AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Detective Dick? Ha, that actually fits Sean pretty well. But instead of focusing on that and all the other important questions he probably should be asking, Bailey’s mind got caught up on the fact this was the second time Henri had admitted to dreaming about him after that night up in Oshkosh. “About that night of the wedding…?”
Henri eyed him closely. “Yeah?”
Bailey sat back in his seat and debated whether he was actually going to ask this. But then he told himself to just do it. Go ahead and finally ask what you’ve wondered about ever since it happened.
So he did.
“Why did you leave that night? Was it something I did?”
FOR SOMEONE WHO wasn’t used to opening up and spilling his guts, Henri thought he might just deserve a medal for the way he hadn’t up and bolted out of Bailey’s kitchen. But as he stared across the table into a face he was quickly becoming addicted to, Henri knew he would tell Bailey whatever the fuck he wanted to hear, just to sit with him a little longer.
But that brought him back to the question at hand: Why did you leave that night?
The simple answer was Priest. Henri had left because his ex-boyfriend had texted him and gotten under his skin. But how in the hell was he supposed to explain the complexities of his relationship with Priest to Bailey? Someone he was trying to…date?
Wasn’t that some kind of unspoken rule? Don’t bring up your ex too soon? Because no matter which way Henri tried his answer out in his head, it didn’t sound good.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?” Henri said. “It was a dick move to leave you like that. I’d want to know why too. But the answer is…complicated, and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
Bailey wrapped his hands around his mug and tapped his finger on the rim. “It was because of Priest, right?”
Shocked that Bailey had hit the nail on the head, Henri tried to think of the easiest way to sum up what he and Priest shared. “Truth, right?”
Bailey swallowed as though he wasn’t sure he liked that arrangement now, but nodded anyway.
“Then yes, it was because of Joel. But not because of some secret love affair or anything like that. He’s disgustingly happy with his husbands—plural now—and I’m happy for him. It’s just…we have a complicated history that’s messy and ugly and has been such a big part of my life that sometimes it’s hard to keep it in the past where it belongs, and that day was…difficult for me.” He thought about that for a second. “Hell, who am I kidding. That day fucking sucked. But then I ran into you, and you were like this, I don’t know, bright spot amongst all the dark.”
Henri raised his eyes, worried that Bailey was freaking out about the whole Priest deal, but that wasn’t the case at all. Surprise and pleasure was swirling in those blue eyes, and that expression made every word Henri had just struggled to say worth it.
“I don’t want to get into all that ex stuff now, not when we’re just starting out here. But I need you to know that me acting like a shit that night had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. Leaving you that night? It was one of my biggest regrets, and when I ran into you again, I knew nothing was going to get in the way of seeing you again. Even after I realized all the ways this was going to get…complicated.”
Bailey licked his lips. “Meaning my brother?”
“Your brother. The fact that you’re a cop and I’m—”
“A private investigator and CI for the Chicago Police Department?”
Bailey’s words were not wrong, but Henri couldn’t help but think his cop was missing the real point. It wasn’t quite as black and white as all of that.
“I was going to say: a guy with a rap sheet as long as your arm. You told me not to lie to you, but be sure you’re not lying to yourself too, okay? I know who and what I am. I have bridges, walls, and fucking moats between me and people like you—the good people. I have them there for a reason. Shit, maybe you should listen to your brother.”
Bailey said nothing, slid out of his side of the breakfast nook, and took his empty plate to the sink. After he rinsed it off, he leaned back against the counter and looked at Henri.
“Ask me out on another date.”
Henri smiled, and when Bailey continued to eye him, he slid out from the table and walked over to Bailey.
Henri took hold of Bailey’s waist, pulled him in close, and wrapped his arms around him. “When’s your next double off?”
Bailey looped his arms up around Henri’s neck. “Not tomorrow, but the night after.”
