‘I’ll be home after the next event,’ I promise. ‘We’ll celebrate then, okay?’
‘You’ve got Albuquerque before Phoenix, right?’
I smile at Beth’s encyclopedic knowledge of the tour. She keeps an itinerary pinned on the fridge and texts me before events to recommend restaurants I might like. Beth has a taste for the finer things in life and I love good food, so we bond over places to eat. Sure, my preference generally runs to heavy meat and barbecues, whereas she’s just as at home in a Michelin-starred restaurant, but flavour’s flavour.
‘I can’t believe you’re having a baby,’ I say, shaking my head.
‘We’re having a baby,’ she repeats, tears in her eyes, and I feel a holy roar of pleasure for this woman who came into our family and stitched us all back together again. After Dad died, we were floundering. Going through the motions, trying to hold it together, Cole most of all. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders, to keep the ranch going, keep us all on track. It was pulling him apart, but none of us realised that. None of us knew. Until Beth. She saw, and she wrapped her arms around him and never let go. But the thing is, she was breaking too. Into a thousand tiny pieces of grief and trauma, and just as much as she fixed Cole right back up, he fixed her as well.
Seeing her now, so happy she’s practically glowing, almost makes me forget about the woman who left here a moment ago distinctly not glowing. Looking like she’d seen a ghost. Or worried I was going to turn into one.
Because she thought I was going to out her to my family? Or that they’d even give a shit?
I don’t know, but I don’t really like ending our night like that. I wrap up the call with a few more wisecracks aimed at Austin and Nash then pull on my jeans and head to the door. I have to go down to reception to get a keycard to her floor, and that takes a little charming of the staff, but within ten minutes I’m on my way to level four, striding down the corridor to Bailey’s room.
I knock solidly on the door and wait.
By the time she wrenches it open, she’s changed into a pair of yoga pants and an oversized shirt that does something funny to my insides. This version of her, all chill and relaxed, I really, really like.
Her eyes slip past mine, landing somewhere over my shoulder. ‘Did I forget something?’
My gut tilts off course—something that usually keeps me levelheaded and set on how I need to be. I shake my head. ‘Nah,’ I fake it, sounding like normal, to my relief. ‘I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You kinda bolted out on me.’
‘I told you I was leaving.’ She underscores her defensive tone by crossing her arms over her chest. The shirt looks like it’s swallowing her whole.
‘You practically left a hole in the wall from where you ran out.’
She stays there, but at least her eyes lift to mine again, so I feel like she’s coming back to me. ‘I guess that was your family?’
‘They usually call after an event.’
‘Even though you’re so often “entertaining”?’ she asks, one brow raised.
‘That’s just my brother talking smack.’
‘I don’t care,’ she mutters, but it doesn’t sound quite genuine. I press my shoulder against her door, holding it inwards to relieve her foot of the job.
‘I already told you, that’s not what I’m like anymore.’
She tilts her chin. ‘Really, it’s none of my business.’
That tilts whatever it is in my chest even more off centre. ‘You say that, but you seem kinda pissed.’
‘I didn’t want them to see me. You didn’t want them to see me. I thought leaving was the best thing to do.’
It makes sense. It’s a very logical explanation, but something about it doesn’t stack up. ‘It’s okay, you know. I mean, we just slept together. It’s normal to not want to think that you’re just like a number or something.’
‘I don’t care if I am,’ she responds quickly. ‘I know what we’re doing, Beau.’
A noise sounds from down the hallway. I turn to look, see an older gentleman coming out of a room, but then Bailey’s hand is curving around my arm and she’s yanking hard, pulling me inside.
‘Do you want the whole goddamn world to know about this?’ she hisses once we’re in her room and the door’s shut.
I stare at her, frowning. ‘I don’t think the whole goddamn world’s really gonna care that much.’
‘People in my world would,’ she reminds me.
‘Okay, sure, but believe me when I tell you, ain’t no one in my family who’s gonna go tell your boss what’s happening here.’
