Total pages in book: 203
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Unlike the rest of the females in the pack, because Bailey doesn’t shift, she’s got no reason to walk around without clothes on. And this also means no other male has seen her naked, which makes me smile.
Sleep doesn’t come, and I push the thoughts of a warm, soft, naked Bailey aside. Instead, I spend time sifting through some memories, looking at them through a new lens.
I’m a teenager, running the thousand-yard sprint in the youth games, racing against others in my age category. I cross the line second, directly after Joel. Riley and Mase are a hair after me. Grey and Linc are not far behind and ahead of the other guys in our age category who are expected to mature into alphas. I see her on the sidelines, clapping and jumping up and down, shouting out, “Yay, Jason!” Even though Joel crossed the ribbon first. The moment is frozen for a second as it dawns just how often she’s cheered for me. She cheers for me every single time. Wrestling. Races. Other games. Whenever there’s a crowd around me, I can find her face with her light-filled eyes pointed at me.
***
Now I’m thinking about that flu ten years or so ago. And that soup. I’ll never forget that fuckin’ soup. A flu spread through the pack and had everyone down and out of commission for a week. All the alphas in the pack got it last across two stretches, like it was ingrained that we couldn’t all get sick at once and leave the pack vulnerable even though we had no threats looming.
I was one of the last to get it so by this time, she’d already had it and recovered. And she showed up at my house with a big container covered in a red heart pattern.
“I made this soup for you. I hope this helps you feel better, Jason.”
Ty and Mase have bragged about their women’s skills in the kitchen. I’ve tasted Grey’s new mate’s baked goods and her stuff is gourmet. Riley jokes about the fact his mate can’t be bothered to cook, that she’s happy to eat a sandwich over the sink instead so she can spend her time doing other things she does enjoy doing.
But my mate? Bailey shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a kitchen.
That heart-patterned bowl was full to the brim with the most god-awful soup I’ve ever tasted. But she handed it to me with a look that sticks out in my mind now. I vividly recall the look of longing on her face.
***
Tyson had just been shot, and I was heading into the clinic to check on him while Amelia was working on stopping the bleeding. Bailey ran at me and threw herself into my arms, saying, “Thank God you’re okay!” It was awkward and I told her I was fine, that the shooter was aiming for Tyson, and she looked into my eyes with that adoring, melting expression and so much relief that I wasn’t hurt. Tyson was injured, bleeding and unconscious, and Bailey was worried most about me.
***
The way she touched my face in Grey’s driveway all drunk and cute a while back, then me driving her home, her leaning over and saying, “You know what, Jason? I have something really important to say to you.” And I didn’t want her to say what I suspected she’d say. And I was saved because then she made those awful throat noises and I should’ve gotten out of the way. I didn’t, got puked on, then had to deal with her apologies and tears of embarrassment.
***
Early on at Erica’s birthday party, Bailey asked me to dance. I blew her off making some off-handed joke about the song sucking. She was following me around all night, being my shadow, smiling, making small talk. She was there getting a drink when I got one, getting food when I got some. Getting too close. And I was irritated by it.
I asked Danica to dance, and the blonde witch flirted with me for the first time, letting me get close, licking her lips, then asking me if I wanted to get some air, so I grabbed us a bottle and we headed out. We were in an eye lock which would’ve transitioned to a lip lock out in the grass when we heard and saw the text pop up. Erica asked her sister not to go there with me because of Bailey’s feelings, and this was the straw that broke it for me, making me storm into the town hall and lay into Bailey just enough to make my point clear.
Erica owned the blame. Eyes filling up, Bailey asked to talk to me, but I told her the bullshit had to stop.
And that crushed look on her face keeps flashing in my mind now as she sleeps on the floor beside me. Then the look on her face when I reamed her out in my hotel hallway when she got to Rome. That look wasn’t the same. Bailey reacted in a much different way that time.