by Vella, Wendy
“You have no business telling me what is best for my granddaughter, sir. Nor will I conduct such a private conversation in a public setting.”
“Seems to me you didn’t listen when she tried to discuss matters in a private setting, so I’m taking it public. You have no business not listening to her wishes, Mr. Southby.”
She felt Joe’s hand on her shoulder as she went to move. Holding her in place. How she knew it was his hand was a mystery—or maybe it was the tingle of awareness.
“Why is it so hard for you to let her live the life she chooses?”
“She is living her life as she chooses.”
“No.” Bailey patted Joe’s hand, then moved away. “I’m not.”
She saw it then, the realization that maybe he may not win an argument for the first time in his life.
“But this is important to you... to us.”
“It was,” she said gently, “but not anymore, Grandfather, and I wish you would respect my wishes in this matter.”
As if realizing that he’d intruded on something private, he looked around the room.
“It’s your granddaughter’s birthday, Mr. Southby. Perhaps if you’d been more aware of her needs, you may have realized that.”
He looked shocked, his eyes going from Mr. Goldhirsh to Bailey.
“I didn’t realize.”
“That’s all right. Would you like a piece of cake?” She took his arm, and led him forward. Aunt Jess and Mr. Goldhirsh then took over, and Bailey watched as they poured him tea, and cut him cake. He looked bemused, and yes, a little lost. Leonard Southby liked control and suddenly he was losing it.
“Small steps,” Joe said, coming to her side. “And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just unleash Mr. Goldhirsh on him again.”
“I feel different, Joe.”
“Different, good?”
“Yes, as if suddenly my life is about to begin again.”
“Definitely good then, especially as I’m going to be in the rebuild.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“ I have to go now, baby. I’m due at the bar. We need to do stock take this morning.”
Bailey stretched in Joe’s big bed as he got out and walked naked to the bathroom. She’d stayed the night with him, as she had for the two since her birthday.
Reaching for her cell phone that Clark had spent two painful hours yesterday teaching her how to use, she knocked Joe’s ring off the nightstand, the thick silver band he always wore on his middle finger. Swinging her legs out of bed, she picked it up. Her fingers encountered a ridge on the inside. She turned it, and the breath lodged inside her throat.
“You can stay in my bed as long as you like,” Joe said, returning after his shower minutes later. “In fact, if you’re there when I.... Bailey, what’s wrong?” He was at her side in seconds, dropping to his knees before her.
“Y-you kept it.” She held out the ring so they could both see the small round silver disc attached to the inside.
His eyes were level with hers, the green dark with emotion as he looked at her.
“I felt close to you when it was near; this was the only way I could think to keep it that way.”
“Hold out your hands,” Bailey said reaching for her locket. Opening it, she let the matching silver disc fall into them.
“I wondered if you still had it.” He ran his thumb over the surface. “I remember the day I made them at school. I just wanted us to have something that held both our names. Wanted something to remind me of you in case we were separated.” His voice was thick with emotion.
“I felt close to you when I had it near too, Joe. I took it out and just stared at it so many times when I missed you.”
His face was inches from hers now, so close that she just had to lean in to touch her lips to his.
“I love you, Joe.” She let go and bared it all. He was silent for long, agonizing seconds, and then made a sound deep in his throat.
“God, I love you, Bailey. It terrifies me how much you mean to me. It was strong before, when you were young, but now it’s fierce.”
She cupped his face. “It’s no different for me, even though I may not be good at showing it.”
“You do okay.” He smiled.
“I don’t want to leave here, Joe. Don’t want to ever lose you again.”
“You’ll never lose me, sweetheart, we just needed fifteen years to find each other again.”
“If I hadn’t come back—”
“Maybe I would have eventually plucked up the courage to find my way to you. Because while I was a coward that day five years ago, Bailey, you need to know that I never forgot you. You were always there inside my head, making me a better person.”
“Promise me you will always be honest with me, Joe. Promise that from now on we only have the truth between us. No more secrets. If you feel something, I want to know what it is.”
“Promise.” He kissed her then, taking her back with him onto the bed. “I want to be the best man I can be for you, baby.” He used her words again, and the fact he remembered them made her warm all over.
Their kiss was deep and intense and had them both breathing hard in seconds. He stripped the shirt off her body, and she opened his jeans, and then he sheathed himself in a condom and was soon seated deep inside her.
“Every time,” he rasped. “Every time, I feel more when I’m inside you.”
Bailey grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged him down as he drove inside her again and again. It was fast and intense, and when it was over, she lay breathless in his arms.
“I love you,” he whispered into her hair.
“I love you too,” Bailey said, nudging him out of bed. “Now go, because I know you have to get to work... but I get to lie here for a bit longer.”
“Witch.” He braced his hands beside her head and kissed her softly, before reaching for his jeans.
Bailey enjoyed the view, admiring the muscles of his body as he moved.
“Are you checking me out?”
“Totally.”
“Totally,” he mimicked. Minutes later, after another kiss, he was gone.
Bailey showered and dressed after Joe left, and wandered downstairs still smiling. He loved her, and she loved him, the rest they could work out, and for the first time in a long while, Bailey felt hope. Her life was about to take another turn for the better.
She passed Joe’s office, and saw two cups on his desk. Looking inside made her shudder. Lord knew how many days they’d been there.
Lifting the cups, she discovered one was stuck to the folder beneath, and papers flew everywhere. As she picked them up, she glanced at one and froze. Minutes later she’d read all the correspondence in that folder.
Walking into his bar twenty minutes later, she had herself under control. She was halfway up the stairs to his office when she heard the male voices. Joe’s, and her grandfather’s raised in anger.
“What’s it going to take for you to understand she’s not leaving, Mr. Southby?”
Bailey made herself stop outside the door and listen.
“My granddaughter is meant for more than you, Mr. Trainer.”
“You have no clue what your granddaughter is meant for, because you’ve never asked her. And I’m telling you right now, I love her and we are going to marry and she is staying here with me.”
Bailey clenched her teeth to stop the smile she felt at his words. He loved her, and wanted to marry her; that felt good. But he still had no right to tell her grandfather they were going to marry when he hadn’t asked her yet.
“She will never marry you, and I’ll fight you every step of the way if you try—”
“That’s enough, Grandfather.” Bailey walked into the room. Joe stood on his side of the desk, and her grandfather across from him. “I want you to leave now, please. Go back to the lodge and pack your things. You need to go back to Boston.”
“Bailey—”
“No more, Grandfather. We’re done, and I will not be returning w
ith you, so you need to understand that. We have things to discuss, so I will follow you to the lodge soon, but then you must leave Ryker Falls.”
He gave her one final look, then walked out the door, closing it softly behind him.
“He’ll be all right, Bailey,” Joe said. “But I think he finally understands you’re not going back with him.”
She looked at him, with his hands braced on his desk, pose as intimidating as he could make it, and felt that little kick again inside her chest.
“I doubt that, Joe, but you had no right to tell my grandfather we were going to marry.”
“We are.” He said the words calmly, as if she’d just accept them.
“You never asked me, and I had a right to that at least, before you told him.”
He shrugged, brushing her words away. “You will marry me.”
“I won’t be controlled again, Joe.”
“How is this me controlling you?”
“You told him we were going to marry!”
“We are.”
“I haven’t agreed.”
He stood and folded his arms. “But you will, because you love me.”
“I do, yes, but I have to have a say in things, Joe. Surely you can see that after what I went through with my grandfather?”
“I’m not getting why this upsets you so much, Bailey. I’m nothing like him.”
She left that alone for now; there would be plenty of time in their lives to make him understand where she was coming from. “We’ll come back to that. You misled me, Joe.”
“About what?”
She paced around his office now, trying to get her words right, because she was hopeless at confrontation. “Lucy. You paid six thousand dollars for her and all that gear.”
“I did, and lied about it because I knew you wouldn’t accept the gift otherwise.”
He was totally unrepentant. His defiance made her want to laugh, but she managed to keep her face serious.
“You know how I feel about manipulation.”
“It’s not manipulation if it’s well-intended, Bailey. I did it because you’re important to me, and you deserve to be spoiled.”
“Joe.” Bailey sighed, looking at him. “You paid six thousand dollars for my birthday present. It’s too much money, especially as when you purchased her you had no idea I loved you or that we were going to have a relationship.”
“Marry me then, and she’ll just be part of our family. Then we can own her together.”
Bailey put her hands in her hair and pulled.
“Feel better?”
“Control and honesty are important to me. I know you bought the horse with good intentions, just as I’m sure you told my grandfather we were getting married for the same reasons.”
“Because I love you.”
“It was thousands of dollars, Joe. I can’t let someone pay that much for a birthday gift.”
“I’m not someone!” His anger was climbing. Hands once again braced on his desk, he glared at her. “I’m the man you supposedly love.”
“You think I’d lie about that?”
“No, and I didn’t lie to you about the horse, I just didn’t tell you the truth… yet.”
“That’s lying, and I’m paying you back.”
“No,” he gritted out. “You are not.”
“I am. I can’t allow that, it’s not right.”
“I’ll be really pissed off if you do, Bailey. It was a gift for the woman I love. The woman who means more to me than any other ever has. If you won’t accept it as a birthday present, then add wedding present to the list.”
“This is not funny!”
“I’m not laughing.”
He held her eyes, and she didn’t look away. She needed to be strong with this man, or he’d walk all over her.
“I can’t let you do this, Joe. It takes away my independence.”
“What? How the hell do you figure that?”
“You paying all that money, it’s wrong. I need to pay you back, or I’ll feel—”
“If the next word to come out of your mouth is beholden, I’ll be really fucking angry!”
“We’ll talk about this later. Right now I have to go.”
“What? Where are you going?”
“I have to talk to my grandfather, in case you’re right and he is leaving. I need to tell him we are not getting married—”
“We are!” Joe cut her off before she could say “yet.” “Don’t you run away from me, Bailey!”
“I love you, Joe, but I need to go and talk to him. I need to get him to release my money.”
“You are not paying me back!”
She leaned across the desk and kissed the angry line of his mouth. Stepping back before he could grab her, Bailey headed for the door.
“I love you.”
“Bailey!” he roared as she ran out the door and down the stairs. Once in the street, she got in her car and headed to the lodge.
Angie was at reception.
“Hi, Bailey.”
“Hi. Do you know where my grandfather is, Angie?”
“He’s in the sunroom.”
“Thanks.”
She found him drinking tea with Mr. Goldhirsh, and not packing like she’d hoped.
“I need to talk to you, Grandfather.”
“If you have come to discuss marriage to that Joseph Trainer, then I have nothing to say on the matter.”
“Joe is a good man, Leonard. Bailey would do well married to him,” Mr. Goldhirsh said.
When had her grandfather become Leonard?
“But then she would stay here.”
“Where she wishes to stay,” Bailey interrupted. “I also want you to release my money.”
He waved a hand. “I had planned to do that, and I apologize for keeping it from you, Bailey. I had no right to do so. But I was angry that you appeared to be happy to throw aside everything you worked so hard for.”
“I no longer wish to perform.”
He looked sad.
“Why were you in Joe’s office, Grandfather?”
“To discuss you. I had seen how close you were to him, and after the conversation I had with Mary Howard—”
“You don’t want to listen to that woman, Leonard. Nothing she has to say makes a lick of sense,” Mr. Goldhirsh said calmly.
“Will you have dinner with me tonight, Bailey? So I can understand about this life you have chosen over the one you led with me?”
She nodded, because it was a start that at least he was acknowledging her wishes. “I will, but I have to get back to the stables now. I’m starting work soon.”
“You really are working in the stables?”
“It’s honest, hard work that I enjoy, Grandfather.”
“All right. We shall discuss this more tonight then. Frederick and I are about to play chess.”
Frederick?
Bailey wasn’t sure what to make of that, but she didn’t have time to think about it now.
“Run along now, Bailey.”
That was more like her grandfather, Bailey thought, watching as he waved his long fingers to dismiss her.
Lifting a hand, she waved, and then left. She drove to Maggie’s, and parked her car. Walking to the stables would give her time to think.
She thought about Joe, and the fact that he would always be a man who liked control. Could she live with such a man?
Yes, because she never wanted to live without him again.
Bailey moved off the road as a car approached, but it slowed.
“Hello, Bailey.”
“Hi, Angie.”
“I’m heading to the ranch, do you want a lift?”
“Sure, thanks.” She got in because Angie was being nice, and if Bailey was going to live in Ryker Falls, she wanted them to be friends. She closed the door.
“And now we’re going for a drive.”
She turned at Angie’s words, and saw the gun she held. It was pointed straight at her.
“Angie, what are
you doing?”
“I’ve just told you, Bailey, pay attention. We’re going for a drive.”
“What’s going on? Put down the gun.” She reached for the door, but Angie put her foot down on the gas, and the car shot forward.
“I’ve locked the doors, so there’s no way you can escape.”
“Why are you doing this?” Bailey looked at the woman.
“Because Joe was mine until you came along and stole him from me. I’m removing you so things will go back to the way they should be.”
“B-but it was never serious between you.”
“It would have been! I was taking it slow not wanting to scare him off. Joe’s nervous about committing, one of his old girl-friends told me that, so I was easing him into the idea of a relationship with me. I wanted to marry him and live at the ranch. I wanted that bar and the money he could give me. I wanted the lifestyle I would have as Mrs. Trainer. You took that from me!”
“But you slept with Ted from the lodge.” Bailey looked at the gun, hoping Angie wouldn’t shoot her while she was driving.
“Sleeping with the boss made my life easier, but it was always Joe I wanted. Everything was going well until you came back to Ryker.” She shot Bailey a hate-fueled look. “You managed to get under his guard, and then he no longer wanted me.”it was always Joe I wanted. Everything was going well until you came back to Ryker.” She shot Bailey a hate-fueled look. “You managed to get under his guard, and then he no longer wanted me.”
“Tell me it wasn’t you who lit that fire, and shot Jack?”
“Of course it was,” Angie said calmly. “I saw you that day lying on top of Joe. I knew you were a threat to me so you had to be removed. But I missed and got Jack.”
“You’re insane,” Bailey said.
“No, I’m perfectly sane, and know what I want. If that fool Elijah hadn’t overheard me offering to pay Tim Trainer to kill you, then he wouldn’t have had to die, but he did.”
“You killed Elijah?” Bailey was suddenly aware of just what she was dealing with, a maniac who had already killed, and would not hesitate to do so again.
“We killed him. Me and that fool Tim Trainer. He nearly had you at the bar, which was coincidence, by the way. He was out there waiting for one of his sons.”
“H-he was going to harm one of his own children?”