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“I know people.”
“Do you now.”
“She’s pretty too.”
“Aha.”
And she had soft skin, and eyes the color of a cool winter sky, and something about her triggered a reaction inside Joe he wasn’t comfortable with. She was scared, and trying hard not to show it. Scared, timid, hell, there was any number of words to add to what Bailey Jones had become. The hell of it was he wanted to know her story. Maybe he wanted to help her now as she had once helped him.
“So spill.”
Joe twisted the wide silver band around his finger, like he always did when he was thinking. He hadn’t told anyone about what he and Bailey had shared, and to do so now was to open a locked vault deep inside him—but then, maybe it was time. She was here, and stirring up things inside him; if he talked about her, it could help. He let himself go back to that day... the first day they’d met.
“This is not something I’ve ever talked about, Pip.”
“You know I’m good for it, and maybe it’s time, Joe. Carrying stuff inside you for years isn’t good. Let it out, it’ll be freeing.”
“Thank you, Dr. Phil.”
She waved him on while she ate.
“You know the river at the back of the property? The bridge that takes you over leads to a cave in the hill.”
Pip frowned. “I don’t remember a cave.”
“It’s there, you just have to know where to look.” He’d never gone back again after Bailey left.
“Okay, there’s a cave, then what?”
He looked over Pip’s shoulder, thinking back on that day. The memories still caused an ache, but it had dulled over the years.
“She found me there one day. Bailey. She was ten, I was thirteen. My father had just gone a few rounds with me, I was bruised and angry, and that was where I ended up. I’d found it a few weeks earlier when I was out exploring.”
“Jack told me you did that a lot.”
He had, because staying home was unbearable.
“He also told me you put locks on the door to their room. Locks with keys that only they held.”
“They needed to have a safe place to go if he came home drunk.”
Pip leaned across the table and cupped her hands around his face. “You are the best man I know, Joe.”
“No.” Joe shook his head. “There were times I was an asshole.”
She laughed. “Oh well, sure. I know that.”
He laughed as she’d wanted him to.
“Bailey walked in with a backpack on that day. She was dressed in her school uniform, hair in braids, and she had skinny legs and shoes that seemed too big. I was never sure how she got down there, as the top was quite steep.”
“Your memory’s good.”
“I remember everything about that day, because it changed my life.”
“How?”
“I yelled at her, told her to leave, even though I was on her land. She didn’t, instead looking at me with those big gray eyes of hers, and then she came and sat beside me. Not too close, but close enough that I could see she was nervous. She opened her bag and gave me a cold can of soda for my eye, which was swollen.”
