On Christmas Eve morning, she sat at breakfast at Ellie’s with the other girls, basking in it all.
“So, uh, I need someone to…” Tori glanced at Bailey, then at Maddie and Kennedy. “…watch some things for me. I need to go check on a dog in Trent City.”
“Oh, I can’t. I have a meeting in New Orleans,” Kennedy said. She glanced at Bailey too. “Can you go see the dog later?”
“Of course not,” Tori said.
“I can’t do it either,” Maddie said. “I’ve got three tours to do. Two new ones for the Grandma Got Run Over by a Gator murder mystery swamp boat tour.” She grinned.
Leo had told her about the idea yesterday and Maddie had loved it. She’d also known that it wasn’t Leo’s creation. She’d somehow managed to throw it together and, thanks to their email list and Facebook page, had scheduled two tours for today. Which meant Bailey and Chase had to go back out and decorate the cabin where the “grandma and gator accident” had occurred.
Not that they’d minded.
Naked Christmas decorating was going to now be a yearly tradition.
Bailey sipped her cocoa—made from scratch by Cora just like her grandma always had—and waited. The girls didn’t know that she knew exactly what they were talking about.
“But…what about the guys?” Tori asked. “Someone has to…watch things. We can’t just leave…it. You never know what might happen.”
“Owen and Sawyer already left to go pick up some supplies for the new tours,” Maddie said. “Josh has to do the regular tours with me, at least until they get back.”
“Bennett has to be at this meeting with me,” Kennedy added.
“Oh, damn…” Tori muttered.
“I could do it,” Bailey finally offered.
Tori’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I couldn’t impose.”
“It’s no problem.”
“Don’t you want to spend the day with Chase?” Maddie said.
“Of course, but he can babysit the otters with me.”
There was a long pause as her words sank in.
Then Tori grinned. “You knew?”
“Yes,” Bailey told her with a smile.
“All along?”
“Yes,” Bailey admitted. “I’ve never been worried about you and the otters, Tori. The gray wolf was a little different story.” She laughed as Tori grimaced slightly. “But honestly, I’ll bet the otters are adorable. And I do know a few things about them. I’d be happy to play with them.”
Kennedy laughed. “So this entire time, you’ve known what we were up to?”
Bailey nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Well, if you know about the otters, we don’t really need anyone to watch them and keep them corralled,” Maddie said, rising from her chair with a grin. “Problem solved.”
“Oh.” Bailey couldn’t deny the stab of disappointment.
Tori leaned in with a big smile. “You want to play with the otters, Bailey?”
“Kind of.”
Tori laughed. “You are more than welcome.”
Bailey grinned and helped the women clean up the breakfast dishes, feeling like a part of the group in a way she couldn’t remember feeling before.
And it turned out that babysitting otters was one of the most fun things she’d ever done.
She was actually still cuddling the pup who had decided she was his favorite later that evening when they were opening gifts around the Landry family Christmas tree. She was shocked, and touched, to find there were gifts for her. Then she couldn’t stop giggling when she pulled the roll of bubble wrap out of the box from Ellie and Leo. The giggles increased when she opened the hard hat from Juliet and Sawyer. And then the box of Band-aids and ointment from Maddie and Owen.
“Welcome to the family,” Ellie told her with a wink.
Bailey felt her eyes stinging with tears. She did feel welcomed. She believed that she was a part of this family. Even when Chase went back to Virginia, she knew she could still come to Autre and find warm smiles, big hugs, hot meals, and lots of laughter and camaraderie. She loved Autre. She loved the Landrys. She also knew it wouldn’t take much Skyping and sexting for her to be falling for Chase Dawson. And not just off the bed
She looked over at him to find him watching her. With a smile that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking and feeling.
“Thank you,” she mouthed to him.
He just put his hand over his heart and nodded.
Damn. She might as well just embrace everything that came with that. Crazy Cajuns and the risk for concussion, for instance.
So when she and Chase walked down to the Boys of the Bayou dock later on and he pulled mistletoe out of his pocket, they both just donned life jackets before they did anything else.
And no one seemed a bit surprised when they came back to the house dripping wet from the bayou and with huge, stupid grins on their faces.
Chapter 8
Two weeks later…
Chase felt a tightness in his chest as he watched Bailey from across Ellie’s bar.
She was sitting at the bar, papers spread out in front of her, and her glasses on. She had a burger, a beer, and a highlighter. She’d take a bite, then a drink, then highlight something.
God he was going to miss her. The tightness in his chest had been getting worse every time he saw her for the past week or so. Every time she walked into Ellie’s in her Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries polo and too-big khaki pants and boots, he was reminded that he had to go back to D.C. Back to the smell of formaldehyde and long days bent over dead bodies and long nights studying for exams.
Everyone had gathered at Ellie’s, as they so often did, at the end of their work day. No one’s house was big enough for everyone all at once, especially if they needed enough chairs and table space to eat, so the bar functioned as the family dining room most nights.
It was two weeks after Christmas. It was officially January. And he was leaving tomorrow to go back to D.C.
He’d been in Autre the entire time. As had Bailey, for the most part. She’d had to work, of course, but she came back to Autre and spent the night in his bed every night.
They made love, they talked, they told each other every detail of their pasts, and he was, officially, head over heels in love with her.
Tonight she’d gotten back to town late and had reports to go over.
So Ellie had settled her at the bar, made her something to eat even though the bar’s kitchen was officially closed, and told her to go ahead and work.
She’d apologized to him for it, but he’d assured her that he was fine. He’d hang out with the guys while she finished up and then they could head to bed. She’d blushed—because he’d said it in front of everyone—but then stretched up on tip toe and kissed him before settling at the bar.
And now she had no idea what was going on around her. She was completely absorbed in her work and wasn’t paying attention to any of them.
Owen, Sawyer and Bennett were at the table with him talking about…he had no idea. He’d been watching Bailey. And remembering the last time she’d sat at a bar like that.
That night, though, he hadn’t been able to walk across the room, pull her ponytail holder the rest of the way out of her hair, and kiss the hell out of her.