Page 93 of Bailey

Reeves gathered her into his arms. “It’s okay with you that I’m doing something with them, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Bailey said, though she could hear the forced quality of her voice in even that short word.

“You’d tell me if it wasn’t, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” she said again. Something wiggled through her, and Bailey finally realized what it was. “I’m just worried that you’ll like them more than me.”

“Impossible,” he whispered.

She raised her eyebrows. “You think so? You think Luke Young became a world-famous country music star because he has no charm or charisma?” She tilted her head and studied him. “And you’ve met OJ. He’s everyone’s BFF within the first five minutes that he meets them.”

Reeves grinned at her. “Well, if you weren’t so salty, it wouldn’t be a competition, would it?”

A scoff fell out of Bailey’s mouth, and then Reeves tipped his head back, and laughter filled the wide Wyoming sky. She pushed against his chest, but he held her fast, and in fact, kneaded her closer.

“I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about you, Bailey,” he whispered. “You don’t need to worry about anything.” He touched his lips to hers in a sweet, beautiful kiss, and with the moonlight bathing them, Bailey felt herself falling and falling and falling.

Reeves deepened the kiss, then pulled away before they went too far. “Come on,” he said huskily. “I’ll make some coffee, and I just put a new hammock in the trees back here, and we can maybe try to see some stars through the leaves.”

Bailey didn’t believe for a moment that they’d be able to see any stars through the leaves of the two tall trees where he’d strung a hammock. But it didn’t matter, because she simply wanted to lay in his arms and listen to his heartbeat as she fell even further in love with him.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SIX

Reeves swung the bag containing the canopy for his tent into the back of his truck. He’d meet Luke at their agreed upon campsite in another couple of hours. While Reeves had learned not to overpack throughout the past several years of filming his videos, this trip had him heading back inside to grab one more pack of food. He should be able to drive almost all the way to the campsite, and he might have to walk a couple hundred yards to pitch his tent.

If it was just him, he wouldn’t worry about the lack of supplies, but he was meeting Luke Young there with four teenagers. OJ, of course, had wanted to ride with Reeves and had thrown quite a fit about it, actually. Luke said he’d handle it, and Reeves hadn’t heard from the teen again.

Luke was bringing his eighteen-year-old daughter, Corrine, as well as two more of OJ’s cousins—Eric and Lars. Eric had just turned seventeen last month, and Lars was a year older than OJ. Reeves had been texting with Luke pretty steadily for the last forty-eight hours, and the mega country music drummer had assured him that the kids would have their own packs, snacks, and bedding. He’d check everything, and he’d been taking his family camping in all seasons since they were babies.

Somehow, that added to Reeves’s nerves as he grabbed an entire eight-pack package of peanut butter crackers and slid it into his second pack. If he had to carry everything, he would never do this, but he also hadn’t been camping with anyone, not just his girlfriend’s biological son, in years.

He normally drew peace and serenity from the mountains and the sky, and he talked about his faith and how nature settled him in his videos. He had no idea how much footage he could get with four teenagers and another cowboy around.

Because of that, Reeves hadn’t prepared a set script for this video the way he had others. Not only that, but all of the minor children would have to get parental permission for him to film them, and when he’d brought that up with Luke, the man had never answered him. Reeves finally stopped stress packing with a mega-pack of string cheese and headed out to his truck.

He wasn’t surprised at all to find Bailey’s white SUV pulling in behind him, and the beautiful woman who’d somehow captured his heart dropping from it with a long brown bag in her hand that surely held a loaf of bread.

“Howdy, ma’am.” Reeves quickly stashed his second pack in the back of the cab and went to greet her. “You’ve been to town already this morning?”

“It’s a good thing bakeries open early.” She smiled at him in a way that made his heartbeat rumble like a cat purring, and he simply knew by that grin that she liked him as much as he liked her.

Truth be told, Reeves was fairly sure he’d already fallen in love with the woman, and he had no idea that something so deep and lasting could happen so fast.

“Just so you know, I didn’t get this for you.” She extended the loaf of bread toward him.

He took it and raised his eyebrows as he looked at her.

“It’s for Luke,” she said. “I mean, he’s bringing four teenagers, and I figured the least I could do was load him up with his favorite carbs.”

Reeves lifted the bag and looked in the open end of it.

“It’s a cinnamon raisin baguette,” she said. “And Bryce told me that Luke loves to make French toast out of it.”

He grinned at her. “I’m sure he has something planned for breakfast already tomorrow.”

Bailey ran both her hands up the front of Reeves’s jacket, and he dropped the loaf of bread to his side. “I thought you were planning and cooking the meals, cowboy.”