Chapter 09 ~ Bailey's Plan
"I'm leaving, Jess."
"What do you mean you're leaving?" Jessie asked Bailey as the two women walked along the sidewalk.
"I mean I'm leaving. There's nothing here for me."
"What about Tom? I'm sure he'd say differently."
At the mention of her handsome lover's name, Bailey's cheeks pinkened with erotic memories of the past few days.
"Tom is just a fantasy. There's no way he'd settle for someone like me." Bailey answered wistfully.
"That's your problem, Bailey. You think you're something to be "settled" for. You never could see that you were so much more." Jessie lectured her friend as the two women glanced inside the windows of the local shops.
"It doesn't matter now," Bailey answered. "After the way I've acted the past few days, he's bound to think awful things about me." In spite of her worries, Bailey couldn't help but giggle with the memories of the passionate love-making and animalistic sex that had been shared between her and Tom. No matter his thoughts about her now, it had all been worth it.
The Walker boys had been every girl's fantasy in high school and very little had changed in the years since. Bailey had always had that soft spot for Tom, though. And since she'd made up her mind to take a new job in New York, she had also vowed to just take what she wanted for once in her life. Now the problem was that she had fallen in love with Tom. If she was totally honest with herself, she would have to admit that she'd always loved him on some level. And that love just seemed to get deeper and deeper, which was a problem for her as he would never love her with the same intensity.
Bailey was brought out of her bittersweet musings by Jessie's voice. "So where are you going, then?"
Bailey thought before she answered. She had a plan in motion and she didn't like her plans to change. Therefore, she had to be careful who knew and who didn't.
"You can't say a word, Jess. I mean it. Not to my Aunt. Not to anyone." Bailey looked solemnly at her sister-like friend.
Jess sensed the seriousness in her friend's words. "I promise, Bailey. You're really serious aren't you?"
"Yes., I am. I've thought long and hard about this for a couple months now. I've been offered a job in New York. I'm going to take it. It will give me a reason to leave without hurting Aunt Wanda. I'll still visit a couple times a year and if she needs me, I'll only be a phone call away." Bailey answered, though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
"A phone call and a couple thousand miles," Jessie answered with a frown on her face.
"Jess, you just don't understand. You left Dry Valley and everyone behind. Things were never good for me here. I have a chance to start over now. I have a new body, a new outlook, and now I have a place where no one knows me or my past. I have nothing worth staying here for.."
Jess thought long and hard about her friend's words. "You have Tom." Feeling that this wouldn't be enough to convince her headstrong friend, Jessie added, "and you have me."
Bailey gave her friend a sad smile. "I don't have Tom, Jess. I have a couple nights of sex with him. Granted, it was hot, mind-blowing, never forget, sex.....but that's it. At least in his eyes. And I don't even have you. You left years ago, Jess. And you're leaving again."
It was almost instinctive for Jess to deny that she was leaving. The power of this feeling stunned the beauty as she began to ponder what that meant. Did she really want to leave? Of course she did, Jess told herself. Bailey was right. She had a life elsewhere.
"Well, sweetie, I hope its really what you want. And if it is, then know that you have my support and best wishes. And you better invite me out there sometime," Jess said and both girls giggled as they neared the coffee shop.
"It's not what I want," Bailey said with a wink, "but I'll just have to take what I can get. Now...let me buy you a cup of coffee and let you in on my plan." Bailey winked again at Jess and hooked arms with her as the two girls entered the coffee shop.
Since her first night with Tom, Bailey had become more certain of what she needed to do. There was no way Tom would fall for her and there was no way she could be near him anymore and not tell him how she truly felt. It had become her intention to love him while she could, then get out of town. Tomorrow evening was Aunt Wanda's dinner and Bailey had a redeye flight out of town tomorrow night.
She would, of course, tell her aunt and uncle what was going on....but not until she arrived in New York. They would only talk her out of it if they knew. She had always lived in the small country town and was, by her own admission, a country girl. But Dry Valley had gotten to small for her and even to move to the next, bigger town hadn't been far enough. If she didn't find happiness after the move to New York, she would know she was just destined to be Buck-Toothed Bailey, no matter how far or how fast she ran. But before she left, she had one last night of memories planned with Tom....and the poor boy wouldn't know what hit him.
Tom made the last step onto his porch with a dusty thud. He had worked hard laying a new fence line that had been destroyed when a tree had blown onto it in the last storm. He saw the white slip of paper on his screen door and cursed to himself.
"Damn salesmen," he muttered as he jerked the note from the door. Giving it a cursory glance, he was surprised to see the feminine handwriting on the slip of paper. At the same time, he noticed the scent of it....her scent. A small smile split his lips as he read the delicately penned words.
Your presence is requested in the kitchen.
Tom wondered what wonderful sights would behold him once he got to the kitchen. He was both grateful and disappointed when he simply saw dinner on the table. While he was famished from the long, hard day's work, he had also hope to see Bailey wrapped in an apron and nothing else. As he hate the mouth-watering steak, baked potato, salad and homemade rolls, he noticed another note that had been placed in the breadbasket.
Your presence is requested in the shower.
Tom's heart lodged in his throat and his cock jumped at the thought of what may lay ahead for him. He kicked off his dusty cowboy boots under the kitchen table without bothering to finish the last roll in the basket and took the steps two and a time up the stairs and into the bathroom. His shirt fell to the floor halfway up the steps and he lost his pants at the top before skidding to a halt at the bathroom door.
Steam escaped into the hallway as Tom opened the bathroom door with a wide grin. Instead of being met with a sexy, sudsy brunette, he was met with a steamy, hot running shower. The steam from the hot water had allowed him to see the message written on the mirror above the sink.
Get clean. Get to bed. ASAP!
Now Tom KNEW he would finally be rewarded with his most desired treat. As he quickly jumped in the shower, he thought back about his time with Bailey. There had always been something about her that he liked. Even when she was "Buck Tooth Bailey", he had always adored her. She had never seemed interested in him, though and in those days, he had girls falling all over him. He'd just convinced himself that he might as well have someone even if it really wasn't who he wanted.
The last two days had changed his mind. It wasn't just Bailey's looks that had changed his mind, though he wasn't complaining for a single second about that, but it was the fact that she was still just as beautiful on the inside as she had been all those years ago. Many women, and men for that matter, that had gone through the transformation that she had would have lost themselves in the process. Bailey seemed to have grown more sure that who she'd always been was who she was supposed to be.
She was still the girl that would drop whatever she was doing to help her aunt, uncle, and anyone else that needed a hand. She was still that girl that volunteered at the hospital to help with the elderly patients, even if it just meant spending her Saturday afternoon listening to old war stories. She was still the girl that kept him off balance. She was still the girl that he wanted more than he wanted his next breath.