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“He said he can send you money on the cash app right now.”
“He doesn’t need to do that,” Bailey said. “I’ll get it and bill him.”
“All right, see you soon,” Momma said, and Bailey let her hang up.
She told herself that if she lived here, coming home for a visit wouldn’t be such a big deal. Her parents wouldn’t stage enormous dinners and try to invite every single person they knew. It wouldn’t be an event. She wouldn’t be a novelty. They didn’t have to try to do everything in a day, or a weekend, or a week.
She drove past Becks Books on Main Street, her mind moving to Otis and Georgia Young and then, of course, their son, OJ.
She’d planned dinner at their house on Monday night, and then she was going to go horseback riding with OJ out at Bryce’s farm on Tuesday.
Again, if she lived here, she’d get to see them more often, and OJ wouldn’t feel like he had to text her about every little thing, or that he didn’t get to see her as much as he would like.
She was honestly surprised that he wanted to see her at all, but he’d inherited all of Bryce’s vivacious personality, as well as his forgiving heart of gold.
Thoughts of spending time with Bryce and Codi, OJ, and Otis and Georgia didn’t make Bailey as riddled with anxiety as they once had. In fact, they almost felt normal now. Commonplace. Like this was just her life…because it was.
She made it back to the luxury lodge after stopping to get Stockton his fireworks, and she found him waiting for her on the front porch. She pulled into the circle-drive where guests normally parked to unpack their baggage—not that Momma and Daddy had run Whiskey Mountain Lodge as an actual lodge in a long time.
“You’re going to have to come get it yourself,” she called as she opened the back hatch.
Stockton rose to his feet, a wide smile on his face. “Thanks so much, Bay.”
She stood and waited for him to approach. “What do you really want them for?”
He grinned at her. “Who says I’m not gonna do exactly what your momma said I’m going to do?”
She bumped him with her hip and grinned. “I do, because I know you. Who are you going out with?”
Stockton reached into the back of her car, where she’d had to lay down the seats just to get this enormous package of fireworks to fit.
“Her name’s Lana,” Stockton said as he backed up and pulled the long package out. “We’re going up to Silver Lake tomorrow with some friends, and I told her I’d bring some fireworks.”
“Oh,Lana,” Bailey said. “Is this someone we know?”
“It’s someoneIknow,” Stockton said. “And believe it or not, this is my fifth date with her.” He grinned at Bailey and headed toward his truck.
Bailey watched him go, shock moving through her. “The fifth date?” she called. “And you haven’t texted me?”
Stockton laughed but didn’t offer an excuse or a reason.
Bailey closed the back of her car and rounded it to the front passenger side so that she could start getting out the doughnuts. The tall door to the lodge opened and her mother came out, as did Aunt Lily.
“I brought reinforcements,” Momma said, and Bailey started handing out doughnut boxes, noting the difference between her family and the Youngs. She was the oldest of all the cousins, at thirty-six, with Stockton only a couple of years behind her, and none of them had gotten married yet. Meanwhile, the Youngs seemed to be getting married left and right, and she wondered what the difference was.
She picked up the last two dozen doughnuts, and turned and kicked the door closed with her foot before following her mother inside the lodge.
She suspected the Youngs were simply better at changing, at forgiving, and at doing what they needed to do in order to find true love. She felt like she’d been on this path for fifteen years and was finally coming around, finally morphing into the person that she needed to be in order to allow herself to be loved again—and to give that same care and attention to another person.
She’d barely entered the kitchen when the beeping of the public address system filled the lodge, and Patsy Hammond’s voice said, “The doughnuts have arrived. I repeat, the doughnuts have arrived.”
Chaos descended on the area, and Bailey practically threw the last couple of boxes on the table and backed up to the safety of the kitchen. They didn’t have tons of little kids anymore, but Daddy always invited the Hammonds to everything at the lodge, as well as a few close family friends.
He came to her side and said, “Thanks for going to town to get these.”
“Of course.” She leaned into him as he put his arm around her, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. So many things stormed through her as she watched the boxes get opened and the doughnuts get taken, chocolate milk poured, and little cups of peaches set on the table that no one touched.
“Daddy,” she said quietly. “Can I ask you something?”
