Ten minutes later, the cell door slammed on both of us. She sat with a satisfied smirk on the bench at the far wall, while I was cuffed to the bars.
Chuckling, I rested my elbow against the bar. “I don’t know what you’re grinning at. I just got you locked in a cell with me for the rest of the day.”
The foundationof my new house was poured and it was time to start building the house I planned on spending the rest of my life in with Bailey.
But in order to get Bailey to live here, I first had to win her back, which would take considerable effort. Especially after the jail disaster, in which she ignored me until Wyatt bailed her out an hour later. My plans to spend the entire day with her in the cell had been dashed.
But I had a plan for today that wouldn’t fail. I was ninety percent certain of that.
“Hey, where are you going?” Michael shouted as he unloaded lumber from the back of his truck.
I turned, walking backward. “To town. Time to take the truck in for repairs.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You’ve already taken every truck in. That’s not gonna win her back.”
“Trust me on this. I’ve got a plan.”
“Yeah? And how do you plan on paying for all these repairs?” Michael asked, motioning to all the wood. “You have a house to pay for.”
“I’ve got some money set aside.”
“Great, so you’re gonna go broke on repairs to a truck that doesn’t need to be repaired, all so you can hope to win Bailey back.”
“Something like that,” I grinned.
Turning on my heel, I got in my truck and roared down the drive. I already called Wyatt and put my truck on the schedule for today and requested Bailey. He couldn’t exactly turn me down. I was a paying client.
In all my years of watching Bailey, I had never been so direct in my attempts at garnering her attention. I had always hung back and preferred to let her come to me. But the time for being silent was over. If I was going to get Bailey back, I had to be one hundred percent clear that I wasn’t giving in.
Bailey spotted me as soon as I pulled into the garage, and when she stormed over to Wyatt, I knew she was giving him an earful about how she wasn’t going to work on my truck. Based on the rage growing in her features, Wyatt wasn’t giving in.
“Thank you, Wyatt,” I muttered, parking in front of the bay doors.
The moment my feet hit the pavement, Bailey was on me.
And not in the way I wanted.
“Why are you doing this?” she seethed. “There’s nothing wrong with your truck.”
“There actually is. See, when I’m driving, I’ve been hearing a scraping sound, almost like the muffler is dragging on the road. But as you can see, the muffler is clearly intact.”
Her eyes drifted curiously to the back of the truck, but she wasn’t convinced yet.
“If you want, we can take it for a drive.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she spat, snatching the keys out of my hand.
Wyatt strolled over to me as Bailey took the truck into the garage. “Are you sure about this?”
“About her? Absolutely.”
“Bailey doesn’t like being manipulated.”
The barb hit hard. “I’m well aware of that.”
“Are you?” The accusation hit me directly in the chest. “You’ve screwed with her enough. I don’t like being put in the middle of your games. She’s a good worker and she doesn’t deserve for this thing to bleed into her work life.”
“I wouldn’t need to do anything like this if your brother hadn’t fucked with my life,” I snapped. “If you want someone to blame, look to your own family.”
