Page 24 of Home Coming

“Bailey,” he said in his lowyou’re in trouble, young ladyvoice.

Uh oh.

“Whatis going on?” he asked in a tone that didn’t sound at all casual.

Shit. She should have taken the call somewhere else. The bathroom. Outside in the cold. Somewhere. Anywhere besides here.

A video call was the equivalent of having the call on speaker phone. Quinn could hear every word in the next room.

She punched the button on the side of the cell to lower the volume as she continued to hold her phone up toward her face.

Trying to whisper, and genuinely confused as to what she’d done now, she asked, “What do you mean? What’s going on?”

Seriously. What could be wrong?

She’d hidden the live video of Axel naked. She’d taken care of that right away while she’d been hiding from him in the coffee shop since she didn’t know enough about the law to determine if it could get her in trouble or sued.

She was currently hidden away in the tiniest of towns in upstate New York. She’d spent most of the night in a dive bar with her best friend and a bunch of people who probably didn’t even remember her and if they did it was by a different name than she used now.

Who could have seen her?

There might have been a hundred past graduates of her high school in attendance, but there wasn’t any press.

“Where do I begin?” Xander asked, sounding like a father again.

He drew in a breath, hopefully about to launch into an explanation that would clear up this mystery, when a hair raising scream from the vicinity of the hallway dragged her attention away from the phone call.

Quinn, ever vigilant, was already halfway down the hall before Bailey could get her feet to move.

She’d only taken one step when Josie flung her bedroom door open and ran out, cell phone clutched in her hand.

Her hair was a mess from sleep, last night’s makeup still rimmed her eyes giving her the appearance of a raccoon, and her feet were bare as she ran into the hallway in her pajama bottoms and long-sleeved thermal shirt.

“What’s wrong?” Quinn demanded.

Knowing Josie, Bailey figured it could be anything from a spider to a mass murderer and everything in between.

“Where’s Jane—Bailey?” Josie raised her gaze and spotted Bailey past Quinn’s bulk blocking her view.

“Get out of the way,” Josie said. She pushed past, bumping into him on the way as she shouted, “You’ve gone viral!”

Xander, momentarily forgotten on the cell still clutched in her hand, said, “Thatis what’s going on. You have, indeed, gone viral.”

“Which post?” she asked, frowning as she glanced between Xander on her cell and Josie.

She’d been woefully negligent of her influencer duties since the break-in. It had been almost forty-eight hours since she’d posted anything. An unheard of amount of time.

Josie thrust her cell in front of Bailey’s face. “The one on TikTok from last night.”

“I didn’t post last night.” Bailey’s gaze whipped from Josie’s cell to Xander’s image on her own cell phone. “I swear, Xander. I didn’t post last night. We were at our high school reunion and I was drinking. I never post if I’ve been drinking. You know that. It’s a rule. I never break it.”

“I guess when you asked me to record you on your phone it posted or something.” Josie shrugged. “But look. Over a million views!”

Bailey’s eyes widened. “I told you to record me, not to post it.” Panicked, Bailey grabbed the cell and stared at the screen in horror. “Holy shit.”

Quinn moved to stand behind Bailey and watch the video on Josie’s phone over her shoulder.

“Ah, it’s Mr. Hashtag Grey Sweatpants Hashtag Doorframe Lean himself,” Xander said, dark brow cocked high.

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