Now he could.
“Be back in a minute,” he said to the guys, shoving to his feet.
He crossed the bar.
Unlike that night when he’d first discovered how delicious she smelled though, tonight she sensed him and looked up.
“Hang on, honey,” he said.
She grinned, hooked her feet around the rung at the bottom of the bar stool and grabbed the edge of the bar with both hands. “Ready.”
He reached for her pony tail, dragging the holder out and making her hair spill around her shoulders, he brushed it back and leaned in, putting his nose against her neck.
“Fuck, you smell good,” he told her, low enough for only her to hear.
“Liar,” she said with a little breathless laugh. “I’ve been outside working on tagging all day.”
“I’m serious,” he said, moving his mouth up her neck. “And I’ll bet you taste delicious too.”
A little shiver went through her and she turned her mouth to meet his. He kissed her, slow and sweet.
But before he could whisk her off the barstool, highlighter and all, his phone rang.
He pulled back and glanced around the bar. Everyone was present and accounted for. Except Mitch, Tori and Josh. They’d headed to Iowa so Tori could visit her parents, and collect an alpaca from a friend. The alpaca, apparently, needed some special attention that the farmer and his brother weren’t able, or willing, to give. He’d immediately thought of Tori.
Mitch had jumped at the chance to go back to Iowa and Chase couldn’t wait to hear how things had gone with the text-phobic girl he was still hung up on.
Bailey noticed Mitch’s name. “Take it,” she said, nudging him back. “I have a few more pages to go before I can do more of that anyway.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth.
“Okay. But not too much longer,” he told her. The idea of leaving her soon was eating at him and he needed every minute with her he could get.
He stepped outside of the bar with his phone.
“Dude,” Chase greeted his friend. “I told you that you should never unzip your pants outdoors in Iowa in December. That’s dangerous, man. But you just don’t listen.”
“So no sympathy at all?” Mitch asked. The grin in his voice was clear. “No magic cure?”
“We’re gonna have to chop it off,” Chase said, trying to sound sympathetic. “Good thing you had so much fun with it when you did.”
“My dick is fine. But the fact that it’s on your mind so much is really touching. Weird. But touching.”
“Never use the word touching when talking about me and your dick in the same breath.” Chase paused. “Actually, how about we not talk about your dick and me in the same breath at all?”
Mitch laughed. “Well, I just have to say, if I got frostbite on my dick, your phone would be the first one I’d send the photos to.”
“Trust me, that would go out to all my med-school friends, and we’d talk about how guys like you will keep guys like me in business,” Chase promised, grinning widely.
There was a pause on Mitch’s end of the phone. “I do have a problem,” he finally said.
“Does it involve your dick?”
“N…” There was another pause. “I mean… kind of.”
Chase knew exactly what that meant. “The girl.”
Mitch huffed out a breath. “Yeah. Paige.”
Chase shook his head. “You just got there, man.”
“Sounds familiar, right?” Mitch asked.
An image of Bailey, in just her panties and glasses, with a highlighter in hand, flashed through his mind. Had he fallen for her crazy fast? Yep. Did it make sense? Nope. “Yeah.” He definitely understood what Chase was feeling.
He turned and headed back into Ellie’s.
He knew that Mitch was actually calling to commiserate and be told he wasn’t crazy. But Chase was going to have some fun with this, because Mitch had given him hell about his crush on Bailey.
Chase took a seat at the table where he’d left the other Landrys. Sawyer and Bennett were elsewhere now, but Owen was still lounging at the table with a beer.
“So you’re calling for love advice,” Chase said to Mitch.
As expected, Owen grinned and sat forward Chase put Mitch on speaker.
“No worries, I’m here!” Owen told Mitch.
“Where are you and Owen?” Mitch asked tentatively.
Chase knew his friend was hoping it was just him and Owen.
No such luck
“Ellie’s,” Chase said with a grin.
“You’re a bastard,” Mitch told him.
“This will just keep me from having to repeat everything later,” Chase said with a laugh.
“So what do you need to know?” Owen asked.
“I just…” Mitch blew out a breath. “I guess I’m thinkin’ about a long-distance relationship.”
“They suck, man,” Chase said.
“You don’t even know,” Mitch told him. “You just officially got together with Bailey.”
“And I already know it’s going to suck.”
“But you’re gonna do it anyway?” Mitch asked.
“Well… yeah.” Chase found Bailey again. She was actually paying attention to something other than her paperwork.
Of course, Leo Landry, the patriarch of the family, was very hard to ignore.
Chase’s gut, and lower, tightened at the look of happiness on Bailey’s face. She’d gotten comfortable here, with these people, so quickly. He was thrilled he’d been able to give her the kind of Christmas she’d been missing at home. But now he wanted more. Every holiday. Holidays with her family too. Her meeting and loving every person he loved and vice versa.
“Why’s it gotta be long distance?” Owen asked.
“Because…” Mitch trailed off as if thinking.
“If you’re doin’ things right, she’s not gonna want to live without you,” Owen said. “So start doin’ things right.”
“If I remember correctly, Maddie was ready to move back to California even after you were doing things,” Mitch said.
Owen laughed. “’Cause I wasn’t doin’ things right.”
“I’m not sure I want details about what you were doing wrong,” Mitch said dryly.
“Oh, nothin’ like that,” Owen said. “Trust me.”
“So what?” Mitch asked.
“I just had to figure out that living anywhere with her was better than living at all without her.” Owen was watching someone behind Chase and he knew without looking it was Maddie. He had a soft look on his face that was produced by only one thing. His girl. “It just works out.”
“So your advice is to move to Iowa to be with a woman I’ve known for like two days. Other than a few months of texting,” Mitch said.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” Owen asked. “It doesn’t work out and you move back here.”
“That’s…” Mitch didn’t finish that sentence either.
After a beat, Owen nodded. “I’m good. I know.”
“She hasn’t exactly asked me to stay,” Mitch said.
“Well, she can’t really keep you from moving somewhere. You’re a grown man. She can’t keep you out of Appleby,” Chase pointed out.