Page 79 of Believing Bailey (Granton University 2)

Floundering because he was out of words, I grinned and said, “It’s hard for you to accept help, isn’t it?”

He deflated. “God, yes. You have no idea.”

I chuckled and patted his cheek. “Well, suck it up, buttercup. Because I’m here until you’re one hundred percent again. You better get used to it.”

Chapter 26

BECKETT

I offered to drive my truck, but Bailey insisted we take her car. I’d never thought of myself as one of those macho manly men before who always had to be in control and do the driving, but riding shotgun with her behind the wheel made me distinctly uncomfortable.

Or maybe that was just because she was a freaking insane driver.

“Holy shit,” I gasped, holding onto to dashboard with one hand and my chest with the other as we narrowly missed getting t-boned by a dump truck at a four-way.

“What?” She sent me a harassed glance. “It was totally my turn.”

“No.” I shook my head, still seeing my life flash before my eyes. “No. I really think it was his turn.”

“Was it?” Her brow wrinkled with confusion before she shrugged. “Oh well. Whatever. We lived. Relax already.” She patted my thigh, and my muscles tensed for an entirely different reason. I don’t think she noticed how high up on the leg she was touching me. Just a couple more inches to the right and—

No. I needed to stop being such a dog and thinking that way before we reached her dad’s place. If we arrived. I wasn’t yet convinced we’d actually make it in one piece. According to Bailey, we were only halfway there, with another hour of driving to go.

When she jerked the steering wheel in order to swerve into the lane of oncoming traffic and pass the car in front of us, I gulped and took my eyes off the road, not brave enough to watch. When we made it back into our lane alive, my fingers relaxed marginally around the oh-shit handle.

Needing a distraction, I turned to her and said, “Tell me about your family. What’re we going to be walking in on? Will all four brothers be there?”

“Yep. I mean, I think so. I know my married brother Braiden and his wife, Donna, will be there, since they’re bringing the turkey and stuffing. My oldest brother Brock makes pumpkin pies like nobody’s business, so if he isn’t around, I’ll just find wherever he is and drag him home by the ear.”

I chuckled at that, while Bailey finished with, “We can only hope Booth and Blaine won’t be there, but they still live at home, so I doubt we’ll be so lucky.”

“You have two older brothers who still live at home?” I started to wonder if I’d be the type who could return to the nest after college, when it struck me afresh: I was no longer welcome home, and I no longer attended college, so all my pondering was moot.

Something akin to grief overwhelmed me. It swirled through my chest with a tight, achy hopelessness until Bailey’s voice pulled me from the soul-sucking vortex.

“It’s not quite as lame as that, even though they’re both totally lame. They actually work for my dad on the farm, so they’re more like live-in hired hands than lazy, freeloading grown children, even though grown children is exactly how I’d describe them.”

I glanced at her, clinging to the light she provided at the end of my tunnel of pain. I don’t know how she always did that. Just when I started to feel lost and disheartened, she said or did something practical yet quirky, and I was once again okay. She was my path back to reality, and she didn’t even know it.

“You sound like me describing my sister. It was totally fine for me to call her an annoying pest, but I always wanted everyone else to think respectfully of her.”

When Bailey sent me a confused glanced, I grinned. “I didn’t mean to insinuate that your brothers were lazy freeloaders, and I’m sorry it came out that way, but it was a super kickass sister gesture of you to set the record straight, anyway.”

She blinked, and a second later, dismay lit her face. “Oh my God, I did jus

t totally defend those two assholes, didn’t I?”

With a laugh, I nudged her arm. “It was sweet.”

“Sweet?” She looked even more horrified than ever. “That’s even worse.” Pointing a threatening finger my way, she growled, “If you ever tell them I said something nice about them, I will cut you.”

I lifted my hands, unable to stop chuckling. “Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”

She sniffed right before her shoulders slumped. “I mean, of course I love my brothers. I just don’t…”

“Want them to know that,” I finished for her. “I totally get it.”

Bailey glanced at me, and I could see in her gaze, she knew that I did. But that seemed to confuse her. Her eyes narrowed slightly as if she couldn’t trust whatever connection we had between us where we actually understood each other.

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