by Elena Aitken
“Well, I guess we did manage to kiss without anyone dying.”
She laughed. “We were already on the floor. That probably helped.”
“Probably.” He pushed up. “Be right back.” He headed into what she assumed was the bathroom to deal with the condom and everything.
She sat up and reached for her panties. But as she shifted, she felt a sharp stinging sensation in her right butt cheek. What was that? She stood and tried to look at the spot, but it was hard to see. She ran her hand over the area. Ouch. Glass. It felt like she’d sat on glass. She pulled her hand away and saw blood.
She sighed and looked down. There was half of an ornament by her feet. The alligator with the Hawaiian shirt was now just a pair of feet.
Of course.
Chase came back into the room just then.
“So, we should—” He frowned immediately. “What the hell? You’re bleeding?”
“I think I rolled onto an ornament.”
He came around the couch and knelt behind her, pulling her skirt up.
“Chase!”
“Relax. I was just down here, remember?”
Her cheeks got hot instantly. “Not exactly there.”
He grinned up at her. “I’m a doctor.”
“Not yet.”
“Well, I need to check it out.” He pulled her panties down and looked at the spot he’d bared.
Bailey looked up at the ceiling. Okay, they’d just been very intimate. But this seemed…ridiculous.
“I need to clean it up,” he told her. “That ornament glass is really thin. You might have some slivers in there.”
She kept looking at the ceiling. “I need to bandage my butt?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, you’re going to need a bandage on that.” He stood and turned her to face him. “It’s not bad. If I can be sure to get any glass out of it. Then we’ll wash it, antibiotic cream, bandage. No big deal.”
“So we didn’t actually manage to kiss without anyone getting maimed.”
He grinned. “Guess not.”
“It’s not really funny.” But it was kind of funny.
“This grin is not one of amusement,” he assured her.
“Then what is it?”
“Pure cockiness,” he told her.
Bailey lifted her brows. “Cockiness about what, exactly?”
“Being so good that you didn’t even feel glass digging into your ass while I was fucking you.”
Bailey felt her mouth drop open.
He lifted a hand, pressed her chin up with one finger, and leaned in to kiss her. “I’ll be on the bottom next time if you want. Just in case.”
Bailey wasn’t sure what Chase told Ellie he needed the tweezers and antibiotic cream and bandages for, but thirty minutes later, they were back in Autre and in the upstairs bedroom at Cora’s house, where Chase had stayed last summer and now that he was visiting for Christmas.
She lay on her stomach and just tried not to think about the fact that Chase Dawson was picking tiny pieces of glass out of her ass. Sitting in the airboat on the ride back had been a little uncomfortable, she could admit. How had she not felt all of that when she’d first rolled on the ornament?
But it didn’t take much to remember exactly why.
Chase Dawson’s hands, mouth, and well, the rest of him.
“All done,” he told her a few minutes later. He gave her butt a little pat over the top of the bandage he’d applied. “Won’t even scar that sweet ass.”
She rolled to her back, pulling her skirt down. “If we keep hanging out, it seems like the chances of one of us ending up with a scar or two are pretty good.”
He crawled up and stretched out beside her. “Yeah, maybe.”
“You okay with that?” She ran her fingers through his hair. It had only been a few hours ago that she’d felt jumpy and unsure of him and now she couldn’t keep her hands off of him and she felt as if she had every right to touch him.
She’d found a place to fit. Someone to fit with. She and Chase had completely different backgrounds but they’d both felt a little like square pegs trying to fit in round holes. He understood that. And now they’d both found their passions, a place to be themselves, something that excited them for their futures, even if they were still working on it. They were finding their way.
Plus they’d finally been able to fit together.
Wow, had they.
And now he was going to go back to Virginia.
“Very,” he said, sincerely. “This feels good. I want to keep seeing you. I want to talk to you on the phone. I want to Skype. I want to sext.”
“You mean text?” she teased.
“What did I say?”
“Sext.”
“Oh, no, I said it right.” He gave her a grin. “I want a relationship. I want to get to know you better. I want to see you more. I like you and I want you to like me. And I definitely want to sext with you.”
“I’ve never done that.”
“I bet you catch on pretty quick.”
“I do like you,” she said softly.
“Then date me.”
Her heart flipped in her chest. “We live far apart.”
“There are phones and Skype and airplanes.”
“You would want to do that? Really?”
“Really.”
“Long-distance relationships are hard.”
“Yeah. But I think maybe not being with you would be harder.”
She shook her head in wonder. “I had no idea that you could be so romantic and sweet.”
“Me either.”
She pulled him close. “Hey, look at this. We’re already horizontal, on a soft surface, with pillows and everything. This might be a safe zone for kissing. And more.”
“Oh, hell yeah.”
The kiss was sweet and hot and deep. His fingers tangled in her hair, she arched against his big, hard body. Their legs tangled. He rolled her to her back, but she gave a little hiss as her sore spot rubbed on the bedspread. So he rolled again, presumably to get her on top.
The next thing she knew they were falling.
When they hit the floor next to the bed, Chase was on the bottom, at least.
And Bailey was happy to kiss his bruises better.
For the next two days, Bailey spent her time enfolded into the Landry family and their Christmas preparations. She cooked with Ellie and Cora. She decorated with Kennedy and Maddie and Leo.
On Christmas Eve morning, she sat at breakfast at Ellie’s with the other girls, basking in it all.
“So, uh, I need someone to…” Tori glanced at Bailey, then at Maddie and Kennedy. “…watch some things for me. I need to go check on a dog in Trent City.”
“Oh, I can’t. I have a meeting in New Orleans,” Kennedy said. She glanced at Bailey too. “Can you go see the dog later?”
“Of course not,” Tori said.
“I can’t do it either,” Maddie said. “I’ve got three tours to do. Two new ones for the Grandma Got Run Over by a Gator murder mystery swamp boat tour.” She grinned.
Leo had told her about the idea yesterday and Maddie had loved it. She’d also known that it wasn’t Leo’s creation. She’d somehow managed to throw it together and, thanks to their email list and Facebook page, had scheduled two tours for today. Which meant Bailey and Chase had to go back out and decorate the cabin where the “grandma and gator accident” had occurred.
Not that they’d minded.
Naked Christmas decorating was going to now be a yearly tradition.
Bailey sipped her cocoa—made from scratch by Cora just like her grandma always had—and waited. The girls didn’t know that she knew exactly what they were talking about.
“But…what about the guys?” Tori asked. “Someone has to…watch things. We can’t just leave…it. You never know what might happen.”
“Owen and Sawyer already left to go pick up some supplies for the new tours,” Maddie said. “Josh has to do the regular tours with me, at least until t
hey get back.”
“Bennett has to be at this meeting with me,” Kennedy added.
“Oh, damn…” Tori muttered.
“I could do it,” Bailey finally offered.
Tori’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I couldn’t impose.”
“It’s no problem.”
“Don’t you want to spend the day with Chase?” Maddie said.
“Of course, but he can babysit the otters with me.”
There was a long pause as her words sank in.
Then Tori grinned. “You knew?”
“Yes,” Bailey told her with a smile.
“All along?”
“Yes,” Bailey admitted. “I’ve never been worried about you and the otters, Tori. The gray wolf was a little different story.” She laughed as Tori grimaced slightly. “But honestly, I’ll bet the otters are adorable. And I do know a few things about them. I’d be happy to play with them.”
Kennedy laughed. “So this entire time, you’ve known what we were up to?”
Bailey nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Well, if you know about the otters, we don’t really need anyone to watch them and keep them corralled,” Maddie said, rising from her chair with a grin. “Problem solved.”
“Oh.” Bailey couldn’t deny the stab of disappointment.
Tori leaned in with a big smile. “You want to play with the otters, Bailey?”
“Kind of.”
Tori laughed. “You are more than welcome.”
Bailey grinned and helped the women clean up the breakfast dishes, feeling like a part of the group in a way she couldn’t remember feeling before.
And it turned out that babysitting otters was one of the most fun things she’d ever done.
She was actually still cuddling the pup who had decided she was his favorite later that evening when they were opening gifts around the Landry family Christmas tree. She was shocked, and touched, to find there were gifts for her. Then she couldn’t stop giggling when she pulled the roll of bubble wrap out of the box from Ellie and Leo. The giggles increased when she opened the hard hat from Juliet and Sawyer. And then the box of Band-aids and ointment from Maddie and Owen.
“Welcome to the family,” Ellie told her with a wink.
Bailey felt her eyes stinging with tears. She did feel welcomed. She believed that she was a part of this family. Even when Chase went back to Virginia, she knew she could still come to Autre and find warm smiles, big hugs, hot meals, and lots of laughter and camaraderie. She loved Autre. She loved the Landrys. She also knew it wouldn’t take much Skyping and sexting for her to be falling for Chase Dawson. And not just off the bed
She looked over at him to find him watching her. With a smile that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking and feeling.
“Thank you,” she mouthed to him.
He just put his hand over his heart and nodded.
Damn. She might as well just embrace everything that came with that. Crazy Cajuns and the risk for concussion, for instance.
So when she and Chase walked down to the Boys of the Bayou dock later on and he pulled mistletoe out of his pocket, they both just donned life jackets before they did anything else.
And no one seemed a bit surprised when they came back to the house dripping wet from the bayou and with huge, stupid grins on their faces.
Chapter 8
Two weeks later…
Chase felt a tightness in his chest as he watched Bailey from across Ellie’s bar.
She was sitting at the bar, papers spread out in front of her, and her glasses on. She had a burger, a beer, and a highlighter. She’d take a bite, then a drink, then highlight something.
God he was going to miss her. The tightness in his chest had been getting worse every time he saw her for the past week or so. Every time she walked into Ellie’s in her Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries polo and too-big khaki pants and boots, he was reminded that he had to go back to D.C. Back to the smell of formaldehyde and long days bent over dead bodies and long nights studying for exams.
Everyone had gathered at Ellie’s, as they so often did, at the end of their work day. No one’s house was big enough for everyone all at once, especially if they needed enough chairs and table space to eat, so the bar functioned as the family dining room most nights.
It was two weeks after Christmas. It was officially January. And he was leaving tomorrow to go back to D.C.
He’d been in Autre the entire time. As had Bailey, for the most part. She’d had to work, of course, but she came back to Autre and spent the night in his bed every night.
They made love, they talked, they told each other every detail of their pasts, and he was, officially, head over heels in love with her.
Tonight she’d gotten back to town late and had reports to go over.
So Ellie had settled her at the bar, made her something to eat even though the bar’s kitchen was officially closed, and told her to go ahead and work.
She’d apologized to him for it, but he’d assured her that he was fine. He’d hang out with the guys while she finished up and then they could head to bed. She’d blushed—because he’d said it in front of everyone—but then stretched up on tip toe and kissed him before settling at the bar.
And now she had no idea what was going on around her. She was completely absorbed in her work and wasn’t paying attention to any of them.
Owen, Sawyer and Bennett were at the table with him talking about…he had no idea. He’d been watching Bailey. And remembering the last time she’d sat at a bar like that.
That night, though, he hadn’t been able to walk across the room, pull her ponytail holder the rest of the way out of her hair, and kiss the hell out of her.
Now he could.
“Be back in a minute,” he said to the guys, shoving to his feet.
He crossed the bar.
Unlike that night when he’d first discovered how delicious she smelled though, tonight she sensed him and looked up.
“Hang on, honey,” he said.
She grinned, hooked her feet around the rung at the bottom of the bar stool and grabbed the edge of the bar with both hands. “Ready.”
He reached for her pony tail, dragging the holder out and making her hair spill around her shoulders, he brushed it back and leaned in, putting his nose against her neck.
“Fuck, you smell good,” he told her, low enough for only her to hear.
“Liar,” she said with a little breathless laugh. “I’ve been outside working on tagging all day.”
“I’m serious,” he said, moving his mouth up her neck. “And I’ll bet you taste delicious too.”
A little shiver went through her and she turned her mouth to meet his. He kissed her, slow and sweet.
But before he could whisk her off the barstool, highlighter and all, his phone rang.
He pulled back and glanced around the bar. Everyone was present and accounted for. Except Mitch, Tori and Josh. They’d headed to Iowa so Tori could visit her parents, and collect an alpaca from a friend. The alpaca, apparently, needed some special attention that the farmer and his brother weren’t able, or willing, to give. He’d immediately thought of Tori.
Mitch had jumped at the chance to go back to Iowa and Chase couldn’t wait to hear how things had gone with the text-phobic girl he was still hung up on.
Bailey noticed Mitch’s name. “Take it,” she said, nudging him back. “I have a few more pages to go before I can do more of that anyway.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth.
“Okay. But not too much longer,” he told her. The idea of leaving her soon was eating at him and he needed every minute with her he could get.
He stepped outside of the bar with his phone.
“Dude,” Chase greeted his friend. “I told you that you should never unzip your pants outdoors in Iowa in December. That’s dangerous, man. But you just don’t listen.”
“So no sympathy at all?” Mitch asked. The grin in his voice was clear. “No magic cure?”
“My dick is fine. But the fact that it’s on your mind so much is really touching. Weird. But touching.”
“Never use the word touching when talking about me and your dick in the same breath.” Chase paused. “Actually, how about we not talk about your dick and me in the same breath at all?”
Mitch laughed. “Well, I just have to say, if I got frostbite on my dick, your phone would be the first one I’d send the photos to.”
“Trust me, that would go out to all my med-school friends, and we’d talk about how guys like you will keep guys like me in business,” Chase promised, grinning widely.
There was a pause on Mitch’s end of the phone. “I do have a problem,” he finally said.
“Does it involve your dick?”
“N…” There was another pause. “I mean… kind of.”
Chase knew exactly what that meant. “The girl.”
Mitch huffed out a breath. “Yeah. Paige.”
Chase shook his head. “You just got there, man.”
“Sounds familiar, right?” Mitch asked.
An image of Bailey, in just her panties and glasses, with a highlighter in hand, flashed through his mind. Had he fallen for her crazy fast? Yep. Did it make sense? Nope. “Yeah.” He definitely understood what Chase was feeling.
He turned and headed back into Ellie’s.
He knew that Mitch was actually calling to commiserate and be told he wasn’t crazy. But Chase was going to have some fun with this, because Mitch had given him hell about his crush on Bailey.
Chase took a seat at the table where he’d left the other Landrys. Sawyer and Bennett were elsewhere now, but Owen was still lounging at the table with a beer.
“So you’re calling for love advice,” Chase said to Mitch.
As expected, Owen grinned and sat forward Chase put Mitch on speaker.
“No worries, I’m here!” Owen told Mitch.
“Where are you and Owen?” Mitch asked tentatively.
Chase knew his friend was hoping it was just him and Owen.
No such luck
“Ellie’s,” Chase said with a grin.
