Finding Hayes (Magnolia Falls #5)

by Laura Pavlov

To anyone who has ever felt judged, misunderstood, alone or not seen. This one is for you. I see you.

Savannah Abbott had the best laugh. Always had. She was the one person who could bring it out of me because she was funny as hell. At least, she used to be. She also used to be a scrawny little thing, with her hair tied back in a ponytail. But today, long caramel-brown waves ran down her back, and she didn’t look like the sixteen-year-old teenager who’d left town in a hurry. Who’d left me.

She was gorgeous and sexy and all grown up.

Damn. I’d missed her laugh. “You look good, Shortcake.” I was surprised at how easily her nickname rolled off my tongue. Like no time had passed at all.

He was even sexier than I’d remembered.

I was a strange mix of irrationally positive and upbeat and happy, yet there was also this dark cloud that hung over me,

Hayes barked out a laugh. I’d always loved the sound of his laugh. This gruff, foreign sound from a guy who didn’t let himself go there often.

“That one was a winner. What was it called?” he asked. “‘Finding Hayes.’

“Fine. I saw you naked, long before you looked like…” he paused, looking away as if he couldn’t stand the sight of me. “Looked like what, Woody?” I snarled, mad that I’d let the nickname I used to call him slip out. “Like… this.” He waved his hand in front of me. “All womanly and shit.”

his tongue dipping out and sliding along his bottom lip. Was he intentionally messing with me? Or was he literally just that sexy and didn’t even realize what he was doing?

Some people were glass-half-full people. Others were glass half empty. Savannah Abbott’s glass had always been overflowing.

“You’ve got my number if you need anything. Just text me. Unless you deleted me, seeing as you haven’t used it in a long time.” “I’m fairly certain you’re still blocked.” She smirked. “But if someone tries to murder me during the night, I’ll unblock you if I’m desperate.” She fucking blocked me? “Good to know that you’re willing to unblock me if you’re being murdered.”

“People come into your life for a reason, and my world was always a better place with Lily and Abe in it.

They say friendship breakups can be as tough as romantic breakups. I’m here to say, the ending of my friendship with Hayes Woodson was the greatest loss of my life—as far as a person who was still living.

There was a peace that came over me, knowing that Savannah was here. Home. My world had always been better with her in it.

I had to bite back a laugh when I turned around to see him standing there in his gray joggers, but he was no longer wearing his hoodie. He had a bare chest, which he didn’t have five minutes ago, so clearly, he’d heard a woman’s voice and decided to take off his sweatshirt. It was a very Beefcake move to do that.

But now that she was back in town, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her. Maybe it was just our history or the shitty way things had ended. Maybe it was the fact that I’d missed my best friend. I’d definitely missed her.

Before I knew what was happening, he moved forward, throwing me over his shoulder, fireman-style, as he marched toward his truck. I pounded my fists against his lower back.

“I have unblocked my number from your phone. Do not block me while you’re here. You roll into a ditch, you call me, and I’ll come. Do you understand?”

“I don’t hate you. And for what it’s worth, if I were going to fake marry anyone, I would choose you.”

My father had left me and my sister when we were young. My mother had failed us time and time again, as well. My fiancée had faked a pregnancy and fucked my coworker. And none of those losses compared to the loss of Savannah Abbott in my life.

“So, are you in? Do you want me to be your ball and chain for the next few months? I promise to be the best girlfriend and then fiancée and then wife before I leave you high and dry and file for divorce.” She extended her hand in offering to seal the deal. “Sounds like a match made in heaven.” I oozed sarcasm and wrapped my large hand around hers. It was probably the worst idea I’d ever agreed to. But for whatever reason, I couldn’t say no. “I’m in.”

My hand moved to Savannah’s waist, and I tugged her closer, pulling the whole barstool with her. Her hand rested on top of mine, and I relaxed. She wasn’t going to bail on me. At least not tonight. “Hey, Savvy, you’re looking fire tonight.”

“You like taking care of me, Hayes?” Her voice was all tease, but my dick jumped to attention at the tone of her voice. At the heat in her honey-brown eyes. I slipped the mittens over each hand and nodded. “Always, Shortcake.”

She laughed, her eyes were closed now, and she whispered four little words that I hadn’t expected to hear from her. “I missed you, Hayes.” I miss you, too, Shortcake.

Tequila. Puking. Hayes. “Oh, God,” I groaned. “You beckoned, Shortcake?” Hayes’s voice called out from somewhere outside the room before he appeared in the doorway.

My woman. Fake or real—it didn’t really matter at the moment. She was here with me, and she felt like mine. Maybe she’d always felt like mine.

“What are you doing?” I cleared my throat and glanced out the window. “No one is here. No one is watching. You don’t need to put on a show.” His moss-green eyes locked with mine. “I’d like to kiss my wife before I agree to spend my life with her.”

“I’m going to kiss my wife now.” It wasn’t a question, but he was giving me a moment to pull back if I didn’t want it. But I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to. His mouth covered mine. Powerful and determined.

“It was a kiss. A one and done. I know that’s your specialty. Now, let’s go seal the deal, Lover.” “Such a bossy little wife,”

“The past is the past. The happiest marriages are the ones that focus on the present.”

but she still wouldn’t look at me. And I was about done being ignored by my wife. Fake or not—it was bullshit.

Hayes Woodson had always felt like my home.

I would walk through fucking fire for you.

“There’s not a lot to process, Sav. You left. I missed you. I wrote you a few letters.” “There are more letters?” I cleared my throat, deciding how real I wanted to be. But we’d gone so long without seeing one another, so I decided to lay it on the line. “There are fifty-two letters.” “Hayes.” “Savannah,” I said, mimicking her serious tone. “Don’t mess with me.” “I’m not messing with you. I wrote you once a week for a year. I guess I kept hoping that at some point you wouldn’t return one, and you’d actually read it,” I admitted.

“But you, Shortcake, you were always different. You were a part of me in a way that I can’t even explain. I would do anything for you, but I also trusted that you would do anything for me. It went both ways. I leaned on you, I told you everything, shared my hopes and my fears, which I don’t usually do. So losing you—it hardened me in a lot of ways.”

“This is the thing about you and me, Sav. We may have spent those years apart, but we never lost this connection. It’s too strong. That’s why when the fake marriage idea came up, I didn’t hesitate. Because it’s you. I have no fucking desire to ever be married. I don’t want that life. I don’t want to care about anyone that way. I’m not looking for a fairy tale. But if there’s something that I could ever do for you—I wouldn’t think twice. P and C, right?”

But we always knew they were there. A constant reminder of what we had in one another.

His tongue swiped out and moved along his bottom lip, as his eyes slowly raked over me from my head down to my toes. I squeezed my thighs together in response. Why does my fake husband have to be so sexy?

Hayes Woodson was the whole package—he was the only one who didn’t know it.

“You know, that’s why people get so mad at a miscommunication trope.” Saylor tipped her head back as she drank the last bit of her mimosa. “What the hell is a miscommunication trope?” Ruby grumped. “I swear you make this shit up.” Saylor owned a romance bookstore, and it had become one of my favorite places to visit since I’d returned home. “Um… that’s a hard no. It’s real. Both in fiction and, apparently, in real life. People can really fuck things up if they want to,” Peyton said.

“Get the fuck away from my wife,” I growled, as I moved across the room and stood beside her.

“Well, for starters, never insult my husband again in my presence, or I’ll be happy to show you my master karate skills.” She held up a finger when he chuckled and started to interrupt. And then she moved closer to him, and I followed like a fucking shadow. “And the Abbott joke—it’s run its course, don’t you think? It’s juvenile and stupid. And for the record, my last name is Woodson. So find some new material, asshole.”

Damn. I wanted to kiss her so fucking bad I couldn’t see straight. What was this woman doing to me? This. Is. Not. Real. You’ve just missed her. She’s your best friend. Off-limits.

You’re the best person I know. You’re my wife, and you fucking deserve everything good.”

“Let’s get your things moved out of the guest room. Tonight, you’re sleeping in my bed. Our bed. Don’t even try to argue with me, because we’re doing this.” And he wouldn’t get one argument from me. My husband was calling the shots now.

“Because if anyone ever came into your room, they’d have to go through me to get to you,”

“I see a man who would do anything to protect his sister because he loves her so fiercely. A man who would walk through fire for his friends. A man who takes his responsibility as a godfather to Cutler very seriously, hence the endless supply of chocolate milk in the refrigerator. A man who was willing to marry a woman he hadn’t seen in over a decade because she needed him. Even after she left him and was quick to believe the worst in him. A man with a huge heart that he hides behind all these sexy muscles,” she said, with a little chuckle.

“It would complicate things because I don’t know that a kiss will be enough,” I admitted. I wanted her. More than I’d ever wanted anyone or anything. “I’m not a sandcastle, Hayes. You’re not going to break me. I want you.” I want you. That was all that I needed to hear.

“How about you let me make you feel good.” I wrapped my hand around her wrist to stop the movement. “I want that, but I need something first.” “Tell me,” she said, her voice raspy and sated. “I need to taste my wife right fucking now. I need to bury my face between your thighs and feel you come on my lips. I’ve thought about it so many times, Sav.” “How about we do it together? You taste me and I taste you. You aren’t the only one who’s thought about it.”