My One and Only(93)

“You don’t have to do that,” she said, taking him by surprise.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I do.”

Meredith Mitchner pulled in beside the tow truck, cutting off the conversation when she rolled down the passenger side window and said, “Are you two all right?”

“We’re fine, Mother.” Haleigh stepped away from Cooper to open the passenger door. As Marcus climbed into the back, she said, “I’ll call you later.”

Just like that, she was gone.

Watching their taillights disappear into the night, one thing was abundantly clear. Meredith Mitchner had no idea that her daughter was in a relationship with Cooper Ridgeway. And Haleigh seemed determined to keep her in the dark. His heart demanded an explanation, but his brain knew the answer. He wasn’t good enough for the woman’s daughter. If Haleigh didn’t agree with her mother, wasn’t ashamed to be dating a lowly mechanic, then why go through so much trouble to keep him a secret?

Nothing opened a man’s eyes faster than being proven a fool. No matter what Haleigh claimed, her actions told Cooper everything he needed to know. There would be no happy ending for them. She’d told him once that her motivation had always been to reach for the brass ring in order to please her mother. There wasn’t anything about Cooper that would impress her mother, and there never would be.

Shaking his head, he ignored the pain ripping through his chest as he said, “I should have known it was too good to be true.”



As soon as Haleigh’s mother had dropped her at her car parked off the town square, she’d raced to work, arriving nearly three hours late, which meant working until nine in the morning instead of six. She’d tried to call Cooper several times before midnight with no answer. Her texts after that weren’t returned either.

This was not good. Haleigh had royally screwed up, but was certain that if he’d simply let her explain, Cooper would understand the situation and see that things had gotten out of her control. If she’d even hinted to Marcus that she was seeing Cooper, he’d have told her mother. And if her mother found out, the small bit of progress they’d made in the last week would all be for nothing. The judgment and disapproval would reach new heights, and who knew what horrible things she’d say to Cooper?

Better to protect them both for a while longer. Once the shelter project was in full swing, her mother was completely immersed, and they’d securely reached new ground in their relationship, Haleigh could ease into the revelation. Until then, they needed to be patient. There was no reason they couldn’t continue as they were. They were happy in private, and that’s really all that mattered right now.

With the mission of convincing Cooper of the same, she scanned the crowd at the car rally looking for him. The packed Ruby parking lot made finding anyone difficult. She’d spotted Lorelei and tried to squeeze through a group of people to reach her, but by the time Haleigh stepped into open air, the blonde had disappeared. Passing a row of food trucks near the back wall of the theater, she ran into the last person she expected to see at the event.

“Mother? What are you doing here?”

“This is a community event, Haleigh Rae,” Meredith responded. “Last time I checked, I’m still part of this community.”

“Of course,” Haleigh said. “But you never mentioned that you were coming to this.”

“Neither did you,” her mother pointed out. “After working all night, I’d expect you to be home sleeping right now.”

Over her mother’s right shoulder, Haleigh spotted Cooper standing next to the old pickup he’d showed her. “I have something I need to do,” she said in way of explanation. “If you’ll excuse me.”

Grabbing her arm, her mother said, “What did you do to Marcus?”

Frustrated by the delay and the subject, Haleigh said, “I didn’t do anything to Marcus except be honest with him. He should never have come here.”

“Heaven forbid a man care enough about you to fly more than halfway across the country to see you.”

“Mother, you don’t know Marcus. He doesn’t care about anyone as much as he cares about himself.”

Looking stricken, Meredith put a hand to her chest. “I don’t know how you can say that about such a sweet man.”

“Marcus puts on a good act, but trust me, he isn’t sweet.” She couldn’t tell her mother about Cooper, but Haleigh was determined to make her see the real Marcus. “He’s selfish and shallow and if we’d have married he would have insisted I stop giving you money. Does that sound sweet to you?”