Chapter 24
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Bailey McAllister knew where to park at Bryce’s ranch. She’d been here a few times before, and she eyed the row of pickup trucks warily as she parked way down on the end of them.
Thankfully, she was the closest to Bryce’s house, and she half expected to see him coming down the back steps and jogging across the lawn to greet her. He’d done that before, but today, the ranch sat silent and still, with the noonday sun shining down on all of it.
Winter had definitely arrived in Wyoming, the same way it had in Montana.
All the trees had been stripped bare of their leaves, leaving only the pale brown branches reaching up into the winter sky.
The fields had gone dormant, the grass had turned yellow, and yet Bailey found such beauty in the absence of color.
Soon, snow would come and blanket everything in white, and Bailey didn’t mind that either.
She got out of her SUV and went around to the front of the house.
Someone had taped a sign there that said, don’t ring the doorbell, just come in, and she hoped it hadn’t been placed there just for her.
She felt uneasy simply walking into someone’s house, but Codi and Bryce had just brought their new baby home yesterday, and Bailey wanted to be respectful.
She hadn’t wanted to come see the baby at all, though it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened to her.
After Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, she looked at the duck that OJ had talked to her about and diagnosed it with a wing sprain.
She told him just to watch it and not let him fly for a few weeks, and then the duck would probably be fine.
From there, OJ had started showing her pictures of Matthew, and he said they were coming out to Bryce’s ranch for lunch today, and she should come too.
Bailey had a very hard time telling OJ no, and so she’d made the drive from her family ranch up the canyon from town all the way up the Apple Highway to Rising Sun Ranch.
She leaned in close to the door, hoping to hear a loud party environment beyond, then she could disappear into the sidelines, and it wouldn’t be a big deal that she’d come. She didn’t have to hold the baby. She could smile and coo at him from afar and then get her favorite soda on the way home.
She opened the door, and while she could hear some talking coming from the back of the house, where Bryce had a big living room, a dining table and chairs, and a kitchen, she didn’t hear the rowdiness she normally did when the Youngs got together.
He’d told her that they were expecting a lot of people that day.
Apparently, Joey’s new boyfriend, Adam, had arranged for horseback riding for him and Joey, and several of Bryce’s uncles had attached themselves to that party.
They’d gone over to Kassie’s, but Bryce said they’d be back for lunch, and they all wanted to see the baby too.
He said his parents would be there, as well as Otis and Georgia, Harry and Belle, and Kassie and Reggie.
She stepped up into the house and found Kassie sitting on the couch. “Oh, hey, Bailey,” Kassie said. She’d balanced a plate with a slice of pizza on her very pregnant belly, and Bailey blinked.
Her vision changed from Kassie on the couch to herself in that same position.
So, so pregnant, barely able to get on and off the couch, and so miserable.
She’d lived in her parents’ basement for the last few months of her pregnancy, the weight of so many lives and so many decisions and so many consequences on her shoulders.
“Hey, Kassie,” she managed to rasp out.
“Baby, you want a cola?” Reggie asked as he poked his head into the living room. “Or lemonade?”
Kassie made a face and shook her head. “Neither. Both of those will give me heartburn; just water is fine.”
Bailey smiled at her. “Everything I ate or drank in the last trimester gave me heartburn.”
Kassie’s face brightened. “Really?”
“Totally.”
“Codi never got heartburn,” Kassie said. “I swear she’s kind of like a robot.” She laughed, and Bailey smiled.
Harry and Belle came around the corner with their pizza, and Harry said, “Oh, Bailey’s here,” and moved right over to her and hugged her as if they were old friends.
She clung to him for a moment, because Harry Young had been instrumental in a huge part of Bailey’s healing.
He hadn’t known it at the time, but he’d taken one of the most significant pictures of Bailey’s life, and she loved him for it.
“How are you?” she asked. “Done with your concert series?”
“Done with everything,” Harry said. “Belle and I are getting married in a month or so, and we’re writing songs for Nashville.”
“Of course you are.”
Bailey glanced over to Belle. “I’m not sure we met at Bryce’s wedding.”
“I don’t think we did,” Belle said, casting a quick glance to Harry. “It’s great to meet you.”
“You too.”
“There’s pizza and salad in the kitchen,” Harry said. “They’ve got heaters out on the deck, but I guess I’m more of a diva than I thought, because that’s too cold for me.” He chuckled and moved over to the couch in front of the window that faced Kassie.
Bailey nodded and continued her solo journey into the kitchen, where she found the dining room table full of uncles eating pizza. “Bryce,” Otis said when he saw her. “Bailey’s here.”
She found Bryce in the kitchen with Joey, Adam, and Anaya. He handed the plate to the little girl, and then lifted his eyes to Bailey. “Hey, you made it.” He moved over to her and gave her a quick one-arm tug. “Codi is feeding Matthew right now and then she’ll bring him out. Come eat.”
He made it seem so natural that she was there, though she wasn’t part of this family.
“Hey, buddy,” she said to OJ, and he grinned at her, pure glee radiating from him.
“Momma thinks that she might have to go pick up another cat.”
Bailey smiled and shook her head as Georgia called, “I told you that was a maybe,” from somewhere behind her.
OJ picked up a piece of cheese pizza. “I know, but I can still be excited about it.”
She loved that he loved animals and that he’d been given a mother who did too. She collected a piece of pizza and turned to face the rest of the house, wondering where in the world she should sit.
“Over here, Bailey,” Joey called, and she and Adam had gone into the living room and sat on two-thirds of the couch. She nodded to the place next to her. “I saved you a spot.”
Relief and gratitude filled her as she went past everyone at the table and said, “Hello, hey, hi,” until she managed to sink into the couch next to Joey. She’d only taken one bite of pizza when Codi came down the hall with the baby.
Joey sucked in her breath, shoved her plate at her boyfriend, and jumped to her feet. “Oh, baby raccoons, there he is,” she said. “Can I have him first?”
Codi grinned and passed the little boy to her. Joey glowed with a soft white light as she gazed down at a tiny bundle in her arms. She moved back over to the couch and sat down, sinking into Adam’s side carefully. He put his arm around her and balanced both of their plates on his lap.
“Look at him,” Joey said, her voice soft. “He is so beautiful.”
She looked up at Adam, and Bailey had no idea how long they’d been dating, but they sure seemed close. Her heart ached for that kind of closeness, for someone who knew her so well and wanted to take care of her, who knew what was important to her and made it important to him too.
Joey ran the back of her finger down the side of Matthew’s face, and the baby simply gazed up at her with eyes made mostly of pupil. Bailey had had very little experience with newborns, at least of the human variety, but she blinked and her reality glitched again.
This wasn’t her baby that she had just delivered and gazed down on before she gave him away, but she remembered OJ’s newborn eyes all the same.
She expected the pain to crash over her like a tidal wave, pinch through her heart, and make her breath come in gasps, but it didn’t.
She finished her piece of pizza and dusted her hands together while conversations and laughter surrounded her.
Then, seeing as how she was the only other woman in the room besides Georgia and Codi, she looked at Joey and said, “Can I hold him just for a minute, and then I’ll go. ”
“Of course,” Joey said, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
Bailey knew it wasn’t, and she knew that God had given every member of the Young family a heart made of gold and marshmallow.
Joey transferred the tiny baby into Bailey’s arms, and she gazed down at him as well.
He squirmed and grunted, and she smiled and shushed him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
She wasn’t sure if all the conversations around her had stopped, or if everything in her mind had simply silenced to be in the pureness of this moment. “You are a beautiful baby,” she said, and she could see the same sloped nose in Bryce’s son that she saw in OJ.
Matthew had wispy white hair across the top of his head while remaining bald on the sides, and Bailey smiled at it as she whisked her fingers through it gently.
“You got a lot of hair here, bud. What are you going to do with all that hair?”
The baby blinked in a slow way, as if he were the robot.
Bailey leaned down and pressed her lips to his delicate forehead.
She’d been stitching together pieces of her life for a while now, and she felt like she’d done a good enough job to live her daily life without the massive and crushing regret, guilt, and shame she’d once carried.
She looked up and found both Codi and Bryce sitting on the love seat kitty-corner to her. Their eyes locked on her and Matthew. “He is wonderful,” she said, her voice tightening and pitching up at the same time. Tears flooded her eyes, and she suddenly remembered the card that she’d brought.
She stood and passed the baby to Bryce. “I have something for you, and then I need to go.”
“You don’t need to go, Bay,” he said.
Codi, who’d surely put up with the irritation of having Bailey in Bryce’s life, looked at her as well. “You really don’t,” she said. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”
Bailey nodded and fished the card out of her purse. “I’ll just leave it here for you,” she said. “For when you’re not so busy.” She set it on the entertainment center across the room from them and turned back to face the love seat.
“I do have to go. I’m picking up some meat for my mother from the smoke shop up here, and they close soon.”
“All right,” Bryce said, and he transferred Matthew back to Codi’s arms.
“I’ll take him,” Georgia said, and she she squeezed herself into the end of the love seat where Bryce and Codi sat.
Bailey went to get her paper plate, so as to not leave any mess behind for Codi, but Bryce took it from her and tossed it on the table. “Let’s go out the back.”
“I don’t need you to walk me out,” she said.
“It’s fine.” He opened the door and went in front of her.
“Your whole family is here,” she said as she joined him on the back deck, and she pulled the door closed behind her. “He really is beautiful, Bryce. I’m really happy for you and Codi.”
“Thank you.” Bryce smiled at her as she joined him at his side. “I know it’s hard for you to come, Bailey. You don’t have to feel like you need to.”
“OJ invited me,” Bailey said with a sigh.
“And you know I can’t tell him no.” She gave a light laugh.
“Heck, I diagnosed a duck for him yesterday, and every injured and abandoned animal that comes into my clinic, I think first of telling him about them. I know he would take them all, and nurture them back to health, and love them.”
Bryce chuckled. “He sure would. That kid loves animals.”
Bailey’s throat tightened, and she watched the branches sway in the wind. “It was good for me to see Matthew,” she said to the sky. “I’m getting better, Bryce, I really am.”
“I can tell.” He looked over to her. “How long are you here?”
“I leave tomorrow,” she said. “It’s a long drive, and I stay overnight in West Yellowstone.”
“Sure,” Bryce said, his gaze stuck on the mountains in the distance too. “You ever think about coming back to Coral Canyon?”
Bailey hugged herself, though the afternoon sunshine lent warmth to the cold air. “All the time,” she admitted. “All the time.”