Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
Bright
I was probably the last one to arrive for Sunday dinner at Bayliss and Alisha’s house. Subconsciously, I scanned the room for Bailey. When I didn’t see her anywhere inside, I made my way to the deck. I already knew she went out there to preserve her social meter.
“I knew I would find you out here,” I commented as I slid onto the back deck. Her back was to me, and per the usual, she was staring out into the horizon at the mountains.
“Hey, Bright.”
Something about the catch in her voice instantly caused me concern. I made my way over to her, joining her at the railing. My hand settled lightly on her shoulder. “You good, Bae-Bae?”
“Not really,” she choked out, surprising me with her candidness.
I wrapped her in my arms with her back still to me. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Today’s the twenty-first. It’s the three month anniversary of Hart’s delivery day.”
“Aww shit. I’m so sorry.” I squeezed her tightly before turning her around and wrapping her up in a real embrace. “I’m so fucking sorry, Bailey.” She let me hold her for a little while longer before she broke the embrace.
“Thank you.”
“Let’s sit down.” I took her hand and led her over to the bench. The two of us sat there in companionable silence. The thought of her delivering her son, knowing he was already gone made my heart hurt like hell for her. That loss had to be devastating.
She took a deep breath. “Xander, you know that’s my soon to be ex, he won’t sign the divorce papers.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he changed his mind and still thinks we can work it out.”
“Do you think y’all can work it out?”
She cut her gaze to me. “Hell nah. He literally tried to shit on me on the day I held the memorial for my son. He chose the worst day of my life, the most painful day of my life, to shit on me. I could never want him again. I could never look at him the way I used to look at him. I could never trust him again or love him again.”
“How are you gonna get outta the marriage?”
“My attorney’s gonna file a motion for something called a default judgment.”
“As messed up as it is that he won’t sign, at least your hands aren’t tied. At least there’s something you can do.”
“Yeah. Thank God.”
“How long do you think the default judgment is gonna take?”
“No idea. Regardless of how long it takes I can’t sit in a holding pattern.
I’m gonna give the bed and breakfast about two more weeks, then I need to head back to Chicago.
I think it’ll be easier to facilitate all this divorce stuff and starting over if I’m at home.
Plus, I need to get back to work. I can’t afford to lose my job. ”
Hearing her talk about going back to Chicago made me feel some kind of way. “Damn, you don’t live here permanently, huh?”
“I do not.”
“We formed a little rapport. A little . . . homie-ship. Who’s gonna have midday picnics on my tailgate with me? Who’s gonna go running with me in the mornings? I’mma be getting my juice shot by myself. I’mma be out here on this deck every Sunday by myself.”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry. Maybe you can slide Perkins into my place.”
I gave her a blank stare. “Perkins is bossy. I don’t like her as much as I like you.”
Bailey gave me a grin. “Aww.” Before she could say more, Alisha walked out onto the deck with Bayliss right behind her.
“Mr. Wallace just called me, and I pulled this footage from the security camera at the house.” She turned the phone’s screen toward Bailey.
As the video played, I could see who I knew was Bailey’s soon-to-be ex-husband on a front porch having what I could only describe as a meltdown.
His face was scrunched into a mean looking scowl as he paced back and forth across the porch.
Every now and again he would stop pacing and press the doorbell repeatedly.
“I know you’re in there, you dumb bitch!
I see your fucking truck in front of the house! ”
The pacing, yelling, and pressing of the doorbell went on and on.
Finally into minute number four, the ex-husband went out of frame.
When he came back in, he had a garbage can hoisted above his head.
There was a collective “ahhhh” from both Bailey and me when dude hurled the garbage can at the plate glass window on the front of the house.
Luckily, the glass didn’t break. But the fact that he couldn’t break it seemed to infuriate dude even more.
A few seconds later he dropped the garbage can and turned his attention to something happening out of view and to the left of him.
“That’s when Mr. Wallace went out there with his shotgun and told Xander to carry his ass home,” Alisha explained.
Bailey shook her head. “I need to go home and deal with this.”
“Not by yourself you don’t. Let’s make a plan. When you’re ready to head back, Bayliss and I will go with you for a few days. I don’t like the thought of you there by yourself, Bailey Boo.”
“Xander’s not gonna do anything to me, Mom.”
Alisha eyed her. “You sure about that? I mean, I just watched him repeatedly throw a garbage can at my plate glass window. You think he’s gonna walk up and talk calmly to you?”
Bailey huffed out an aggravated sigh.
Alisha folded her arms across her chest and let her weight fall onto her back leg.
It was the battle of the attitudes.
“I know you’re a grown woman and I really do try to mind my business. I have stayed out of your marriage as much as I possibly could. But at the end of the day, even when you turn one hundred years old, you will still be my daughter. I’m concerned. This man is not stable. Keep that in mind.”
“Because I will kill that little nigga, Steppy.” Bayliss’s voice was gruff.
I watched Alisha and Bayliss walk back into the house.
“Can you please drive me back to Perkins’s?”
“We haven’t even eaten. I—”
She cut me off. “Can you drive me or not? I need to get out of here. I have a lot to think about.”
We drove to the house in silence. It was in my nature to always look on the bright side, but in this particular situation, I had nothing. I kept my mouth closed and let her think.
Before she got out of my pick-up, I turned to her and spoke.
“I’m not even gonna try to talk you outta whatever space you’re in mentally and emotionally.
You need to think what you think and feel what you feel.
You need the space to deal with whatever.
Just tell me if you still want to run in the morning.
Just because the 5k is over doesn’t mean we have to stop running. ”
“I still want to run. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The next day after we finished running and stopped by the Jackson Falls Juice Company for our post-workout juice shots, Bailey admitted to me that she didn’t feel up to doing manual labor at the bed and breakfast.
“Let’s do something else,” I suggested. “We can both go to our respective cribs and shower before we link back up.”
After showering and dressing for my day, I picked Bailey up and took her to one of the properties my company built.
It wasn’t the vacation villa she’d requested to see.
That place wasn’t ready to be seen. Instead, it was a property I’d completed at the first of March.
The owners were ready to open it as a luxury VRBO to rental guests for the start of summer.
“Is this the vacation villa that I’ve heard so much about?” Bailey sat up in the passenger seat of my pick-up as I pulled into the driveway of the eight bedroom, eight bathroom Goliath.
Though the house was ostentatiously large, it was a beautiful structure, if I did say so myself. “Nah. This house is actually named, The Best Western. I think the owner was going for laughs since the cheap roadside motel chain is called Best Western.”
She jumped out of the truck before my finger hit the button to kill the engine. “Let’s go see it.” She swung the door closed and headed up the sloped driveway to the door.
“Say,” I said once I caught up with her on the front porch. “I know you’re from the city and nobody has manners and shit. But up here, we open the vehicle door for women. Next time wait for me to open your door.”
She eyed me. “Ooh, not you checking me and making me feel like a lady at the same time.” We both chuckled before she continued. “Not to mention that you insulted my hometown, too.”
I pressed the numbers into the lockbox and sprung the door open. Bailey was inside in the blink of an eye.
“Ooh, Bright!” she yelled from somewhere in the home. “Come see this backsplash!”
I wanted to laugh at her telling me to come see backsplash that my guys had installed.
She didn’t even know how many times I’d seen that backsplash.
I helped the clients choose it, then I watched as the tile guys installed it because the client wanted a weird and unique pattern.
I had to supervise to make sure it was laid properly.
Still, I made my way into the kitchen to see the backsplash for the one millionth time.
Bailey and I went through the entire house the same way.
With her running into a new room and calling out for me to come look at some finish or upgrade that I had seen countless times.
I humored her, though. My purpose in bringing her to the home was to distract her from everything she had going on with the anniversary of the loss of her son and her ex being a clown ass motherfucker.
She deserved to act like a kid on Christmas opening everything they asked for.
If pointing out pretty things made her happy, I was there for it.
As I secured the house after the tour, Bailey surprised me wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her head in my back. I laughed before turning around and pulling her into a real hug. “What was that for?”
“Because you’ve been my bestie since I’ve been in Jackson Falls.
I came here so defeated and down. And every step of the way you’ve been this .
. . pushy little ray of sunshine. You’ve been determined not to let me stay in my funk.
You’re annoying, but you’re anointed too.
You have to have God’s favor on you because I do not do things I don’t want to do.
And for some reason you can get me to do things I don’t want to do. ”
I grinned big as hell as I released her. “Damn, I’ve never been called anointed. You willing to say that in front of my mother and my brothers?”
She laughed. Her hand found its way inside of mine and her expression turned serious. “Thanks, Bright.”
I matched her expression. “You got that, Bae-Bae. Now let me feed you because I know you’ve gotta be hungry by now.”
“I’m starving.”
I watched her walk down the sloped path toward my truck, her ass swaying rhythmically with each step. Her soon to be ex-husband had to be the dumbest nigga alive. To fumble a bag like Bailey? You had to be on some whole other shit.