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“She’s a gift, Bailey. Pure and simple, no strings attached. A gift for everything you were to me, and still are. Don’t complicate it, accept it for what it is.”
“She’s the most beautiful present I have ever had, Joe. Thank you.”
She lifted her head and kissed him, and he felt it again, the total capitulation. He loved this woman, madly, deeply. It was simply stronger and deeper, this love they’d always had. At that moment he gave in completely. She was a part of him, and always would be.
She looked up at him. “I wish I could go riding with you now, Joe.”
His eyes crossed.
“Not that kind of riding—although….” She gave him a cheeky smile. A smile that a few weeks ago would never have been in her arsenal.
“Later. Right now, Aunt Jess will be serving up food, and if we don’t hurry, Luke, Fin, and Jack will eat it all.”
She kissed him again, and then the mare. “Thank you.”
Bailey was prettysure she’d never had a better day than this one. She’d eaten her Mickey cake, which granted was silly, but she’d loved it. She sat with her friends, people who not long ago she had not even known, and laughed, sang, and when Maggie told Luke he was dancing with her, she did that too. Buzz ate cake, and anything that fell on the floor, and wore his red bow all day.
She had a horse. Looking to where Joe was dancing his aunt around, she wondered if he realized just how much he now meant to her. Sure he always had, but this... this was so much more. She’d put the past aside today, and walked into the future, and she hoped that was with him... wanted it desperately to be so.
“Bailey.” She turned as Clark called her name, and behind him was her grandfather. “I’m sorry, I went to answer the door and he was there. Apparently someone directed him here.”
“You must be Leonard Southby?” Mr. Goldhirsh came forward before Bailey could react. He stuck out his hand, and her grandfather took it. He was nothing if not polite.
“I am. Bailey’s grandfather.” His eyes went to her. “I’m here to take her home.”
“She’s not going home.”
“I beg your pardon?” He dragged his eyes from her and looked down at Mr. Goldhirsh.
“She has no wish to go with you, and likes it here. Perhaps it’s time you came to that realization, and actually paid attention to her wishes instead of your own.”
Her grandfather’s eyebrows drew together in a fierce frown. Usually this was a warning sign to back off; not for Mr. Goldhirsh, however. Bailey should really intervene.
“You have no business telling me what is best for my granddaughter, sir. Nor will I conduct such a private conversation in a public setting.”
“Seems to me you didn’t listen when she tried to discuss matters in a private setting, so I’m taking it public. You have no business not listening to her wishes, Mr. Southby.”
She felt Joe’s hand on her shoulder as she went to move. Holding her in place. How she knew it was his hand was a mystery—or maybe it was the tingle of awareness.
“Why is it so hard for you to let her live the life she chooses?”
“She is living her life as she chooses.”
“No.” Bailey patted Joe’s hand, then moved away. “I’m not.”
She saw it then, the realization that maybe he may not win an argument for the first time in his life.
“But this is important to you... to us.”
“It was,” she said gently, “but not anymore, Grandfather, and I wish you would respect my wishes in this matter.”
As if realizing that he’d intruded on something private, he looked around the room.
“It’s your granddaughter’s birthday, Mr. Southby. Perhaps if you’d been more aware of her needs, you may have realized that.”
He looked shocked, his eyes going from Mr. Goldhirsh to Bailey.
“I didn’t realize.”
