Chapter 43 #3
She’d been sitting with the idea of being Reeves’s wife for a while now. The mother of his children. She’d been slowly imagining a life with him, and she honestly couldn’t stop building it in her mind.
So what if he was famous? He could handle it—and so could she.
Her phone buzzed again, and Bailey sighed a wistful sound out of her mouth as she lifted the device again.
This is Cecily Young, a new text said. I just wanted to thank everyone for their love and support and all the prayers for Jerry. His blood work has come back normal—that’s right, normal!—and it’s a complete miracle.
Tex: Well, he’s still in kidney failure, Momma.
Cecily: Yes, but we have a plan for that. Through all the tests and hospital stays, and that one surgery, we’ve finally found the true cause of it, and I’m grateful for that too.
That is good news, someone said, and others piled on, some of whom Bailey could identify, and some she couldn’t.
Part of her wanted to add every number to her contacts list, and another part of her shrank back from the idea in horror.
Let them love you. The words entered her mind, and she knew she needed to answer all their good news and try to come up with some of her own.
Cecily: They’re going to start prepping him for dialysis, so that if and when that becomes necessary, he’ll be ready.
Joey: Yay, Gramps! So glad the blood work is normal.
Her appearance on the Good News Thread caused a Young family uproar, and Bailey giggled through every message from her aunts and uncles, all of them wishing her the best and telling her to get off her phone and enjoy her newborn.
This is Bailey McAllister, she typed out, her arms starting to ache from how she held her phone above her body.
The hammock swayed gently in the breeze, and she’d need to get home soon to let Hydrangea out.
Then they’d come back here to feed the chickens and goats, and Bailey would then need to figure out dinner too.
She wanted to tell them all that she was in love with Reeves, but she didn’t want him to find out via text.
No, she just wanted him to hurry home to her, where she’d tell him face-to-face.
Where she could look him in the eye and express that she’d be at his side whenever someone tried to follow him home.
Where she could kiss him and assure him that she knew she belonged with him, and that he’d protect her by turning off the camera anytime she wanted him to.
She couldn’t believe it had taken over two hundred texts from the Youngs of all people for her to find her way through her complicated feelings about Reeves.
And yet, it had.
This is Bailey McAllister, she read, and then she continued typing.
And I love your big family. My good news is that I found and applied for a rural animal outreach grant, which if I get it, will fund large-animal emergency supplies and better equipment.
I’ll take any prayers that I can get it, and if I do, I’ll start the Good News Thread next time.
She grinned at the message, and though her emotions quaked at the thought of actually sending it, she dropped her thumb to the arrow button and off it went.
I’ll pray for you, Bay, Bryce said, and her heart filled with love.
Same, same, Harry said.
Luke: I’ll get my whole family on it. The boys love praying about animals.
OJ: Bailey, you’re so going to get it! Your clinic is the best.
She hadn’t even realized the boy was on this thread, but she shouldn’t have been surprised.
We love you too, Tex said. Abby and I and the kids will pray you’ll get the grant.
This is Wade Ingalls, and I’ll pray for that grant. I need you to come look at my cattle, because they need all the help they can get.
Georgia: <3 <3 <3
Otis: I hear nothing but good things about your clinic, Bay. Congrats on applying for the grant.
Bailey read through the many messages as they continued to come in, all of them proclaiming their love for her or acknowledging that they’d pray for her. As she watched, she realized that this love and this support had existed for much longer than she even knew.
From the moment she’d told Bryce about their baby, in fact. She hadn’t felt it then, and she hadn’t known it existed, and yet…it had. She knew now. She’d felt it before, and it flowed freely through her again.
Tears formed in her eyes and tracked down toward her ears. She wiped them quickly—and dang near fell out of the hammock when Reeves said, “Good, you’re still in the hammock.”
She dropped her phone to her stomach and lifted her head to find her handsome cowboy toeing off his cowboy boots. He grinned at her as shock kept her mute, and then he crowded right into the hammock with her.
He took her phone and tucked it into his back pocket as he eased her into his embrace. “You applied for the grant?”
“Yes,” she managed to say right before he touched his mouth to hers. He kissed her as passionately as ever, albeit in a slow, almost carefree way too.
When he pulled back, she asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to lay in the hammock with you.”
She smiled up at him. “So you came back?”
“No.” He leaned closer, his lips catching on hers as he said, “I came home.”