She waves me off. “It’s alright, Willa swooped in and … ” She pauses, smiling while staring off into space. “Willa fucking lost it on him.”
That makes me smile too. “Good.” In my book, Willa is one of the best. Actually, all those women are.
“They seemed a little confused when I told them I was saving up to leave town. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but I just—”
“You’re an honest person. It’s okay.”
She nods. “And then, Summer offered me a job.”
I sit up straighter at that. “Yeah?”
She nods, lips rolling together, looking a little bashful over it. “Yeah. But Beau … ” Big brown eyes flick up to mine. “You didn’t ask her to do that, did you?”
“No.”
“Because it seems like a bit of a handout, and I already feel like a welfare case. It would embarrass me if you were maneuvering like that behind my back. You’re already doing enough. I need to achieve some of my successes on my own.”
“I didn’t.” I swallow, my body taut.
Her eyes are wide, earnest, searching. “Promise me you didn’t create a job for me.”
“I promise I didn’t create that job for you with Summer.”
She sighs a deep sigh, shoulders softening as she releases the breath. “Okay, good.”
“I—” I start to talk and then … stop. Switching gears, I blurt, “I think I want to become a fireman.”
She stops rubbing my foot as her head quirks. “Yeah?”
“I thought a lot about what you said that night. About doing something I want to do, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working this land. It seems weird to switch careers and start something new at this age—”
“It’s not weird at all. You’d be incredible at that.”
Leave it to Bailey to support me more than I care to support myself. “I think a lot of the skills I learned in the military could be applied there.”
She bites at her lip in the most distracting way. “Yeah, I don’t think firemen do any stealthy undercover work, so you’d probably be fine.”
I gently shove a foot at her, toppling her back, and we both laugh.
Always picking on me.
“Beau Eaton, tier one operator.” She waves a hand in front of herself like my name is the title on a movie poster. “Asker of obvious questions. Shaver of pussies.”
I lunge for her with a laugh. “Bailey, get your snarky ass up here.” Arms around her waist, I haul her to me and soak her laughter in, letting it soothe what’s inside me the way her hands soothed my feet. She squirms and squeals as I cage her in, leaning over to click my bedside light off.
I turn, flopping down and wrapping my body around her the way I did that night on the riverbank. Been dreaming of holding her like this since then, so I might as well capitalize on it while the opportunity is still here.
With my arms around her torso and my leg slung over hers, she finally settles. Her laughter eases into a light, contented sigh.
“How are your feet?” She pushes back into me, pressing her back flush against my front, and I drop a kiss to her hair.
“Better. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” is her soft reply.
I shut my eyes, assuming now is the time we go to sleep.
But I should know better than to assume anything where Bailey is concerned.
“Hey, Beau?”
I sigh raggedly. “Yes, Bailey.”
“Why didn’t you let me put your cock in my mouth earlier?”
Good fucking god. “Bailey.”
“I thought that was coming next. Ya know? You stood up, and it was right there. Pointing at me like I was the chosen one. And I was ready to practice. But you took off before I could make my vocal cords work again.”
Any trickles of relaxation that were taking over in my brain are washed away in an instant. Rapidly replaced by images of shoving Bailey back into those white lavender-scented bubbles and letting her practice putting my cock in her mouth.
“Ready to practice?” I grumble, annoyed by how uncontrollable my urges are around her.
“Yeah, some instruction would be good, so I know what I’m doing out there.”
Out there. That means after this and I don’t like that thought at all.
So I squeeze her tighter, not letting my head go there. Not letting my brain plan for that worst-case scenario. The inevitable case scenario.
I can’t handle facing it, so I just say, “Go to sleep, Bailey.”