Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
MAX
As we entered Mum and Dad’s house for brunch, Toby loped over and slung his arm carelessly around Bailey’s shoulders. She winced, and I instinctively went to push him off, only stopping when I realized that manhandling him could hurt her too.
“Be careful,” I snapped, touching his arm so he knew what I meant. “She’s still healing.”
He lifted his arm off immediately, his eyes going big like a kicked puppy. “Sorry, Bailey. I didn’t think. I’m just so glad to see you out and about again.”
I wanted to snap that he never thought before doing things, but I took a deep breath and kept the hurtful words to myself. He hadn’t meant any harm, and Bailey didn’t seem particularly bothered by it, so there was no need for me to cause a fuss.
Summer appeared from the kitchen and gave Toby a playful shove. “Use your brain. I know you have one.” She turned to Bailey, took the bowl from her, set it on a cabinet, then wrapped her in a gentle embrace. “You look much better. Do you think you’ll be able to go home soon?”
Bailey darted a glance at me and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Uh, maybe. Probably not for a few days yet, but maybe later this week.” Her voice drifted up at the end, as if she wasn’t sure whether that was right or not.
“That would be fine,” I said, hoping I sounded calm even though my heart rate had picked up and I’d begun silently composing a list of arguments as to why she should stay with me for longer.
As soon as she left, I’d worry about her.
And miss her.
“Is brunch far off?” I asked, eager to fill the silence that had temporarily descended.
“It’s pretty much ready to go now,” Summer replied, picking up Bailey’s bowl of salad. She looked at me. “What have you got there?”
“Baked eggs.”
Bailey and I had spent the morning in the kitchen together, and I’d loved it more than I cared to admit. The two of us sharing the same space, doing something so domestic, fed dreams I had no business having.
We took our contributions to the kitchen, where Dad was just removing the bacon from the frying pan.
“Morning, all,” he called cheerfully. “Help yourselves.”
We filled our plates and headed out to the deck. The warm wind was just a little too strong to be considered a breeze, and fluffy white clouds floated overhead.
Nate, Grace, and Tess were sitting at a table with Heather and Connor, and Finn was cuddled on Grace’s lap. We exchanged greetings and took our seats.
“Has the officer watching us seen anything interesting?” Bailey asked Nate, speaking loudly enough to be heard from a few spots down the table.
Nate shook his head. “Not a peep.”
She fiddled with her cutlery. “Does that mean it’s safe now?”
He sighed. “We don’t know. I had an idea this morning, though.” He turned to me. “I remember you saying that Bailey’s memories should slowly come back, right?”
I nodded, although I was worried about where he might be going with this. So far, Bailey hadn’t come to me about any new memories, and I hadn’t pushed. With concussions, it was best to take things as they came. Struggling to overcome symptoms generally only made them stick around for longer.
“I’m guessing that it’s a bit like PTSD, and experiencing certain sights, sounds, or smells might bring them back faster.” Nate’s gaze shifted to Bailey. “Would you be up for going back to the East Ridge hut to see if it jogs anything loose?”
I dropped my cutlery with a clang. “Absolutely not.”
Nate’s eyebrows flew up.
“She’s still injured,” I reminded him. “She isn’t in any condition to go gallivanting around in the forest, and don’t even get me started on how traumatic it could be for her.
Yes, certain stimuli might trigger a reaction, but as with PTSD, it’s unlikely to be the kind of reaction you want.
You’re more likely to give her a panic attack than find anything useful. ”
A dozen pairs of eyes burned into me, and everything fell silent for a long moment. Apparently, I’d shocked them. God only knew why. Nate was the one who wanted to re-traumatize poor Bailey for the sake of solving the case.
After several painstaking seconds ticked by, Nate cleared his throat. “We’d wait for her to heal enough to get up there without hurting herself,” he said gruffly. “And we’d bring someone along for support. If the memories are going to come back anyway, she’ll have to deal with them at some point.”
I disliked the truth of his words.
“That’s no reason to rush her.” On this, I wasn’t budging.
Nate gave me a lingering look before turning to Bailey. “What do you want to do?”
Bailey glanced around, her eyes wide. “I, um, don’t really want to go back there.”
“Then you don’t have to,” I said firmly, daring anyone to disagree.
Nate still seemed baffled by the entire exchange.
“You could use a GoPro,” Toby suggested around a mouthful of bacon. “Someone else could walk up while Bailey watches the video feed.” When everyone stared at him, he shrugged and shoveled more bacon into his mouth. “What? I have good ideas sometimes.”
“It’s not the worst suggestion I’ve ever heard.” Coming from Nate, that was a ringing endorsement. “What do you think, Bailey?”
Bailey caught her lip between her teeth. “I wouldn’t have to go up there?”
“No,” Nate said.
“If it was too much, could I cut the feed?”
“Of course,” I assured her. If she became uncomfortable, I’d throw the damn screen out the window if that was what it took to soothe her. “But you don’t have to do anything. If this is too much, Nate will understand.”
Nate gave me a look that said he didn’t understand much right now and that I ought to expect questions later.
Hopefully he hadn’t read too much into my protectiveness of Bailey.
He was famously oblivious, and I was counting on that now, even if I suspected that some of the women at the table saw more than they let on.
“I’ll try.” Bailey speared a piece of tomato and studied it with more attention than it warranted. “I want to find them.”
“Great.” Nate clapped his hands briskly. “Connor, want to hike up there with me today?”
“As long as we’re back by five,” Connor replied, reaching for the tomato sauce in the center of the table and squirting it over his hash browns and eggs. “I have a shift monitoring the radio starting then.”
“No problem. We can be up and back by then, easy.”
I relaxed enough to eat my meal. I didn’t love this idea, but it was better than exposing Bailey directly to any triggering stimuli, and I’d be there if anything went wrong.
“We could set up the screen here,” Summer said. “That way, there will be plenty of people for support.”
But Bailey demurred. “That might be overwhelming. I’d rather only have a couple of people there.”
“I’ll be one of them. She might need medical assistance.”
Summer arched her eyebrow, and there was a smug little curl to her mouth. “Sure, Max. Sure. That’s definitely all there is to it.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “It is.”
She wouldn’t catch me admitting to anything else.