Chapter 41 #2
“Well, if you just want to hunker down….” She left the sentence there, because it sure sounded like he simply wanted to get home and shut himself away from the world again.
Bailey stood and rounded her desk, easily settling herself onto Reeves’s lap. “Tell me what’s going on in your head.”
“I’m sorry, wildflower,” he said. “I hope they don’t put two and two together and realize you’re my girlfriend and this is your clinic and start bothering you.” He said all the words in a rush, and Bailey took an extra moment to sort through them.
Bailey really hoped that wouldn’t happen either, but she wrapped her arms around Reeves’s shoulders, glad when he did the same and pressed his ear to her heartbeat.
“I’m really glad I’ve never been on camera with you,” she said, and he pulled away and looked up at her. “I know you’ve asked me a few times, and I’ve kind of always put you off, but I don’t want to be recognized.”
A bolt of fear moved through her. “Actually, I’ve lived in small towns my whole life, because that’s the life I want,” she said. “It’s quiet, and it’s private, and it’s just mine.”
He nodded.
Bailey leaned her head down and touched her forehead to his. “That’s the life I want with you, Reeves. Me and you, and our families, and our friends. I don’t need the world to be bigger than it already is.”
“I know,” Reeves said. “I want that too.”
Bailey swallowed, because for the first time since she started dating Reeves, she wondered if there was room inside his life for her.
The camera took up so much space, and he’d invited in so many through the lens of it.
He was so good at being himself outside of his videos, and she didn’t want her relationship with him to become content for his channel.
“So you’re okay with me never being on camera?” she asked.
“Of course, I am,” he said.
She nodded, though she sensed something disquiet in him. Perhaps he was simply frustrated with this morning’s situation.
A knock sounded on the door, and Bailey practically jumped out of Reeves’s lap.
“Doctor McAllister,” a man called, and she turned and took the two steps to the door and opened it.
“Yes,” she said, coming face-to-face with a police officer.
“We’ve got those men out of your lobby now, ma’am, and I’m wondering if you have time to write up a statement for us.”
Bailey looked at him blankly, then opened the door wider and positioned the doorstop in front of it. “Sure,” she said. “But I never actually met them.” She stepped back and gestured toward Reeves.
“This is my boyfriend, Reeves Durham, and he said the men followed him from the swap meet, to the Sip and Stay, to here. He came back into my office and told me the story, and I called the police.” She cleared her throat and flicked a look over to Reeves.
“He’ll probably be a better one to make a statement.
And, of course, my front office staff had to deal with them as well. ”
The man nodded. “My partner’s getting their statements.” He looked to Reeves. “It would be great if I could get yours.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Reeves said, though he sounded exhausted.
“I’ll give you the office,” Bailey said, and she smiled at both of them. “Really, Reeves, we’re ordering lunch today for the office, and I can add something to it for you.”
“All right,” he said. “You know what I like.”
Bailey reached out and shook the officer’s hand. “It’ll probably be forty-five minutes. Will you and your partner still be here? I’m happy to order in for you as well.”
“Oh, no, ma’am, that’s fine,” the officer said. “I can’t imagine we’re going to be here that long.”
She nodded, and she stepped outside as Reeves asked, “So, they just left?” She pressed her back to the wall, because Reeves’s voice had taken on a clipped quality, and she wanted to hear what he said.
“Yes, sir. We told them if they came back here, we’d issue them a trespassing citation.
We told them that they can’t be following citizens around Coral Canyon.
” Her chair squeaked as the officer clearly took her seat behind her desk.
“I think I know why they were following you. You’re the Teton Mountain Man. ”
Bailey pushed away from the wall and walked down the hall, sure she had other tasks she could do somewhere while Reeves gave his statement to the police.
Her stomach felt like someone had knotted it into a bow, because she’d moved to Coral Canyon and established her veterinary clinic to be closer to her family and finally have a normal, average, small-town life.
Tears crowded into her eyes, and Bailey turned left and went outside the doggy daycare drop-off door, and hurried to her car. She could text Leslie to get the lunch order in and wait to face Reeves until her emotions had settled.
She got behind the wheel and started the car, so the air conditioning would blow. Then she sighed and looked up toward the ceiling. “Why did I have to go and fall in love with the one man who looks like he has the normal, average, small-town life, but actually doesn’t?”
And the bigger, scarier question Bailey couldn’t say out loud: Could she be with Reeves if it meant giving up her dreams of that idyllic mountain life?