We kept wandering down the line, glancing at the things people were selling. Homemade soaps. Jams and jellies. Beef jerky and smoked salmon. Handmade purses, aprons, and scarves. We passed Lola, the giant pinup girl, and Asher paused to look up at the dark brown crocheted beard hanging from her face. It was long, reaching all the way to her ample cleavage, and dotted with a rainbow of crocheted flowers.
“Wow. Someone outdid themselves.”
“Lola does look very fancy.”
He turned to me. “You wouldn’t know anything about who did that, would you?”
I blinked innocently. “I have no idea. But whoever made it did a lovely job.”
Asher grinned and shook his head.
I eyed Lola with satisfaction. The beard I’d made was huge and the flowers were a nice touch, if I did say so myself. It was always important to make sure Lola was bearded on the first day of the festival, but it was also difficult because of all the people setting up their stalls the night before. I was glad Gavin had managed to put it on her without getting caught.
By tradition, Bruce Haven—owner of the Dame and Dapper Barber Shop and the one who’d put up the giant pinup girl statue in the first place—wouldn’t take the beard off until the festival was over, if we managed to get it on before it began.
Mission accomplished.
“Hi, honey,” my mom called from further up the street. She stood with Jack and Elijah. Her hair was down and she wore a pretty floral sundress and sandals. Jack’s barrel chest was barely contained by his uniform and he had his thick arms crossed.
Elijah was miraculously without his hoodie—probably because of the heat—but he stood with his head down a few steps away from both Mom and Jack. I hoped he wasn’t still having trouble with kids picking on him. Mom and I had both tried to talk to him about it—as had Jack—but he’d insisted everything was fine now. I worried about the poor kid.
I waved to my mom. Asher seemed tense beside me as we walked closer. I hoped he didn’t feel uncomfortable because Jack was in law enforcement.
“Hi, Mom, Jack. Hey, Eli.”
Asher greeted them with a nod. Jack returned it and Mom smiled.
Elijah looked up at Asher and a flicker of a smile crossed his features.
“Hey, buddy,” Asher said.
Elijah’s smile grew a little. “Hi.”
“Are you two having fun?” Mom asked.
Asher let go of my hand and slid his arm around my shoulders.
“Yeah, it’s a great day so far,” I said.
A voice came over Jack’s radio. “We have multiple reports of gang activity over on Bailey Way.”
Jack pressed the button and turned his head to speak into his radio. “Bailey Way?”
“It was Cedar Avenue, but the Bailey sign is still up.”
He shook his head slightly. “I’m a couple of blocks from there, but are we sure this warrants a response? Can’t they just shoo them away?”
“A series of thefts have already been called in. I think there’s a coordinated effort here.”
“Thefts of what?”
“Primarily snacks. But Mrs. Carter said they stole her sun hat.”
“Why would—? Never mind, I’ll go check it out.” He let go of the button and rolled his eyes. “Damn squirrels.”
He gave my mom a quick kiss and left.
“Well, I won’t keep you two,” Mom said. “I promised Elijah we’d get scones.”
“Have fun.”
I glanced up at Asher and caught him winking at Elijah. Eli seemed to be trying to hide a smile, and he waved goodbye.
“What was that about?” I asked.
He tightened his grip on my shoulders, pulling me in closer. “Nothing.”
I wound my arm around his waist, enjoying the closeness. It certainly wasn’t nothing to see Elijah looking almost happy. But I decided not to press him on it. For now.
We made our way to Lumberjack Park. Contests were already underway in the grassy areas, with spectators cheering on the contestants. Levi was about to go head to head with Luke Haven in a wood-chopping contest. They’d already drawn a huge crowd. Any time a Bailey faced off with a Haven, the whole town got riled up. There were too many people for us to see much, so we kept walking.
The off-duty firefighters had set up a grilling station at the park’s edge. Logan, along with half a dozen others, stood shirtless in the heat, grilling bratwurst and hamburgers. The line to buy was long—and mostly women.
“That’s definitely the way to do a fundraiser,” I said.
Asher laughed. “That guy loves any excuse to take his clothes off.”
“Is that Gavin?” I asked, pointing to a tree next to the grill. “What’s he doing?”
Gavin hung upside down from a tree branch with a long stick in his hand. He was pointing the stick toward the grill. Logan tried to bat it away with the metal tongs in his hand.
“Are those marshmallows?” Asher asked.
“I think so.” I shook my head. “He’s so going to fall.”
The most ridiculous fencing match I’d ever seen broke out, Gavin wielding a long marshmallow topped stick—while hanging upside down from his knees—and Logan fighting back with barbecue tongs.
“Sometimes I really wonder how he’s still alive,” Asher said.
We moved on, crossing the grass. Cara waved from a folding chair. She was attracting more than a few eyes with her string bikini top and cutoff shorts. A picnic blanket was spread out next to her with a cooler and two grocery bags. A small folding table held a pitcher and cups. Half a dozen more chairs surrounded the blanket, and an umbrella staked in the ground provided shade.
She lifted her drink. “There you are. I was wondering when you’d show up.”
“This is something.” I gestured to her setup.
“I figured if I’m going to be out here all day, I might as well be comfortable.”
“How’d you get all this stuff down here?”
“I paid Gavin. Help yourself to a margarita. There’s more ice in the cooler.”
Asher poured us each a drink and we took a seat.
“Paid Gavin how?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Cara lowered her sunglasses. “With money. The Bailey boys are your territory. Besides, he’s cute, but like a puppy cute.”
“Why are they my territory? I’m only dating one of them, I don’t need all five.”
She adjusted her sunglasses and waved off my comment. “Still.”
I took a sip of my drink and winced. It burned going down. “God, Cara, is there anything other than tequila in this?”
“Whatever, boo. You’re not an amateur.”
Asher took a drink, glanced at his cup, shrugged, and took another sip. “It’s good.”
Cara beamed at him. “Thank you.”
Logan sauntered over, all toned muscle and hard abs. It looked like he’d added to his tattoos recently. I didn’t remember them going so far down his arm. His shoulder and upper arm had a beautiful flame design, full of oranges, reds, and blacks.
He carried a plate piled high with grilled bratwurst stuffed in buns. “Who needs some meat? It’s on the house.”
Cara pulled off her sunglasses—probably to make sure he’d see her roll her eyes. “Nobody needs your meat, Logan.”
“That’s definitely not true. When you’re hungry, nothing beats Logan Bailey’s meat.”
“Gross. We don’t need to hear about how often you beat your meat.”
“Believe what you want, sweetheart, but this guy’s meat is in high demand.”
“Yeah, we saw the line, and I’m sure your dick is impressive, too,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “I’ll take one. I should eat something with this tumbler full of tequila Cara gave me.”
Logan winced. “Don’t talk about my dick, Grace. You always ruin everything.”
“Then don’t wave it around in our faces,” I said. “If you need to prove to Cara that your dick is so great, take her back to your place.�
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“He wishes,” she said.
He shuddered. “No thanks. I choose life.”
Logan started peeling off paper plates from the bottom of his pile and handing out bratwursts. Looking reluctant, he held one out toward Cara.
She glared at him and he pulled it back, like he was flinching away from something hot.
Levi wandered over, shirtless and sweaty. Logan handed him a plate and he piled two more bratwursts on top of the first.
“Fuck, did I miss it?” Logan asked. “Did you win? Tell me you won, bropocalypse. The pride of the entire Bailey family rests on you.”
He scowled, but I caught the hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “Of course I won.”
Logan pumped his fist in the air, then high-fived his brother. “Fuck yes.”
Asher leaned toward me. “Where’s Evan? I haven’t seen him today.”
“Oh, he never comes out for these things.”
“Really?”
I shook my head. “No. I mean, he basically hates everyone, so he doesn’t come into town all that often. But especially not when it’s crowded.”
Asher’s brow furrowed, like that surprised him.
Maybe Evan had changed a lot since before Asher had gone to prison. It was easy to think he’d always been the surly recluse he was now. But back in high school and early college, Evan had been a lot less angry. A lot nicer to everyone, too.
“Heads up!” Gavin barreled in, doing a back flip onto the picnic blanket. He stuck the landing, straightened, and took a bow. “Thank you, folks, I’ll be here all day.”
Levi rolled his eyes while shoving a bite in his mouth.
“Hey, brodeo.” Logan pushed a plate of bratwurst at him. “Hungry?”
“Always.” He took the plate and glanced around the circle, then offered it to Cara. “Hey, gorgeous. Hungry?”
She paused, like she might refuse but didn’t want to hurt his feelings, then exhaled. “Sure. Why not. Thanks, Gav.”
He grinned. “No problem. Logan, I need another one.”
Logan glared at Cara, but handed Gavin another plate. As if to punctuate his defiance, Logan plopped down into one of her chairs, grabbed the last bratwurst, and took a big bite.
Cara shifted in her seat so she was facing away from him.
“I’m glad you beat Luke,” Logan said around a mouthful of food. “Otherwise we’d never hear the end of it.”
“You could have entered,” Levi said.
“I was grilling.”
Levi glanced at his plate and tilted his head as if to acknowledge that his brother had indeed been doing important work.
“Speaking of the Havens, has anyone else noticed they haven’t answered back yet?” Asher asked. “For the street signs. Those went up a while ago, but they haven’t done anything.”
“Shit, you’re right,” Logan said. “I bet they’re planning something big.”
“We need to be ready for them,” Gavin said. He’d sprawled out on the picnic blanket and without looking, reached into one of Cara’s grocery bags and pulled out a bag of chips. “The street signs were awesome, but it wasn’t a prank to end all pranks. They’re going to try to get us back.”
“No doubt,” Logan said.
“Don’t you guys ever get tired of pulling pranks on people just because your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents were doing the same thing?” Cara asked.
Everyone’s gaze swung to her. All four Baileys—even Asher—looked at her like she’d just suggested gravity was a myth.
She put a hand up. “Sorry.”
“If they want to surrender, we’ll gladly accept,” Logan said. “But the Baileys will not be the ones to wave a white flag.”
“Shit, no,” Gavin said. He tossed the bag of chips at Levi, who caught it like he’d been expecting it.
“Maybe we should meet up and strategize,” Logan said. “Beers at our place tonight?”
“Nope,” Gavin said, popping the p with his lips. “I have a date.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Logan said. “With who?”
Gavin grinned at him. “None of your business.”
Logan tore off a piece of bun and threw it at his face. “Liar.”
“I’m not lying. I don’t think you know her. College girl. She’s staying over the summer to catch up on some credits. I met her at Grace’s coffee shop. By the way, that’s the best place ever to meet girls. You guys should hang out there more often.”
“What the fuck is the world coming to? Gavin has a date.” Logan shook his head and gestured toward Asher. “Jailbird over there has his girl back. Next you’re going to tell me Levi has a girlfriend.”
Levi glared at his brother.
“We all know that’s not true,” Gavin said, and everyone murmured their assent.
Asher glanced around. “Why not?”
“Levi’s saving himself for that Instagram model,” Logan said. “What’s her name? Marika something? She is hot.”
“I thought we decided he was trying to get on a reality TV dating show,” Gavin said.
“I still think he met a girl online, but in a twist of tragedy, they can’t be together,” I said, winking at Levi. “Maybe because she lives in Australia or something.”
We’d been teasing him about how rarely he dated for years. It wasn’t that he never dated. But his girlfriends were few and far between, and his relationships never seemed to last. So we messed with him by coming up with theories.
Levi threw a chip at me.
But I caught something in his expression. Was it possible we were hitting close to home? Was there a deeper reason he didn’t date very often? His brothers never had serious girlfriends, either, so I’d always brushed it off as a Bailey thing. Asher had always been the only brother drawn to a long-term relationship—other than Evan when he was younger, but he hadn’t had a real girlfriend since college. I had no idea whether he dated now, but if he did, I doubted it was ever serious. We certainly never heard about it. And Logan and Gavin both dated casually, but were basically allergic to commitment. Those two had always been that way.
But was something else going on with Levi? Maybe I’d imagined it, but I thought I’d seen a hint of sadness in his eyes.
“Oh!” Cara sat straight up in her chair. “Grace, I almost forgot. I got you something.” She pulled her phone out of her tote and started typing. “I didn’t send it yet because I wanted to see your face when you opened it.”
“Uh oh. Should I be scared?” I asked.
“I would be,” Logan muttered.
My phone binged and I opened her message. It was a picture of an old newspaper, similar to what I’d been searching through in the library. But this wasn’t an article. It looked like an ad or a notice. And right in the middle was the name I’d been looking for.
“Oh my god.” My eyes widened as I read. “You found her. You found Eliza.”
Asher leaned over. “No shit?”
“Who’s Eliza?” Gavin asked. “She sounds hot. Only I’m thinking intense and goth hot, not cute and wears pink hot.”
“She’s a Bailey,” I said. “I found an old silver mirror with her name engraved on it. Someone had hidden it in a box with a bunch of anonymous love notes underneath the floorboards of my house.”
“Cool,” Gavin said.
“I know. Listen to this. ‘Cash reward for information about the disappearance of Eliza Bailey. Reward doubled for her safe return.’ There’s more here at the bottom, but it’s hard to read.”
“The film was damaged,” Cara said. “That was all there was.”
Narrowing my eyes, I tried to make out what it said. “This looks like it might be a list of people they want found for questioning. I can’t read the first one, but it looks like Montgomery—or mont-something at least. And, oh my god, you guys. I think this is a Haven. John Haven maybe.”
“A Bailey girl goes missing and a Haven was involved?” Asher asked. “That could explain a lot.”
> “Holy shit, Grace,” Gavin said, sitting up. “Did you just solve the mystery of the feud?”
“Not really. We don’t know if this is how it started. If the families were already feuding, this could have been part of it, not the way it began.”
“True.”
“And who knows if the Haven guy had anything to do with it,” Levi said.
“Dude, don’t defend him,” Logan said.
“I’m not defending anyone, I’m just saying.”
I gazed at the clipping. “At least this is more confirmation she was real. I was starting to wonder if the mirror meant anything. But I still don’t know who sent her those letters.”
“Anonymous love notes, then she goes missing?” Cara asked. “Maybe she and the guy who wrote them ran away together.”
“Or maybe she was supposed to marry the Haven guy and he found out about the notes,” Logan said. “He killed them both and hopped a train out of town.”
“If he did, I hope her ghost haunted him, making his dick go soft every time he tried to fuck another woman,” Cara said.
“There’s something seriously wrong with you,” Logan said.
“I wonder if she was ever found,” I said, ignoring Cara and Logan.
Cara shrugged. “I’ll have Libby keep looking.”
“Libby?” I asked.
“Yeah, I paid Libby down at the library to keep searching for any mentions of Eliza.”
I laughed. “And here I was thinking you went back to that dusty room by yourself to surprise me.”
“Do you even know me?” she asked. “Why would I do that when I can pay an under-appreciated library volunteer too much money to do it? Tsk tsk.”
“Well, either way, thank you. This was really sweet.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome, boo.”
Gavin shot up to his feet. “I think the pie judging is over.”
Logan popped out of his chair and Levi crumpled his plate. The three of them eyed each other for half a second, then all took off running in the direction of the pie booth. Once the judging was over, people were free to purchase slices of pie, with the proceeds going to the Tilikum food bank. None of it lasted long.
Fighting for Us: A Small Town Family Romance (The Bailey Brothers Book 2) Page 24