Page 18 of Home Coming

“I’m not going to drink. I can drive home,” Bailey offered.

He cocked up one dark brow and asked, “You sure?”

For the first time he seemed to look at her. Really look at her. Eye-to-eye. And God, his eyes were gorgeous. Green with flecks of brown and gold...

Seconds of silence ticked by between them and she realized that not only had she not answered his question, but both siblings were focused on her, waiting.

“Oh, yeah. I’m sure.”

“Okay. It’s settled then. We all go. Two cars. Seven p.m. departure time.” Josie pointed at each in turn. “Be. Ready.”

Feeling lighter, Bailey stage whispered to Quinn, “She sounds serious.”

“Yes. Very.” He smiled, displaying a dimple that had her heart fluttering.

That smile was for her.

Quinn Baldwin was smiling at her and it was sweeter than any cinnamon roll.

Maybe things had changed in the last eight years.

CHAPTERSEVEN

“Ididn’t know you and Bailey were still such close friends.” Quinn broached the subject with as casual a tone as he could muster, torn by his own feelings as suspicion and lust warred within him.

“Well, I mean we haven’t seen each other in person for like…years. But yeah, we weren’t evernotfriends. You know?” Josie answered with a typical Josie-like non-response.

No, he didn’tknow.

Josie shrugged as she continued, “It’s been hard with her living in the city since graduation. I mean we hadn’t seen each other in forever, but from the minute I picked her up at the bus station, it’s like she was never gone. Except for her name. It’s hard to stop thinking of her as Jane.”

Funny, Quinn was finding the name change comforting. It helped keep Jane the child who’d followed Josie around separate from Bailey the woman who’d given him a hard-on.

Maybe he was being overly cautiousbecausehis dick really wanted to get to know Bailey better.

He pushed that thought aside and concentrated on getting a straight answer out of Josie.

“So she just showed up out of the blue?” he asked, getting back to his mostly unanswered questions. “What has she been doing in the city all these years? What’s she do for work? Does she live alone?”

This was an investigation. His SEAL training had drilled a healthy level of suspicion into him. He definitely wasn’t asking about Bailey’s living situation for personal reasons even if he did find himself wondering if she was single.

And he really shouldn’t be thinking about her naked on top of him, but some things couldn’t be helped. But he was damn right going to inquire about how she happened to be installed in his parents’ home while they were away.

Was she homeless? A grifter? A con artist? A damsel in distress… That last idea gave him pause.

He pushed aside the guilt that maybe she wasn’t up to anything nefarious. Perhaps she just really missed her friend.

“How long areyoustaying?” Josie asked in a whiplash-inducing change of topic as she turned the questioning back on him.

“Few weeks. Why?” he asked when she made a face.

“I figured she could move into your room instead of sleeping on the roll out trundle in mine.”

He frowned. “Why is she even sleeping here at all? What about her own house?”

“Her mom moved away years ago.”

“So she’s like moving in here?” He figured after the reunion she’d go back to the city, where Josie said she lived.

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