Page 107 of I'll Keep Her Safe

Bailey looks back at me, heaving a sigh. “I need alcohol for this,” she mutters, rounding the counter and pulling a wineglass from the shelf. She pours a generous glass of white, then joins me on the sofa, looking at me expectantly.

“So.” I take a deep breath. “Poppy told me you received an anonymous text about us.”

Bailey snorts. “It wasn’t anonymous. It was Kurt. Obviously.” Of course, she figured it out. “I wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t sent a picture,” she adds.

I grimace. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way. We’d planned to tell you after the conference.”

Bailey is quiet for a while, staring into her wine. Finally, she says, “How long has it been going on?”

Fuck. I knew she’d ask that.

“A while,” I admit, setting my beer on the coffee table. “It… started in Napa.”

Her eyebrows hit her hairline. “Wow.” She grinds her jaw, fingers locked around her wineglass. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I’m sorry, kiddo—”

Bailey holds up a hand, halting my words. “I’m not a kid, Dad. I’m an adult.”

I blow out a long breath. “I know.”

“Doyou? If you did, you would have treated me like an adult and told me what was going on.”

I hang my head. “You’re right.”

“That’s what bothers me the most,” she says, her eyes ringed with hurt. “That you both felt like you couldn’t tell me. That you hid it.”

Remorse washes through me. “We should have told you. I know it doesn’t make up for it, but we’ve both felt awful keeping it from you. Neither of us wanted to hurt you.”

Bailey stares at me for a long moment, then softens. “I know. And I get why you didn’t tell me. It’s… awkward. Ugh.” She drops her gaze from mine. “My dad and my best friend.”

“We tried to fight it, we really did. But…” I let the air drain from my lungs. “There’s an attraction between us that we couldn’t ignore.”

She wrinkles her nose, taking a long sip of wine.

“It’s not only a physical thing,” I add hastily. “It’s, she’s… I’ve never felt like this. Neither has Poppy, from what she’s told me.”

“I worry about her,” Bailey murmurs.

“I know you do, honey. I do too.”

Bailey examines me over her wineglass for a long moment. “And you didn’t think it was inappropriate to get together with her?”

“Of course I did. I told her I was too old for her, that she was vulnerable…”

“Exactly,” Bailey cuts in with a frown. “She’s vulnerable because of what Kurt did to her.”

“That’s what I thought too, but…” I pause, thinking of the woman I’ve gotten to know. The woman I’ve fallen in love with. “She’s a lot stronger than you give her credit for.”

Bailey’s expression darkens. “You didn’t see the way he treated her. The toll it took on her.”

“It’s probably just as well,” I mutter, raking a hand through my hair. “Or I might be in prison for murder charges.”

A smile tugs at the corner of Bailey’s mouth. “You really care about her, don’t you?”

“I do.” I think for a moment about Bailey’s words. “But I wonder if you’re underestimating her strength. You saw her at her lowest point, and that’s a hard image to shake, especially when you care for someone so much.”

Bailey glances at me. “What do you mean?”

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