“Let’s do something else,” I suggested. “We can both go to our respective cribs and shower before we link back up.”
After showering and dressing for my day, I picked Bailey up and took her to one of the properties my company built. It wasn’t the vacation villa she’d requested to see. That place wasn’t ready to be seen. Instead, it was a property I’d completed at the first of March. The owners were ready to open it as a luxury VRBO to rental guests for the start of summer.
“Is this the vacation villa that I’ve heard so much about?” Bailey sat up in the passenger seat of my pick-up as I pulled into the driveway of the eight bedroom, eight bathroom Goliath.
Though the house was ostentatiously large, it was a beautiful structure, if I did say so myself. “Nah. This house is actually named, The Best Western. I think the owner was going forlaughs since the cheap roadside motel chain is called Best Western.”
She jumped out of the truck before my finger hit the button to kill the engine. “Let’s go see it.” She swung the door closed and headed up the sloped driveway to the door.
“Say,” I said once I caught up with her on the front porch. “I know you’re from the city and nobody has manners and shit. But up here, we open the vehicle door for women. Next time wait for me to open your door.”
She eyed me. “Ooh, not you checking me and making me feel like a lady at the same time.” We both chuckled before she continued. “Not to mention that you insulted my hometown, too.”
I pressed the numbers into the lockbox and sprung the door open. Bailey was inside in the blink of an eye.
“Ooh, Bright!” she yelled from somewhere in the home. “Come see this backsplash!”
I wanted to laugh at her telling me to come see backsplash that my guys had installed. She didn’t even know how many times I’d seen that backsplash. I helped the clients choose it, then I watched as the tile guys installed it because the client wanted a weird and unique pattern. I had to supervise to make sure it was laid properly. Still, I made my way into the kitchen to see the backsplash for the one millionth time.
Bailey and I went through the entire house the same way. With her running into a new room and calling out for me to come look at some finish or upgrade that I had seen countless times. I humored her, though. My purpose in bringing her to the home was to distract her from everything she had going on with the anniversary of the loss of her son and her ex being a clown ass motherfucker. She deserved to act like a kid on Christmas opening everything they asked for. If pointing out pretty things made her happy, I was there for it.
As I secured the house after the tour, Bailey surprised me wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her head in my back. I laughed before turning around and pulling her into a real hug. “What was that for?”
“Because you’ve been my bestie since I’ve been in Jackson Falls. I came here so defeated and down. And every step of the way you’ve been this . . . pushy little ray of sunshine. You’ve been determined not to let me stay in my funk. You’re annoying, but you’re anointed too. You have to have God’s favor on you because I do not do things I don’t want to do. And for some reason you can get me to do things I don’t want to do.”
I grinned big as hell as I released her. “Damn, I’ve never been called anointed. You willing to say that in front of my mother and my brothers?”
She laughed. Her hand found its way inside of mine and her expression turned serious. “Thanks, Bright.”
I matched her expression. “You got that, Bae-Bae. Now let me feed you because I know you’ve gotta be hungry by now.”
“I’m starving.”
I watched her walk down the sloped path toward my truck, her ass swaying rhythmically with each step. Her soon to be ex-husband had to be the dumbest nigga alive. To fumble a bag like Bailey? You had to be on some whole other shit.
Chapter
Nine
Bailey
I needed to go home.I needed to wrap up my visit to Jackson Falls and book a ticket back to Chicago. That was my plan when I arrived at the bed and breakfast that morning. I was supposed to go online, buy a return ticket home, get some painting done, and make some decisions about décor. I had done two out of the three things. For some reason I couldn’t pull the trigger on buying the plane ticket.
Part of it was that I really loved being in Jackson Falls. The vibe was just easy, breezy. I understood why all of my family had made the move and why they stayed. Of course my mother and Collins stayed because they both married Jackson Falls men. They kind of had to stay. But Perkins and Church were happy making new lives in Jackson Falls. They were thriving. Both Perkins and Church were working and living, instead of living to work or working to live like they’d been doing at home. My mom and my sisters had become part of the Jackson Falls community. When I let myself dream, I could admit that I wanted that. Iwanted to slow down. Not to experience life as a race with an end that promised me burn-out and exhaustion as a prize.
But before I could even seriously consider a relocation, I needed to tie up the loose ends in Chicago. I still had a home there, a job there, and a husband there.
I dialed Xander’s number for the twentieth time. I wanted to ask him what he thought he was doing showing up at my mother’s house and trying to break her window out. My call rolled to voicemail. I sent the one hundredth text.
“Still no response?” Perkins questioned.
The ride home had been quiet. She’d picked me up after she got off work. One of the things she loved about working for Collins at the hair salon was that she could make her own hours. On Fridays she cut out at four in the afternoon and took her girls on a mother/daughter date to the movies. It was such a different existence from what she had in Chicago. There, she worked jobs that could never seem to pay her enough money to allow her to leave work early.
“No, he’s avoiding me. He’s probably embarrassed.”
“As he should be.”
I gave a nod of agreement.
