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SEVEN
Seth
Bailey was awake. I knew the moment she woke up just by the adjustment to her breathing pattern. But she hadn’t said a word. Instead, she had just kept her eyes closed and allowed me to continue playing with her hair.
Slowly, she finally opened her eyes and locked them on mine. I smiled softly at her, reaching up to brush her hair out of her face. “How are you feeling?” I asked her, my voice husky and soft. This moment felt intimate, and I wanted to keep it that way.
She shrugged. “Same as I always do, I guess,” she muttered, her voice still gravely with sleep.
I tightened my arm around her. I hated that she was feeling like this, and I hated even more that it was my fault.
I was going to fix this though.
Somehow.
Some fucking way.
She slowly sat up and grabbed her phone. I watched as she frowned at whatever she was reading. With a tired sigh, she looked down at me where I was still lying down.
“Your brother wants to hang out with me today,” she confessed.
My mood soured. Brayden and I didn’t really get along, but he was the only person I could live with after all that shit went down with my dad. My oldest brother lived on base, and he was currently overseas, so he wasn’t an option. And Melanie still didn’t have her own place yet. Which had left Brayden as my only option.
I hated that Brayden was trying to move in on Bailey. And hell, I didn’t understand what she saw in him. He was self-centered as fuck. I’d never met someone with a bigger ego before in my life. And how he was becoming a therapist was beyond me. He never saw people because he was so focused on himself.
“What do you see in him?” I asked her before I could stop myself. Instantly, I mentally cursed myself.
God, I just couldn’t stop fucking up.
She frowned. I could see it in her eyes—she was shutting down on me.
I quickly sat up and lightly gripped her chin, locking her eyes on my face. “Easy, babe,” I soothed, brushing my thumb over her cheek. Her eyes fluttered for a moment before locking on mine. “I’m not telling you not to see him.” Fuck, I really wanted to, though. “I just want to know.”
She relaxed at that. “He doesn’t know what I’m like,” she said quietly. This time, it was my turn to frown. I didn’t like the sound of that. “He has no idea what’s going on in my head. He doesn’t realize how much I’m struggling every day. He’s neutral territory for me, and it’s . . . nice,” she explained, though near the end, it sounded like she was forming more of a question than any kind of statement.
I lowered my head so our eyes were level with each other. “Bailey, you know I don’t look at you any different, don’t you?”
She swallowed thickly. Her eyes washed with tears, breaking my fucking heart all over again. “I know,” she croaked. “But it’s not the same as having someone around that doesn’t know at all.”
I pulled her into my arms, resisting the urge to kiss her, to wipe away the pain for both of us, even if it was only for a moment.
This girl had me wrapped around her fucking finger, and she didn’t even realize it.
Eventually, she got out of bed and padded barefoot to the bathroom, mumbling something about a shower. With a tired sigh, I got out of bed and pulled my shirt back over my head before shoving my feet into my shoes.
Trent was downstairs drinking a cup of coffee when I came down. He eyed me over the rim of his mug. “She good?”
I shrugged. “She got a lot of rest, if that’s what you’re asking. Otherwise, I think the day is still kind of the same for her.”
Trent sighed and set his coffee mug on the counter. “You make her feel better, Seth. I don’t understand it. I’m not even going to try to. But I see a little bit of my little sister shine again when you’re with her.”
I laced my fingers behind my neck and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m doing the best I can,” I confessed. “I don’t know what else to do besides be there for her.” And I wished like hell I could do more.
Trent clapped a hand to my shoulder. “So, that’s what you do, Seth. You be there for her. Be her rock when she looks like she’s going to fall apart. Hold her together. Ground her to the earth. This shit’s going to get worse before it gets better. She just needs to know we all love her and care about her, even when her world is so dark that she can’t see the light anymore.”
With that, he walked out of the house, pulling his keys from his pocket, most likely headed to work. Bailey’s mom stepped into the kitchen and grabbed Trent’s coffee cup, placing it in the sink. I turned to leave the room and go check on Bailey. “I want to thank you,” she said softly, stopping me.
I turned to look at her. She gave me a small smile, though I could see the sadness lurking behind it. She was hurting for her daughter; hell, we all were.
