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“Of course,” he said, and Bailey looked up at the man who had raised her from the age of seven.Thirtyyears he’d put up with her, loved her, cherished her, forgave her, and worried over her.
She knew both of her parents prayed for her constantly as well, and it felt like someone had shoved a square, steel block down her throat. She swallowed and then tried to clear it away, all while Daddy waited and watched.
“I guess I have a couple of questions,” she said.
“Hm.”
“One, what time is church on Sunday? And if I met you there, would you save me a seat, so I don’t have to sit alone?”
“It’s at ten,” Daddy said, the words scraping his throat as they came out. He cleared it and said again, “It’s at ten. We go to that little white chapel on the corner of Main and Apple Street.”
Bailey nodded, because she knew where it was. They’d gone there as she’d grown up too. “It’s a long drive for me,” she said. “But I’ll be there.”
He nodded. “That’s great, Bay. What else can I help you with?”
She took a deep breath, because once she asked this question, she couldn’t turn back.
Of course you can,whispered through her head. She had gotten pregnant in college, and turned back from that. All kinds of things could happen between this question and her moving her clinic to Coral Canyon. Since Bailey didn’t like feeling trapped or caged or roped into something she couldn’t get out of, she had to tell herself that she absolutely could go back after she asked this question.
“You can say no,” she said.
“Maybe I will, if you’d ask me the question.”
“I’m wondering if we can sit down, me and you.” She looked over to the table where her mother sat laughing with Annie Hammond and Violet Christofferson. “Fine, my mother’s probably going to have to be there.” Bailey said. “I want to ask you about getting a loan.”
She blinked and pressed her eyes close together. “That’s not what I meant. I want to askyoufor a loan. I want to borrow money fromyou.”
He looked at her, his eyes wide and full of questions. Bailey nodded, fully committed now. “I want to borrow money from you to buy land and facilities for a veterinary clinic here in Coral Canyon.” She swallowed, the steel box completely gone.
“So I can move home.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
Tex Young pulled up to the park, starting to feel too old to show up this early and sit in the heat for hours before the main event.
“Daddy, I’m locked in,” Pippa said from the backseat, and Tex moved his eyes from the fray of cars out the windshield to the rearview mirror. He couldn’t quit attending the small town activities, because Pip was only eight years old. She deserved to experience all the amazing things Coral Canyon had to offer, such as these big concerts in the park, with a pretty amazing fireworks show once darkness fell.
“Daddy,” Pip said again, this time with plenty of sassy whining in her tone.
“Hold your horses,” he said to her. “We’re not even in a space yet.”
Abby turned back to her. “No one’s getting out, little lady. Just hang on.”
Pip sighed like he and Abby were deliberately holding her back, and to be honest, Tex felt like he was. He grinned out the side window, because out of his four kids, Pippa definitely had the surliest, sassiest attitude. She’d inherited a lot of hermother’s redheaded stubbornness, and Tex reached over and took his wife’s hand in his.
Finally, the line of cars pulling into the dirt lot moved, and Tex followed the waving arms of the parking attendants and flowed into the next spot beside the black SUV he’d followed into the lot. When he put the truck in park, the doors unlocked themselves, and he said, “There you go, Pippy-Poo.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said, and she swung her door open first. “C’mon, Mel. Help me with my chair, okay?”
“Please,” Abby reminded her.
“Mel, will you please help me with my chair?” Pippa stood in the doorway and peered up at her older sister.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” Melissa sighed too, but it was because she had to put down her book to actually do something. She slid out of the truck on Pip’s side while Carver got down on the passenger side.
Tex joined his kids at the tailgate and opened it, then started handing out the things they’d brought to help them be comfortable and entertained for the next several hours.
