Loving Bailey (10 page)

She couldn’t believe that last night her
biggest problem had been trying to get laid. It had seemed like the
most important thing in the world. Now it didn’t matter at all.

She glanced over at Trace as he made the turn
off of the interstate and onto Route 460. He’d been rock solid
steady the way he always was, doing what needed to be done without
having to be asked. He was driving two hours one-way during his
busiest time of the year, to make sure she got home to her family
safely. And he did it after she’d spent the night with another
man.

There was a time when she’d have thought that
would have bothered him, but after the intern, she guessed it
didn’t matter. It still mattered to her.

“Thank you for this,” she said. “You didn’t
have to take your whole day to drive me home and I really
appreciate it.”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” he said,
glancing over at her and smiling. “But I do wish it was under
different circumstances.”

“Me too.”

They passed the signs pointing the way to the
D-Day Memorial and then they were heading down Main Street toward
the familiar sights from her childhood. With the exception of the
few tears she hadn’t been able to contain in her bedroom, she
hadn’t allowed herself to cry. It wouldn’t help Travis and falling
apart would just make it harder to do whatever she could to
help.

But when they pulled up in front of Avenel,
the home she’d grown up in, her tears fell hot and fast.

“Oh God,” she sobbed, reaching for Trace’s
arm. “Stop please. I can’t go in yet.”

Trace slammed the truck into park and pulled
her across the bench seat and into his arms. She balled her fists
in his shirt and cried against his chest, the tears soaking through
the thin cotton.

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to pull herself
to together. “I didn’t mean to fall apart like that.” She inhaled,
breathing in the clean laundry soap smell she associated with
Trace. For a moment longer, she let herself feel the strength of
his arms around her, let the simple peace of being in his arms fill
her. When she started to lean away from him, he stopped her pulling
her in tighter and stroking her back with slow tender hands like he
was soothing a spooked animal.

“Not yet, baby,” he said. “You’re allowed to
fall apart. Just take a minute.”

He held her against him and she heard the
steady thump of his heart. When had he started to call her baby?
She liked it more than she probably should. He’d never touched her
like this either. He’d always gone out of his way to keep his hands
off of her. Maybe he thought it was safe because they were both
seeing someone, or at least Trace was. After last night, she had no
idea what to call what she and Spencer were doing.

“I’ll be okay,” she said, sitting up and
wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Go ahead and go around
back.”

Trace slipped the truck back in gear and took
the alley which ran past the graceful brick plantation house to the
carriage house behind. The gravel lot was already filled with a
Jaguar, a pair of Mercedes and an unmarked police cruiser, but he
managed to wedge the truck in without blocking anyone.

“Ready?” he asked.

Bailey nodded. “Do I look okay?”

“Beautiful.”

He said the single word like it was the most
natural thing in the world and completely true. Bailey had thrown
on jeans and a T-shirt and hadn’t done more than run a brush
through her unruly hair and slick some tinted gloss on her lips.
She knew she didn’t look beautiful, but she didn’t want to show up
at her parents with eyes swollen from crying.

“I mean it,” he said. “I think you look
beautiful.”

She rolled her eyes, the simple act making
her feel a little steadier. Trace always seemed to do that for her.
He steadied her.

“I just don’t want to look like I’ve been
crying.”

“You don’t look like it,” he said. “But if
you need to, I’m here. You can lean on me.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving his hand a quick
squeeze before she climbed the back porch steps.

They’d barely made it to the top when Taylor,
Bailey’s youngest sister, pushed open the door.

“God, where were you?” she asked wrapping
Bailey in her arms. “Jude was going crazy. We all were.” Taylor
looked from Bailey to Trace and back. “Tell me tonight,” she
murmured in Bailey’s ear.

“Hey Taylor,” said Trace.

Bailey watched his eyes go round as her
sister pulled him in for a hug, but it only took a second for him
to reciprocate.

“Thanks for bringing my sister home,” she
said, planting a friendly kiss on his cheek.

“Glad to do it. How’s Travis?”

Taylor’s normally open, playful face clouded
a little. “We don’t know much. Rachel and Blake and Jude have been
on their phones since Momma and Daddy got the call, trying to
figure out what’s going on. They’re inside with everyone else. You
all are the last ones to get here.”

As the baby in the family Taylor had gotten
into more than her fair share of trouble. It wasn’t like her to
accuse anyone else, yet Bailey couldn’t help but hear her sister’s
words like that even if it wasn’t how she meant them.

They followed Taylor through the kitchen and
into the family room. Instead of sitting in his normal chair, the
chair he’d sat every night when he got home from work, her daddy
sat on the sofa, holding hands with her mother. It was one more
reminder of how off kilter her family was feeling. Her parents had
always been affectionate with each other, but Daddy never sat
anywhere except at the dinner table or in his chair.

“Stay sitting, Momma,” Bailey said when her
mother saw her and started to rise. She hurried to her parents and
leaned in to kiss her mother’s cheek, breathing in the soft, sweet
scent of Shalimar.

“I’m so glad you’re here, darling. Thank-you
for bringing her, Trace.” Her mother had always been so polite and
proper, but she was strong, too – a real steel magnolia. Sitting
there, she looked smaller somehow. Like someone had let the air out
of her.

“It was nothing, ma’am,” said Trace, stepping
in to shake her daddy’s hand.

“Not nothing, son,” said her daddy. “It means
the world to us.”

“Glad I could help.” Trace surprised Bailey
by leaning in to kiss her mother’s cheek, but her mother acted like
it was the most natural thing in the world, reaching up to stroke
his face.

It made sense. Her family had known him
almost as long as she had. She just hadn’t seen him be this openly
affectionate before.

“Thank God you’re here.” Bailey’s oldest
brother, Jude, came out of the dining room and scooped her into his
arms. “Thanks, man,” he said over the top of her head.

“No problem,” came Trace’s deep voice from
behind her.

Jude reached out to shake Trace’s hand, but
kept Bailey tucked under his arm. “Do I want to know where he found
you?” Jude asked so only she could hear.

“Probably not,” she said just as quietly.
“What do you know about Travis? How bad is it? When’s he coming
home?”

“Let’s go sit down. I’ll tell you everything
we’ve been able to find out and then we can make a plan.”

Seeing the way Bailey’s family gathered
around each other almost made Trace believe in love again. He
hadn’t always been such a cynic, but his parent’s split when he was
a boy shook his faith in the permanence of forever. As an adult, he
could look back and see his parent’s divorce wasn’t any nastier
than most and a lot more civilized than some, but at eleven, none
of that mattered. The only thing that was important was that
overnight everything he’d counted on had changed.

Anna leaving him had been the nail in the
coffin of his belief in living happily ever after with another
person. They’d met in college and had dreamed of starting the farm
together. After graduation, they had, but while Trace was sinking
in roots literally and figuratively, Anna had been ready to move on
to the next adventure. She hadn’t lasted a year and when she left
she tore his heart out.

Although if he was really honest with himself
he’d probably known that was the direction they were headed. Anna
was like most of his interns; she liked the idea of farming more
than the reality of it. Like them, she’d been caught up in the
romanticized idea of planting the earth without taking into account
the relentless hard work and the repetitive nature of the life he’d
built.

Anna and his parents taught him that falling
in love meant losing the one you loved. From the moment he’d met
Bailey, he’d known he couldn’t risk losing her. He’d convinced
himself if he kept her at arm’s length, he might not get to love
her, but he wouldn’t lose her.

The writer had changed all that, but
something else was starting to change for him, too. Looking at
Bailey’s parents and the family and home they’d built together for
almost forty years had him rethinking everything he thought he
knew.

And then there was Jude and his fiancée
Autumn. They hadn’t been together long but Trace could tell they
belonged with each other. When he’d seen them at their engagement
party, Jude had been so attentive to Autumn and what she needed. He
taken care of her, but now when he was under so much stress, she
was looking out for him. She kept her gaze on him as he moved
through the logistics of dealing with his brother’s injury and when
he stopped she was by his side, keeping a hand on him and
bolstering him with her strength.

He wanted that with Bailey and for the first
time in a long time he thought he might be able to have it. The
problem now was believing it and convincing her.

Trace watched Bailey from the doorway as she
sat on floor by her father, resting her head against his knee.
Taylor perched on the arm of the sofa, touching both her father and
her sister. Rachel sat next to their mother while Blake and his
police officer twin brother, Adam sat in the chairs to either side.
Jude sat in the only reclining chair with his petite fiancée,
Autumn, perched on the arm with her hand on his shoulder and her
head tipped toward him. Like Bailey’s parents, they looked like a
team already bound together even though their wedding wasn’t until
the summer.

“This is what we’ve been able to find out,”
said Jude. “Travis’s unit was attacked. The tank he was in hit an
IED. He’s got broken ribs and internal injuries. His injuries are
life threatening but not permanently debilitating. And he’s stable.
He’s on his way to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
Once they’re sure his recovery is progressing and that he can make
the trip, they’ll transfer him home.”

Mr. and Mrs. Southerland leaned forward
listening to every word.

“How long will that take?” asked Bailey’s
mother. “I want to be with him now. I don’t want to wait. He needs
us.” Her husband nodded beside her and Trace was struck again by
the fact that they were a team pulling in the same direction.

“I know, Momma,” said Jude. “We don’t know
for sure how long his recovery will take.”

“But,” interrupted Blake. “We’ve made
arrangements to get you and Daddy to Germany so you can be with him
while he heals. We fly out of Roanoke tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll take you to the airport,” said Rachel.
“And I’ve found you a room near the hospital. Blake is going to go
along to get you settled and make sure you have everything you need
so you can concentrate on Travis.” When she said her brother’s name
her voice caught a little. It was the only break in her otherwise
perfectly polished demeanor. Adam, still wearing his deputy’s
uniform, reached over to squeeze her hand.

God, this family knew how to love. They
passed it around, sharing it unreservedly with each other. And in
the center sat their parents, the ones who’d built it all.

Tears filled Bailey’s mother’s eyes and for
the first time since they’d arrived she looked like she might fall
apart. “Thank you,” she said, reaching for her children.

“You have to let us pay for the airfare,”
said Mr. Southerland.

“No, Daddy. I’ve got this. The room, too,”
said Blake.

“He won’t let us help either,” said Jude, his
voice laced with something between a grumble and pride.

“Business is good. Better than it’s ever
been. I want to do this.” He looked at his father and something
Trace didn’t quite recognize – approval or gratitude maybe – passed
between the two men. “We all want to be with Travis, but we can’t.
And he needs you and Momma. We’ll take care of you so you can take
care of him.”

“Until you can bring him home to us,” said
Taylor. Her brothers and sisters nodded their agreement.

“Well,” said their mother, standing. “Then
we’d better go pack.”

Travis was coming home. Bailey held onto the
thought, trying to push everything else out of her mind. Jude
seemed calmer, too, now that they were together and he’d gotten
more information on Travis’s injuries. If he was feeling positive,
she would, too.

She looked around for Trace and found him
standing in the doorway, watching her. She was going to stay until
her parents got off the ground tomorrow, but there was no reason
for him to hang around. He must want to get back to the farm and
the work he’d left behind. She tried not to think about him going
home to the skinny blonde or how much she liked having him here
with her family.

She stood, intending to tell him she could
get a ride home with Taylor or one of her other siblings. When he
saw her coming toward him, his eyes lit with what last week she
would have sworn was pleasure. This week she had no idea.

Before she reached him Jude’s friend, Andrew,
pushed into the kitchen loaded down with plastic grocery bags and
juggling cardboard buckets of chicken. Trace hurried to help him
set the food on the table and then Andrew grabbed her for a hug.
She’d known him since she was a little girl. He and Jude had been
friends for as long as she could remember and she thought of him
like another annoying big brother.