Page 102 of Bailey

“Daddy, Momma wants to know if you can call her.” Corrine extended Reeves’s phone toward Luke, and he looked at Reeves as he took it from her.

“It’ll make calls,” he said.

“Is it my turn?” Corrine asked, and Reeves nodded at her. She took a deep breath while Luke read through the messages on the phone.

“Something I’m proud of this year is the cello solo I did last spring. It was really scary, and I practiced so stinking hard.” She smiled at her male cousins. “Because I did that, I know I can move to Jackson Hole for college, even though I’m pretty nervous about it.”

Luke reached out and pushed his daughter’s ponytail over her shoulder. “You’ll be amazing at college, baby.” He lifted the phone. “Uncle Gabe and Uncle Morris went to our house, guys, because the storm has started to roll into Coral Canyon now too.”

In that moment, Reeves realized that the rain noise around him had quieted. He brightened and said, “Listen, guys.” He tilted his head, noting that it took the teens a couple of seconds to get that he meant to listen to the world around them and not listen to something he was about to say.

“It stopped raining,” OJ said, his face lighting up.

Reeves grinned and then laughed. “It stopped raining.”

“It stopped raining!” Lars and Eric exclaimed together.

Luke tapped on the phone. “I’m gonna dial Aunt Sterling, and we’re all gonna yell, ‘It stopped raining!’ when she answers.” He grinned at his daughter and nephews. “Bunch up over here, closer to the phone.”

He extended the device out in front of him, a couple of inches from OJ’s face. Lars and Eric knelt up to get closer, and Corrine simply scooted in a little bit.

Luke had put the phone on speaker, and the ringing of the line came through. Then it stopped, and it clicked a couple of times, and then a woman’s voice said, “Lucas Young, you tell me that you’re all right.”

Luke grinned and held up three fingers, then two, then one, and made a go signal. All the kids yelled, “It stopped raining!”

“And we’re okay!” OJ added on at the end.

Luke laughed, and Reeves joined in with him. “Hey, sweetheart,” he said. “Did you hear that?”

“I heard it, yes.” Sterling’s voice came through the line nasally and broken, and a sniffle came through the line. Luke quickly pulled the phone back and tapped on the speaker before lifting it to his mouth.

“Hey, we’re really fine,” he said. “Reeves found us a great place to shelter, and we got out of the stream as the water rose. This storm is going to be over us in just a couple of minutes, and we’ll head back to camp.”

He listened for a moment. Reeves couldn’t wait to get his phone back so he could text Bailey and let her know that he was all right. He’d then call her later, when he could have a private conversation with her. He hoped she’d be as relieved as Sterling was, because she’d started falling in love with him too, but he let his fantasies stall there. Whatever Bailey’s reaction would be, Reeves would take it.

Luke continued to talk on the phone, the wind died down, and the storm passed over. Reeves stood up and left the shelter to find that everything outside was the same as it had been before, only with a little bit of water on it.

No matter what, Reeves couldn’t wait to get back to the one person who had become home for him. And no matter what her reaction was, Reeves simply wanted to be reunited with Bailey as soon as possible.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-NINE

“I’ll catch a ride home with Reeves, Momma,” Bailey said, already opening the door on her mother’s SUV.

One look at her mom’s face told Bailey that her momma wanted to come inside Luke Young’s house, where the entire Young family had gathered to welcome home the campers. Bailey didn’t want Momma to come in that badly, but the thoughts shouting at her to invite her wouldn’t quiet.

“You could probably park down the street a little bit,” she said, as several vehicles had already taken up the space in Luke’s driveway and immediately in front of the house.

She’d been put on a Young family thread that Sterling had started, which said that Luke would be returning about noon today, and that she would have lunch for anyone who wanted to come welcome them home, get their boys, or hang out.

Otis, Mav, and Morris had to come retrieve their sons anyway, and Bailey had watched with wide eyes as that single text invite had ballooned into a full family party. Bryce had called her fifteen minutes later just to make sure she wouldn’t miss the texts, as if such a thing were even possible.

His grandparents would be inside, as well as what he’d called the “extra” aunts and uncles—Ev’s brothers and their wives, Leigh’s brother, and Abby’s brother.

Bailey was on the invitation text, but Bryce then said she could invite her parents and anyone else she wanted to. That had caused a conversation about how Reeves might have people in town that he would’ve notified about yesterday’s thunderstorm.

Bailey could admit that she’d never been more relieved to receive a text from him that said, The storm has passed. Everyone is alive and well, and we’re headed back to camp.