Chapter 28 #2
That was smart, Graham thought as he took in the dark-haired man with a full beard and long hair to match.
Graham’s first impression of the guy made him pause, and then he reminded himself that this man had saved Bailey and called him until he picked up.
He’d called the electric company, and he’d somehow figured out who Bailey was and how she was related to Graham.
And he believed someone’s physical appearance almost never indicated the worth of a soul.
“She’s starting to wake up,” he said. “At least, I think so.”
Laney dropped to the ground and peeled back the blanket covering Bailey’s face. “Bailey, honey, Momma’s here. You need to wake up for me.” She looked over to Graham, her eyes wide and frantic. “How do you make someone wake up?”
“I didn’t have time to get her any clothes,” Reeves said. “If you want to take my place, I can go look through her boxes.”
“I’ll look through her boxes,” Eli said.
“I didn’t go down into any of the bedrooms,” Reeves said, still in his position on the floor, his body spooned around Bailey’s underneath blankets and coats. “But she seemed to have almost everything in, and she’d made piles in various rooms, at least out here.”
“We’ll check.” Eli thumped Stockton on the chest, and they went down the hall to the bedrooms.
“Oh, she’s waking up,” Laney said. “Bailey.” She smoothed her hair back off her forehead. “Bailey, it’s Momma. You passed out, and we need you to wake up.”
A mighty groan filled the room, and Graham dropped to his knees beside his wife as Bailey’s eyelids fluttered open. “Momma?”
“Yes,” Laney said. “Momma and Daddy are here. You gotta wake up for us and tell us what happened.”
“I don’t know if she’s hurt,” Reeves said quietly. “She maybe shouldn’t move too much.”
Bailey’s eyes met Graham’s, and they widened. “Who is that?” And she did exactly the opposite of what Reeves had suggested. She sat all the way up in one fluid motion and twisted to look behind her. She sucked in a breath and then looked down at herself.
She only wore a sports bra and her underwear, and she quickly clutched at the blankets and coats that had fallen off when she’d sat up.
“He’s a friend,” Graham said quickly. “He picked you up and saved you.”
Reeves backed away from her and sat up himself. He wasn’t wearing pants either, and Graham spotted them on the hearth. He got up and walked around Laney to pick them up and handed them to the man who stood and moved behind the boxes to put them on.
“He’s your neighbor,” Graham said, meeting Reeves’ eyes.
“Right next door,” he said. “I’m five-zero-two-five. She’s five-zero-seven-five.”
“Sure,” Graham said, and he knelt down beside Bailey again, who searched her mother’s face with wide-eyed panic on hers.
“What’s the last thing you remember, honey?” Laney stroked her hair back behind her ear. “And tell us what hurts.”
Bailey reached up almost absently to the back of her head.
“I think I fell out of the moving truck,” she said.
“I had almost everything out and I was bringing in….” She trailed off, a frown coming between her eyes.
“A couch cushion and some blankets. It had started to snow pretty bad, and it was going to be my last trip before I waited for you guys to come.”
Graham looked at all the boxes in the kitchen and those stacked up behind him. He heard the triumphant yell of Eli from down the hall, who called, “I found some clothes!”
There was no way Bailey could have unloaded the entire truck by herself in the forty-five minutes it had taken them to get here.
No, she had been here longer than that, especially if Reeves had found her lying in the snow.
She could have been there for ten or twenty minutes, maybe longer, and that meant the truck had been unloaded before she’d even called them.
His irritation simmered into anger, because that was so like Bailey. He and Laney had been trying to give her the autonomy and independence she required for this move, but now he wished they’d checked the map to see where she was instead of waiting for her to call.
“Yeah, the metal ramp was slippery,” Bailey said. “And I toppled over the side of it.”
“Where did you hit your head?” Laney asked, and she started probing through Bailey’s damp hair.
“I think just on the back,” she said. “I managed to roll and the wind got knocked out of me.” She looked down at her left ankle where Graham knelt. “My foot hurts. I think it got twisted.”
“It was up on the ramp,” Reeves said. “I pulled it down, because it didn’t seem broken. Mostly I was worried about her being frozen.”
They all looked at him as he emerged from behind the boxes, now fully clothed.
Eli entered the living room too, and he held a dark green sweater and a pair of black leggings. “Is this okay?” His eyes landed on Bailey, and a smile bloomed on his face. “Hey, pretty girl. You’re awake. You’ve got jeans and stuff back there, but I just don’t know what you want.”
“Leggings will be great,” Bailey said. “Thanks, Uncle Eli.”
“Do you think you can stand?” Laney said. “Graham, help her stand.”
Graham grabbed the blanket that had been covering her and Reeves, and moved into a crouch to help his daughter stand. She managed it, and he held onto one arm with one hand and wrapped the blanket around her with the other.
“Just hold here for a second, sweetheart,” he said. “Give yourself a minute.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “I feel okay.”
“You’re not dizzy?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Do you feel like you’re going to throw up?” Momma asked.
Bailey shook her head again. “No, I feel fine.”
“What about your ankle?” he asked.
She took a step, putting full weight on it, and said, “It’s a little tender, but it feels like a mild sprain.
” She looked around at all of them, a healthy pink blush coming into her face.
“I feel like an idiot. Who lives in Montana for fifteen years and then slips on the snow in Wyoming?” She gave a half-laugh, and that took the mood down in the house from tense to tolerable.
“I’ll help you get changed,” Laney said, and she took the clothes from Eli and gripped Bailey’s arm tightly as they walked around the fireplace and down the hall to the bedroom.
Graham took a deep breath and blew it all out. “Well,” he said. “That was an exciting start to moving day.” He looked at Reeves and stuck out his hand. “Thank you so much for being here.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Did you see her fall?” Stockton asked.
Reeves pumped Graham’s hand and shook his head. “No. I came over with a loaf of bread to welcome her to the highway.”
He stepped around Graham, Eli, and Stockton to the heap of clothes in the dining room. “We can lay these on the hearth and they’ll dry out.”
Stockton took Bailey’s clothes from him and did that while Eli took her coat and set her boots upright.
Reeves stuffed his feet back into his and looked at his jacket with a frown on his face.
“I threw the bread. It’s somewhere outside.
It’s cinnamon chip, and it makes great French toast.” He nodded at Graham and then Eli and Stockton, while Graham tried to figure out the right words to express his gratitude.
He couldn’t, and he ended up following Reeves toward the garage exit.
“Thank you so much again,” he said. “You seem to know a lot about what to do in a situation like this.”
Reeves slid his arms into his coat and faced Graham. “Yeah, a little,” he said. “I’m from a little town right on the Canadian border in Montana, and I’ve done a lot of outdoor camping, hunting, and fishing.”
“So that’s how you knew how to build that blind of boxes,” Graham said. “To hold the heat, right?”
Reeves nodded, his jaw jumping. “Right.”
“What do you think?” Graham gestured behind him, indicating the whole house. “Do we need to call the paramedics?”
Reeves looked down the hall too, his eyes eventually coming back to Graham’s.
“I think she should be checked out,” he said.
“But I don’t think it’s an emergency. She’ll probably be fine here, and you can go when the storm is over.
They might want to do a CAT scan or something to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion. ”
Graham nodded. “Of course.”
“You can watch for the signs of concussion,” he said. “Headache, vomiting, blurred vision.”
“Sure,” Graham said, and while he didn’t know all the symptoms, he knew he could look them up.
“Is she alone?” Reeves asked. “Or is she married?”
“Oh, no, she’s single,” Graham said. “But I bet I won’t be able to get her mother away from her tonight.” He chuckled, knowing full well he might be sleeping at Bailey’s tonight as well.
If they didn’t stay at Bailey’s tonight, they’d most definitely stay in town. Both Andrew and Beau lived here, and Graham could also get them a hotel, as he knew Bailey didn’t have a guest room in Butte and certainly wouldn’t have extra beds here.
“All right, well, I’ve got your number,” Graham said.
“I’ll make sure she has it too. And really, just thank you so much.
” He opened his arms to hug Reeves, plowing forward with the gesture, though the man stiffened and his eyes widened.
Graham gave him a stilted, awkward hug that lasted a couple of seconds before he forced himself to pull away.
Reeves nodded and ducked out the garage door, leaving Graham to turn back to Eli and Stockton. “Let’s see if we can get the truck better positioned to finish the unpacking.”
“I bet we can back it into the garage,” Eli said. “Or at least right up to it, so the ramp isn’t in the snow.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Graham said. “Let me tell Laney.” He moved down the hall to do that.
Bailey came out of the bedroom before he could make it inside, and he said, “We’re going to try to get everything else unloaded.”
She nodded. “Momma says I have to sit down, and she wants me to have something to drink.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll call the paramedics unless you think we need to, but I think you should get checked out in the next day or so, just to make sure you don’t have a concussion.” He pulled her into a hug, and she sagged into him and hugged him back.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I’ll do that.”
Graham met his wife’s eyes over Bailey’s shoulder, and he knew that she would make sure Bailey was checked out, settled, and absolutely okay before she ever returned to the lodge.