Page 21 of Bailey

Reeves swung his attention back to her. “Do you want to come in?”

A hint of that surprise crossed her face, and she seemed to be considering it. Then she shook her head. “I don’t think I can,” she said. “We had another emergency come in after you, and this one required surgery, so I need to read over my files for tomorrow, and I’ve still got Rabbit and Milky Way to take care of tonight.” She yawned and reached up to run her hands through her hair, which he realized she’d loosed from the ponytail she’d had it in earlier that day. “I’m tired, and I just want to go home.”

“I could’ve come and gotten Sir,” he said, a frown pulling down his eyebrows.

She smiled at him and stepped up onto the threshold of his house. He didn’t back up, and in fact, slid one arm around her waist to hold her close to him.

“I know,” she whispered. She looked up at his cowboy hat and then slid her hand along the side of his face in a cradling action.

Reeves had not been touched by a woman this intimately in a very long time, and every cell in his body sang with warmth and anticipation.

“I can’t wait until tomorrow night,” Bailey said. Just as quickly and easily as she’d stepped up into his house, she stepped down, pulling her hand away and easing out of Reeves’s hold. “See you tomorrow at seven.”

“Yeah,” he said dumbly.

She turned, crossed his front porch, and went down the steps while he stood there and watched, not having enough brain cells to do more than that. When the door of her SUV slammed, Reeves blinked and jolted back to reality. He quickly closed the door, lest she find him still standing there like a fool.

He went into the kitchen where, sure enough, Sir was still crunching his way through dinner. Reeves needed to eat too, but instead of starting to cook something for himself, he pulled out a barstool and sank onto it, then lifted his hand to his face and held it there the same way Bailey had.

He hadn’t canceled on her and didn’t even want to, so now all he could do was hope that a small town café and a short hike to a field of wildflowers would impress her enough to agree to a second date.

CHAPTER

TEN

Reeves had not texted anything specific about what Bailey needed to wear or not wear on their date that night. So she wore a skin-tight pair of blue jeans and chose a pale blue blouse with tiny white butterflies all over it to match. She’d always looked good in blue, she knew, as it really brought out her eyes and made her hair shine like gold.

She’d just finished tying the pair of sneakers that she’d used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on to get back to bright white when her doorbell rang. She clapped both hands on her knees and pushed out her breath.

“This is it,” she said to the cold fireplace in front of her.

Her first first date in five years. She felt ready but also incredibly nervous, and she hadn’t told anybody about this dinner with Reeves—not her administrative assistant at work, not her mother, not even the best friend she’d left behind in Butte.

She didn’t think the date would go poorly, but for some reason she didn’t want any expectations about having to report about it to anyone. She simply wanted to enjoy every moment of it, and let it be what it was going to be.

She snagged the sweatshirt she’d laid over the back of the couch as she passed it to open the front door. In that brief moment of time, with anticipation pulsing against the back of her tongue, she wished she had cameras on her front door the way Reeves did. Then she’d be able to see the handsome cowboy and what he was wearing. But she didn’t, so she’d have to have her first impressions of him on full display.

The door swung open and Reeves stood there, a plentiful bouquet of wildflowers in one hand, and his other tucked into the pocket of a pair of dark-wash jeans that made Bailey’s mouth water. He looked up from the flowers, and it took an extra-long moment for his gaze to clear the brim of his cowboy hat—one that Bailey had not seen him wear before. Of course, the man could own dozens of cowboy hats, and she wouldn’t know. He’d trimmed his beard shorter, which caused Bailey to smile, and his whole face lit up, including those slate-gray eyes, as he returned her grin.

“Evening, ma’am,” he drawled like a proper cowboy gentleman.

“I didn’t know what to wear,” she said as she gripped the doorknob with her right hand and lifted one foot. “I hope sneakers are appropriate.”

“Completely appropriate,” he said. “We’re just going to be walking on a flat path out to a river and an overlook. It’s maybe a third of a mile.”

“So you did plan an outdoor date.” She gave him a mock glare, hoping he could hear the playfulness in her voice.

He shook his head, his expression falling back to something more somber. “Not entirely,” he said. “I found a great diner on the highway up toward Rusk, and it claims to have the best pie this side of the Mississippi.” He quirked his eyebrows. “I figured we should at least try that and see if it holds true.”

Bailey grinned at him and leaned her weight into one hip. “That is a bold claim,” she said.

“Right?” he half-laughed and half-spoke. “And then, since it’s a diner and surely won’t take long, I thought we’d take a little walk and see the early wildflowers and catch a glimpse of Coral Canyon at night.”

Bailey’s pulse settled back to its normal rhythm. “That sounds perfect.”

The tension in Reeves’s shoulders disappeared, settling them down an inch or two. “I got these for you.” He extended the bouquet toward her.

Bailey beamed at the bright orange, yellow, and pink blooms. “Did you have these delivered?” she asked as she stepped out onto the porch and reached for them.