26. Bailey
bailey
. . .
The food stretches across the harvest tables like Rose is trying to feed an army.
Turkey carved onto platters. Bowls of stuffing and roasted vegetables.
Cranberry sauce that Thomas insists is better because he made it himself.
Fresh bread is still warm enough that steam curls when someone tears a piece open.
Lanterns hang from the barn beams just behind us, the sun slipping lower behind the mountains. The October air is colder than it was earlier, but the tables are full enough that no one seems to notice.
Jackson ends up across from me. He looks like he belongs here in a way that should feel strange.
A flannel shirt rolled to his elbows, resting casually on the table. His ball cap has been tossed beside him on the bench and he casually ran his hands through his dark hair and somehow it looks intentionally messy. Except he’s Jackson Reed.
You don’t become the kind of artist who sells out arenas and disappears into a harvest table unnoticed. And yet… somehow… he almost does.
Sadie is still staring at him like he might vanish if she looks away. I don’t think I have ever seen my sister star struck like this.
“So wait,” she says, leaning forward with both elbows on the table. “You actually slept on the tour bus bunks?”
Jackson smiles patiently.
“The whole month I toured with Bailey and for years before everyone knew my name.”
“I feel like that can’t be comfortable,” she insists.
“It depends on the driver,” he jokes with a wink.
Cole snorts quietly beside her. He could be jealous over his wife who is fawning over a man like Jackson. But he looks content, happy to bask in her joy.
Jackson glances around the tables, taking everything in slowly. The barn doors open behind us. The orchard stretches out beyond the lights. Rolling fields and mountains.
“This place is incredible,” he says finally. “I gotta ask… how have you managed to keep it secret?”
Thomas answers first. “Small town loyalty,” he says simply.
Rose nods beside him. “Most people around here watched Bailey grow up,” she adds. “And anyone who works on the property signs contracts tight enough to scare their momma’s.”
Thomas lifts his cider glass. “And Rachel is terrifying.”
A few people laugh.
Jackson looks at me. “And you just… travel under different names?”
“Sometimes,” I shrug. “Rachel handles most of it. Redirects anything that gets too close to the truth.”
He nods slowly, clearly impressed. “Smart.”
I don’t answer, because none of it ever felt smart. It just felt necessary.
Rose stands suddenly beside the table, tapping a spoon against her glass. The quiet spreads slowly as conversations pause. Thomas rises beside her, resting one hand lightly on the back of her chair.
Rose clears her throat. “I just wanted to say something before we get too deep into our most recent cider batch,” she begins.
She is trying for levity but her voice already sounds thinner than usual.
“Every year around this time I think about where we all started.” Her eyes drift toward me.
“A little girl who shined so bright even from a broken-down trailer.”
Heat creeps up my neck as tears prick the back of my eyes.
Rose keeps going. “And now look at this place. This land. These families we’ve built.
” Her voice wavers. “I can’t believe we’re all…
” She stops. Just for a second. Her dark blue eyes flick briefly across the table.
Across the empty space Luke would have sat.
“That we’re here,” she corrects softly. Her gaze settles on me.
“To my sweet girl. With sunshine in her veins and a heart of gold.” Emotion closes her throat. “Thank you for…”
She can’t finish. Thomas steps forward smoothly, lifting his glass.
“Well before everyone cries into the stuffing,” he says cheerfully, “I’ve got something new for you all to try.”
A few people laugh immediately.
“Cranberry cider,” he continues proudly. “It’s a seasonal batch and if all goes well will be in a local pub next month.”
Someone whistles, as Sadie claps, elbowing Cole saying he has to give her sip by sip tasting notes. Rose wipes at her eyes quickly, smiling again as the moment loosens.
Plates begin passing, and onversations pick back up.
Jackson leans slightly toward Sadie.
“So what names are we considering?” he asks.
Sadie lights up immediately. “Oh God. Too many.” She starts scrolling through her phone. “Maeve. Isla. Rowan. Cole hates most of them. Ohhhhh … Willow… Nate…”
Cole mutters something under his breath, but Jackson nods thoughtfully at every option..
He asks questions about her and the baby. About what I was like when we were growing up.
“Bailey always hated winter...” She laughs. What she doesn't say is that it was because it was so cold in that trailer. The snow sometimes made its way in through cracked seals. She continues, "But that was always my favourite season.”
And I know that’s because we used to sleep together to keep warm.
“Every season is your favorite season, Sadie.” Noah laughs.
Jackson listens like the story matters no matter who is telling it, I notice that.
I noticed a lot of things about Jackson Reed tonight that I’ve never noticed before.
Like the fact that he rarely talks about himself.
Like the way he asks Thomas questions about his business instead of mentioning his own success.
Like the way he doesn’t once bring up recording or the tour or what people are saying about us.
Not once.
Later, when the plates are nearly empty and the sun has slipped fully behind the mountains, people begin standing. Workers drift toward their trucks. Friends hug Rose goodbye.
Sadie suddenly claps her hands. “Ohhhhh we need a bonfire.”
Everyone pauses.
“Like the old days,” she adds quickly.
Noah grins. “Well I’m not saying no to that.”
Cole shakes his head but he’s already standing. People start clearing tables and moving to fulfill Sadie's desire for a fire.
Rose pats Jackson’s arm. “Let me show you where you’ll be staying before it gets dark.”
Jackson rises easily. “Yes ma’am.”
I slip away while everyone starts moving. I need to find Noah, I want to thank him again properly. The barn is quieter now. Lantern light swinging slightly overhead.
Voices carry from the far side before I reach the door. “…should have called someone.”
That’s Noah.
“He’s lucky no one got hurt,” Thomas replies.
My steps slow.
“What the hell was he thinking?” I don’t hear everything. Whispers mixed with anger and frustrations. But I do hear something that stops me short.
DUI.
I suck in a breath as I instinctively step forward into the light. Both of them turn immediately.
Noah swears. “Shit.”
Thomas exhales. “Bailey…”
“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” Noah says quickly. “Fuck I didn’t want you getting anywhere near this.”
My voice comes out steady. “Was he hurt?”
They both pause.
“No,” Noah says. “I don’t think so.”
Relief flickers through me before I can stop it.
“Dave’s handling it.” he adds.
“Yeah,” I whisper. “Dave handles Luke alright.”
The words taste bitter. Thomas steps toward me before the silence can deepen, before it can take root and poison this beautiful day.
“Come on,” he says gently. He takes my elbow and guides me toward the doors. “Let’s shake that off.”
The fire pit is already glowing when we reach it. Cole has the wood stacked high, with flames snapping up into the dark and people sitting around it on old benches and logs. Sadie looks radiant in the firelight, her cheeks flushed, hand resting on her stomach.
She sees me and immediately grins.
“Bailey!”
I drop onto the bench beside her. She looks between Jackson and me. “I know it hasn’t been officially recorded or released yet… But… Can you two sing "No Place I’d Rather Be?”
It feels like that song belongs to another life. Another version of me.
Jackson glances at me. “As long as Bailey wants to.”
Everyone waits. I feel the fire crackling beside us. The cold air brushes my cheeks. Sadie’s hopeful eyes.
I nod slowly. “Okay.”
Noah grabs a guitar immediately and Jackson reaches behind him for his. Cole surprises everyone by picking up the one I gifted him last Christmas, as Sadie squeals.
The first chord floats into the night, soft and somehow familiar. The sound settles over the fire like a memory. I close my eyes for just a second before singing.
“I’ve stood on a thousand stages…” My voice comes out quieter than it does on stage. Less polished. More… mine. “Sang through heartbreak, sang through healing…” The words feel different here, like a confession.
Jackson’s harmony slips in beside mine on the next line, low and steady. “Sang through every lonely night…”
It fits so easily it almost startles me. Like breathing.
The fire cracks softly in front of us. Light flickers across faces I’ve loved my entire life.
“When my voice was shaking…” I sing.
Jackson joins me on the next line. “You sang every word.”
Noah grins and strums louder.
“And when the world got louder…”
Jackson glances at me, his voice warm beside mine. “You were the loudest heard.”
Something in my chest loosens, as we move into the chorus together. “There’s no place I’d rather be…”
The words hang in the cold air for half a second. Everyone here knows that line. Knows where it came from. Knows the moment it shattered something between Luke and me.
For a heartbeat I feel it again.
That stage.
That video.
That moment the world watched my marriage break.
But then Sadie starts singing with us. “Than right here where you’re with me…”
Her voice is off-key and joyful. Cole chuckles and joins in. This song hasn’t been released, I shared it with them after it was written on that bus… But I didn’t know they learned it.
“Every voice, every heart, every memory…”
Noah adds harmony that is technically wrong but enthusiastic.
“Lighting up this melody…”
I glance across the fire. Rose has tucked herself into Thomas’s side. His arm wraps around her shoulders while she leans into his chest. She’s smiling. But there are tears shining in her eyes. She knows what that line cost me. What Luke and I lost when those words left his mouth. And yet…
She sings it anyway. Soft and proud. “There’s no place I’d rather be…”
Jackson lets the last note ring out on his guitar. The sound drifts out across the orchard. Across the dark fields beyond the barn.
Noah immediately launches into another progression.
“Alright,” he says. “Now that we’ve emotionally destroyed ourselves…”
Sadie laughs so hard she nearly chokes.
“Jackson! You need to sing for me!”
She points dramatically. “You have to play Broken Roads.”
Jackson chuckles. “Yes ma’am.”
He shifts his guitar and plays it without hesitation. Noah adds ridiculous harmony halfway through the chorus. Cole quietly strums along beside him. The music drifts out over the property.
Old songs follow.
New ones too.
Sadie requests another one of Jackson’s top songs. He interacts with her like he’s known her his whole life. Encourages her to sing along.
For a while…
Everything else fades. Sadie is laughing. Cole’s arm wrapped around her shoulders. Noah arguing about chord progressions. Jackson sitting beside the fire like he’s been here all his life.
Luke’s absence sits somewhere at the edge of the light.
Still there.
Still real.
But tonight…
Right now…
I am not letting it weigh me down.
And for the first time since Cole called me… For the first time in a long time.
I let myself feel something close to peace.