Page 326 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
Adam followed me wordlessly out to the parking lot.
CHAPTER 38
ADAM
I frowned as I followed Bailey out towards the parking lot. I was trying to figure out what was going on in her head. Earlier in the day, she had been so adamant that she wanted me to go to dinner with her tonight, but now, it almost seemed like I was the one dragging her out. There was something going on in that head of hers, something that I couldn’t quite figure out.
We were almost at the parking lot when I finally grabbed her arm and drew her to a stop, staring worriedly down into her eyes. “Are you all right?” I asked her.
Bailey sighed and rubbed at her temples. “Look, I know this was all my idea in the first place, but is there any way that I could take a raincheck? I don’t really want to go out tonight.”
I stared at her for a moment. I would have expected to feel elated at the fact that she was letting me off the hook so easily. Of course, I had no doubts that she would want to reschedule this, but even a little more time to plan what I would say to her would help. But instead, I just felt even more worried about her. I knew that I wasn’t her only friend there. If something was really wrong, she could talk to Kayla.
But she had been alone in her office, and I knew that Kayla had gone home a little while ago. She clearly didn’t want to talk about whatever this was with Kayla. And I suddenly knew that I couldn’t let her just stew in her own thoughts all night.
So she didn’t want to go out to dinner? “Why don’t we stay in?” I suggested. “Let’s go back to your place and I’ll cook you a nice meal and you can just relax a little. I know things have been busy lately.” I said that last hoping that maybe I would get some clue out of her reaction. Maybe she was just tired. But she looked preoccupied more than tired.
She gave me a surprised look and then smiled faintly. “I’d really like that, actually,” she sighed.
I nodded and followed her towards her condo. When we got there, she tossed her keys on the table and kicked off her shoes, padding into the kitchen and pulling open the fridge. “I honestly don’t even know if I have anything to make a meal out of here,” she said, laughing self-consciously.
I caught her by the shoulders and spun her towards the living room, giving her a little push. “I’ll figure something out,” I told her. “And if I can’t, then we’ll, I don’t know, order a pizza or something.” I pulled a beer out of the fridge and opened it, putting it in her hand. “Now, go and relax.”
Bailey’s smile was a lot more solid that time, and I mentally congratulated myself on getting that much out of her at least. “Thank you, Adam,” she said quietly, heading towards the other side of the counter and hopping up on a stool where she could watch me while I cooked.
I began pulling various things out of her fridge, okaying them with her as I went. Slowly, I started to put together a nice Asian stir fry and some rice. “It’s nothing fancy, but it’ll be warm at least,” I said as I cooked.
“Honestly, I’m just glad not to have to worry about anything right now,” Bailey admitted. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I know I’m the one who invited you out to dinner, and this isn’t what I planned for tonight.”
I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I actually kind of like cooking. It’s peaceful.”
Bailey hummed in response. I wanted to ask her what was going on, but more than that, I wanted to keep her mind off of it, I decided. Whatever it was, she would no doubt tell me about it when she was good and ready to. Or she would decide that Kayla really was the person that she wanted to talk to about whatever it was.
Honestly, it was sort of a relief to be here in the privacy of her condo for dinner. No chance that anyone would see us here, and maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with Ian in the aftermath after all. I could dream, anyway.
To keep her mind off whatever it was that was bothering her, I found myself chattering away almost as much as Ethan tended to, telling her all about my week and some of the sillier tourists that I had seen recently. Soon, I got an actual laugh out of her, and I found myself grinning in response.
Maybe she and I could work through things. Forget all about the fact that we had slept together and just be friends. I realized that I would really like that. I would have to be careful not to make this anything more than that, because she deserved much more than I was capable of giving her, but if I could manage to tread that line carefully, there was no reason that we couldn’t be friends.
Ian would probably be grateful if it meant that I was back to looking out for his sister here rather than trying to sleep with her.
I set a bowl down in front of Bailey with a flourish. “Dinner is served,” I told her. “You want me to grab you another beer?”
“No, thanks,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “Still working on this one.”
I sat down across from her at the counter and took a bite of my own stir fry, nodding approvingly as I chewed it.
Bailey laughed. “You look so full of yourself,” she said. But when she took a bite, she smiled. “This is pretty good, though. Not that your ego needs any stroking.”
I shrugged unrepentantly. “Hey, I haven’t made this in a while. Beth and I used to have this a lot when we first moved in together. Couldn’t afford much else.” The words rolled easily off my tongue, and I could see Bailey’s eyes widen a little.
“Beth was your wife?” she asked quietly.
I nodded slowly. But Bailey, although she was clearly filing that information away in her head, didn’t ask me anything else about her. I exhaled in relief.
Then, I laid both my palms flat on the counter. Time to ask her the difficult questions. “Bailey, what happened this afternoon? Is something wrong with the resort?”
Bailey looked surprised and then shook her head. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It’s just something that I have to figure out.”
