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Xander slowly nodded. “So says anyone who’s ever been in love.”
“What?” Bailey’s mouth fell open, and he shook his head. “No one said anything about being in love.” At least not out loud.
“Bailey, how long have we known each other?”
Bailey swallowed. “Our whole lives.”
“And when was the last time you went anywhere other than to me when you needed someone to lean on?”
Bailey thought back to the last time he’d felt so incredibly helpless: the night he’d lost his parents, and the day after, when he found out the man he’d always looked up to had turned out to be anything but the hero everyone celebrated.
Xander had been there through all of it. He’d been the sanctuary Bailey had sought out to help him weather the storm. But not this time, and it wasn’t until Xander pointed it out that Bailey realized the significance of what that meant.
As he searched out Xander’s gaze and locked on to his familiar face, Bailey couldn’t explain it, but his vision blurred and his heart ached a little. God, what the hell is the matter with me?
But when Xander winked at him and said, “Hey? It’s okay, Bay,” Bailey knew. This was the end of something here. Not that they were anything other than friends at this point. But when Xander sat forward and reached for his hands, Bailey knew their relationship was once again shifting, and so did Xander.
“Does he feel the same way about you?”
“I…I think so?” Bailey said. “He asked me to go away with him for a couple of days.”
Xander’s eyes widened, and then he squeezed Bailey’s hands. “You did say yes, right? I mean, I know you probably think you should stay in case they need you for more questions, but Bailey, you—”
“I said yes.”
Xander’s lips curved into a seriously deviant smile. “Okaaay. I like this guy already if he has you saying yes to impromptu sex vacations.”
Bailey shoved Xander in the shoulder. “It’s not a sex vacation. He’s taking me away to get my mind off everything that happened.”
Xander fell back into the couch and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, okay. But it’s also an I’m into you in all the ways kind of vacation.”
Bailey got to his feet and shook his head. “And suddenly I’m regretting telling you anything.” He stepped around the couch and headed to his bedroom.
“Aww, don’t be like that. Where you going?”
“I have to pack.”
“Wait,” Xander said. “When are you leaving on this little vacation?”
Bailey looked to the clock on the wall, and then back to Xander, who was now getting to his feet. “Tomorrow morning, but he’s picking me up in about three hours.”
“Well, aren’t you full of surprises tonight, Officer Bailey?”
Bailey supposed he was. But just like the rest of today, he wasn’t going to overthink it. From the second he’d shown up on Henri’s doorstep, to right now, as he walked into his room with Xander to pack a bag so he could disappear and regroup with his lover, Bailey realized he’d never felt so sure about anything in his life.
He loved Henri Boudreaux, and he was done keeping that to himself.
Chapter Sixteen
CONFESSION
I hope he’s feeling even a tenth of what I am.
Then I know I stand a chance of making him love me.
BAILEY STARED OUT the window of the car that had met him and Henri at Sangster International Airport the next day, and still couldn’t believe they were in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He kept expecting someone to pinch him, and he would wake up and see that he was still back in Chicago, where the temperatures were steadily dropping and his career was on temporary hold.
But as the car kept going, flying by the luxury resorts and a pier with a massive cruise ship docked at it, they got farther from the airport and there was no mistaking it: they were definitely on an island—one that was getting more secluded with every minute that passed.
When they finally came to a stop in front of a pier that had several speedboats moored to each side, Bailey noticed that not far from them were a score of overwater bungalows, completely off the island with only a walkway between them.
“Is that where we’re going?” Bailey asked. Because wow, he’d never seen anything like that in person before, and the idea of spending a couple nights with Henri in one of those? He couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be.
“Nope,” Henri said, as he led them down to the pier away from the bungalows. “I said we were vanishing. That means just you and me, officer. You worried?”
Hardly. In fact, that sounded like heaven. “Nah, I’ve seen you in a boxing ring, remember? I can take you.”
Henri turned. “If my memory serves me right, we didn’t finish that match, and when we got home, I took you.”
