a while,” she said with a little nod, wandering to the back and looking at the packages they’d left on the bed for her. She lifted one and walked with it to the front, her keys dangling as she moved. “Promptly at six,” she said with a quick glance at each of them. When they nodded, she smiled. “Tonight. Thank you.”
    Dane and Jack stared but said nothing until the sound of the truck leaving.
    “The kitchen thing didn’t scare her off,” Dane finally said, emptying bags and leaving the items on the counter.
    “I think it was the comment about the tree,” Jack responded, quickly locating spots and storing what they’d bought. “Our girl has a Christmas Fetish.”
    “Huh…” Dane considered this and finished with what he could do in the kitchen before glancing toward the large, mostly empty living area. “So how come we never thought about it before?”
    “Don’t care?” Jack answered. “Guess we’ll have to find out later.”

Chapter Eight
    Hayley had stood before the mirror in her bedroom for ten minutes before stripping and thumbing through things in her closet. She folded the shimmering red dress and put it into her pack. But she sure as hell couldn’t drive in the thing.
    She found a couple tank tops and layered them before shimmying into the old, one size too small skirt. She’d grown a few inches since the skirt had seen the outside world. But she figured it would work fine in the club. It stopped just barely past legal and she was tugging it over her underwear as she walked to the car.
    And it was a festive red and green plaid with gold stripes. Perfect for the season. She cast one last look at her little tree before taking her pack and leaving the house.
    She’d bound her hair into a high riding ponytail and it bobbed in the darkness as she went to the entrance of the club. A bright smile was beamed and she told them who she was there for. The man wrote her name on a clipboard and wrapped a paper band on her wrist, then he wrote the time on it and