“A shower. That will help.” Honestly, a hot bath would work better, but since there isn’t a tub in my new home, that isn’t going to work. I walk towards my phone that I left on the counter. My family knows that answering calls or texts during a workday is a major no-no within the agency and also with myself. I check it and see there are no missed calls or texts. “Even better.” Not having to deal with my brothers and their shenanigans makes it easier. Luke lives in town, so seeing him is easy. The real reason I was in Reno was to see my younger brother. When Evan calls and begs for his older sister to come visit for a few days, there’s no denying him. My baby brother will absolutely beg, I mean call, text, email, send out smoke signals, and even a crow if he could if it means getting his way. Luckily for him, I needed a breather from our mother. I love her, truly, but now that she’s retired and Dad is still at work, every waking moment it was let’s go do that, let’s go shopping here, oh, I heard Sally-Jo is pregnant, and not by her husband. Almost three weeks of that, and I needed a break. Don’t get me wrong, we have an awesome relationship; it’s just that when you’ve been out on your own for as long as I have, moving back in, giving up that independence and freedom is hard. Which I guess should make me start thinking about the future, like if I get my marching orders, is a live-in nanny job feasible to retire from? Shouldn’t I be more established, have a home of my own and maybe do the daily nanny business? All of these thoughts plague me as I strip out of my clothes, throwing the dirty socks in the hamper. All of this thinking has me annoyed with myself. It’s too much. I need to learn to go with the flow, let things lie where they fall, the same way I’m going to let this whole one-night stand with Forest lie, even if it kills me.
Literally, had I known the man would become a part of my spank bank material, I would have stayed far away from him at the hotel bar. I can’t even blame it on the drinks; only having one Diet Coke and vodka makes it kind of hard to use that as an excuse. It was all Forest—the confidence, the no-playing-games, telling me what he was looking for and that it would only be one night. Maybe it could have been more if I hadn’t gotten under the covers and promptly passed out, only to wake up the next morning to find him gone. The only calling card he left was my aching muscles and sore body parts that I hadn’t used in forever, and the beard-burn along my skin.
“Get it together, Bailey. Take a shower, find a good book to read, and fall asleep. Tomorrow is going to come fast enough. You’ll need your energy,” I tell myself in the bathroom mirror as I flick on the light after taking off the rest of my clothes. Looking back at me is a woman who has made a life for herself. She’s not going to let an untouchable man stop her from doing what she loves. So, what if her battery-operated boyfriend gets her through the lonely nights? They’re kind of like Forest Hughes—there are no broken promises, and that’s all I can ask for right now in my life.
TEN
Forest
“Fuck.” That word has become my motto over the last twenty-four hours. The good part about today was that I worked in my office out of the house. The bad part was not being home after being away from Cammy and Piper. Never mind the fact that even though I wanted distance and space between Bailey and me, I was still drawn to her anytime she was near once I was home for the evening. The fact that I worked well past dinner meant she had to handle things for Cammy and Piper—cooking and eating their final meal, getting them ready for bed. It sucked that getting caught up on work meant that I’d be missing them even more. Tomorrow, that won’t happen. Piper will be home for the day. Cammy has school, so I’ll be the one to get them ready, take Cammy to school, get back to do some work, and Bailey will take over if a call or work pulls me away. I had it in my mind that once Cammy is home it will be the three of us. From what Mom mentioned, Bailey hit the ground running, not complaining a single bit that she was virtually thrown into the deep end without learning to swim.