Page 43 of Coming Home to Maverick

“That’s excellent. I think this is gonna be the best Texas state fair showing we’ve had in years.”

“There’s just one more thing I gotta know.” Dylan raised his hand.

“Yes.”

“Just how long were you tangled up with Bailey before Nash came out to interrupt you?”

Maverick laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We were watching the moon rise.”

“We could always go watch the footage…” For a moment, his mama’s expression looked just as mischievous as Nash’s. Maverick understood how she got on with her youngest son so well.

“What footage?” Maverick cringed.

“The footage from the camera your daddy had installed up there when we were worried about critters. We used to scroll through the files, and let me tell you, we saw a lot more than critters up there.”

The brothers all turned to look at their mama with the same horrified expressions until she started to shake and held a hand over her face as she laughed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She waved her hand. “I’m just messing with you boys. But now I’m beginning to think I should have done just that.”

They each kissed her cheek as they turned to go, laughing off her comment.

“Good night, boys.” She waved them off to bed.

Maverick followed them, feeling happier than he had in a long time. Even the tiny voice inside that whispered things couldn’t be as good as they seemed was drowned out by the memory of holding Bailey in his arms.

Chapter 13

Bailey went home happier than she’d been since before leaving Willow Creek. Gracie Faith chattered the whole way home about the Dawson brothers and how funny Nash was and how Decker let her ride piggyback and that Grandma has yummy cookies and how she was so excited to have her very own piggy. And when she’d exhausted all possible topics, she said, “Mama, I really love Maverick.” She hugged herself. “My own baby piggy.” Then she sat up. “Can we go back and visit tomorrow? Please?”

“Of course.” Even though the thought made her suddenly giddy with excitement, she wondered if she could overstay her welcome at the Dawson ranch. “But maybe we should give the piggies time to be born and get used to their new surroundings before we start staring at them.”

She thought about it and then nodded. “Okay.”

They pulled up to the house.

Her mother wrapped an arm across her shoulders on the way into the house. “You and Maverick seemed happy.”

“We are, I think. We have some things to work through, but it’s nice just to be back together.”

“I believe it. It’s nice for all of us to see you like that.”

“When do you start over at the school?” Her dad held the front door open for them.

“I have training for a couple days, and then they want me with the students Monday of next week.”

“That’s so exciting.” Mom hugged her. “Everything is just so nice since you’ve come back.”

“I know. I wonder how long it can last. But then I remember it’s always been pretty great here.” She kissed her mom and dad and then headed up the stairs with Gracie Faith in tow. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

She was almost all the way up the stairs when her mom called up, “I forgot to tell you. Someone by the name of Daniel called.”

Bailey stopped and reached a hand out to the wall to steady herself. “What did you tell him?”

“Nothing. Just that you weren’t here. He asked about Gracie, seemed like a nice man.”

She shook her head. “Why is he calling me?”

Her mom looked from Gracie to Bailey’s face and then nodded. “I don’t know, but if you don’t want to talk to him, we can always block his calls.”

Bailey’s breath sounded ragged to her own ears. “I don’t know what I want right now.” She started walking again. “Except for bed. We both want to lie down on our pillows and go to bed, right, sugarplum?”

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