Protecting You: A Small Town Romance Origin Story (The Bailey Brothers Book 1)

by Claire Kingsley

  Levi and Evan both snorted. Even Gram stifled a laugh.

  Logan put a hand on his chest. “I’m hurt. But that’s okay, I wouldn’t date you anyway.”

  Grace crossed her arms. “Why not?”

  “You’re cute and everything, but I’m not into older women.”

  “That’s because you couldn’t handle this woman,” she said.

  Levi whistled and everyone laughed—everyone except me. I was back to staring at Grace, my pie untouched, the fork dangling from my fingers.

  She’d just said We’re not together anymore.

  Her eyes darted to me and she winked. She’d probably just scored another zinger on Logan, which was always hilarious because Logan could dish it out better than he could take it. My mouth hooked in a smile, and I winked back at her. But it wasn’t because I was sharing in the humor of her snarking at my brother.

  It was because I’d just realized two things.

  One, Grace was single. Not only was she single, but the way she’d said We’re not together anymore told me everything I needed to know about her breakup with the shithead. She wasn’t upset. I knew her. If she’d been brokenhearted, I’d have been able to tell. Which meant either it hadn’t been very serious, or she’d been the one to break up with him. Maybe both.

  Two, I didn’t just have a thing for Grace. I was in love with her.

  Crazy fucking in love with her.

  It was a fact I’d been denying for a long time. Telling myself the distance between us was because we’d grown apart. That wasn’t true. I’d put that distance between us. Pulled away from her because I thought my feelings for her were too dangerous.

  I’d been wrong. Loving her wasn’t dangerous. Letting her go would be.

  Feeling suddenly better than I had in a long time, I took a bite of pie, my eyes still on Grace. I wasn’t going to kiss her right now. Not here or on the back porch. Not yet.

  I could, and a big part of me wanted to. But I didn’t want to leave any room for her to doubt me, or to doubt us.

  She’d be going back to school in the fall. The longer she spent away from home, the more likely it was that she wouldn’t just date someone else, she’d meet the someone else. The guy who’d take her away from me forever.

  Which meant I had to do this right. I couldn’t just kiss her and hope she felt something for me too. I couldn’t leave it up to chance. I had to work for it. Show her how great we’d be together.

  I had to chase her.

  Grace didn’t know it yet, but she was mine. Long before the end of summer, she’d know. And she’d know I was hers, too.

  5

  Grace

  Something tapped against my bedroom window and I spun around to look. Nothing. I was on the second story, and the tree branch that had once grown close enough to scrape against it in the wind had long since been trimmed. I hoped a bird hadn’t flown into the glass, although that would have made a thud, not a tap.

  I heard it again and my eyes caught movement this time. I went over to the window and looked down. Asher stood below, looking up, his arm cocked like he was about to throw something.

  What was he doing down there?

  I opened the window and leaned out. “Are you throwing rocks at my window?”

  Grinning, he lowered his arm. “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you have to work today?”

  I was returning to my summer job at the local coffee shop, the Steaming Mug. “Nope. I don’t start until tomorrow.”

  “Wanna sneak out with me?”

  Sneak out? What was he talking about? “Asher, my mom isn’t even home. And I’m twenty. I don’t need to sneak out of my house.”

  He smiled again, making his dimples pucker. “I thought it would be fun. Come on.”

  “You want me to climb out my window?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  This wouldn’t have been the first time I’d climbed out my window to meet Asher. But it had been years. I’d been smaller, and more nimble, the last time I’d done this.

  But he was right—it would be fun.

  “If I fall, you better catch me.”

  He smiled again and held his arms out. “You know I will, Gracie Bear.”

  Hearing him use my nickname sent a flutter through my stomach. He hadn’t called me that in a long time.

  “Okay, hold on.”

  I put on a pair of shoes and climbed out onto the ledge below my window. Plastering myself against the siding, I inched my way across, until I was close to the porch roof.

  The first time I’d done this, it had been my idea. Asher had crept along below, whispering words of encouragement in the dark. The sun was still up this time, but my heart beat against my ribs. I stretched my toe toward the porch roof, then eased my body weight toward that foot. When I felt secure, I pushed off and landed on the sloped surface with bent knees.

  “Nice one,” Asher said below me.

  I crept down the edge of the roof and turned around, getting on my stomach. Sliding down, I let my legs dangle over the side.

  “I’ve got you.”

  The ground sloped upward on this side of the house just enough that he could reach me as I dropped from the porch roof. I felt his hands on my calves, then my thighs as I slid lower. His arms wrapped around the tops of my legs and the next thing I knew, I was sliding down the front of his body.

  My feet hit the ground and he kept his arms around me. I froze, my body stiffening. For a second, the world seemed to pause. The breeze stilled and the birds quieted. Warmth spread through me, and it wasn’t just the heat of Asher’s body pressed so close to mine. With his arms wrapped around me, I could feel him, smell him. It was overwhelming.

  Confusing.

  Arousing.

  He let go and the breath rushed from my lungs. I stepped away, keeping my back to him, and fixed my ponytail to give myself a second to recover.

  What the heck had just happened?

  I didn’t want to let this sudden rush of feelings show, especially since Asher wanted to hang out, and we hadn’t done that in a long time. Not just the two of us. I didn’t want to ruin it.

  So I took a deep breath to clear my head and turned around. “Where are we sneaking off to?”

  “I have a few ideas.” He grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”

  And now he was holding my hand.

  He led me around the back of Gram’s house, like we really were trying to sneak away without being seen. When we got near the front, he put his fingers to his lips, prompting me to be quiet. Stifling a laugh, I nodded. He was so funny.

  We tiptoed to his car—he still drove the old black Cutlass he’d bought from one of his uncles. He let me in the passenger’s side, then shut the door. With an exaggerated gait, he walked around to the other side and got in. Put his fingers to his lips again and winked.

  I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. He was being so ridiculous. He made a show of looking around, then turned on the car.

  As soon as the engine kicked over, he tore out of the driveway like we’d just robbed a bank. He looked in the rear-view mirror, as if expecting to be followed. I had no idea why that was so funny, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

  “I think we made a clean getaway,” I said.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “I think you’re right. Nice work.”

  We only lived about a mile outside the main part of town. As kids, we’d walked everywhere. To the Sugar Shack, our pockets stuffed with change to buy gum and penny-candy. To the library or the community pool. Tilikum was still the sort of place where kids could roam free. It made me glad my mom had stayed and was raising my brother here. It was a good place for a kid to grow up.

  Asher parked near City Hall, on a flat street just before the hill sloped down toward the river. We got out and stepped up onto the sidewalk. It could get hot on the eastern slopes of the Cascades during the summer, but today was comfortably warm. A few clouds hung in the blue sky and the air was still.
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br />   “So what did you have in mind?”

  “I thought we could ruin our dinner with ice cream from the Zany Zebra, then go hang out at the Caboose. Shoot some pool.”

  “Ruin our dinner? You sound like Gram.”

  “It rubs off on you.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “I just figured it might be nice to get out of the house for a while.”

  He was right—getting out of the house was nice. My mom was at work and Elijah was with the babysitter. I didn’t have much of a Tilikum social life anymore. Most of the people I’d been friends with in high school had left—seeds scattered in the wind, off to find their way to the surface in new places.

  “I could go for some ice cream.”

  He smiled at me, those dimples puckering again. “Great.”

  I needed to stop thinking about how cute his dimples were.

  We wandered down the sidewalk side by side, in comfortable silence. Asher kept his hands in his pockets, and I suppressed a tiny flicker of disappointment. But what did I want him to do, hold my hand? Asher and I weren’t like that.

  Besides, I was only here for the summer. Even if this strange electricity between us was real—which it wasn’t—nothing could happen. I wasn’t staying. A summer fling was all well and good, but Asher could never be a fling. We had too much history together. Deep down, I knew that there were only two ways my relationship with Asher could go. Either we stayed friends and lived our own lives, or we lived a life together.

  I’d given up on the second possibility already. So I needed to keep my head out of the clouds and my feet planted firmly on the ground.

  We came to a white building painted with black stripes. Zany Zebra had been a fixture in Tilikum since before my mom was born. It served cheap, greasy burgers, the best waffle fries ever, and a selection of house-made ice cream.

  I got a cone with a scoop of mountain blackberry. Asher chose double fudge chocolate. We took our ice cream with us and wandered deeper into town.

  Gerald McMillan came out the open door to his barbershop, adorably named The Art of Manliness. An old-fashioned barber pole twirled on the side of the building. Mr. McMillan didn’t have much of his auburn hair left, but he had a thick, well-groomed beard, and wore a crisp white apron.

  Asher paused and held up a hand. “Hi, Mr. McMillan.”

  “Hey, Asher.” His deep voice rumbled. “Hi, Grace. You must be home from school.”

  “Yep, I got back yesterday. How’s business?”

  “Oh, you know, I can’t complain. Except for that bastard Bruce Haven.” He leveled a glare at the building kitty-corner from his shop.

  I glanced at Tilikum’s other barbershop. As a feuding town, we had two of most things—one for people on the Bailey side and one for the Havens—and the businesses fought over the customers in between. Bruce Haven owned the Dame and Dapper Barbershop, and he and Mr. McMillan had a long history of trying to outdo—and annoy—each other.

  Outside the Dame and Dapper stood a huge painted statue of a vintage pinup girl. She wore a red dress that showed a lot of cleavage, fishnet stockings and high heels, and looked like she was blowing soap suds off her hand.

  “When did he put that up?” I asked.

  Mr. McMillian crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “Few months ago. Damn statue.”

  “I can’t believe the town council let him do that.”

  “Doubt he asked permission,” he grumbled.

  “What are you going to do to get him back?”

  The corner of his mouth turned up. “Oh, don’t you worry about that. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

  I laughed. “Sounds good.”

  “You want me to have my brothers put a beard on her?” Asher asked.

  “Not a bad idea.”

  “I might accidentally mention something.”

  Mr. McMillan winked. “I don’t know anything about it.”

  Asher put his hands up. “Me neither. I’m just taking Grace out for ice cream.”

  “You two have a nice afternoon.”

  “Thanks, Mr. McMillian,” I said.

  We kept walking down the sidewalk, licking our cones to keep them from dripping. I nudged Asher with my elbow.

  “Put a beard on her?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  I laughed. “I’m just surprised you guys haven’t done it already.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ve all been busy, so…”

  Asher and his brothers had always taken their pranks seriously, feud-related or otherwise.

  By the time we got to the Caboose, we’d both finished our ice cream. Asher held the door for me, and we went inside.

  The Caboose had originally been built to look like an old-fashioned railroad car. About ten years ago the owners, Hank and Jeannie Chesterton, had expanded it, giving them more square footage. The building no longer looked like an actual caboose, but they’d kept the bright red paint.

  Inside, it was decorated with old railroad signs and model trains. It was half bar, half restaurant, with a partial wall separating the bar area. The restaurant side had a mix of tables and booths, with dark wood and red vinyl seats, plus an open section with two pool tables and some vintage arcade games.

  It was mostly empty, just a small group sitting in one of the booths, and a couple of old-timers holding down stools over at the bar.

  “Want to eat first, or play some pool?” Asher asked.

  “I think the ice cream did ruin my dinner.”

  He grinned. “We can wait. I’ll go get us a pitcher of Coke.”

  I watched him walk away and it was impossible not to notice the way his muscular back and arms filled out his t-shirt. And his ass. God.

  Watching his ass in those jeans, I found myself wondering what it would be like to let him do dirty things to me. Dirty things I’d never done with anyone. Although I’d fooled around a bit with both of my exes, I hadn’t slept with either of them. But my lack of sexual experience didn’t mean I couldn’t imagine.

  Oh my god, what was I doing? This was Asher. My cheeks warmed and I tore my gaze away from him while I moved to one of the pool tables. Yes, he was attractive. He was thick and strong and capable. His understated confidence was stupidly sexy.

  How the hell was he single?

  Wait, was he single?

  He’d been dating someone when I’d been home over the holidays. I’d overheard Logan asking him if he thought he was getting a blow job for Christmas. I’d walked away too quickly to hear his reply. I hadn’t wanted to know.

  It didn’t seem like he was dating her now, but it was hard to tell. We hadn’t exactly been confiding in each other about our relationships—or anything, really—over the last few years. I knew he dated girls, and I assumed he knew I’d dated those guys at school. But it wasn’t something we’d talked about.

  He came back with our drinks and set them on a table.

  “Ready to lose?” he asked.

  “You’re awfully confident.”

  “I’ve seen you play.”

  I gave him a playful shove and he grinned at me.

  Was I imagining the heat in his gaze as he handed me a pool cue? The quick sweep of his eyes and twitch of his lips as if he liked what he saw? I must have been, because Asher never looked at me like that.

  He also never kept his arms around me like when he’d helped me off the roof. Or hugged me the way he had yesterday at my mom’s house.

  Now I was just letting my imagination run away with me.

  We started our game and unfortunately for me, Asher wasn’t wrong. I was pretty terrible at pool. In between attempting to sink a ball into one of the pockets and his good-natured teasing, I couldn’t stop thinking about whether he had a girlfriend. Which was silly. I didn’t need to be preoccupied with Asher’s relationship status. It didn’t have anything to do with me.

  Plus, I wanted him to be happy. Even though we’d grown apart, I still cared about him.

  Maybe that w
as a good enough reason to ask. We were friends. Friends talked about that sort of thing. What if she’d left for the summer and he missed her? Or they’d broken up recently and he was trying to hide the fact that he was sad about it? Although I doubted he’d be able to hide that from me. I knew him too well, and he didn’t seem sad.

  At this point, I was starting to drive myself crazy, so I just blurted out the question. “Are you still dating that girl you were with at Christmas?”

  He stopped, his pool cue resting on the edge of the table, and looked at me with lifted eyebrows. “No. We broke up a while ago.”

  “Oh. That sucks. I’m sorry.”

  He watched me for a second, then turned his attention back to the game. Took his shot and missed. “It’s okay, it wasn’t a big deal. Sometimes things just don’t work out.”

  “Yeah.” I walked around the table, looking for a good shot. Not that I knew much about what I was looking for.

  “What about you?” He leaned his hip against the table. “Did you and your boyfriend decide to take a break for the summer?”

  “No, he and I are better as friends.” I lined up my pool cue and took a shot. The ball actually went in. “And I’m not really looking for anything serious right now.”

  “Why not? Think you’re too young?”

  I considered his question as I lined up another shot. “No, it’s not that. I’m just focused on other things. I need to finish college, and then…”

  “And then?”

  I hit the cue ball but the three bounced off the side, slowing to a stop in the middle of the table. “And then, I don’t really know. I’m not sure what I want to do with my life yet.”

  “Really? No ideas?”

  “I have ideas, I guess. But I’m open to the possibilities.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Good.”

  Suddenly I wondered if we were talking about career choices, or something else.

  “My mom would like it if I had a better idea of what I want to do with my life.”

  He laughed softly. “You’re going to be successful at whatever you set your mind to. I know you, Gracie Bear. That’s how you operate. You’re too stubborn to fail.”