“I’m not being difficult. You’re being a little demanding and impatient.” I follow her lead and settle down, lying next to Ares with my head in Valak’s lap.
“Shut the front door, whose lap are you lounging over, huh?”
I blow out a dramatic breath and roll my eyes at her, avoiding her question. “Do you want to chat or what?”
“Yes! Come on, tell me whose lap you are on. Stop avoiding my question. I think it’s time I meet this pack of yours. You’ve been dodging us catching up for way too long.”
“We just need to sort some things out.”
“Like what? It’s pretty easy, hun. You need a strong pack who can protect and love you. I won’t let you accept anything less because you deserve it all! You’re so damn important to me, Lennon. I might be a bitch, but this bitch loves you to the moon and back.”
“Bailey, I hear you.” But my girl interrupts, and I know it’s only because she does love me and she’s worried.
“If it’s taking this long to sort everything out, they might not be the right pack for you.”
Bailey talks loudly, passionately, but the near feral growls in the car are louder. I hang up on her, climbing up to sit on Valak’s lap. His eyes are locked down, his anger making his scent bitter.
“She’s overprotective,” I offer, using my hands to pull his face up so he can’t avoid looking at me. I go for a quick peck, but he stops me from leaving and turns our kiss into a panty melting, claiming one.
When he pulls back, he bites at my lips. “Yeah, well so am I. She should be supportive of you, listening to what you say. You’re not safe.”
“She is supportive of me. And I’m safe. I’m with you all, and I don’t want to be anywhere else, okay?”
His eyes burrow into mine, and I know it’s his protective streak talking. My phone rings again and I answer it while Valak watches me closely.
“Did you hang up on me?” Bailey laughs.
“Bailey, would I do that?” I smirk at her, being as condescending as hell. “I do have something I can share with you, wench, as long as you don’t tell anyone.”
“Except my pack,” Bailey modifies with a small giggle.
“Except your pack. Good news and better news.”
“Good news first.”
“I lost Broken Cube to RMI.”
“To Frank?” She gasps melodramatically before she goes off like a rocket. “Oh my god, I hope you celebrated that loss. Sucks to be them, bunch of disgusting pissdicks. And yeah, yeah, I’m including Gus in that, because seriously he’s kind of weak as piss. But I’m a big believer in you needing your time until the right people sweep you off your feet.”
Noah spins around in his seat. I’m a little surprised he heard Bailey, I thought he was working. But he did, and he lets me know. I guess the look in his eyes means he thinks the same thing as she does.
“Bailey, guess who I signed? Someone I’ve been after for so long.”
“You did not!” she yells, sitting up suddenly, a look of genuine happiness on her face, her green eyes brimming with emotion. “Lennon, I am so fucking proud of you. So goddamn proud.”
“I love you too, Bailey.”
She gives a weird squeak, getting hyper again. “Did you really sign Lincoln MacGregor?”
I nod my head at her and wiggle my eyebrows.
Noah spins around in his seat, looking a little devastated, until he starts pointing at himself over and over. And then I think I’m the one that nearly starts to tear up.
“And Noah Teo, Bailey,” I whisper. Before my emotions surge and I release one of those over-the-top smiles with lots of teeth, I have a moment of unadulterated pride burst through me. I’m thrilled to have Noah and Lincoln in my life in a professional capacity. In a private one, well that still blows my mind.
Bailey goes quiet on me, and the camera falls to her lap before I hear her crying and Ashton’s voice as he talks quietly to her. I’m such a sap. I do cry then, so happy that Bailey has the people she needs around her now.
And when she comes back up, she keeps repeating how proud she is of me. It all gets a little much, so I shift our call back to work and spend the next ten minutes of our FaceTime call arguing about what she should wear when she does her guest spots on Lincoln’s show. She gets all snarky again when I refuse her budget for makeup and hair, claiming she needs Ruddy to do it again, but compromise comes when I let her know I’ll add it to her account. But this is Bailey and me; we yell, laugh, tease, and taunt each other, and we can do it for hours.
