Like being here with Chase.
Like just being here, period.
She’d come here hoping Chase would be here for Christmas, but also with the hopes that the Landrys reputation of making all strangers into friends and all friends into family would maybe extend to her. Just for December twenty-third to the twenty-sixth. Give or take.
So, while the Landrys scrambled to distract her from…whatever they were up to…she was going to let them. She hoped whatever they were all running around after totally eluded them for hours. Maybe all day. And night.
She and Chase rounded the building that house the front office of the Boys of the Bayou tours and stepped onto the dock. The wooden platform rocked under their weight as they headed toward the older couple that was currently loading boxes and bags into one of the airboats.
“Chase!” An older woman, with salt and pepper hair in a braid that hung nearly to her butt, enfolded Chase in a huge hug as soon as he got close.
Chase was easily eight inches taller than she was and his long arms wrapped around her thin frame. He was also grinning widely in a way that made Bailey’s heart flip. His affection for this woman was clear.
“Hey, El.”
She pulled back and reached for a large glass jar that was filled with a strange grayish green liquid. “Made this for you.”
“Will this cure me of my hangover, my smart mouth, or just my general stupidity?” Chase asked, accepting it and unscrewing the lid. He took a sniff and winced.
Ellie laughed. “Hangover. You’ve met my grandkids. You think I have a cure for stupidity or being a smartass?”
He chuckled and took a taste. “Huh, not terrible.” He looked over at Bailey. “Ellie and Cora are well-known for their home remedies.”
“And hangovers are a common affliction around here,” Ellie said. She shot a look at the man next to her. “Of course, that’s also a source of pride.”
Her husband beamed.
“Don’t suppose you have a love potion, do you?” Chase asked, shooting Bailey a sly look.
Ellie lifted a brow. “A love potion? What for?”
“Bailey thinks we should just give up on the whole idea. I was hoping for a little help convincing her otherwise,” he told her.
Bailey rolled her eyes. The guy was incorrigible. They weren’t falling in love. They weren’t not falling in love either. This wasn’t about love. This was an awkward flirtation between people who were obviously terribly mismatched.
He was just too cute to completely shut down.
“I will have you know,” Leo said, drawing himself up tall. “The Landrys have never needed a love potion. When we fall in love, we know it immediately and so does everybody else. We don’t need any hocus pocus.”
Ellie laughed and waved her hand at her husband. “Yeah, yeah.” She focused on Bailey. “The Landry family really does have some of the very best love stories. Big and bold and crazy. But—” She glanced at Chase. “Chase isn’t a Landry and he hasn’t hung out with us enough for it to completely rub off. Yet.”
“Big, bold, crazy love stories are contagious?” Bailey asked. It didn’t take long to figure out that the Landrys were a…unique bunch.
Ellie shrugged. “Not contagious, exactly, but hanging out with the Landrys makes people realize that being bold and loud and boisterous about what you want in life is an okay way to be. I think the Landrys help people discover their…audaciousness.”
Bailey shot a look at Chase. She wasn’t sure Chase Dawson needed any more audaciousness. He gave her a grin that said he knew exactly what she was thinking.
“So you’re not really the one to come to in hopes of someone imparting words of wisdom?” Bailey asked dryly.
Ellie barked out a laugh. “Well, I certainly hope you’re not mistaking old age for wisdom. I know a lot of stupid old people.”
Bailey couldn’t help but smile. “But wisdom comes with experience, right?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Ellie agreed. “But there are a lot of old people who haven’t had any meaningful experiences and plenty of young people who have.”
Bailey was struck by those words.
Leo nodded. “And don’t mistake just doin’ stuff with having experiences,” he said. “Everyone does stuff. Experiences are things that make you think and maybe change you a little bit.”
“A lot of time the difference between just doin’ something and having an experience is the person doin’ it, not the thing bein’ done,” Ellie added. “I know a ton of people who could meet a homeless man and walk away a better person. And I know a ton of people who could have met Mother Teresa and walked away thinking they’d just talked to a kooky old lady.”
Bailey gave a surprised little laugh. That was incredibly insightful.
“So, what kind of wisdom were you hoping for, anyway?” Leo asked.
“Oh, um—” Bailey gave Chase a look. He was just watching the whole exchange with a bemused smile. “Maybe someone to convince him that if we were really meant to be, all of this would go a little easier?” Baily suggested.
All of this falling in love talk had her heart pounding a little harder. That was ridiculous. She was here because she was intrigued by Chase, wanted to see if they could possibly manage to kiss without someone ending up bleeding, and because she didn’t want to be home alone for Christmas. It was that simple.
But this didn’t feel simple.
Suddenly she wanted to have an experience. With Chase. Something that would make her think and maybe change her a little.
Leo laughed and tucked his hands into his back pockets. “See now, I’d probably be tellin’ him that it’s about time somethin’ was a little challenging for him and that he was goin’ to learn a lot about bein’ patient and puttin’ in the work and figurin’ out when somethin’ is really worth it.”
Bailey looked at him with interest. “Really?”
Leo nodded. “This boy has had a damned easy life. His parents have money. He’s the baby. He’s got two older brothers paving the way and an older sister making sure he doesn’t turn into an asshole.” He gave Chase an affectionate grin. “Then he found us and found out how great it is to get your hands dirty and what it means to really work for a livin’. He’s had it all handed to him, including life lessons and advice. It’s probably time for something in his life not to fall magically into place.”
Bailey blinked at Leo. Then looked at Chase.
Chase was just standing there, sipping his homemade hangover cure out of a mason jar, and listening to them all psychoanalyze him, clearly unbothered.
“So now that we’re clear that no one is going to talk me out of trying to kiss you some more,” Chase said, “how about we find out what Ellie and Leo need our help with?”
He was going to try to kiss her some more.
Thank God.
“Yes, okay, how can we help?”
“Oh, we need you to take this stuff out to our cabin and start decorating,” Ellie said.
She gestured to the boxes in the boat and Bailey leaned in. Yep, they were full of Christmas decorations.
“The cabin?” Chase asked. “Really? You decorate that?”
“Well, it’s for the Gator Bells bayou tour,” Ellie said.