Page 114 of Bailey

She swung her attention toward him, and he slid a glance at her again. “You have?”

“Yeah. In the past couple of months, making a weekly video has grown a little tiresome. I was thinking of cutting back to doing just twice a month.” He swallowed, wishing his tongue didn’t feel so thick. “Every other week.”

He rounded the last curve and came out of the canyon, with the gated community on the left-hand side of the road. Streetlights had been installed this far up, and he glanced over to Bailey and found a look on her face that didn’t comfort him.

“Because of me?” she asked, her tone absolutely accusatory.

“No,” he said, and then he sighed. “I mean, partially. Maybe I’m not as young as I once was, and my ideas for videos aren’t as good as they used to be, and yeah, I have this part of my life that feels really loud and a little chaotic. But I’ve worked really hard to create privacy as well. Normalcy with the farm and the animals. Maybe I haven’t done a very good job, and maybe cutting down on the videos would help.”

“Maybe,” Bailey murmured. “I don’t want you to change anything for me.”

“Why not?” Reeves asked. “That’s what we do for the people we want to have in our lives. We change to make them more comfortable. We sacrifice so we can be with them.”

He came to a stop at the sign at the very bottom of the canyon and flipped on his left blinker. “Are you saying you wouldn’t do that for me? Change a little bit? Sacrifice something?”

“Of course I would,” Bailey said.

“Okay, then.” He made the turn, not quite sure what point he’d been trying to make, or if it had been made.

He started up the Apple Highway, which also required a lot of attention, especially after dark, as deer liked to cross the road, and the last thing he needed was to hit an animal.

Neither of them spoke for the rest of the drive, and he pulled into Bailey’s driveway slowly and put the truck in park. He looked over to her fully then. “I really like your parents, Bailey, and I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m falling in love with you.”

She shook her head and looked down at her hands in her lap.

“What do you need?” he whispered. “Whatever it is, if I can give it to you, I will.”

Bailey sniffled and shook her head. His heart squeezed too tight, making the beat shallow and rapid.

“I don’t know,” she said again. She looked up at him with those fierce, beautiful, blue eyes that had first struck him when he’d met her. “Maybe just some time to figure things out.”

Reeves nodded, though a voice screamed through his head that said, What things?

If he knew what things, he could help her straighten them out and make them right. If he knew, he wouldn’t lose her.

He unbuckled and got down from the truck. He collected Bailey from the passenger seat and held her hand as he walked her toward the door. On her doorstep, she turned into him and gripped the collar of his shirt. He held her flush against him and leaned down, his cheek resting against hers and his lips at her ear.

“We’ll still be talking, right?” he whispered. “I can’t fix things that I don’t know you’re worried about.”

“I don’t need you to fix things,” she said.

Reeves exhaled, and it sounded frustrated, as quiet as it was.

“But yes, we’ll still be talking,” she said. “We’re having Ronnie and Stockton for dinner on Wednesday.” She looked up at him. “You’re coming to that, right?”

“I’ll be anywhere you want me to be, Bay,” he said. He wanted to tell her he’d quit the Teton Mountain Man channel tonight if that’s what she needed. He’d do anything to keep her in his life, but something told him such a statement wouldn’t go over well, and he swallowed the words instead.

He found he didn’t have any more assurances for her, and if she needed time, Reeves could certainly give her that. But he wasn’t going to walk away without a kiss, and he leaned down and matched his mouth to hers, praying with everything he had that it wouldn’t be the last time.

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

Bailey ran her hands along the back of the prettiest horse she’d met this year. “You’re so beautiful,” she cooed to Ponzu, the palomino Quarter Horse Cash Young had brought home from Texas. “Great coloring, amazing coat.”

She smiled as the horse’s tail continued to go swish-swish-swish as he stood very still. “If you can’t train this one into a champion cutting horse, I’ll take him,” she said to Cash.

He chuckled as he finished looping the rope on another horse—a beautiful chestnut—over the post several feet away. “I think he’s going to be amazing.”