She paused. For a second Chase thought she was going to say that was silly or there was no way they could make a date like that. But then she nodded. “Okay.”
Chase felt a strange surge of satisfaction at that.
She dug into the box beside her again. “Oh my gosh!” She pulled out a book. “I’ve heard about this too!”
The book was The Cajun Night Before Christmas.
“Really?” he reached for it.
“Another tradition down here,” she said with a grin. “I can totally see Leo doing an annual reading of this story.”
He laughed. “Me too.” He flipped through the book. “And if he doesn’t, we need to have him start that this year.”
Bailey was clearly delighted by the idea. “I’ve only been around the Landrys twice, but they’re a little crazy.”
He nodded. “You’ve got that right.”
“And I know I should be intimidated by that or something, but I’m more…”
“Drawn in by it?” he asked. When she nodded, he laughed. “I know exactly what you mean. When I showed up here at first, it was for community service. My frat brothers and I took one of their airboats out joyriding and smashed into one of the docks when we realized we didn’t know how to drive it. I was here to rebuild that dock and work off that debt,” he said. “I came with a big chip on my shoulder, feeling embarrassed and way out of my element.” He paused and gave her a shrug. “In case it’s not obvious, I’m a spoiled, rich, city boy who, until this past summer, had never picked up a power tool.”
Bailey pretended to be shocked. “You’re kidding.”
“Seriously.” Then he chuckled. “So anyway, I was feeling like an ass. But that lasted for about an hour. They embraced me.” He shook his head, still not able to fully believe how warm and welcoming the Landrys had been after what he and his dumbass friends had done. “They fed me, they taught me not just how to use a power drill, but how to fish, how to drive the boats, how their business worked—I learned a lot about people who make a living with good old fashioned hard work, using their hands and backs, and about what it’s like to have family and friends who love you no matter what but who will also call you out on your bullshit when you need it.”
Bailey was watching him with interest. “Wow. You didn’t have that before?”
“My dad and brothers make a lot of money without doing much more than lifting their phones and maybe pushing a few buttons on their computers. Their outdoor time is spent golfing and out on the family yacht.”
Her eyes widened. “You actually have a yacht?”
He grimaced and nodded. “Yep.”
“Wow.”
“But the Landrys made me a better man,” he said. “Not that everyone who golfs or has a yacht is a jerk, but I was definitely on that path. Thankfully, my sister was determined I not turn into an asshole and then I came here and met the Landrys.” He paused and then decided to tell her the rest. “I plan to come back here and practice when I’m done with medical school.”
“You’re going to come to small town Louisiana and practice?” Bailey said. “Really? No big fancy city hospitals for you?”
He shook his head. “I realized that I’d love to be a real part of a community. I know I won’t make as much money or get all the fancy titles and promotions that I could in a big hospital system, but…there’s a different kind of challenge to really knowing the people you’re taking care of. And having to know how to everything from chicken pox to strokes to amputations. It would be a challenge to go to someone’s birthday party knowing that, because of the cancer I diagnosed and can’t fix, it will be their last. It would be a challenge delivering a baby and then going across town to treat that baby’s great-grandfather for pneumonia and then someday telling that baby that her baby has a congenital vision problem or something. But…” He trailed off for a moment, realizing that he’d been going on and on. He shrugged. “I think that would be a really humbling and amazing challenge to have.”
Bailey was staring at him. She didn’t say anything.
“Because I would also sometimes get to be the one to say that the scan came back negative or that the disease has cleared up or that there’s a new treatment or medication to try.”
Why was he still talking?
“I think the good times, the times I could help them, would be worth the times I couldn’t. And if I could be a part of the community and really make sure they knew I cared and was doing everything I possibly could, then the times I couldn’t help would be easier to take. Because they’d know there was someone there who was truly on their side and would do anything for them.”
He sat just looking back at her. He was out of words now.
So she was crazy about alligators. He didn’t totally get that. But her passion was hot. And now she’d seen his. He hadn’t meant to spill all of that. He’d never told anyone all of that. Probably because all of that had only occurred to him over the past few months since he’d been in Autre and then started medical school. But his time this past summer in the tiny Louisiana bayou town had given him more than a place to come for Christmas. It had given him a dream for his future. A home.
Suddenly, Bailey tossed the ornament she was holding to the side and crawled toward him. He didn’t move.
They were nose to nose when she said, “You’re right—true passion really is hot.”
Then she kissed him.
Finally.
He had to brace a hand on the floor behind him to keep from being knocked over and he felt something crunch under his hand and her forehead bumped his. But he didn’t care about any of that.
With his other hand, Chase cupped the back of her head and opened his mouth. She sighed and did the same and their tongues tangled. It was sweet and hot and unexpected—just like everything else had been about Bailey since he’d first met her.
She moved closer and he stretched out his legs. Chase heard another crunch but he didn’t know if she’d knelt on something or if his foot and broken something. Again, he didn’t care. Bailey climbed into his lap, straddling his thighs, her hands holding his head, her fingers in his hair. His hand slipped from her head to her hip and Chase worked on staying upright as she moved against him.
The skirt of her dress hiked up on her thighs and he couldn’t help but drop his hand to a bare leg and slide it up under the hem. He met the sweet curve of her ass and the silky strip of her panties where they crossed her hip.
She pressed into him and Chase knew she could feel how hard he was for her. They’d been talking about Santa Claus and his own someday medical practice in Autre, but she turned him on. Her laugh, the fact that she could ice skate and loved alligators and wanted to have Christmas dinner with the Landrys—his adopted family—after meeting them only twice was all more of a turn-on than all of the lingerie and seductive smiles he’d gotten from other women.
“Bailey,” he said gruffly against her lips. “Maybe we should slow down.”
She pulled back to look down at him and shook her head. “I don’t want to.”
“Are you sure?”
“You’re touching more than my lips and hands now, and it’s going very well,” she said. “I think we should keep going.”