The Marriage Mishap. Judith Stacy

up straighter. “Maybe none of this would have happened if you’d been with me.”

      He shifted and looked contrite. “I had to leave. Elizabeth was getting all goo-goo-eyed, talking about bridesmaids and gowns, jockeying to catch the bouquet. I had to get her out of there.”

      “You coward. Elizabeth is a wonderful girl. You should marry her.”

      Jay held up his palms. “We’re not discussing me. We’re discussing you and your fiasco.”

      “My latest fiasco, don’t you mean?”

      Jay just stared at her. Aside from Aunt Harriet, only Jay knew the reasons behind the Farnsworth incident. Though her mother had taken her from Sacramento when she was only thirteen, Haley and Jay had corresponded regularly. He was three years older than she, and they’d been fast friends growing up together. Jay was as close as a brother would have been, had her mother tolerated her father long enough to produce other siblings.

      Jay sank into the chair again. “I didn’t think you even knew the Harringtons.”

      She shrugged. “I don’t know them. I just…woke up with one.”

      Stunned, Jay’s eyes bulged. “You mean, you two got married—” he snapped his fingers “—just like that?”

      She nodded. “I don’t even remember the ceremony. Neither does he.”

      “But…how?”

      She sighed resolutely. “Something to do with the punch, I think.”

      He chuckled lightly, then laughed, and laughed harder, until he grabbed his belly and threw back his head. “This is too much, Haley, too much!”

      She sat forward on the settee. “What’s so funny?”

      He wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. “When old Martin Harrington finds out what his son has done, he’ll hit the roof. I tell you, it’s almost worth it to have you married to that family.”

      Haley flung out her hands. “What’s wrong with the Harringtons, anyway?”

      Jay sniffed and got himself under control. “Nothing. Unless you’re trying to compete with their construction company for work in this town.”

      She gasped. “The Harringtons own a construction company? But you and I—”

      “Exactly. You don’t remember, since you were so young, but our fathers had a devil of a time holding their business together in the face of the Harringtons’ stiff competition—every construction firm in the area had a tough go of it. The Harringtons finally rolled over most everybody. Only a few firms, like ours, remain.”

      “So what you’re saying is…” Haley shuddered. She didn’t even want to consider the possibility.

      Jay nodded. “In a way, the Harrington Construction Company was responsible for your father’s…demise.”

      “His drinking, you mean.”

      “Well, yes.”

      And that had led to business problems that compounded the marital problems, and eventually landed Haley at her grandparents’ home in San Francisco, with her mother estranged from her father.

      Jay shrugged. “Maybe, if things had been different, your parents—”

      “It wouldn’t have mattered.” Haley rose from the chair. “She’d married beneath herself. I heard it a thousand times.”

      “He worked like a dog to make himself worthy of her.”

      Haley walked to the mantel, sadness sagging her shoulders. Her father had died young, leaving his brother—then Jay—to run the business. “It was never enough, was it?”

      “No,” Jay admitted. “He never stood a chance.”

      She turned and faced him again, drawing in a fresh breath. “So, you and I are left as the sole owners of the Sacramento Building Company.”

      Jay rose slowly from the chair. “We are. For now. I guess you got my letter.”

      “I did. And that’s what brought me here to Sacramento in the first place.” Haley shook her head sadly. “Jay, you can’t mean it. You can’t close the Sacramento Building Company.”

      “I’ve been beating a dead horse for years now. It’s no use, Haley, I simply can’t go on. Harrington Construction has work locked up in this town. I haven’t sent you any profits from the business for some time now, but I suppose the amount was hardly noticeable, compared to the money your doting grandfather Hasting heaps on you.”

      Haley smiled. “You’ve done a wonderful job with the company. Your father would have been proud.”

      “I do the best I can. Outbidding Harrington for jobs in this city is tough. We’re small potatoes compared to them. Come down to the office, sometime, I’ll show you around…while there is an office, that is.”

      Haley threaded her fingers together. “No, Jay, I’m not going to let this happen. I’m a partner in the business, and I have a say in what happens to it. Closing Sacramento Building is the last thing our fathers would have wanted. We’ll find a way to keep it going.”

      “Well, not tonight, I’m afraid. I’ve got to run.” Jay clasped her elbow and kissed her cheek as the mahogany mantel clock chimed the hour. He rolled his eyes. “Dinner at Elizabeth’s parents tonight—this is getting out of hand.”

      “But—”

      He was gone, and she was left standing alone in Aunt Harriet’s parlor, still contemplating the mission that had brought her to Sacramento.

      But before she could do it, she’d have to find a way to get rid of Adam Harrington.

       Chapter Three

      He’d actually shown up. Haley was surprised, and a little annoyed.

      She paused at the bottom of the staircase. From the parlor, she heard his deep voice, then Aunt Harriet’s high-pitched laughter; her aunt, it seemed, was quite taken with her new husband.

      She crossed the foyer and entered the parlor. Adam was on the settee, his long legs crossed behind the marble-topped coffee table. Aunt Harriet sat in the damask wing-backed chair across from him, hanging on his every word.

      He seemed too big for the room, too strong, too muscular, out of place amid the lace, ruffles and delicate furnishings. Though he wore a dapper navy suit, there was a ruggedness about him. His face and hands were tanned, a stark contrast to the crisp white shirt he wore.

      Adam stopped in midsentence and came to his feet when she walked in. His gaze riveted her. “Good evening.”

      Clean-shaven now, he looked different from the way she remembered from this morning. His black hair was combed carefully into place, not tousled and unruly. But those deep green eyes hadn’t changed at all. They riveted her now as they had this morning, and made her feel as if she were once again wearing his shirt, instead of a proper gown.

      Aunt Harriet smiled up at Haley. “Come in, dear, we were just having a lovely chat.”

      Haley stopped beside her aunt’s chair, in no mood for a lovely chat. “If you don’t mind, Aunt Harriet, I’d like to speak with Mr. Harrington alone.”

      Aunt Harriet wagged her finger. “No, no, dear, not so fast. I want to hear all the details.”

      “Details?” Haley felt Adam’s gaze on her, bringing a flush to her cheeks. “What sort of details?”

      “Everyone is asking. What was it that brought you two together so quickly, so unexpectedly?” Aunt Harriet clasped her hands together and gazed up at her.

      Haley