Playing for Keeps (Neighbor from Hell #1)(14)

“Oh, Haley! There you are, dear!” her mother said cheerfully. Was she trying to smile? Yup, it appeared she had Botox done once again. Her whole face looked completely frozen.

“Hello, mother,” she said, giving her mother a barely there kiss on the cheek as her mother gave her one.

“Have a seat, dear!” Her mother gestured to the seat next to her. Her sisters Martha and Rose gave her smirks as they picked up glasses or fluffed back their hair in attempts to show off whatever new trinket their husbands, more likely husbands’ secretaries, bought them.

“It’s so nice to see you, Haley,” Rose said with a cool smile as she jiggled her diamond bracelet.

“It’s nice to see you too, Rose. How are your children?” Haley asked.

Rose gave her a rather bland look. “How would I know?”

Haley opened her mouth to point out that they were in fact her children, but decided not to.

Martha leaned in trying to look discreet. The fact that she raised her voice kind of wrecked the effect. “You poor thing! I see the diet didn’t work.” She pouted. “Did you get dumped again?” She shook her head as if it was no consequence and pulled out a business card that she probably had ready for this moment. “Here’s the name of a good doctor who does wonders with removing fat and cosmetic surgery.”

Still smiling, Haley accepted the card. Since she’d lost a few pounds in the last couple of weeks and didn’t consider herself fat, especially since her stomach was flat, she knew her sister was delicately as ever pointing out that Haley was not stick thin like the rest of them. Flat br**sts and looking skeletal was in apparently. Since she would never look like them or want to, she simply left the business card on the table.

She had no problem with how she looked. She was comfortable with her curves. In factm she had the same body type as her grandmother had when she was younger. The same one out cold in her wheelchair and the one that everyone here, but her, feared to piss off. She could be a little hellion to deal with. They all looked down on her for her middleclass ways forgetting that it was her hard work and sacrifices that made the family what it is today.

“You know they can reduce those things these days,” Rose said distastefully, pulling Haley from her thoughts.

“What things?” Haley asked, distracted by one of her cousins eying their grandmother like a vulture. She had no doubt he was counting her breaths. Hell, the little prick was mouthing the words. These people were pathetic.

“Your br**sts, dear. They’re….well….they’re so lower class. They make you look like a waitress or something,” her aunt said sympathetically.

“I think you would look great with less….curves,” Rose added.

Smile. “I’ll keep it in mind, thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

“Oh, wait, dear!” her mother said, holding up her hand. “I wanted to ask you how your little hobby was going.”

Her little hobby meaning her job. Smile. “It’s going great. Thank you for asking. We’ll be breaking for the summer in two months. I’m thinking of traveling, or renting a cabin in New Hampshire for a few weeks.”

“Honestly, dear, I don’t know why you do it. If you're so determined to work you should go back to school and get a real degree in law or medicine like your father. Is it because you’re trying to meet a man?” her mother asked, sounding hopeful.

Smile. “No, I’m not looking for a man. I enjoy what I do.”

Her mother’s answer was a frown; well it looked like she was trying to frown. Actually, everyone at the table was frowning now. They couldn’t understand why she worked since none of them had ever worked a day in their lives. Personally she thought the whole bunch was rather spoiled and she was wondering why she came here in the first place. Then she remembered. She came here for Grandma. She couldn’t leave Grandma to these vultures and it didn’t hurt that Grandma threatened to take her over her knee and spank her if she didn’t show up.

“Sweetheart!” her father said, smiling hugely. He leaned over and kissed both cheeks. Smile. “Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I’m sorry it’s a couple of weeks late,” he said sheepishly.

“Thank you, dad,” she said, taking the birthday card. Smile. Her birthday had been five months ago. Yes, her entire family had forgotten, well except Grandma of course. She called at five in the morning, waking Haley up on her birthday, demanding that Haley should knock some sense into her parents. Haley calmed her down and thanked her for the gift she'd sent the day before. The next day she went and saw her. Her old nannies sent her birthday cards and gifts. Her friends made her a dinner and they went out, so it was okay.

“I can’t believe my little baby is twenty-five already!” he said.

“I know.” She couldn’t believe it either since she was twenty-nine, but hey if he wanted to make her younger who was she to argue?

“She’s twenty-nine, you fool!” Grandma said. “She turned twenty-nine in December. How I raised fools is beyond me,” Grandma grumbled.

Smile. “Thanks, Dad. It’s fine.”

His smile wavered and for the first time in her life he truly looked embarrassed and ashamed.

“I’m going to call you later this week,” he said firmly.

“Dad, it’s okay,” she said, letting him off the hook.