Loving Bailey (20 page)

“What can I get for y’all?” she asked,
setting the beers on slightly damp beverage napkins.

“Hey Marlene,” said Jake. “I’ll take a burger
and fries.”

“Same,” said Trace.

The woman turned without saying another word
and worked her way past the guy nursing a beer at the bar and
pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen.

“She’s a charmer, that one.” Jake picked up
his glass and downed half his beer before taking a breath. “Now,”
he said. “What did you want to know?”

Trace took a swallow of his own beer, feeling
foolish. Talking about feelings was so far out of his comfort zone.
Hell thinking of them was out of the zone. But for a minute, when
he’d talked to Jude, he’d believed it might be possible to be happy
with one woman. Possible to make her happy. If he could convince
himself it could be done, he wanted to try it with Bailey.

“Do you know any happy married people?” he
asked, hating the conversation already. “I mean happy
together.”

Jake snorted and Trace sucked down some beer,
questioning his decision to talk about love over lunch in a bar
which smelled like spilled beer and broken promises. He looked at
Jake grinning at him from across the table and rethought talking
about it at all.

“Never mind,” he said before he dug himself
in deeper.

“Oh no,” said Jake. “You’re the one who
insisted we go there, so let’s go there. You’re in love with
Bailey, aren’t you?”

Trace buried his face in his glass and prayed
Marlene would hurry with their food.

“I mean, I know you love Bailey. You have for
as long as I’ve known you but this is different.” Jake stared at
him like he was trying to puzzle something out. “You’re thinking of
marrying her, aren’t you?”

“No,” he said but the word felt like a lie in
his mouth. “I mean, we just got together. That would be crazy.”

“Fuck yeah. With anyone other than Bailey.
But you’ve already spent – what? – four years loving her. That’s
hardly overnight.”

Marlene came back with two plates piled high
with greasy burgers and even greasier fries. It sure as hell wasn’t
Bailey’s food, but what the Swan lacked in quality it more than
made up for in quantity. Trace drowned his fries in ketchup to cut
the grease and had just taken a bite when Jake asked the questioned
he’d been dreading. The one he didn’t know how to answer.

“So, are you going to ask her to marry you?”
Jake asked, biting a chunk out of his burger.

“I…well…fuck,” he said, picking up his own
burger while Jake grinned.

“That’s what I thought,” said Jake.

“Another round?” asked Marlene, stopping by
their table. The guy at the bar looked half-dead. She must have
decided they were her best chance at a tip for the afternoon.

Trace nodded.

“Marlene, darling,” said Jake, laying it on
thick. “What are your thoughts on love and marriage?”

“You’re kidding, right?” The woman stared at
Jake, one of her eyebrows arched so high it practically met her
hairline.

“Not at all,” said Jake. “Surely there must
have been a great love in your life.”

“Hell no,” she said with a snort. “Just two
ex-husbands. The first one left me with two kids and the second
left a pile of bills and all this.” She motioned around her at the
shabby tables and worn out chairs. “And I had to fight him for
that. Whatever love there was didn’t last long after I said I do.”
She shook her head, her sprayed and teased curls barely moving.
“Shit, it probably started to fall apart with the first ‘I love
you.’ He owned me then.” She shrugged off the memories and turned
toward the bar. “I’ll be right back with your beer.”

Jake drained the last of his beer and set the
glass on the table. “Might not have been the demographic we were
looking for.”

“You think?” said Trace, trying to forget
where she said things started to fall apart after she said I love
you.

“Forget what she said, man. She’s not
Bailey.”

Hell no, there was no one like Bailey. But it
was hard to forget the look in Marlene’s eyes when she remembered
the broken hearts and broken promises.

“So,” said Autumn when they were seated
around a table at lunch with fresh glasses of champagne. “How is
Trace? Did the two of you ever get together? Jude seemed to think
you were with him when he called Friday night.”

Bailey felt the smile spread across her face.
It was no use lying. Thinking about Trace had her grinning like a
fool.

“Ooh, or is it the writer who has you smiling
like that?” asked Taylor.

“It’s Trace,” said Bailey, trying to school
her face.

The table erupted in catcalls and whistles.
Only Rachel seemed less enthusiastic.

“Dish, dish, tell us everything,” demanded
Taylor.

“Another time,” said Bailey suddenly
uncomfortable with the scrutiny. “Today is about Autumn and
Jude.”

“God, no more, please,” said Autumn, leaning
back and smiling.”After your mother at the bridal salon, I’m
emotionally wiped out. I’d love to hear about somebody else, and
who is the writer?”

“Just some guy staying at the lodge,” said
Bailey.

“Some guy who likes her,” sang Taylor.

“It doesn’t matter. I l-like Trace,” said
Bailey, catching herself before she slipped and said love. Even
though it seemed truer every day, something in Rachel’s expression
made her hesitant to say it out loud.

“I’m glad you worked things out,” said
Autumn. “You guys seemed perfect for each other. But God, the trip
down the mountain each morning must be killing him. His farm’s at
the bottom, right?”

“Maybe they’re not sleeping together,” said
Summer, swatting her sister and looking playful and relaxed.

“Sorry,” said Autumn. “I just assumed.”

The women around the table continued to stare
at Bailey and she felt her cheeks heat. “We are,” she blurted out,
cracking under the pressure.

“I knew it! Tell everything. Now,” demanded
Taylor. “How is he? Thorough I bet. He seems very deliberate. Sex
is the one place where moving slow could be a real plus.”

“He’s good. It’s good.” Bailey felt the
undeniable grin again. Who the hell was she trying to kid? She
couldn’t keep anything private if Taylor decided she wanted to
know. “It’s better than good. God, he’s amazing. I can barely make
myself leave his bed. That’s why I was late this morning.”

The table erupted in squeals and laughter,
but Rachel still looked serious.

“His bed?” She finally asked when the other
women quieted down.

“He has to get up so early to supervise the
interns. We’ve been staying at his place most of the time.” They
hadn’t spent a night at her place, but she was the one who’d
insisted he take her to the farm. Although she wasn’t sure why she
felt the need to defend the decision.

“Wasn’t he involved with one of his interns?”
asked Rachel, pinning her with the look which closed deals and
negotiated terms that left the other executives wondering what hit
them.

“No,” said Bailey, offended at her sister’s
tone. “That was a misunderstanding. What’s wrong with you? I
thought you liked Trace.”

“I do like Trace.” Rachel’s face softened,
the ruthless lines easing from the gorgeous wicked queen into just
breathtakingly beautiful.

She was even scarier than she’d been as a
kid. It made Bailey glad she’d never had to sit across a board room
table from her. No wonder she’d been so successful. It didn’t look
like she’d accept anything less.

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt. I
mean, you’ve known him for what? Four years. And he never got
around to making a move until this other guy showed some interest
in you?” Rachel reached for her hand and Bailey fought the urge to
pull away. “It seems a little too convenient.”

Bailey took a swallow of champagne to give
herself time to think before she answered. Trace had explained why
he hadn’t wanted to take a chance on their relationship. He told
her about his parents and Anna and how he didn’t want to risk
losing her if things didn’t work out between them. She’d listened
at the time, but for someone who’d grown up in a family full of
love with parents who still adored each other, it seemed like a
pretty thin excuse. And Rachel’s comments mirrored Bailey’s
thoughts a little too closely for comfort.

“It’s not like that,” she said, finally
managing to move the words past her too-tight throat.

“Of course it’s not,” said Autumn, concern in
her gaze.

“We’re really only interested in the sex
anyway,” said Taylor with a laugh.

A handful of waiters brought plates of
dressed greens and bowls of bread, distracting the rest of the
women from Bailey’s love life. Bailey exhaled in relief, but before
she could take a bite of her salad, Rachel placed a hand on her
arm.

“Just promise me, you won’t say I love you
first. Make him work for it. You’re worth it.”

Bailey looked up in time to see the
previously quiet Summer nodding her head in complete agreement.

Trace pounded his fist into his pillow
desperate to beat it into a shape which would let him sleep. Or at
least work out some of his frustration. Bailey called earlier to
tell him she was going to spend the night with her family. He knew
she missed them, especially with things still up in the air about
her brother. Hell, she’d told him that she hated being so far away
from them, He didn’t understand it, but he knew it was true for
Bailey.

It didn’t change how much he missed her.

Christ, it hadn’t even been a week and
already he couldn’t sleep without her beside him. And on top of
everything, he’d gone ring shopping. He and Jake had gone fresh
from lunch at divorce hell to Blacksburg. He’d dropped Jake at the
bank to get change for the farmers’ market in the morning and he’d
made his way to the window at Fink’s Jewelers. He’d stared at the
diamonds, shining in the sun and pictured each of them on Bailey’s
hand.

He didn’t go in. He wasn’t that far gone yet.
And he wouldn’t ask her to marry him without talking to her father
first and he was still in Germany. For a moment he’d thought about
driving to Bedford to ask her brother and then he’d realized how
crazy that would seem. They’d known each other for years, but they
hadn’t even been together for a week.

Less than a week. Fuck.

He rolled onto his back and started to count
the vents on the ceiling fan. He was losing his mind.

And what made him so sure Bailey even wanted
to marry him? Just because he’d lost his mind and couldn’t imagine
living without her didn’t mean she be so quick to follow. He needed
a sign. Something to show him she was in as deep as he was. Because
God, he was in so deep. She was all he could think about.

On a normal day, Bailey was the sexiest thing
he could imagine, but helping Bailey discover sex was better than
his wildest fantasies. She wanted to try everything ,and she was so
responsive, he had to work hard to keep from going off like a
teenager. God, the first time she’d gone down on him, he thought
he’d die from the pleasure of it. Her small hands and hot mouth
sliding over him, taking all of him and then holding his hips, her
lips wrapped tight around his cock, when he tried to pull away
because he wanted to make her come first.

Bailey when she came was the most erotic
thing he’d ever seen and it still blew him away that he was the
only one who’d ever seen her like that. Her skin flushed and eyes
heavily lidded. The way her lips parted as she screamed out her
pleasure or almost better, in a whisper as she said his name.

Trace’s cock throbbed in response to his
thoughts, tenting the sheet tangled around his hips. He was never
going to get to sleep. He growled in frustration, finally giving in
and shoving his hand under the sheet.

He palmed his balls giving them a rough tug
and groaned at the sensation. Wrapping his fist around his cock, he
pictured the way Bailey had looked in his bed that morning. The way
she’d straddled him, sliding down on him one delicious inch at a
time until he was seated so deep inside her he could feel her
womb.

He stroked himself and pictured the way her
breasts bounced as she rode him. He’d reached for her, cupping her
breasts and pinching her rosy nipples and she’d cried out for him,
her head thrown back with gasps of pleasure. And when he slipped
his fingers between them, rubbing circles over her swollen clit,
she came apart, sobbing with her release, her body milking his as
the spasms went on and on.

Two more strokes and Trace filled his hand
with a release which counted as an orgasm but left him no closer to
being satisfied. Bailey was the only one who could satisfy him
now.

Bailey debated going to the farmers’ market
when she got back from her parents, but instead she opted to go
straight up the mountain. She told herself it was worry over the
restaurant and not anything Rachel had said that had her turning
away from the market and toward Seasons. They might not be busy,
but that was even more of a reason for Bailey to stay hands-on with
her restaurant. She couldn’t afford to pay her staff to do work she
could handle herself.

Trace could come up after he got done at the
market and she’d make him dinner. They could spend the night at her
place for a change. Not that it was a big deal, but she missed her
house. And not that it had anything to do with what Rachel said.
Rachel had to stay in Charlottesville because of work and Bailey
was determined to leave her insecurities about Trace there too.

She’d spent the night at her parents,
laughing and watching romantic comedies with Taylor, Autumn, Summer
and Summer’s little girl, Abby. After Abby had fallen asleep, the
four of them had talked about sex and men and more sex until they’d
fallen asleep laughing and exhausted. It had been exactly what she
needed and she loved spending time with the woman – women, honestly
– who she already thought of as sisters.