It's been a long time; but I figured I'd post this chapter... I was kind of and still am stuck after this chapter... so it may take a bit longer for the next update... hopefully not too long!
Chapter 04 – Contemplative
Hailey's drive home was a difficult one. She had a lot of information to take in and process before she made it back to Boston. She didn't know how to react to what she had found out and certainly didn't know how to bring it up to the four men that were waiting for her when she got back.
Should she bring it up to them? Should she go on trying to get the information out of them? Continue having them lie to her? Should she go off on them as soon as she walked through the door? Or drop hints that she knew?
Hailey had no idea how she was going to go about this; she had a headache just thinking about it. And the more she thought about it the worse her headache got.
Stopping at a red light as she left the gas station she rested her head against the steering wheel, "What am I going to do?" Hailey asked herself.
She was stuck in her thoughts until the sound of a horn blowing brought her back to reality. Startled she jumped up and looked behind her seeing a man in the car behind her laying on his horn. She waved as an apology and stepped on the gas, pulling on to the highway.
The man whizzed past her as soon as they got on, which didn't bother her really. She gripped the steering wheel and groaned; perhaps she shouldn't have dug so far in to Tyler's business. It was borderline stalker, and she didn't want her boyfriend to think that she didn't trust him.
But you didn't… that's why you came out here… She told herself.
She didn't trust Tyler? She didn't know what made her say that. The fact that he's been lying to you about the Chase situation, and who he really is. Her conscience egged her on.
She shook her head, "That's ridiculous…"
Maybe he had a good reason, another part of her tugged at her brain.
"I'm going fucking crazy," She muttered trying to fight her conflicting feelings.
She tried to block out the thoughts that plagued her mind, but it was nearly impossible for her to do so. The different sides of her were pulling her decision every which way. A part of her understood why they couldn't tell her about their secret, another part of her wanted to go in to the house and beat the crap out of all of them for not telling her something so important, and the other part of her wanted to be sneaky, and drop hints that she knew, but was still angry that they didn't tell her.
"What are you going to do Hailey?" She asked herself as she continued to drive.
You can't be angry with them; you have to see if from their point of view… that was the rational side of her, trying to break everything down.
But they didn't trust you enough to tell you their secret, there were supposed to be no more secrets, her bitchy side came through, wanting to reign over Hailey's decision.
Lead them on, let them think they're getting away with it, and then drop a bomb on them… that was her vindictive side.
Pursing her lips together she used her right hand to grab the fountain drink she had gotten at the gas station. She sipped it and shook her thoughts; she had to be more careful about how she went about this. She read the journal entries. This was a family secret.
They can't possibly trust just anyone with this secret. They did form a Covenant of Silence, around this family secret for a reason. And they thought you would probably freak the hell out… her logical side stated.
Hailey agreed with herself, Tyler didn't want to tell her because he was afraid of how she would react to him. She might have freaked out if she hadn't found out the way she did. He was probably afraid that she would leave him, or call him a freak… or even worse a liar.
She decided that the best way was to mesh all of her decisions together; she wouldn't tell them that she knew, but she understood why they couldn't tell her. Though she was still angry with them, that they didn't feel the need to share this vital information with her, she would simply drop small hints here and there.
She had to make them tell her. She wanted to hear it from their lips, and most importantly from Tyler's.
She was almost home by the time that she had come to her final decision, and figured there were only a few ways that she could drop hints. And that was to show that she was open-minded about the supernatural. That witchcraft, voodoo, and other oddities seemed normal or interesting to her.
She remembered a comment that one of the girls in school once said, that the Sons of Ipswich reminded her of the characters in one of Stephen King's novels. This sparked another memory, one of Reid's favorite books happened to be Dreamcatcher by Stephen King.
A small danced on her lips as she decided to pull off to the nearest bookstore and wander around the supernatural section. She would pick up a copy of Dreamcatcher, and anything else that might strike her as close to the Sons' own story.
"Miss, may I help you?" The bookstore clerk asked looking up to see Hailey looking around as if she were lost.
"Actually, I was looking for a copy of Dreamcatcher, by Stephen King… do you have it?" She asked looking over at the graying woman.
"One of my favorites, come this way dear," The woman ushered her towards the back of the store. She picked up a blue book and handed it to Hailey who looked at the cover, and flipped it over, reading the back.
"Do you recommend any other books that might have a similar theme?" She questioned looking up to meet dulling blue eyes.
"Actually I do," She smiled warmly before moving over to another aisle of books. She picked up a book that was bright red and handed it to Hailey, "This one is pretty interesting,"
Hailey looked at the cover and recognized the author's name, Nora Roberts. A small smile spread across her lips, Roberts' was one of her favorite authors.
"Thank you, I'll take them…" She nodded to the woman.
The older woman gladly rang her up and gave her a gracious smile before Hailey took her purchases and left the small bookstore. She got in to her car and headed towards the house.
She was afraid that Tyler would ask her a million questions, and hoped that he couldn't see right through her. Or once he found out the truth, he wouldn't be too pissed off at her for one lying to him, and the other sneaking around in his family's old home.
She parked the car and grabbed the small bag that she had brought with her, she had the two journals stuffed in the very bottom of the bag, and decided to hide the evidence of the two books she bought.
She grabbed her bag and headed in to the house; she looked in the living room window and noticed that Pogue and Kate were sitting on the couch watching TV, completely enthralled with one another. No signs of the other sons or Sarah… though all the cars were accounted for.
She had gotten back later than she expected but didn't get a call from Tyler asking her where she was. She figured he knew that she wanted to spend time with her 'family' even though that's not what she did at all.
"You're back, finally!" Sarah's voice came from the top of the stairs.
Hailey forced a smile and dropped her bag by the door, "Yeah, the ride home was so boring… and took too long…" She shook her head.
"Next time you'll know to bring a friend…" Sarah grinned coming down the stairs quickly. "I was thinking us girls could cook tonight, what do you think?"
"That's fine with me," Hailey answered glancing around looking for any sign of Caleb, Tyler or Reid. "Where is everyone?"
"Caleb is upstairs reading, Reid is outback with Tyler doing god only knows what…" Sarah laughed pulling her in to the kitchen.
Something magical, perhaps? She thought to herself. She glanced at Sarah briefly, wondering if she and Kate knew about the boys' secret. Was she the only one under this roof that didn't 'know'? Why had they told Kate and Sarah, but not her?
Just as the girls started discussing what they were making for dinner, Reid and Tyler came through the sliding glass door. Tyler caught her attention, he was flushed red and Reid was busy yapping on his cell phone.
"Babe, you ok?" Hailey asked nonchalantly looking at her boyfriend.
Tyler looked up and smiled at her for the first time, "I'm ok… Reid just whooped my ass at horseshoes…" He grinned at her… pushing any sign of displacement out of view. "How was your trip?" He asked. "When'd you get home?"
He came over and wrapped his arms around her as Sarah brought out some chicken and a head of lettuce.
"It was good, the trip was long… being by yourself… but it was eventful…" She smiled at him, trying not to give too much away.
"Oh yeah, you have fun with your mom then?"
"A great time, we went to a small little eatery and had lunch…" She thought carefully trying to pick her words selectively. "And we talked about Ipswich…"
Tyler's eyebrow went up and he glanced at her, "Ipswich, huh… what about it?"
"Just the history of it… I had heard before that your families founded it… but I never knew why… me and mom talked to a few locals and heard all the lore around your families…" She grinned up at him. "Pretty interesting stuff…" She lifted a shoulder in disinterest.
"Yeah, all a bunch of hoopla…" Reid stated hanging up his phone. "Did you hear I kicked your husband's ass in horseshoes?" He asked slinging a skinny arm around her shoulders.
"I did… but since when is Tyler my husband?" She asked with a smirk as Sarah glared at Reid and Tyler for distracting her Sous Chef.
"Might as well be," Reid grinned at her with a simple shrug.
"Would you two get out of the kitchen, we're trying to cook here…" Sarah stated shoving the two younger boys out of the kitchen.
"Caleb!" Reid yelled as he staggered in to the living room. "You better get your girl man, she's so God damned demanding…" He laughed as Tyler shook his head and glanced back at his girlfriend who started taking the head of lettuce apart for Sarah.
For some reason I really like the last lines from Reid... sigh I heart him... and I heart Tyler... :)