Page 51 of The Grump

Even though I had no idea where Avery lived, even I knew that was a poor excuse.

“Riiight.” Now Bailey was openly laughing. “And I’m sure it’s totally on Xander’s way.”

“I’ll take care of Bailey.” I put an arm around her shoulders.

Avery seemed to relax, and she smiled at us. “Have a good evening. And thanks a lot for coming here with your brothers.”

Once everyone left, Bailey locked up, and I led her to my car.

After we got in, I asked, “Are you hungry?”

“You didn’t see me stuffing my face with pralines when we were working?”

“No. When did you even do that?”

She winked. “I can be sneaky if I want.”

“But you didn’t have to be.”

She shrugged. “Are you hungry?”

“No, I’m good.”

“How was your evening with Bella?”

“You really want to talk about that?”

“Yes, please. Just take my mind off everything.”

I grinned at her. “I still have a better idea about how to do that.”

“Yeah, but you can’t kiss and drive, okay? So start with a story about your beignet date.”

On the drive to her house, I told her about my conversation with Bella—leaving out the part where she asked me if I wanted to move in with someone. But I did tell her about Bella’s question about Scarlett.

“Oh, that sweet girl,” Bailey said as we neared her house. “It must be hard to have such a strange relationship with your own mom. I can’t imagine.”

“You’re close to yours?” I asked.

“Yes, very. She and Dad were always there for us. They worked a lot, but we didn’t feel abandoned in any way, or like they didn’t care about us.”

She’d picked that up about Sarah from the little I’d told her. It still bugged me how nonchalant she was about her owndaughter. At least it was good to know I wasn’t being overly judgmental when it came to her.

“I can’t believe we’re here already,” Bailey said.

“Yep. Your Uber driver got you here as fast as possible.” When I turned off the engine, I got out of the car at the same time as she did and walked with her to her front door.

“Want to come in?” she asked.

I swallowed hard.

Every fiber of my being wanted to go inside with her. I’d been obsessing about it for the past few hours, but I knew it wasn’t a good idea.

“Not smart.”

“Oh, right.” She laughed nervously, turning around. “My bad, sorry. I’ll just go in.”

“Bailey.”

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