Page 127 of Bailey

“At least one more.” Reeves grinned at him and moved over to hug Bailey’s momma.

“Listen, Bailey,” Momma said, and her breath dried right up in her lungs. Reeves had told her that she started harder conversations with the word “listen,” and she realized she’d gotten it from her mother.

Momma exchanged a look with Daddy, whose countenance didn’t dim one bit. They looked at her again as a single unit, almost as if they had rehearsed it. Then they both looked at Reeves. Bailey did too, and found him grinning from ear to ear. He tucked his hands in his pockets and gave them a slight nod.

“What’s going on here?” Bailey asked.

Everyone looked at her again, and she couldn’t help the way her heart thumped in her chest.

“We wanted you to light the tree this year,” Daddy said. “You didn’t want to make a big deal of it last year, and we understood that, but—” He looked at Momma.

“We don’t think it will be a big deal this year at all,” she said. “You’re our daughter, and it makes sense.”

Bailey’s first inclination was to refuse. Then her mother’s words sank into her ears. It makes sense. No one would think anything of it, and since she had waited a year, it wouldn’t be a heralding of her homecoming either.

“All right,” she said, and all the tension in the lodge faded away.

“All right.” Daddy clapped his hands. “Glad that’s settled. Now, have you two had Rosa’s breakfast empanadas? Because if not, you’re in for a real treat.”

Later that evening, Bailey had changed into her Christmas Eve dress, a glittery, navy blue gown that bordered on black. She’d found it on clearance, and it reminded her of the night Christ was born, with the gems sewn into to the bodice throwing starlight around her. She’d pulled her hair back on the sides, added a wave to it, and spent a couple of hours alone in her guest room to prep for the party.

Now, though, the lodge filled with her aunts and cousins. She’d already seen and greeted Tex and Abby and their three kids, as well as Trace and Everly, Harry, Belle, and baby Lyric, and his half-siblings.

Otis and Georgia, Joey and Adam, OJ and Anna—as well as Joey’s beautiful baby daughter—were there, of course. They sat right in the front row, almost as if Momma and Daddy had told them Bailey would be lighting the tree this year. They for-sure had.

It’s just the flip of a switch, she told herself, the words becoming a recitation as she found Reeves and sat beside him in the second row, on the very end. He acted as an excellent shield for her at big events like this.

She loved him all the more as he leaned over and shook hands with Luke and started an easy conversation with the man. They had become friends, and Reeves had brainstormed with Luke about future videos for his channel.

She hadn’t seen Gabe or Morris yet, but Mav had arrived with Dani, Boston and Cora, and his younger children as well. She leaned forward and tapped Otis on the shoulder.

The man turned back to her and said, “Howdy, Bailey. You look mighty pretty.”

“Thank you.” She smiled. “Is Blaze coming?”

“I think he and Faith took their kids to her sister’s this year,” Georgia said, also turning to greet her.

Joey nodded and kept up the steady patting on her daughter’s back.

“Gabe and Morris are doing their own thing this year too,” Luke said from the other side of Reeves. “So they won’t be here.”

The door kept opening and more people came in. Colton and Annie Hammond, as well as Ames and Sophia and their two older boys—Chris and Lars—who ran the K9 Academy with their dad. Wes and Bree also arrived, but all of their adult children lived out of town.

“There’s Jem,” Otis said, and he stood halfway and raised his hand, so Jem and Sunny and their two younger children could come sit by them.

“Oh, they’ve got Rosie too,” Georgia said. “Do we have an extra seat for her?”

Reeves stood up. “She can have mine. I’ll get a chair from the kitchen.”

Bailey stayed in her seat, her stomach a ball of nerves, and she wasn’t even sure why. Reeves returned about the time Rosie stepped past Bailey and said, “Howdy Bailey,” in what sounded very much like a Texas cowgirl twang. She’d been riding the amateur circuit that year and had won the whole thing.

Bailey put her arm around her and squeezed her shoulders. “It’s good to see you, Rosie.”

“You too.”

The door stopped opening and closing; Reeves positioned his chair on the end of the row next to Bailey, and she would now have to move past him to make it to the bank of light switches on the wall.

Momma and Daddy entered the room and stood in front of the Christmas tree with Daddy holding a microphone. “Welcome to Whiskey Mountain Lodge,” he said.