Mateo and Haley's relationship was tested by one of Mateo's old friends, Tanner Jordan. Tanner arrived in Pine Valley from Texas and immediately accepted a job as a waiter at Holidays. Tanner desired Hayley from the first day he saw her. Determined to win her over, he tried everything in his power to break up Mateo and Hayley – including paying an actor to impersonate his alcoholic father. Tanner was an airplane pilot and used Hayley's interest in learning to fly as a means of getting closer to her. He convinced Hayley to fly with him under the guise of surprising Mateo while he was in Texas, but instead he faked a forced emergency landing near a cave in Virginia where he drugged and raped her. All hopes of finding Hayley seemed lost, but Mateo managed to find the cave. As he struggled with Tanner, Tanner was accidentally mortally wounded by a gunshot. Mateo found Hayley and had her rushed to a nearby hospital. Mateo stayed by her side and asked her to marry him – right there, right now. Hayley said yes and she and Mateo (with Adam and Liza there as witnesses) were married in her hospital room.