Spring River Valley: The Spring Collection (Boxed Set) (21 page)

Sighing, he got out of the car and jogged up to Bailey’s front door. He knocked, and she called from inside. “It’s still open.”

He walked in to a shimmering wonderland of candles. She stood in the kitchen doorway, barefoot. She’d taken off her dress and wore only a long camisole that covered her to mid-thigh. “I know you’ve had nothing but ice water all night. Would you like some wine?”

“Oh, my God…yes…I mean…this is sensational. How did you get all this done in five minutes?”

“I had a lot of it planned before hand. I thought we’d have a nice, relaxing night, maybe take a bubble bath later.”

Matt groaned. The thought of Owen waiting for him took some of the sumptuous, rosy glow out of his world. “This can’t be happening.”

“What’s wrong?” Bailey sauntered across the room toward him, her arms outstretched. “Whatever it is, let me make it all better.”

“I have to go.” He blurted the words out, like ripping off a bandage. The pain would come later. “It’s an emergency.”

She froze mid-step. “What kind of emergency?”

“It’s Owen. He needs a ride.”

“Okay. I’ll go with you. Let me blow the candles out.”

“You can’t. He asked me to come alone; he’s a little embarrassed.”

She tilted her head, questioning.

“Long story. I don’t know all the details.”

“I see.”

Matt backed toward the door. Each step was torture. If Owen hadn’t been his best friend… God, how could he leave her like this? She looked like a sinful angel with her lips shimmering in the candle light, her hair wild and sultry, her smoky eyes blazing. “I will be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

She pursed her lips. “Oh?”

“Look, he needs a ride home. Hopefully he hasn’t gotten arrested by now.” He grabbed the door knob. “Just hold that thought, hold every thought you’ve had all night. I
will
be back.”

She bent to blow out the nearest set of candles. “That’s okay.”

“What? No, really, it won’t take long.”

“It’s fine. Go.”

“Are you mad? Don’t be mad…I don’t know what happened. Owen doesn’t get into trouble very often, but…”

“Matt. I don’t care what your excuse is. Go. Do whatever it is you have to do. We’ll talk another time.”

“Talk? What do you think this is? I’m not lying. I—”

She blew out more candles. “Go. Good-bye, Matt. Call me tomorrow.”

Something told him if he left, whatever they had was going to suffer for it, but he couldn’t let Owen down. He’d have to deal with Bailey tomorrow, if she let him. “Fine. Bye. I’ll call you.”

“I won’t wait up.”

The moment Matt closed the door behind him, Bailey let out a frustrated curse. The only thing she could hear over and over again in her head was the blonde in the bathroom.
“He’s with someone, but he’s going to blow her off so we can meet later.”

It killed her to believe those saucy words could actually be true, but she’d been through so much with Dan, she’d be a fool to blindly assume everything was fine. How could an emergency have popped up all of a sudden with Owen in the five minutes it had taken her to prepare her apartment for the sexy romp she’d been planning all day long?

She stomped around blowing out the dozens of candles she’d lit while he was on the phone in his car. She stuck the bottle of wine back in the fridge and dumped the ice bucket into the sink. She threw the flavored condoms she’d bought into the trash.
Won’t be needing those
.

The worst part was, she didn’t want to feel this way. The look on his face was so sincere, so shocked that she’d been upset with him. She wanted to believe Matt. But how could she?

How many times had Dan told her “something suddenly came up” at work or with a friend and he needed to leave her? She’d accepted every lame excuse he’d ever given her, over and over again, until the day one of his other girlfriends had marched up to her in the supermarket and blatantly told her Dan was cheating, then proceeded to give her a detailed list of dates, times, and places.

Even though she’d long since fallen out of love with Dan, the humiliation of that day still stung. Tears burned the back of her throat at the memory of calmly placing her few items back on the shelves and leaving the store, numb. Barely able to see through her tears, she’d driven to Dan’s office and confronted him, and he’d had the nerve to blame her for his indiscretions. He’d said she hadn’t been exciting enough for him, she smothered him, she expected too much from him. He told her his fear of commitment had driven him to look elsewhere, and that every time he thought about how loyal she was and how her determination to take their relationship to the next level—an engagement—it had driven him further away.

And here she was losing herself to Matt after a week. She’d just assumed he would come over and stay the night. They’d wake up and spend the morning in bed, she’d cook breakfast, and they’d go for a stroll, maybe pick up Barkley from Aiden’s place and take him to the park. She’d imagined them spending the entire day together, but now those plans seemed foolish and naïve, as had all her assurances to Evie that Matt wasn’t the type to cheat.

This relationship was all in her head, just like her future with Dan had been. She’d assumed Matt would want her all night, want to spend his weekend with her. She hadn’t asked, hadn’t thought about how committed that kind of a day really was. Had she ever really listened to him when he talked, or had she just projected what she wanted to see? He’d told her he had plans for his life, his degree, his own business, then years and years down the road maybe a steady relationship, possibly a marriage in a decade or two when he’d done everything he wanted to do with his life.

She had him practically living in her apartment after a week.

Evie had been wrong. A year wasn’t nearly enough time for her to learn her lesson and figure out how to conduct a relationship in the right way. But a week was certainly long enough for her to recognize her mistakes.

She blew out the last candle and shut her bedroom door. It was time to get used to sleeping alone again.

* * * *

“What the hell happened to you?” Matt demanded when a half-naked Owen slipped into his passenger seat. A putrid odor followed him into the car, and Matt quickly rolled down his widow. “What the hell?”

“I’m sorry. It’s skunk.”

“No, oh, no man. You never mentioned you were skunked. When did this happen? Jeez. Just let me say thank God you’ve still got your underwear, because there were a couple of scenarios I was imagining in which I was
not
going to let you in my car. Skunk was not one of them, but it should’ve been.”

Owen rolled his window down and hung his head out of the car. “We were outside Colette’s, I went out the back exit with my guitar, and Taylor had to go to the clinic. He got a call about one of the police dogs being sick, so Claudia said she’d drive me home. Out by the dumpsters there was a skunk. I didn’t see it. It got just the hem of my jeans, but man, it stunk.”

“So Claudia made you get out here?”

“No. She let me get in her car, but she made me take my pants off and put them in the trunk. When I tell you, I smelled a lot worse before I took them off.”

Matt pulled back into traffic, speeding up to keep the fresh air circulating through the car. “So how did you end up hiding under the overpass like a bum?”

“Well, somehow…and I swear I have no idea what I said, but we ended up in a huge fight. Lately everything I say to her makes her mad. I don’t know what’s up with her, but next thing I know, she’s laying into me about how insensitive and clueless I am, so I said—‘You’re damn right I’m clueless. I don’t have a clue what your problem is, but I’m tired of getting the—’”

“You didn’t use that tone did you?”

“I didn’t think I was using any tone…but yeah, I guess I did because she says, ‘Don’t take that tone with me’…and the next thing I know, I’m threatening to walk home, and then the car door is closing, and I realize she took me seriously. My pants are still in the trunk, my guitar is in her backseat. At least I have my shoes, but that’s what I think still stinks. Do you know your car smells like dog?”

“Dog? Really? You reek like something that died a week ago, and you can smell dog?”

“Seriously. Did you have a dog in your car?”

“That’s really all you’re worried about right now?”

“Sorry…I’m just…I have no idea what’s going on with Claudia. She makes me crazy.”

“Ever wonder why?”

“All the time.”

“Oh, man. You
are
clueless. Uh…you do have your keys, right?”

“Uh-oh.”

“You don’t have the keys to your apartment?”

Owen closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “They’re in my pants.”

“You took your cell phone out of your pants but not your keys?”

“I was holding my cell phone when the skunk got me. I tossed it into her car, and I took it when I got back out. Can I crash at your place?”

“Not smelling like that. I’ll help you break in to your place. I guess I’m not getting back to Bailey tonight, and she’s mad at me and I don’t know why. What is it with women? Can you explain that?”

Owen shook his head. “If I knew, I’d bottle it and be a millionaire.”

“I’ve got thirty-seven texts from him.” Bailey lay on her couch, too exhausted from a night of tossing and turning to move. Evie sat across from her, tapping her foot in annoyance.

“I knew we should have locked that girl in the stall. If I ever see her again…”

“No, Evie. I actually do believe him.”

“You believe he blew you off, candles and sexy underwear, to go pick up the guitar player from the band?”

“I do.”

“So why are you lying there all miserable, ignoring his texts?”

“Because I don’t know what to say to him. I’m an idiot. I’m that girl who flies off the handle at the tiniest little thing. Dan ruined me. He made me distrust every man in the world…but worse, he made me not trust myself and my own instincts. I believed Matt last night. I really did, but I got mad at him anyway and told him not to come back. What’s wrong with me?”

Evie rose. She crossed the living room and stood over Bailey, hands on her hips. “I love you. You’re one of my best friends, so I’m going to be brutally honest right now. I hope you’re ready to hear it.”

Bailey dragged herself to a sitting position and looked up at Evie. “I am.”

“Good. Listen carefully. Stop. Blaming. Dan. For your crazy. Yes, he gave you a reason to be paranoid. But you made it last a whole year.
Get over it
.”

Bailey dropped her head into her hands. “God, you’re right. I’m a mess. I just tossed a perfectly good guy out on his ear—no,
the perfect guy
—for no reason.”

“So go get him, honey. Go tell him you’re sorry you’re a nut job, you’ll do better next time, and beg him to forgive you.”

Bailey picked up her phone. “What should I say to him?”

“Oh, my God!” Evie swiped the phone. She typed furiously for a few minutes, then gave the phone back. “There.”

“What did you say?” Bailey read the text Evie had written, her heart pounding.
Forgive me? I’m an idiot. I adore you.
“I adore you?”

“Would you have rather I wrote ‘I love you’?”

“No! No. It’s too soon for that.”

“Stop analyzing. Did he respond?”

Bailey stared at the phone, willing a text to appear, but none did. “No. Nothing. Thirty-seven texts and now nothing. Should I call him?”

“He’s probably on his way over here. Light the candles, get naked, and wait for him.”

“What if he’s coming over to break up with me?”

“You kicked him out last night. He can’t break up with you. He’s got to be coming over to get back together with you.”

“Would
you
get back together with me? I mean, I’m insane. I need a rubber room and a straitjacket. He’s probably packing his bags and leaving the state. If he’s smart, he’ll get into the witness protection program and leave North America entirely.”

“You’re overreacting.”

Bailey held out her hand to Evie. “We obviously haven’t met before. Hi, I’m Bailey. That’s what I do. I overreact to things.”

Evie headed for the door. “Trust me. The guy is crazy about you. I can tell just by looking at him. He’ll deal with this. You just told him you’re sorry. He’ll accept that.”

“
You
told him I was sorry.”

“Are you sorry?”

“Yes.”

“Then go light some candles, take off your clothes, and wait for him.”

“That actually sounds a little creepy.”

“I never met a guy who thought a naked woman was creepy. Trust me, he’ll go for it.”