Page 86 of Bailey

Bailey pulled away and grinned at him, though she still harbored a little bit of anxiety in her expression. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” he said. “Plus, I’ve been gone all week, and I showered up nice, and you’re the prettiest woman in the world.” He shrugged one shoulder. “We don’t need to hide. Let’s just go to dinner.”

“All right,” Bailey said, and Reeves took her out to his truck and made the drive to Devil’s Tower. He’d heard about the restaurant, of course, but he’d never eaten there. It wasn’t a place the him-before-Bailey would’ve ever chosen.

Too many people. Too many eyes. And no one to go with anyway.

At least one dozen people milled about inside, and Reeves had to dodge his way to the hostess stand, where he said, “Reeves Durham. I had a reservation for two at six-thirty.”

“Yes, sir,” the woman said without even looking at him. It wasn’t really women Reeves ever worried about anyway, but men and teenagers. She found his name on the list. “Yes, we have a table for you.” She glanced up. “Your party is here?”

“It’s just me and her,” he said, indicating Bailey at his side.

“Oh, hi, Doctor McAllister,” the woman said, a smile spreading across her face.

“Hi, Bonita,” Bailey said. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

“Just on weekends,” she said. “My cousin owns the place, and he’s in between people right now.”

“Well, that’s good of you to help out,” Bailey said.

Bonita looked at Reeves again. “I didn’t know you were seeing someone.”

“Yeah,” Bailey said. “This is Reeves Durham. We’ve been seeing each other for…I don’t know, a couple of months now.”

“Four months,” he said, because the night he and Bailey had spent together because of the rain would never leave his memory.

Bonita grinned, and Reeves heard the telltale whispers behind him that someone knew who he was. He stiffened automatically, then told himself to relax. He wanted to be here, and he didn’t have to acknowledge them just because they’d started talking about him.

On his camping trips, he had quite a bit of downtime in between filming and cooking, and he definitely spent some time on social media in the past six days, watching how the Youngs interacted with their fans. He wanted to be grateful that he had fans at all, and he’d been reminded more than once that those fans supported his lifestyle and made it possible.

“Let me have Devon run and check on your table,” Bonita said. “Give me just two minutes, okay?”

He nodded and turned around. Sure enough, a man stood there with two others, and a teenager joined them, all four of them gaping at him.

“Are you Reeves, the Teton Mountain Man?” one of them asked.

Reeves painted a smile on his face. “I sure am,” he said, and he kept one hand in Bailey’s while he reached to shake hands with the other.

“I knew it was him,” a second man said. “It’s the long hair, even though he’s wearing that cowboy hat.”

Bailey shifted her arm up into his elbow and held it tightly. He glanced over to her, and then looked at the men. “My girlfriend and I are here for the first time,” he said. “What do you think we should get?”

“Well, I’ve been here before,” Bailey said.

Reeves chuckled, and it sounded a little forced to his own ears. “I guess it’s just my first time.”

“You’ve never been here before?” the teenager asked.

“I’m just now getting out of my comfort zone,” Reeves said, and he noticed two of the men exchanging a glance.

“We’ll leave you alone,” one of them said. “It’s great to meet you. My son and I have watched all your fishing videos.”

Reeves chuckled and nodded. “Thanks,” he said. “Though I can’t believe those are the ones you watch. They’re definitely not my most popular ones.”

“My favorite are the ones where you build the snow forts,” the teenager said.

“Yeah, those are great,” Reeves said. “A ton of work, but they’re actually pretty warm inside.” He surveyed the group, about out of questions. “Do you guys do a lot of camping?”