Winning the Baker's Heart

Chapter 24

Was he making a mistake? More than likely, but Kyle needed to be done with all of Hailie's drama and bullshit.

With the bakery closed on Sunday, it gave him time to collect his thoughts. His first course of action was to call the man Hailie had cheated on him with. It wasn't her current fiance so Kyle thought the same thing had happened to him.

Jason was a very kind person. He'd answered all of Kyle's questions with a smile. As he'd feared, Hailie had cheated on Jason with Ahman. Jason was finishing up his residency as an orthopedic surgeon, and because of it, he'd spent half of his time out of state. Hailie had started her affair with Ahman shortly after he (Jason) had moved to Dallas. The only reason he'd known she was cheating was the shoes at her house. They weren't the brand Jason typically wore, or could afford.

After finding out their relationship only lasted a year, Kyle understood. Hailie had a pattern and a type. As long as she thought the man was going to be successful, she stuck around. As soon as his priorities changed, she found someone new. She didn't want to lower her standards even though the man loved her. She'd rather have money.

Had she waited long enough, Jason could have given her the life she wanted. But greed tended to make way for impatience. Kyle hadn't wanted to expand and Jason was still in residency. She couldn't wait.

So she'd found Ahman. Kyle had looked up Ahman Haddad. He was an Egyptian-American like Hailie's family, and he'd grown up in Los Angeles. He'd made a name for himself buying and selling commercial real estate. He owned at least ten malls in California and six hotels up and down the eastern seaboard. From Jason's recollections, he'd been trying to branch out in the Little Rock area before the whole South.

What surprised Kyle the most was the man was twice divorced. Hailie's mother was a devout Catholic who often sneered at divorce. From what he could remember, her father was a non-practicing Muslim. Kyle had met him once so he didn't really know how he felt about it. But Claudia would make jabs whenever she could at Kyle. He had no doubt she was doing the same about Ahman's divorces.

Kyle made the hardest decision of his life. He called Hailie Monday morning and invited her over after work on the following Saturday. He heard the excitement in her voice as she asked what she should wear. A part of him hated to break her spirit, but he really needed to be free of her. Not because of Rey, but because of himself.

He ushered Thomas and Rey out on Saturday afternoon, not that it took much to do so. Rey barely looked at him anymore. They hadn't talked since Hailie accused him of being a gold-digger. Though he shouldn't, Kyle found her accusations funny. Rey didn't even accept the extra pay Kyle had given him for working off the clock for fun. He'd brought it back uncashed. When Kyle refused to take it, he'd left it on the desk. There was no way he was a gold-digger.

He ordered Chinese and waited. Waiting was always the hardest part. It wasn't the kind that gave a person butterflies either. It was the kind that always brought disaster, the calm before the storm even.

Hailie was early like he knew she'd be. He saw her enter through the back door. A minute later she actually knocked on the door. That surprised him. She usually just barged in.

She waved a wine bottle at him when the door swung open. Her smile was slightly shy. What was she playing at?

"Do Chinese and wine actually go together?" he wondered aloud.

"It depends on what you've ordered," she replied. She glanced over his shoulder at the couch. "But it seems that it's not the case tonight."

"Why are you dressed up?" Kyle closed the door behind her when she finally walked into his place.