Page 99 of Hopeless
“Speaking of delicious foods.” I chuckle at her transition, my eyes fluttering as the burning sensation slips away. “I had brunch with Willa, Sloane, and Summer today. Well, yesterday, I guess.”
“Terrifying. But go on.”
“It was nice. I wasn’t having a very good day. Applied at the hair salon and got told the position had been filled. Spoiler alert: it hadn’t.”
I scrub a hand over my face. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“And then some guy was a dick to me at Le Pamplemousse.”
“Bailey—”
She waves me off. “It’s alright, Willa swooped in and … ” She pauses, smiling while staring off into space. “Willa fucking lost it on him.”
That makes me smile too. “Good.” In my book, Willa is one of the best. Actually, all those women are.
“They seemed a little confused when I told them I was saving up to leave town. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but I just—”
“You’re an honest person. It’s okay.”
She nods. “And then, Summer offered me a job.”
I sit up straighter at that. “Yeah?”
She nods, lips rolling together, looking a little bashful over it. “Yeah. But Beau … ” Big brown eyes flick up to mine. “You didn’t ask her to do that, did you?”
“No.”
“Because it seems like a bit of a handout, and I already feel like a welfare case. It would embarrass me if you were maneuvering like that behind my back. You’re already doing enough. I need to achieve some of my successes on my own.”
“I didn’t.” I swallow, my body taut.
Her eyes are wide, earnest, searching. “Promise me you didn’t create a job for me.”
“I promise I didn’t create that job for you with Summer.”
She sighs a deep sigh, shoulders softening as she releases the breath. “Okay, good.”
“I—” I start to talk and then … stop. Switching gears, I blurt, “I think I want to become a fireman.”
She stops rubbing my foot as her head quirks. “Yeah?”
“I thought a lot about what you said that night. About doing something I want to do, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working this land. It seems weird to switch careers and start something new at this age—”
“It’s not weird at all. You’d be incredible at that.”
Leave it to Bailey to support me more than I care to support myself. “I think a lot of the skills I learned in the military could be applied there.”
She bites at her lip in the most distracting way. “Yeah, I don’t think firemen do any stealthy undercover work, so you’d probably be fine.”
I gently shove a foot at her, toppling her back, and we both laugh.
Always picking on me.
“Beau Eaton, tier one operator.” She waves a hand in front of herself like my name is the title on a movie poster. “Asker of obvious questions. Shaver of pussies.”
I lunge for her with a laugh. “Bailey, get your snarky ass up here.” Arms around her waist, I haul her to me and soak her laughter in, letting it soothe what’s inside me the way her hands soothed my feet. She squirms and squeals as I cage her in, leaning over to click my bedside light off.
I turn, flopping down and wrapping my body around her the way I did that night on the riverbank. Been dreaming of holding her like this since then, so I might as well capitalize on it while the opportunity is still here.
