Chapter 6
CHAPTER
SIX
Bailey headed back down the hall when she heard the sound of Reeves’s footsteps. He’d already gone around the corner into the living room, and she joined him, a hint of anxiety stretching through her.
“It started snowing,” she said.
Sir had just jumped up onto the couch, and Reeves pointed to it before Pansy did the same. “Really?” he asked. “I was just out there, and it was still rain.”
“It literally just started,” she said. “I was standing at the window, watching.”
His jaw tightened, but he remained silent as he moved over to a set of built-in shelves and collected a blanket.
“We’ll probably lose power if there’s snow,” she said. “I’m surprised we haven’t lost it yet.”
Reeves nodded in agreement, and that somehow validated Bailey’s nervousness and set her at ease at the same time.
“I’ve got plenty to keep us warm,” he said, facing her fully. “Blankets, pillows. My bedroom has an electric fireplace, and I’ve got a wood-burning one downstairs, though I don’t think we should go back down there.”
“A smaller space would keep the heat confined better,” Bailey said.
Reeves nodded, his lips pursing just the tiniest bit. He didn’t say much, but he certainly knew how to take care of himself and survive in cold weather, Bailey knew that.
“I’ve got generators, Bailey,” he said. “We don’t need to worry about the power going out.”
Relief rushed through her, and she sagged one shoulder into the wall beside her. “Really?”
Reeves nodded. “I’ve got a bank of them in the garage,” he said, turning away from her now and returning to the couch. “I can turn on the parts of the house we want. And while there’s no thermostat up here, we can easily plug in a space heater in your bedroom, and I’ll run my fireplace.”
Sufficiently comforted, Bailey started toward her spot on the couch. Reeves handed her a blanket as she passed him, and she’d just reached the sofa when the power went out. A cry flew from her mouth of its own volition and Bailey couldn’t have stopped it even if she’d wanted to.
Reeves sighed, but in the resulting darkness and the rising panic in the back of her throat, she couldn’t tell if the noise was meant for her reaction or simply the fact that he now had to get up again and go back downstairs.
He stood with a groan. “Can I leave the dogs with you?”
“Of course,” Bailey said, blinking rapidly to try to get her eyes to adjust to the lack of light.
“I’ll go look at all the generator connections and get power back on up here.” A moment later, the blue-white glow of the flashlight on his phone filled the loft, and though it was only mid-afternoon, hardly any light came in from the windows behind the couch where he’d been sitting.
Bailey watched him leave, not exactly enthused to be left upstairs alone in the dark, even with his two dogs with her.
She wasn’t sure what she expected to happen without him—a burglar to jump out of the closet?
Reeves had one of those in the hall, and Bailey had opened it to see what was inside: the usual towels, and linens, neatly folded and organized, and extra body wash.
He seemed to have everything in straight lines, and be rational and hardworking, but as Bailey had stood at the window in the bedroom he’d given her and looked out over the back of his farm, she’d acknowledged silently to herself that she didn’t know him very well.
He could be the burglar hiding in someone’s closet, and now she was stuck here with him.
She sat on the edge of the couch and picked up her phone to text her administrative assistant and her mother once again to make sure they knew where she was.
Satisfied that if no one ever saw her again, they’d be able to tell the authorities that Reeves Durham was the last person she’d been with, Bailey turned her phone over and set it on the armrest of the chair.
Several long minutes passed before the welcome hum of electricity filled the air, and the lights sprang back to life. Bailey breathed out, not realizing how tight her chest had become until that moment.
Pansy lay at her feet, but Sir stood in the doorway, his head almost around the corner, looking downstairs for his master.
“Sir,” Bailey said, and the dog turned toward her. “Come on over here.” She smiled and waved the dog forward, and he trotted over to her, his whole body wagging. She grinned at him and took his face in both hands as she leaned down and smiled.
“He’s coming right back, I promise.” But her eyes darted to the doorway too, especially now that the lights had come back on but Reeves hadn’t returned. He did a couple of minutes later, and now he carried a space heater with him.
“I’m going to put this in your room,” he said. “And get my fireplace going.”
“It’s only three-thirty,” Bailey said.
He’d already started down the hall. “I know,” he called back, and Bailey certainly couldn’t keep him out of a room in his own house.
He walked past the loft again and down the hall toward the opposite side of the house, where he stayed for a few minutes before returning to her.
He looked at her, a smile coming to his face when he saw her with both of the dogs crowded at her feet.
“Are you guys being greedy?” he asked.
Pansy immediately abandoned Bailey in favor of Reeves. She stayed on the floor as he sat down, only jumping on the couch when he invited her. He looked at Sir and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, are you going to stay over there?”
“He can.” Bailey scooted back on the couch and settled into place, lifting the footrest and then patting the couch for Sir to come up and join her. The boxer did, and he circled and leaned his whole weight into her left side. She lifted her arm and put it around him, grinning at the dog.
“Why do big dogs always think they’re lap dogs?” She turned her smile on Reeves, glad to find him wearing one too.
“I don’t know, but you’ve opened the door for him now,” he said. “I should’ve warned you how far he’ll go if you let him.”
“I don’t mind,” Bailey said. “He’s just a big teddy bear.”
The lights flickered for a moment, and Bailey thought they’d go out again, but they roared back a little bit brighter before settling into a normal wattage.
Reeves lifted his footrest too, and he ran one hand through his hair and then down his beard as he leaned back into the reclining chair and closed his eyes.
Bailey’s doctor heart wanted to diagnose him, and a couple of questions filled her mouth before she swallowed them back.
She’d already asked too many of him, but he hadn’t turned the TV back on or even picked up the remote.
Bailey had been in therapy for years and had learned that silence didn’t have to be hostile.
It still made her a touch nervous, and she swallowed and watched Reeves openly.
“If you have something to say, you can just say it,” he said, his mouth barely moving.
“I was just wondering if you’re going to fall asleep,” Bailey said.
His eyes opened, and he turned his head slightly toward her. “I don’t think so. It’s just nice to rest my eyes.”
She nodded. “Do you sleep well at night?”
“Sometimes,” Reeves said. “What about you?”
Bailey shook her head. “If I want a good night’s sleep, I have to take pills or those THC tea drinks. Do you know about those?”
“No,” Reeves said.
“Of course, I can’t drink them here,” Bailey said.
“As cannabis is illegal in Wyoming, but I drank them for a while in Montana.” She sighed, her muscles relaxing slightly back into the cushions beneath her.
“I mean, it feels like a lifetime ago, but there was nothing as relaxing as that, and I could sleep for hours after drinking one of those.”
“So it’s a drink with cannabis in it?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I used to live a very different life.” She heard the ghosts of such a past wafting through the words she’d spoken, and she wondered if he had too.
Flashes of Bailey’s past—her with dyed-black hair and partying every night of the week—flashed through her mind in short, clipped scenes.
“I wouldn’t drink them now, even if they were legal,” she said. “I don’t drink at all anymore.”
“Good for you,” he said softly, and it sounded like he genuinely meant it.
“Now I just take a simple, over-the-counter sleep aid,” she said. “If I’m really tired and just need to shut off my brain for a few hours. I have a hard time doing that sometimes, as my mind just goes a mile a minute.”
“I understand that,” Reeves said.
She supposed he might. Just because he lived in a million-dollar mountain mansion didn’t mean he was immune to such things.
Her phone on the armrest beside her buzzed, but Bailey made no move to pick it up.
She quite enjoyed the comfortable silence between them, even as the seconds ticked by, piling on top of one another.
“Bailey?” He phrased her name as a question, and she lifted her head and opened her eyes to look at him.
He held her gaze, his expression soft, open, and vulnerable for only a moment before it hardened and he hid behind the tough cowboy mask he’d perfected. She didn’t have time to analyze and categorize it, but she got the distinct feeling that there was more to Reeves than he let anyone see.
“I’d go to your friend’s wedding if you’d like me to,” he said.
“Really?” Bailey hadn’t meant to put so much hope in her voice, but she heard it ring through the room between them.
“If you’d like,” he said. “Why do you want me to?”
Bailey swallowed, trying to find the right thing to say that wouldn’t make her look pathetic, or lonely, or afraid.
“It’s just so hard to go somewhere alone when everyone else has someone with them,” she finally said.
“I wouldn’t really know,” he said. “I don’t go places.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. I don’t really go out much.” He dropped his head and focused on Pansy, stroking her in a way that told Bailey the dog calmed him.
“You don’t go out at all?” she asked.
Reeves shook his head. “No, not really.” He looked up at her again, a new challenge in his expression that Bailey definitely recognized.
“How do you get groceries?”
“Delivery.”
“Gas?” she asked.
“You don’t have to talk to anyone to fill your car up with gas.” He gave her a smile that lifted the right side of his mouth more than his left.
“So you’re a recluse,” she said.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said with a quiet chuckle. “I like the hermit lifestyle.”
Somehow, the word “hermit” was softer than “recluse,” and actually made her feel better, even while it would make getting to know him harder.
While Bailey had started off this day saying she’d like to be friends with Reeves, the humming in her belly told her that she’d actually like to be more than that.
“I haven’t dated in a long time,” she blurted out, having no idea where that confession had come from.
Reeves’ eyelashes fluttered, but he didn’t blink fully. “Me either,” he said, the words followed by him clearing his throat and shuffling the blankets around as if he couldn’t quite get them where he wanted them.
Bailey recognized his tell of nerves, and while she wanted to reassure him, she also couldn’t quite believe they were having this conversation at all. An idea bloomed in her mind.
“I’m sure I’ll have more help than I need to clean up the farm once the rain and flooding subsides,” she said. “I could send my friends and family over here to help you.”
Her voice pitched up on the last word, almost making it a question, and she raised her eyebrows, clearly asking Reeves if he would be comfortable with that.
His jaw hardened, and his eyes seemed to grow darker. The transformation only lasted a moment, and then he softened again. “Maybe,” he said, and Bailey knew that was more than he normally agreed to.
“You have a lot more land than I do,” Bailey said. “And we have no idea what condition it will be in once this storm passes.”
He stroked one hand down the side of his face. “You’re right about that,” he said.
“Getting help doesn’t mean you can’t do the job yourself.”
Reeves picked up the remote. “Well, let’s see how it goes.”
Bailey noted that he still hadn’t committed to anything, but he also hadn’t shot her down outright.
She hadn’t confirmed the wedding date with him, but something told her to leave it for now, that they had time to come back to this conversation later.
After all, Boston and Cora’s wedding wasn’t for another couple of weeks.
As Reeves found a movie and set it to play, Bailey once again relaxed and closed her eyes. She couldn’t quite believe she was even considering dating again, but she drifted to sleep with that happy idea in her mind.
She woke when Reeves picked her up, and she gasped, startled.
“I got you,” he whispered, his voice immediately at her ear and sending pleasant rumbles through her neck. “Just relax, I’ll get you to bed.”
His voice sounded husky and loud, though he’d spoken in a whisper. Bailey let her body curl into his chest as he walked her down the hall and laid her in bed. He tucked her in, and Bailey kept her eyes closed as she hummed and murmured, “Thank you.”
“Sure thing, wildflower,” Reeves whispered, and then the lightest touch came against her forehead.
In the semi-conscious state Bailey was in, it took her several long moments to realize he’d kissed her.
Then the soft click of her door sounded, and Bailey lost the battle to unconsciousness once again.