Page 92 of Bailey

“We’re doing five desserts?” Momma asked as she forked off a bite of the multi-layered chocolate cake with deep, dark, chocolate frosting.

Bailey nodded. “Yes, the buffet we chose has five dessert spots.” She looked at Ronnie, and then Reeves. “It shouldn’t be too hard to come to a consensus on five. Right, boys?”

Bailey only smiled and dipped her spoon into the closest dessert to her—banana pudding—because she knew this was going to be a drag-down fight.

A couple of hours later, Bailey ducked under the same fence rung that Reeves had, then reached for his hand. “Thanks for coming to do that.”

“Of course.” He looked over to her and pressed a kiss against her cheekbone. “It almost came down to a fistfight over the desserts, but it was really fun.”

Bailey sighed into the twilight quickening around them. Her momma and Ronnie had left a couple of hours ago, and she and Reeves had been working in her garden, which he’d tilled for her and helped her plant. She really did want Hydrangea to meet Sir and Pansy, and they’d just crossed from her property to his to make the walk next door.

She prayed that he’d make her coffee and hold her on the couch in his loft, and they could talk more about marriage and kids and their life here in Coral Canyon.

“I really like your family, Bailey,” Reeves said, his voice barely louder than the crickets starting to chirp.

“I’m glad,” she said. “Would you invite your dad down here for anything?”

Reeves didn’t immediately object, but a storm rolled across his expression. “I don’t see why I would.” He sighed, and it didn’t sound happy. “I’ll probably just invite my best friend and maybe his parents, if anything big were to happen.”

“Like a wedding.”

“Yeah, wildflower,” he whispered. “Like a wedding.”

They strolled along his well-kept roads while Bailey enjoyed the night around her. “My life is so different now,” she said.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yes, so much better.”

His house came into view, and Pansy came tearing down the back steps of the deck, barking. Hydrangea started barking as well, and Bailey quickly pulled on her leash and kept her right at her side. “Hey, you’re fine,” she said. “Hush. No barks. You’re fine.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Reeves said, and he took a couple of steps in front of Bailey to slow Pansy down. He got the blue heeler to calm, and he made her lay all the way down before he turned back to Bailey.

“All right, you may meet her now.” Bailey brought Hydrangea forward to greet Pansy.

Sir’s more booming barks sounded in the night beyond them, and Bailey bent to pick up the little white dog she was fairly sure she would adopt. As Sir came bounding in, he jumped up on Reeves, who pressed against his chest. “No, you don’t get to do that.”

He got his boxer calmed, and with both of his dogs sitting after being so clearly excited to see him, Bailey allowed Hydrangea to go meet them. Much sniffing ensued, and Bailey stood there and grinned at the canines. “They like each other,” she said.

“Looks like they’ll get along just fine.” Reeves grinned at her. “Maybe I should do some dog-training videos.”

Bailey smiled at him, though a pinch ran through her chest. They rarely had a conversation where he didn’t mention something about a video he could make, and while Bailey normally didn’t mind, she still didn’t really want to be in any of his videos, and she was glad he’d stopped asking.

“Hey, did you ever get in touch with Luke?” she asked.

“Uh, no,” Reeves said. “He texted earlier today, but I was out on the tractor, and I didn’t reply.” He pulled out his phone as they started a slow stroll along the edge of his backyard. “Yeah, here it is,” he said. “He said he’s planning a camping trip with some of the older male cousins, OJ included, and he’d love to have me come along and teach the boys how to start fires and cook.”

“That’s great,” Bailey said.

“Yeah, let’s see….” He slowed to a stop as his attention remained on his phone. “He says school starts August seventeenth, and he was planning to go out the first weekend. It would be the second.” He looked up at Bailey, the glow from his phone illuminating his face. “Would that work for us?”

Bailey sure liked that he was checking with her, and that there was an ‘us’ between them, but it also sent a sting of surprise through her. “Reeves, it’s your schedule. If it works for you, it’s fine.”

“Okay.” He started tapping out a message for Luke. “This will get OJ out with me,” he said. “And I can have him come over and learn a little bit about the camera equipment before we go.”

“It’s not for another week and a half,” Bailey said. “There should be time.”

“Yep,” Reeves finished up on his phone and tucked it away in his pocket. The dogs had gone ahead to the back deck, leaving Reeves and Bailey alone on the edge of the yard, where the motion sensor lights didn’t quite reach.