Page 47 of Believing Bailey (Granton University 2)

I sent her a brief scowl for making it so clearly obvious because her saying it aloud ramped up the nerves in me until they were at hyper-fear. Then I turned down the dirt road to my farm.

Bailey straightened in her seat, looking around, not that she could see much, it was full night now, and a dark moonless night at that. “This is a dirt road,” she blurted the obvious, spinning in her seat to gape at me. “You live in the country.”

I didn’t answer. Her declaration didn’t seem like something that needed answering.

She blinked at me as if seeing me for the first time. “What did you say your dad did again?”

I hadn’t said. “He worked at an implement store, selling large farm equipment. He was there for twenty-two years.”

“Holy hell,” she breathed, still ogling me.

I glanced at her frowning. “What?”

But she only shook her head. “Nothing.” She shook her head one more time and went back to staring strangely out the window.

I turned my truck into our long driveway and started fiddling with my hat again. When Bailey glanced at me with raised eyebrows, I sneered irritably at her and dropped my hand, snapping, “I can’t help it, okay?”

She shrugged. “Then keep playing with it. Doesn’t bother me.” She said it simply as she leaned forward to peer up at our farm, where my parents’ two-story house rose from the top of a slight hill and the driveway wound a circle around it. “So bizarre,” she murmured.

“What is?” I asked, finding a good spot to stop and kill the engine. Pepper, our old collie, starting barking from around the corner of the house and I could barely make out his white and brown coat of fur darting through the night toward my truck.

Bailey blinked at him as if seeing a ghost. “It’s all just so strangely similar to my home. Two-story house out in the middle of nowhere, sitting on a hill. We even have a dog. Humphrey’s a Labrador, though.”

I nodded. “We had a cholate lab before Pepper. Her name was Sal.”

Bailey seemed dazed as he met my gaze. “Humphrey’s a yellow.”

“They claim those are supposed to be the smartest,” I murmured, not sure what else to say.

Pepper reached the truck and jumped up onto the driver’s side door. I heard his claws dig into the paintjob, and I began to cringe until I remembered, oh right, it didn’t matter. My baby was scratched all to hell anyway.

“Seriously, who are you?” Bailey blurted, making me raise my eyebrows at her.

“What do you mean?”

“The first night I met you, I took you for a preppy, rich city boy whose big, important daddy was probably paying your way through pre-med or something.”

I made a face. “Really? Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Because you…your…” She jabbed her hand my way as if her stuttering and fumbling motions made all the sense in the world. “And the fact you’re in a fraternity,” she finished, dropping her hand.

I grinned. She was so clueless it was actually cute. With a small shake of my head, I said, “You need to get out more.” Then maybe she’d learn not everything was so black and white or even so clichély stuffed into neat, recognizable little groups.

Poor Bailey and her preconceived notions about things.

Still shifting my head back and forth and unable to stop smiling over her utter naivety, I pushed open and door and jumped out to scratch Pepper under the chin when he planted his front paws onto my hip. “Hey, boy. I missed you.”

At least he was glad to see me, which reminded me where I was and what I was doing here. Suddenly sober again, I gulped and looked up at the darkened porch of my childhood home. I’m not sure how long I stood there, unable to move. But Bailey’s voice from next to me jarred me from my reserve when she said, “Well, hi there, big fellow. Aren’t you a friendly thing. Yes, you are.”

I glanced over to find Pepper loving on her, his paws nearly resting on her boobs, as she scratched him vigorously behind the ears.

“Pepper,” I reprimanded, grabbing his collar and pulling him off her. “Down. No jumping on visitors.”

“Oh, he’s fine,” Bailey reassured even as she dusted paw prints off her stomach. “He reminds me of Humphrey. Never met a human he didn’t love.”

“Yeah. That’s Pepper for sure.” I petted his coat, though my gaze strayed toward the h

ouse.

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