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“I’m sorry I let you down by not returning your letters.”
“I got the hint after a while, so don’t worry about it.”
“I know that, because my aunt stopped forwarding them to me.”
He’d read each of those letters at least three times, but Joe had never replied because he’d let Bailey down, and hadn’t known how to tell her. He had also believed she was better off without him in her life. However, he’d been devastated when she’d stopped writing.
Neither of them spoke again, and Joe thought that was enough revelations for one day. He held her as they reached the top of the drive, and there was his house. He loved the big house, but this... well, this was the place that held his heart. Made of cedar and stone, it was clad like many of the other houses around Ryker, but this was his haven.
“Oh, it’s lovely,” Bailey breathed.
Here the water from the river that flowed down from the falls, narrowed and passed by the front of his house. He’d built a bridge to drive over.
“My rooms are up there,” Joe pointed to the top floor, where a window ran floor to ceiling and just as wide. “I can see the town lights, and the mountains. Sometimes when the wind is blowing the right way, I can hear the falls. It’s....” His words fell away as he tried to explain what this place meant to him.
“Your sanctuary.”
It was a sanctuary for him, and because she’d once lived here, perhaps that was more of a reason why.
“It must be nice to have all your family here with you?”
“Sure. When I came back, Luke had gone, but I soon found him, and Jack was in the next town over. Aunt Jess and Pip had stayed.”
“Did you ever go there? To the cave?” Her words were soft, wistful.
“No. After you left, I never went back, and haven’t to this day. Maybe one day soon you could go there with me?”
Her messy bun brushed his chin as she shook her head. He wondered what she’d do if he released all that blonde hair and ran his fingers through it.
“I think the past is better left there, Joe.”
“Where do you call home usually, Bailey? Where is your sanctuary?” Joe wondered if she’d fulfilled that part of her dream, and found a place to lay her heart.
Chapter 11
“I’ve been moving around for a while now.”
“That’s got to be hard, not having your things around you?”
She shrugged. “You get used to it. When I was performing, I would live out of a suitcase for months.”
“But you have to put down roots sometime, right? The Bailey I knew had one day wanted that.”
“Plans change” was all she said.
“What about your brother, Beau? I don’t remember much about him, as he was older, but where is he?”
“Paris. He’s been there for years.”
“And you miss him.”
“Of course, but his life is there, and mine isn’t.”
“Do you think you’ll go back to playing professionally? You must have plans where you’re heading?”
“I don’t know.”
Joe just bet that was a lie. Bailey had always planned everything.
