Page 51 of Home Coming

“It’s all over the internet.”

He strode back to the doorway and peered into the living area. As he expected, he found Bailey staring at her cell phone. No doubt she’d discovered the story already.Great.

“It’s nothing. Xander booked Bailey on a talk show for tomorrow morning. They’re paying to put her up at a hotel.”

“Putyou and herup at a hotel, you mean,” Josie corrected.

“Since I’m currently her security, yes, I’ll be staying here too.”

“In the suite?”

He blew out a cuss. “Yes, in the suite, which is as big as Mom and Dad’s house, by the way.”

“So that’s it? Nothing more? You’rejust her security? You do know that romance with the bodyguard is a hot romance trope, right?”

“Jeezus, Josie. You too? Enough with thisshippingshit.”

“Shipping, huh? Listen to you using the lingo and correctly too. And it’s the internet shipping you two, not me.”

“The internet doesn’t know what the hell it’s talking about,” he grumbled.

“Mmm-hmm, we’ll see.”

Drawing in a breath, he refused to justify her insinuation with a response and instead changed the subject. “We’ll try making it home again tomorrow right after the morning segment.IfXander doesn’t come up with any more gigs for her in the meantime.”

“All right. Oh, Mom and Dad called.”

“Shit. Please tell me you didn’t let them know I’m home.” His mother would never forgive herself, or his father, if she knew she was missing one of his admittedly too rare visits for a river cruise.

“Well, you’re not home, are you? You’re there. But yeah, don’t worry. I lied for you.”

He rolled his eyes at her acting like she didn’t lie all the time for far less worthy reasons. “Thank you.”

“She also asked if I’d start to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic soyoucan do that when you finally do get back.”

Ah, the cost of Josie’s telling that little white lie for him was finally revealed.

“I’ll get the boxes down. I’ll even hang the lights out front.”

“Good idea. Dad fell off the ladder doing that last year.”

Quinn bit out a cuss at the reminder of the cost of his being across the country—when he wasn’t out of the country completely. He really did need to get home more often.

He was just thinking how he wouldn’t mind getting done with all this city bullshit and getting back upstate with Bailey sooner rather than later when Josie burst out with an, “Oh, shit.”

“Oh my God,” Bailey gasped at the same time.

The outbursts were in stereo. Josie’s from the phone in his right ear. Bailey’s from the living room to his left.

“What? What happened?” he asked them both at once, hoping one would answer.

Josie answered first. “Google alert. A nude photo of Bailey just hit the internet.”

He got a look at Bailey—speechless, pale—and echoed his sister’s reaction. “Aw, shit. Uh, look, Josie. I gotta go.”

“Fine. I have to call Bailey anyway.”

His knee-jerk reaction was to tell her no. Leave Bailey alone as she wrapped her head around this rather than rehashing it, but then he reconsidered. “Actually, yeah. Give me two minutes to talk to her then call Bailey. Keep her calm. Keep her talking to you so she doesn’t spiral.”

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