Hannah Bernard - The Dating Resolution

“Throw her outside?” That seemed a bit cruel. “Where will she sleep?”

Jordan chuckled as he jumped over the fence. “Anywhere,” he called back. “She’s a cat. Cats know better than anyone that there’s a sucker born every minute.”

Hailey shut the door and leaned against it, eyes closed. No, no, no, no.

Why did a guy like that have to live next door? Why did she have to feel drawn to the first man she met up here? Was it her addiction, already pushing her toward the first available man?

Well, she would damn well fight it. She could, and she would.

She’d completely forgotten about Ellen when there was a sound from the phone, still clenched in her hand. She brought it to her ear. “Hi. Sorry to leave you hanging.”

“I didn’t mind. I heard the entire thing. Who was that?”

Hailey gritted her teeth to keep her voice steady. Nonchalant but not too nonchalant, or Ellen would catch on. Ellen was far too good at reading voices, faces—thoughts, even. “Nobody. Just a neighbor. Someone Jane sent over to give me the key.”

Ellen’s voice turned smug. “For a nobody, he sounds pretty sexy.”

Right. Utter failure. What had she expected? “Nope. Not sexy at all. He’s sixty-nine, bald, toothless and absolutely not my type.”

“You’re lying. He sounds hunky. All that low timbre…Mmm. Oh, yes, I like him.”

“It’s just a voice! We all have one!”

“I bet he could give you goose bumps if he were to whisper something sweet into your ear. Like, say, on a dance floor? Holding you close, your head resting on his shoulder breathing in his masculine scent as you softly sway together to a romantic ballad, your bodies in perfect synchrony…”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Ellen! Shut up! Go write a poem!”

“In a minute. I just need a few vital statistics, then I’ll stop, promise. What’s his name?”

It was easier to give in and get it over with. “His name is Jordan Halifax. He’s a vet. Probably around thirty-five or something. He has a kid in my class. That enough info for you?”

“A kid? But he’s single?”

“Yes.”

“Most excellent. What does he look like?”

“Gray eyes, thick, wavy brown hair, sort of scruffy look but he makes it work. Tall, wears jeans and sweaters in that way that could make women in their weaker moments want to rip them off. Happy?”

“Wow! You’ve really looked at him, haven’t you? You only met him a couple of hours ago!”

“I know,” Hailey confessed, feeling miserable. “He’s just that kind of a guy. You should come visit and check him out for yourself. He’s not for me. I already told him I’m married, okay? I made it perfectly clear I’m off limits.”

Ellen sighed so loudly that Hailey almost expected a gust of wind to blow through the phone. “I knew it. Didn’t I tell you so? A potential Mr. Right shows up your first day in Alaska, and you kick him out.”

“Goodbye, Ellen!”

That evening, Hailey discovered she was indeed a sucker for cats. She opened a can of tuna for the little creature, then allowed her to crawl into her lap and spend the evening there, purring. She could hardly bear to disturb the kitten when it was time to go to bed, but Helena curled up on a sofa cushion and seemed to be happy. Just in case, Hailey made a nest out of a fleece blanket and deposited her there.

She walked upstairs to the bedroom and crawled into bed, but it was hard to get to sleep when dusk never showed up. Close to midnight Hailey found herself wide awake, staring out the window at the eerie light. Not night, not day.

It was almost magic.

Combined with the day’s events, it was also a surefire recipe for insomnia.

AFTER six weeks, Hailey had gotten used to the climate growing slowly colder, and she’d fallen in love with her class of eight-year-olds.

But she had to admit she was getting a bit lonely.

She missed her friends—and because of her fictional husband she was nervous about making new friends. Her lie was so flimsy that anyone who got close to her would see through it immediately. She’d already frowned in confusion several times on being referred to as “Mrs.”—and had to explain it away as being relatively newly married.

Yeah, right. And her brand new husband on the other side of the world. As if she’d ever let a hypothetical husband get away with that. Ha!

Some things were easier up here, despite temptation living next door. She’d given it a lot of thought, and had to confess to herself that annoyance with her friends’ interference wasn’t the only thing that had caused her to flee. She’d been too close to giving up—too close to finding it pointless to keep to her resolution. Maybe it was pointless—but even so, it was worth a try.

She was happy with her decision. This was good for her. There was freedom in being unavailable, freedom in spending Saturday evening curled up with a book and a purring cat. Not that she’d said her final goodbye to parties and clubs for ever and ever—but this was also life. Singledom wasn’t going anywhere. It would be waiting for her in January. She’d probably be a bit rusty, but she was sure she’d have a new outlook on life and love, a healthy outlook.

The small school turned out to be a fun workplace. Most of her colleagues were quite a bit older than she was, but there was good morale. Her class was small and the kids were great—once they were over the disappointment of Jane being away for the semester. Even Simon came around, the suspicious look slowly vanishing off his face, and she suspected she had little Helena to thank for that. The two of them spent a lot of time playing in her backyard during Simon’s weekends with his dad and some of Helena’s charm seemed to rub off on Hailey, especially when she started offering Simon milk and cookies to go along with Helena’s milk and tuna.

“Sure you don’t mind him coming over?” Jordan asked, leaning on the fence between their yards. His boy was halfway up a tree—the cat was even higher.

“No,” she told him for the umpteenth time. She enjoyed their neighborly chats over the fence. Somehow, it felt safe with the fence between them and his child playing close by. “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine. Helena has an endless source of energy and I don’t. If she runs around with Simon a bit, maybe she’ll let me sleep tonight.” Hailey grimaced. “She likes to hunt my toes at four in the morning.”

Helena had taken up double residence of her house and Jordan’s. She seemed to like the freedom of two homes to go to, which sometimes resulted in a double dinner. She always spent the nights at Hailey’s house—Hailey suspected Jordan didn’t let her sleep in his bed.

Simon came running, once again complaining Helena had climbed a tree too far for him to reach her.

“She’ll come down,” Hailey told him. “Doesn’t she always? She’s just teasing you. She’ll be down as soon as you turn your back and pretend you’re not even looking for her.”

Simon’s dark hair and silver eyes were a lot like his father’s—but he got his delicate facial features from his mother. Hailey had met her on Open Night and immediately noticed the resemblance.

“Mrs. Rutherford, why don’t you wear a wedding ring?” Simon asked, squinting up at her against the sun. “Aren’t you supposed to, you know, so everybody knows you can’t be their girlfriend?”

That probably was one purpose of wedding rings. And a good idea it was. Hailey stared at her ringless hand, searching for an answer. “Well…”

“Mick says his Mom says maybe you don’t like your husband anymore.”

“Simon! You know better than that. Apologize to your teacher.”

“No, it’s okay—it’s a natural question, I suppose.” Dammit. She’d never gotten around to getting a ring—and then she’d forgotten. She hadn’t imagined the eight-year-olds would gossip about it. She flexed her fingers and smiled at Simon. “My hands have swelled since I’ve been up here,” she lied. “My ring doesn’t fit anymore. It’s probably the climate changes.”