by Elena Aitken
It didn’t do much but it rocked the boat slightly.
Chase and Bailey moved apart.
“Oh, and don’t let Chase drive,” Ellie said.
Bailey looked over at her. “No? Why not?”
“He can tell you.” Ellie gave Chase a smile and then waved them off. “Take your time.”
Bailey watched as the woman turned and made her way up the dock. A movement up to the right of the building caught her eye and she squinted trying to make out what it was that Sawyer Landry was chasing.
“It that an otter?” she asked Chase, pointing.
Chase followed her finger, then shook his head. “Looks like a cat to me.”
Uh-huh. That was not a cat. “It looks—”
“Do you know how to drive an airboat?” he interrupted, taking the bag with the lights and star from her and storing it under one of the seats.
“Well, yeah that’s how we get around out there.”
“Good. You’re up, Captain Bailey.”
Suddenly she found herself being lifted with two big hands on her waist into the seat at the back of the boat. He stepped back. And stood there.
She just sat for a second after he put her down, not saying anything.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just waiting.”
“For?
“Well, you touched me. So I figure the boat is about to capsize or one of us is going to start puking or something.”
He didn’t disagree. Or laugh. He just waited, too.
Finally, after a full minute had passed, he asked, “How long do you think it should take?”
“Every other time it’s been immediate.”
“So maybe we’re safe this time.”
“Maybe.”
“And maybe—” He stepped forward. “It’s about where I touch you. The other times have been when I’ve touched your hand or gone for your mouth.”
He was now very much in her personal space. But not touching her. She looked up at him.
“Interesting theory.”
He reached out and put a single finger on her right knee.
They both waited.
Nothing happened.
He grinned. “Well, woman of science, what do you say to a little experimentation?”
Yes.
This guy wanted to spend more time with her. Whether or not they’d manage to kiss remained to be seen, but she wasn’t going to turn down more time with him.
She’d never quite fit anywhere. She was a little weird in Minnesota with her fascination with the bayou ecosystem and alligators. She was a little weird in Louisiana, because she wasn’t from here. Even with Chase and her attraction to him, they couldn’t get their lips fit together.
But it was now Christmas. She wasn’t with her family for the holiday so she was having a hard time feeling like she had a place to be. Chase and the Landrys were giving her that. Chase might have made her roll her eyes the first time they’d tried all of this, but she’d been unable to stop thinking about him and now this cute, flirty, charming guy came with Christmas lights and decorations and a set of adopted-for-the-evening grandparents.
She cleared her throat. “We are going to decorate right?”
“You know there’s not really a Gator Bells Bayou Tour, right?” he asked.
She’d had her suspicions. She grinned. “No?”
“I think there might be a Grandma Got Run Over By a Gator murder mystery tour coming up,” he said with a laugh. “But there’s nothing going on tonight.”
“How long do you think it will take them to round up all the otters?” she asked.
He looked surprised for a second. But only one. Then he grinned. “You know?”
“I guessed.”
“But you’re playing along.” It wasn’t a question.
“I didn’t come down here because of the otters, Chase.”
His smile died and heat flared in his eyes. “I’m really glad to hear that.”
“So how long do you think we’ll have the cabin to ourselves?” Her heart was pounding hard in her chest. She was never forward like this. Then again, she’d never met a guy who stepped on her foot, almost broke her nose with his, and that she couldn’t stop thinking about for months.
“I plan to text them when our ‘decorating’ is complete.”
“Does that mean after you’ve had a chance to touch me everywhere but my lips and hands?” she asked.
He leaned in, bracing his hands on the seat on either side of her hips, his nose almost on hers. But not quite.
“Bailey?”
“Yeah?”
“Drive.”
“Okay.”
“Fast.”
“Yeah.”
Chapter 6
He’d been out to the cabin a few times with Mitch, another of Ellie and Leo’s grandsons. They’d fished, and partied, and fished, and hung out, and fished at the cabin. He was shocked and proud to realize that he was able to direct Bailey to it with only one wrong turn.
She pulled up at the dock like a pro and Chase jumped off. He tied the boat up and then held out a hand to help her out of the boat. She lifted a brow and handed him a box.
Right. No touching her hand.
He chuckled. It was ridiculous. Obviously there wasn’t some stupid curse at play when they touched hands or lips. She just…shook him up.
And he was starting to like it.
She was different from all of the women he’d ever been with before. He liked not knowing exactly what was going to happen when she was around. He liked that she was sharp enough to figure out that there was something going on with otters. He liked that she’d seemed enchanted by Ellie. He really fucking liked that she’d worn a dress for him.
He liked her.
So, fine. He wouldn’t touch her hand. For now.
But that was not going to last. Not for long. Maybe not much past the threshold of the cabin.
They unloaded the boxes and bags. Ellie and Leo had come up with a surprising number of Christmas decorations to send to the cabin on this fake mission. It was clearly a last-minute attempt at distracting Bailey—and maybe throwing them together out away from the rest of the family for a chunk of time. That was exactly the kind of thing the Landrys would do. Even if there weren’t rogue otters to hide.
He carried the last box into the cabin, kicking the door shut behind him.
Bailey was kneeling in the midst of the other boxes. All of them were open and she’d started pulling things out.
“Oh my God, my grandma had these.” She held up two ceramic Santa mugs. “We’d have hot chocolate in them on Christmas Eve. She made the best hot chocolate. From scratch on the stove.”
The woman sitting on the braided rug in front of the ugly plaid couch that had probably been in that cabin longer than Chase had been alive was nothing like the nerdy alligator scientist he’d been obsessing about. This woman was softer. More open. Not preoccupied with research reports about giant lizards that skulked around the bayou. She was here with him, her eyes lit up over the Christmas decorations that had been thrown haphazardly in the boxes.
He was even more obsessed now.
He set the box on the coffee table and joined her on the floor. “You have good family Christmas memories then?” he asked.
“Oh, definitely.” She smiled as she pulled a stuffed snowman from the box. “I miss home a lot but especially this time of year.” She held the snowman up. “It’s funny to me they have snowman decorations. There’s no snow here.”
He smiled. “Maybe that’s why they have the decorations.”
She laughed. “Maybe.” Then she sighed. “I do miss the snow this time of year.”
“Where’s home?”
“Minnesota.”
“Oh. Yeah, you’re used to snow.” He chuckled.
“Yeah. And cold.” She looked down at her dress. “Could never wear this back home this time of year.”
“Bet you’re pretty cute in a hat and mittens, too, though,�
�� he said.
She looked mildly surprised. “Thanks.”
And now he wanted to see her in a hat and mittens. Making a snowman. Or maybe ice skating. And he didn’t even know how to ice skate.
“Do you ice skate?” he asked.
“Of course.” She laughed lightly. “Everyone in Minnesota knows how to ice skate.”
He loved her laugh. “I thought maybe you were here because home wasn’t happy,” he said honestly.
Bailey shook her head. “Oh no. This is actually the first year I haven’t been home. Last year it worked out. This year was my turn to be on call for work.”
Chase could admit that he didn’t really know what she did in her job. Chase had only been in Autre for two weeks this past summer and he’d spent a lot more time partying than he had concerned about climate change.
The woman in front of him could change that.
It was a strange realization. Usually when he was into a woman, it was about taking her out and having fun and, of course, getting naked. This woman made him want to know about her fascination with alligators and the initiatives to slow coastal erosion.
Huh.
“What kind of calls might you get?” he asked, reaching into one of the boxes and pulling out a set of wooden reindeer. They had clearly been cut and painted by hand and Chase wondered about who had made them and if he showed them to the Landrys if they’d smile nostalgically the way Bailey had over the mugs.
“Hurt animals, animals where they shouldn’t be, people doing things to animals that they shouldn’t be.” She gave him a look. “You know, someone deciding to make a wild animal a pet.”
Right. Like otters.
“Surely it’s quieter around Christmastime.”
“The alligators are less active in the colder weather,” she said, pulling a strand of lights out of another box. “So there are fewer nuisance alligator reports, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a chance at all. And there are lots of other animals. But it’s one of the things I like about working down here in Louisiana. There’s more outdoor activity year-round than in Minnesota.”
“People hunt and ice fish and things like that up there, right?”
“Sure,” she agreed.
“So you could have stayed and worked in Minnesota. What brought you south?”
She grinned. “There are no alligators in Minnesota.”
He couldn’t help it. He laughed. He’d never met anyone who actually loved alligators. “What is with you and the gators? Seriously.”
Bailey set down the stuffed, probably handsewn, cloth wreath she held. “Alligators have been around for millions of years,” she said. “In fact, prehistoric skeletons look almost identical to current day skeletons. That means they’re even older than we’ve believed and relatively unchanged. That is amazing. The fact that this species has survived so many periods on earth and yet hasn’t changed that much is just so cool.”
He shook his head.
“What?” she asked.
“How is you being all worked up over big lizards so damned hot?” he asked.
Her eyes went round. “It’s hot?”
Chase shrugged. “It is. I can’t explain it except to say that you look fucking gorgeous when you’re all excited. Even if it is about alligators.”
Her cheeks got pink and she ducked her head. “I know it’s weird. Alligators aren’t sexy.”
“Passion is, though,” he said. He waited until she looked up at him. “I think that’s it. It’s true passion because it would be pretty hard to fake being that into alligators.”
“Most guys don’t think like that.”
“Most guys are kind of stupid.”
She gave him a small smile. Chase couldn’t remember the last time he dated a woman who had a true passion. And shoes sales didn’t count. He couldn’t come up with one. Of course, he could also admit that he hadn’t spent a lot of time talking about hopes and dreams with the women he’d dated in the most recent past.
“So what are you passionate about?” she asked. “Medicine, I would guess?”
No one had ever asked him that before. He thought about that, wanting to give her an actual answer. “Doing something that makes someone’s life better,” he finally said.
She tipped her head. “Where does that come from?”
He liked that she didn’t scoff or roll her eyes or say something like “of course.” He knew he came off confident, even cocky a lot of the time, and that he clearly didn’t mind the spotlight, but he liked that Bailey took his answer seriously. “My sister. She had a stroke when she was ten.”
Bailey’s surprise was obvious. “Wow. As a kid?”
He nodded. “It’s more common than people think. She’s older than me, so honestly, I only remember little bits. Her in the hospital. My mom being scared. My mom being really overprotective of her. Juliet pushing back against that. Our older brothers are a lot older, so Juliet and I were kind of stuck together a lot anyway, but once she had some physical deficits I could more easily keep up with her, so we did a lot together. Skiing, skating, swimming. And I was there to be sure she was okay and help her if she needed. She learned to compensate for everything really effectively, but I was that extra level of security. It always made my mom feel better if I was there with her. So it made me feel important. I was her crutch, I guess. I do remember going along to a lot of doctor’s appointments and therapy sessions. I watched her get stronger and recover in real time. I want to help other people that way.”
“That’s what made you want to go into medicine?” she asked.
He recognized that look of fascination on her face. He loved that she felt that way about his story.
“I like the idea of helping people overcome things that happen to them.”
Bailey just looked at him for a long moment. Then she said, “That’s really great.”
For some reason, from her, that meant a lot. This woman didn’t impress easily. “Thanks. I often felt a little like an afterthought in my family.” He frowned. Why had he just said that?
“Really? How so?” She didn’t look like she was teasing him. Or like she was really sympathizing exactly. She just looked interested.
Bailey Wilcox was very easy to talk to.
“I was a lot younger than my brothers so I didn’t have much to do with them. When it came to me and my sister, she needed a lot of extra attention and time. My mother insists I wasn’t an accident, but I have my suspicions.”
Bailey smiled. “Accidents can turn out way better than the things we intend sometimes.”
That was for sure.
“Well, then I kind of struggled to figure out where to fit as I got older. I didn’t want to go into business with my dad and brothers. I went into medicine with my mom and sister’s blessings and my dad’s general acceptance. But I wondered if that was where I should be or if it was something I chose because I didn’t have a better idea, or just because I was interested because of Juliet, and if it was just a way to rebel against my dad.”
“Do you still feel that way now that you’re there?”
He shook his head. That was a great question and one he was very happy to have an answer to. “No. I think I’m finally in the right place.”
She just looked at him for several heartbeats. “I’m glad.” It seemed that she wanted to say more. But in the end she just looked down at the wreath. “This stuff is pretty great.”
“I’m guessing there are stories that go with all this stuff.”
She nodded. “Why did they send it all out here? They don’t use it at home?”
Chase shrugged. “I stopped in at Ellie’s bar the other night and it was decorated. I’m sure their houses are, too.” He pulled a Santa statue out of the box. Except this Santa was sitting in a wooden boat that looked like a long canoe that was being pulled by eight alligators. “Maybe they have two of everything?”
“They probably have more than two of those,” she said with a grin. “That’s Papa Noel.”
“Papa Noel?”
“Well, kind of the French version of Santa Claus,” she said. “Though lots of cultures have some form of Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas. But in the Cajun culture here in Louisiana, he comes in a pirogue—that type of boat, which came from the French who settled here—that’s pulled by alligators.”
He looked at the statue. “You know a lot about the Cajun culture?”
“I’ve been down here for two years,” she said. “It’s hard to not pick up. I love it. And I looked up some stuff about Christmas since I was hoping…” She trailed off.
Chase lifted a brow. “You were hoping what?”
“Nothing.” She was now studying the ornament she held. An alligator dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and holding a candy cane.
“Bailey,” he said, low and firm. “What were you hoping?”
“To see you and have hot sex under the Christmas tree.”
He’d love to believe that. His body definitely liked the idea. A shaft a heat went through him. But it was bullshit. She still wasn’t looking at him.
“Bailey.”
She blew out a breath and looked up.
“What were you hoping?”
“To maybe get a Christmas dinner invite from the Landrys,” she confessed. “I know that’s a little pathetic.”
He sat up straighter. “Oh. That’s not pathetic at all.” That would be so easy to get. “I have no idea what Cajuns eat for Christmas, but I can tell you that if Ellie Landry and Cora Allain are making it, then it’s gonna be some of the best stuff you ever tasted and if you didn’t want a chance at it, you’d be crazy.” The Landrys loved only one thing more than food. Feeding people. Lots of people. Any people. But he narrowed his eyes. “Are you using my attraction to you to get Christmas dinner?” he teased.
“I didn’t know you were attracted to me.”
“Bullshit,” he chided.
Finally, she gave him a half-smile. “Okay, maybe I thought you were a little. But I think I thought that I was just the first girl who hadn’t fallen at your feet and you were determined to figure out what that was about.”
He nodded slowly. Interesting that she’d realized that about him. “That was part of it. At first.”