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Bailey showed up just before we ate, stumbling into the room still in her nightshirt and yawning, and completely getting out of cooking duty, a fact her brother decided meant she should take over clean-up then.
She smacked him on the back of the head as she passed behind his chair. He called her a brat, but she was too busy punching me lightly in the side of the arm and moving to the counters to fetch her own breakfast to immediately react.
Finally, she flipped him off with a grumbled protest before pausing at the sidebar where extra breakfast was warming.
“How’re you doing, Beck?” she finally addressed me once her back was to me and she was busy piling scrambled eggs onto a plate. “Your bruises don’t look so bright this morning.”
I studied her, silently willing her to look at me so I could gauge her mood, but she refused to glance over.
I murmured, “I’m fine,” as I turned morosely back to the table, only to find her dad watching me curiously.
I internally cringed, wondering if I looked like a lost puppy being abandoned by its beloved owner, because that’s pretty much how I felt. Quickly, I lowered my attention to my plate. It took Bailey sitting in the chair across the table from me to get me to look up again.
She didn’t seem changed or affected at all. But what did that mean? Was she so disgusted or humiliated she wanted to pretend it had never happened? Had seeing me have sex with Melody and then me turning to her barely two weeks later turned her off? Except, no, that wasn’t her style. She was too open not to blurt-out what she thought about things. So that had to mean it just hadn’t affected her at all. She’d helped stupid Beck get over a panic attack and then she’d nudged him back into his place when he’d taken it too far. The issue was probably completely over for her and out of her mind.
But that made my chest ache, because it wasn’t over for me. It wasn’t out of my mind. I’d kissed her, and I’d liked it. I wanted to kiss her again. A lot. Except she’d already forgotten about it and moved on.
That made me disjointed and quiet throughout breakfast, trying to orient myself to this new reality, this new environment. Bailey, Ben, and Booth were all so relaxed and at home—probably because they were home—it made me feel like the outsider I was. I kind of wanted to leave, except there was nowhere else to go, and Bailey was here.
This was the “different” portion of my day.
With a sigh, I powered through all the differences. Breakfast passed, and we were all assigned tasks to do, keeping us busy. Ben had Bailey whip together a cranberry salad that had nuts and whipped topping in it, while Booth helped me with the potatoes. Time passed quickly with everyone working and Booth occasionally tossing a potato peeling at Bailey, or Bailey beaning him back with pecan shrapnel. More of her brothers arrived, the oldest—Brock—baring pies that everyone gathered around, offering to taste-test, and the other brother Braiden with a pregnant wife.
Things grew louder, I was introduced as the new “Blaine” since I’d be taking over his duties on the farm, not as Bailey’s friend, and every time I’d tried to back away to the fringes of the conversation and just observe, someone else would pull me back in with a question or comment I’d be forced to answer.
The Prescott family was loud and boisterous and reminded me a lot of Bailey in that they usually just blurted out whatever was on their mind, be it PC or not. That part made me smile and stay drawn in, because they were all just so…Bailey.
When we ate, the food was so familiar to everything my family had on Thanksgiving that I once again wondered how they were doing.
Bailey nudged my elbow when I’d spaced out too long. “Everything taste okay?”
“Hmm?” I glanced up and forced a smile. “Yes. It’s delicious. Just like at home.”
The ache must’ve shown in my eyes because her expression turned sympathetic. Leaning in closer, she murmured, “I’m sure they’re missing you too.”
The fact that she understood what was wrong with me made me feel better, but I wasn’t sure how to deal with thinking of my family missing me. I kind of wanted to be mad at them for turning their backs on me when I’d needed them most, and yet, I kept hoping my phone would ring.
It never did.
Instead, the Prescotts welcomed me as one of their own, and I began to grow more accustomed to them and grateful to them as the day wore on.
The brother with the pregnant wife left first, with her yawning and in need of a nap. Then the oldest brother wished us a happy Thanksgiving and took his pies away. Booth received a text and cleared out just when kitchen clean-up started.
So Bailey, and her dad, and I were the only three left to straighten the kitchen. After we did, we migrated to the living room and settled on the couch as the second half of a football game started on the television. Ben kicked up his Lazy Boy and promptly took a nap.
Bailey barely sat on the other end of the couch as me for five minutes before I caught her glancing at me from the corner of my eye. So I turned to meet her gaze. An entire lifetime of feelings passed between us in that one stare. Craving, sadness, affection, appreciation, confusion, comfort. Neither of us had to say anything. We knew this was goodbye.
Suddenly, she began to blink before she turned her face away and popped abruptly to her feet, announcing, “Well…” which woke her dad mid-snore. She heaved out a long breath and rubbed her stomach like any satisfied person might after eating a Thanksgiving feast. “I probably better get on the road, so I can make it back to Granton before dark.”
Ben yawned and checked the time. “Leaving already?” Then he shook his head as a glimmer of melancholy crept over his face. “Seems like your trips home keep getting shorter every time.”
She paused by his Lazy Boy to kiss the top of his balding head. “If I didn’t have to work tomorrow, I would’ve stayed longer.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He swatted playfully at her leg after she straightened and moved away. “I know the real truth. Your old man’s just cramping your style. Time to get back to that posh, big city college life.”
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Bailey laughed and shook her head. “You are such a dork. I’m gonna go grab my bag from my room. Be right back.”
