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“Joe saw you play.”
“What?” Bailey looked from Piper to Joe. He shrugged, and the look he threw at his cousin told her he wasn’t pleased to have the subject raised. “You came to watch me play, and never tried to see me?”
“It was five years ago, Bailey. We hadn’t spoken in a long time. What did you want me to say?”
“Hi, Bailey. Remember me?” She felt an uncomfortable swell of heat fill her body. Why did Joe’s actions hurt so much? Maybe because she’d longed to see him for so many years. Long, lonely years. How hard would it have been for him to at least try and make contact? She’d written endless letters to him, and he’d never replied... not even once. It wasn’t rational, this anger she was feeling, Bailey knew that, but the adult Joe should have at least made the effort.
“Too much time had passed,” he said, holding her eyes. “Besides, I’m not entirely sure anyone would have let me get near you.”
Bailey made herself shrug. “We’ll never know.”
“But surely you weren’t friends before you left Ryker Falls?” Clark asked.
“We were, actually.” Joe was still looking at her. “Bailey was my best friend.”
She hadn’t expected him to admit to that.
“How is that possible?” Clark frowned. “You were what... three or four years older than her, and she left Ryker Falls at thirteen?”
“He’s right,” Bailey spoke. “We were friends for two years.”
Everyone fell silent as the people at the table who didn’t already know about the relationship she and Joe had shared, grappled with the knowledge that a young, rebellious teenager, raised in hell, could form a bond with a child raised the exact opposite.
“You wrote the letter.” Aunt Jess spoke the words softly, but Bailey and Joe heard. “It adds up,” she added. “Joe’s handwriting is not that neat, nor legible. Plus the words you used, and tone, weren’t his.” She threw Joe a smile. “Sorry, nephew, but your teachers told me you struggled with reading and writing back then.”
He looked at Bailey, and shrugged, which told her it was up to her whether she acknowledged it or not.
“I did help write it.” She remembered that day as if it was yesterday. Joe had arrived at their meeting place in a rage, his clothes torn, face bruised, and all she could do was sit and listen as he’d ranted about his father. When he’d calmed down, she told him he should write to his father’s sister. Joe and his brothers had spent one summer with Aunt Jess, and he’d told her that she’d been a nice woman.
“Thank you.” Joe’s aunt reached across the table and grabbed Bailey’s hands, squeezing them hard. “I’d never have known how bad things were if not for that letter.”
“You got Aunt Jess to come here?” Jack looked shocked, as did Luke.
“She did,” Joe said.
“Well, I think it’s fair to say you’re the Trainer guardian angel then. Getting Aunt Jess here, being there for Joe, and then saving Jack and the stables.”
“Oh—” Before Bailey could finish the sentence, Luke leaned in and kissed her cheek, and Jack got to his feet, and took the other. Piper blew her a kiss from across the table.
Bailey found Clark’s eyes on her. He looked confused, and who could blame him. The Bailey he knew had been closed off emotionally, and rarely got involved with people.
“So you’re the Trainer family guardian angel now, how do you feel about that?” Joe whispered in her ear. Bailey didn’t know how to answer that, or look at him yet, so she simply nodded. Thankfully, the topic of conversation moved on then, and to say she was pleased was an understatement. Bailey had spent years of her life avoiding emotions, and since being in Ryker she’d been hit from all sides with them. Today she’d had the fire, finding that body in the falls, and the knowledge that Joe had come to her concert and not seen her. Strange, how that last one had really rocked her back on her heels.
“Can I give you a ride home, Bailey?’
“Sure, thanks, Clark.” Bailey was relieved to get to her feet. She needed the sanctuary of her bed, and some alone time.
Bailey knew Joe had wanted her to stay the night with him, but she needed some time to process what was going on inside her head. In her current mood she wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t say something to him. Something irrational, and that wasn’t like her.
“If you need me, call.” Joe followed her to the front door.
“I won’t, but thank you.”
He grabbed her arm as she went to follow Clark outside.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
