“Yeah, I’ll help you.”
Relief flooded me as her words struck. She was going to do it. She’d help me save Bailey.
“Liam, when this is over…I need you to leave me alone. Don’t call me. Don’t look at me when you see me in town. Just…”
The hurt in her eyes was apparent, and for just a moment, I felt like a complete asshole for asking something so huge of her. But this was about Bailey, and I had to put her first, even if it meant ruining my friendship with Ellie.
“Yeah, I get it.”
“Tonight. She should be at the bar. I heard Cheyenne talking about going out tonight.”
“Thanks, Ellie.”
She nodded, but the look on her face said she was anything but happy to help me out. Still, this woman was helping me in a way I knew I could never repay.
But I’d find a way someday.
I knew what this would cost her, and I never let a debt go unpaid.
24
BAILEY
It had beena week since I left Liam standing in his barn, while I stormed away and did my best not to fall apart.
A week of holding my head high when all I wanted to do was drive over to his house and beg him to tell me why he changed his mind.
A week of going through the motions, not crying a single tear over the man because I was sure something else had to be going on.
Yet, here I was on Saturday night, staring at the wall because I couldn’t think of a single thing that would cheer me up.
“Hey!” Cheyenne yelled as she walked through the front door.
Her keys clanged in the dish at the table just inside the apartment and her boots hit the ground as she tugged them off.
And still, I said nothing.
“Man,” she sighed as she flopped into the armchair across from me. “You would not believe the day I had. First, Mrs. Sellers came into the bank and yelled at me because, apparently, someone parked outside the building last night and left their lights on. Like that’s my fault! Do I control all the people in town? Am I responsible for whether or not they leave their lights on?
“She was making such a fuss that my boss came out and asked me to remove her from the bank! I had to walk her out to her car—whichshe should not be driving, by the way—and tell her to go home. And when I got back inside, everyone was staring at me like it was all my fault! Ugh.
“Then, at lunch, that bitch Jeanine bumped into me just as I was putting ketchup on my hot dog and it squirted all over my dress. Down there!” she yelled, pointing at her crotch. “I looked like I got my period in the middle of the day! And when she walked away, she was laughing at me.”
“What a bitch,” I grumbled, hating Jeanine just for being mean.
“Right? And then, as I was walking home, Archer pulled up beside me and asked if I knew any place to meet chicks in town. Can you believe that?” she snorted. “Um…hello? I’m standing right freaking here!”
Exhausted from her outburst, she slumped in her chair. “So, how was your day?”
“Same as yesterday,” I shrugged.
“He’ll come around.”
Yeah, I’d been telling myself that, too, but I no longer believed it.
“He’s in love with you. He’s probably just doing that guy thing where he’s afraid of his feelings, so he pretends that he doesn’t like you as much as he says he does.”
“Please, don’t try to spark hope in me right now,” I sighed. “I’m perfectly content with accepting that my relationship is over and leaving it at that.”
