And I’d done it. I’d gotten into WSU, a school four hours from home, with enough scholarships to make it work. Now I had two years of college under my belt. Two years of living somewhere else—in a place where no one knew my history. Where they didn’t know my father had gotten my mom pregnant when she was nineteen, then dangled the possibility of marriage for years without ever committing. Where they didn’t know I was the good girl. The overachiever who’d spent more time in high school building a resumé than hanging out with friends.
I’d started fresh. Made new friends. Done things no one who knew me here would believe. I’d gotten a fake ID and gone out to bars. Dyed my hair pink for a while. Gone to a frat party dressed as a mermaid. I’d taken a spontaneous road trip with a few friends to New York City over spring break. We’d taken turns at the wheel and gone over twenty-six hundred miles in forty-two hours. Spent a few days in the city, then drove all the way back across the country.
I’d even dated a couple of guys. Dating hadn’t been on my radar in high school, so it had been a new experience for me. And it had been fun. Neither relationship had lasted very long, but I wasn’t interested in getting serious with someone. And I was still friends with my most recent ex, so it had worked out fine.
Even with the fun I’d had—and I’d admittedly gone a little crazy, especially at first—I’d kept my grades up. I wasn’t going to risk my scholarships. I had at least two more years until I finished my degree, and then… I didn’t really know. The future still seemed like a hazy spot on the horizon—something I could just make out if I squinted. I wasn’t sure what it was going to look like, only that I was determined to find my own road.
I put a few more things away—mostly clothes, plus books and other random stuff. I left some of it in the plastic tote I’d stuffed in the backseat of my car—just shoved it in a corner for now. There wasn’t much point in unpacking everything when I’d just have to pack it all again in a few months.
Elijah ran up the stairs, making as much noise as a whole pack of almost-four-year-olds, not just one. He burst into my room, his dark hair hanging in his eyes.
“Are you coming?”
“Yeah, buddy, I’ll be right there.”
“Mom says it’s time to eat.”
“Okay, okay, I’m coming.”
I followed Elijah down the stairs and through the cluttered living room. Toys spilled out of a toybox, littering the floor in front of the couch and armchairs. The furniture was newer than what we’d had when I was younger. My father had swooped back into my mom’s life a couple of years before Elijah had come along, trying to win her back. He’d fixed things around the house and bought us new furniture. And for a little while, he’d had both of us fooled.
Then he’d taken us on a cruise, and nine months later, I had a baby brother. But Dad hadn’t stuck around—because of course he hadn’t. Mom had broken up with him for good—or what I hoped was for good—when Elijah was still a baby, and he’d gone back to being an absentee father who just paid child support.
I kind of hated the furniture. It was a constant reminder that I’d never been enough to make my dad stay.
The kitchen table, however, had been a gift from Gram and Grandad Bailey when I was little. It was round with dark brown stain and four matching chairs. I trailed my hands along the back of one of the chairs as I walked by.
Mom was in the kitchen, busy pouring Elijah a glass of milk. The pizza box sat on the counter.
“I hope you still like pepperoni,” Mom said.
I saw the name on the box—Home Slice Pizza—and my brow furrowed. “Pepperoni is fine, but you can’t get pizza there. The Havens own that place.”
She pulled three plates out of the cupboard and set them on the counter. “Oh, lord. Grace, I don’t have time to worry about who owns what pizza place or what side they’re on. That stupid feud is ridiculous anyway.”
I eyed the pizza box with suspicion, like there might be a rattlesnake inside.
She wasn’t wrong. The Tilikum town feud was ridiculous. But the fact that it was ridiculous had nothing to do with loyalty.
Tilikum was a town divided. The college and surrounding area were generally regarded as neutral territory, but the rest of the town was split. It had been that way for generations, and it influenced everything. Where you shopped and ate. Who your friends were. Where you worked. Even where you lived. It all depended on which side you chose, or had been chosen for you by the family of your birth.
Baileys or Havens.
The true origins of the feud were lost to the murky depths of history and town lore. Some said it had started with a murder. Others said it had started with an affair. There were stories about treasure buried somewhere in the mountains. About a young couple hopping a train and disappearing forever, leaving angry families behind. The theories were as divisive as the feud itself. Everyone in town had a favorite, and debates could get heated.
These days, the feud wasn’t nearly as dramatic as runaway lovers or torrid affairs. And there were certainly no murders. Even so, lines had been drawn.
As for me, I’d always been on Team Bailey, and my loyalty was fierce.
“I already bought it,” she said. “What difference does it make?”
Elijah crossed his arms. “I don’t want it.”
Mom put a slice on a plate and shot me a look.
I grabbed the plate and took it to the table. “Come on, Eli. Mom didn’t mean to get the wrong pizza, and it wouldn’t be right to waste it.”
His little brow creased. “Will they be mad?”
“Who?”
“The Baileys.”
I reached out and ruffled his hair. “No, buddy. They won’t be mad. They’d eat the pizza, too.”
That seemed to convince him. He slid into the chair and started shoveling pizza into his mouth.
I got a slice for myself and Mom joined us at the table with hers.
“Speaking of Baileys, I’m surprised they’re not crawling all over this place, what with you being home,” Mom said.
I shrugged. “We’re not kids anymore. It’s not like they’re going to come running out the front door when I pull up.”
“I’m gonna be a firefighter when I grow up,” Elijah said through a mouthful of pizza.
“Are you?” I asked.
He nodded, making his hair flop on his forehead. “Just like Asher. And Logan and Levi.”
Mom sighed. “He’d follow those boys around like a puppy if I let him. Wants to do everything they do.”
“What’s your third-favorite dinosaur?” he asked.
“I…” My brow furrowed. “I have no idea. What’s your third-favorite dinosaur?”
“T-rex.” He took another bite.
Mom shrugged. Apparently third-favorite dinosaur was a normal question coming from him. “How’s Daniel? Does he miss you already?”
I wiped my mouth on a napkin. “Oh, no. We broke up a little while ago.”
“You did? I’m sorry. He seemed nice from everything you said about him.”
“It’s okay. He was nice, but it wasn’t serious. And we’re still friends.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Mom, I’m fine.”
“Who’s Daniel?” Elijah asked.
“He was Grace’s boyfriend,” Mom said.
Elijah set his pizza crust on his plate, his expression serious. “Is a boyfriend like getting married?”
“Not necessarily,” Mom said. “Sometimes a boy and a girl like each other a lot and spend time together. And they might get married someday, but they might not.”
“Oh. Okay, because Grace is gonna marry Asher.”
I met my mom’s eyes right as a flush hit my cheeks. “What?”
Mom’s lips curled in an amused smile. “Is she? What makes you think that?”
“She just is. Can I have more pizza?”
“I’ll get it.” I took his plate and got up, glad for an excuse to leave the table.
Wh
y had that flustered me so much? I should have been able to laugh off his comment. He wasn’t even four; what did he know?
But there had been a time when I’d thought I would marry Asher Bailey.
I’d already accepted that Asher didn’t see me that way. We’d grown up together. How could a guy be attracted to a girl when he’d caught frogs in a creek and rolled down grassy hills with her? When they’d pummeled each other with snowballs and built forts in the woods together? I was probably like a sister to him.
His brothers certainly treated me like a sister, and that had always felt natural. They basically were my brothers.
But Asher… he’d always been different. I’d never seen him as a brother, not even when we were little kids. Best friend? Yes. Brother? No.
By the time I’d reached my teens, I’d started noticing things about him. The muscles in his arms and his thick, athletic thighs. His deep brown eyes, sharp cheekbones, and chiseled jaw. His charming smile. Asher was gorgeous and it had been impossible not to develop a crush on my best friend.
But he hadn’t felt the same. In fact, the older we’d gotten, the more we’d grown apart. Looking back, I figured it was just how these things happened. He’d wanted to date girls, not climb trees and splash in mud puddles with one. And since he hadn’t wanted to date me, here we were.
I glanced back at Elijah. He was too young to remember the days when Asher and I had been inseparable. So what had given him the idea that we were going to get married?
It was probably because the circle of people Eli knew mostly included me, Mom, and the Baileys. He didn’t realize there was a whole world of people out there, and that growing up next door to someone didn’t mean you’d marry each other someday.
Someone knocked on the front door and Elijah popped out of his chair. “I wanna get it!”
I put Eli’s second piece of pizza at his now-empty place at the table. He threw open the door and a little thrill of excitement I didn’t want to feel made my stomach flutter.
It was Asher.
4
Asher
“Asher!” Elijah said, throwing the door open. “We have pizza and Grace is home.”
“Hey, buddy.” I ruffled his hair, but my attention was only partially on him.
Grace stood next to their kitchen table with her hand on a chair. Her hair was up in that cute ponytail she always wore, and her feet were bare. She had bright blue eyes and an upturned nose, and her full lips parted when she smiled at me.
Damn, those eyes. And that smile. She lit up the whole room.
I opened my mouth to say hi—I needed to stop staring at her before this got weird—but Elijah hooked his hands around my forearm and lifted his legs, hanging from my arm like it was a tree branch.
“Whoa.” I flexed to keep him steady and lifted him off the ground. “There’s a monkey on my arm.”
“Eli, don’t do that,” Grace said.
I carried him inside, his feet dangling. “It’s too bad there’s only this monkey here and no little boys.”
Elijah laughed. “Why?”
“Because Gram made pie, and monkeys don’t get pie.”
His feet hit the floor and he let go. “I’m a boy. Can I have some?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to go ask Gram.”
Without another word, he dashed out the open door.
“Sorry if I ruined his dinner. Gram asked me to invite you over for pie before my brothers eat it all.” I gestured over my shoulder, jerking my thumb in the direction of our house.
“It’s fine; at least he ate one slice.” Naomi smiled and stood, wiping her hands on a napkin. “I better bring his shoes, since he ran off in socks.”
My gaze went to Grace again while Naomi grabbed Eli’s shoes and left. She’d moved toward me, or I’d moved toward her, or maybe both. For some reason it was kind of hard to tell what was happening, except that we were now only about a foot apart.
“Hey. Good to see you.”
The corners of her mouth lifted and something in her eyes tugged at me. “You too.”
The air felt thick, like there was an invisible barrier between us. She was only a step away, but it might as well have been a mile. I didn’t like it.
I opened my arms and stepped in for a hug. She popped up on her tiptoes and wound her arms around my neck.
Uh-oh.
I’d hugged Grace a million times, but this felt different. We were different. She wasn’t the girl in pigtails who’d probably punch me in the arm after I let go. She was a woman. A woman who felt dangerously good with her body pressed against mine.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled her scent and flexed to wrap my arms tighter around her. I needed to let go. I was going to make things awkward if I kept hugging her like this. Because this wasn’t the kind of hug you gave a friend you hadn’t seen in a while. There was nothing friendly about it—not on my end at least.
God, I’d missed her.
I reveled in a few more seconds of contact, then dropped my arms. Hers slid from my shoulders and she took a step back.
“So…” She glanced away and tightened her ponytail. “Gram made pie?”
I was a little lightheaded after that hug, but I didn’t want her to notice. “Yeah, everybody wants to see you, so I guess we should go next door.”
She moved past me to slip her feet into her flip-flops. “How was spring semester?”
“Good. I had a couple of tough classes, so I’m glad it’s over.”
“Yeah, me too. How’s Gram?”
I followed her out the door. “She’s fine. Same as always.”
“Good. I missed her.”
“Yeah, she missed you too.”
She glanced at me while we walked side by side. For a second, I hoped she’d say she’d missed me, too. That would certainly give me a reason to say it back. But she just looked away and kept walking across the grass.
As soon as we stepped onto the porch, I could tell my brothers had beat us back. Noise poured out the open front door. The chorus of male voices was cut by a squeal from Elijah and Naomi’s laughter. Grace and I paused, sharing a look before we walked into the chaos.
Gram’s kitchen always looked right when it was full of people. Like it was meant for that, in a way other kitchens weren’t. Elijah sat at the head of the table, happily eating a giant slice of pie. Logan sat next to him, grinning at whatever Eli had just said. Gavin leaned against the counter, his plate held up close to his face while he ate. Even Levi’s perpetual brow furrow had smoothed, his usual surliness softened by Gram’s famous strawberry rhubarb pie.
My brothers had obviously found Evan. He sat at the table, but even sitting, he looked huge. At six-foot-four and with shoulders as wide as a barn, he seemed to tower over everyone. He was only a year younger than me, but he’d shot past me in height a few years ago. We Baileys were big guys, but Evan took big to a whole new level.
“Grace!”
I wasn’t sure who shouted her name first. But a second later, she was being hugged by all my brothers. Elijah jumped down from his seat to wrap his arms around anyone’s legs he could find. The little guy always wanted to be in on the action.
And all this, right here, was what had kept me from ever making a move with Grace. She was a part of this family. So were her mom and her little brother. Our lives, and the lives of everyone we both loved, were tightly intertwined.
My sense of responsibility to my family, and hers, had always held me back. Because what if something went wrong? What if Grace and I dated and it didn’t work out—then what? I’d grown up in a town divided by a feud started by people long dead for reasons no one could remember—a community still haunted by the rift between two families. Even back in high school, I’d known I couldn’t risk tearing our families apart.
That had always seemed like a good reason to stay friends and leave it at that. But looking at her now, while she smiled and traded hugs with my brothers, I wondered if I’d been wrong. If I’d made a mistake and mis
sed my chance with her.
Because what if we dated, and it did work out?
I’d been with a few girls since high school, but never anything serious. Deep down, I knew the reason wasn’t them. It was me. I never let things get serious—always broke it off before the relationship could really go anywhere.
The problem was, Grace had lodged herself into my heart a long time ago, and she hadn’t left room for anyone else to get in.
That was a fucked-up realization to have while standing in Gram’s kitchen, surrounded by all the reasons I’d never made a move.
I watched her smile and laugh. Hug everyone and tell them that school was great. She loved it and she couldn’t wait to go back in the fall.
Looking down, I realized Gram was trying to hand me a plate with a slice of pie. Damn it, I’d been staring at Grace. I took it, absently grabbing the fork.
“You look like you could use another slice,” Gram said.
I nodded, feeling oddly tongue-tied. Something was wrong with me. I didn’t feel like myself. Ever since I’d hugged Grace next door, it was like I’d come unhinged. Dangerous impulses kept trying to overtake me. I wanted to wrap my arms around her again. Grab her hand, haul her out to the back porch, and kiss the hell out of her. Or maybe kiss her right here, in front of everyone.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it back for graduation,” Grace was saying to Logan and Levi. “It just didn’t work with finals and everything.”
“That’s okay, graduation was boring,” Logan said. “We waited for you to get home to throw a grad party, anyway.”
She smiled. “You did? Thanks.”
“Yeah, we figured we’d have it later this summer. Keep the celebration going.” Logan smirked at her. “So when are you going to dump that college boy and go out with me?”
Levi rolled his eyes and threw a wadded-up napkin at him. Logan batted it to the floor.
Grace laughed. “We’re not together anymore. But sorry, Logan, I’m not into younger guys.”
“What? I’m only two years younger than you, and very mature for my age.”
Protecting You: A Small Town Romance Origin Story (The Bailey Brothers Book 1) Page 3
