Learning to Breathe Again (22 page)

“
You trust me that
much?”

She nodded and placed her head on his
shoulder. “I do, Jack.” She felt him turn his head and press a kiss
to the top of hers. “I know I’m completely safe when I’m with you.”
His arm tightened around her shoulders before he released her,
easing away so he could look at her.

“
I have some serious
reservations about this, Bayleigh. I’m not a counselor. We could be
doing major damage here.”

“
Or we could be helping me
to take a giant step forward, Jack!” Bayleigh reached across and
took his large hand into her much smaller one. “I just want to feel
something again, something other than fear.”

Not breaking eye contact, he brought her hand
to his mouth, placing a kiss in her palm. “I get that, Bayleigh, I
do. I just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing, for both
of us.”

She smiled at him. “And that’s another reason
why you have my trust. You think about me, about both of us, not
just you,” she whispered, leaning in to place a soft kiss against
his lips. “I know I’m still going to have issues, there’s no magic
wand or magician’s spell that can be said. But we’ll never know
unless we try, right?”

Jack shook his head, his grip tightening on
her hands. “I want you to have a safe word, though.”

“
You’re not going to tie me
up or use handcuffs, are you?” she looked up at him, apprehension
showing in her eyes.

“
Not unless you ask me to,”
he gave her one of his winks. “No, I just want to make sure you
have an out, in case I miss something or it gets too heavy too fast
for you.”

Bayleigh nodded, her lips pressed together as
she considered what he said. “How about Oreos?”

“
Oreos?”

“
It’s not something I would
normally say during sex and I’m assuming not something you’d hear
during sex,” she told him with a smile.

“
Fine, Oreos it is,” he
leaned forward and returned her kiss. “I’m still not sure this is
the best idea.”

“
Would you rather I go get
drunk in a bar and let some stranger…”

“
Hell, no!” Jack cut off her
question. “But I’m not going to just jump in the sack with you,
either, Bayleigh.”

“
So, where does that leave
us, Jack?”

“
We do something I haven’t
done in a very long time, Bayleigh…we date, we get to know each
other. The attraction is there, and when you’re comfortable with
it, we’ll act on it. But not until then.”

“
Date?” she stared at him
like he’d grown a third eye. “You haven’t dated in a long
time?”

“
Not exclusively, no. And
not with the intention of getting to know them,” Jack squirmed as
he realized how shallow that made him sound. “After the end of my
engagement, I had no desire to relive that experience. I kept my
relationships brief.”

“
I’m not sure I’d call them
relationships then,” Bayleigh muttered, narrowing her eyes. “How
long are you willing to be, uh, ‘exclusive’ with me?”

“
If we’re going to try and
be intimate, then for as long as the relationship lasts. I don’t
sleep around, Bayleigh and I’m not a man-whore.”

Bayleigh laughed and Jack smiled at her. “So,
are you sure? Once this ice storm is over, you want to try to
continue a relationship?” he asked, tugging on her hands until she
slid over to sit next to him and he could wrap his arms around
her.

“
Yes, Jack. I’m sure,” she
laid her head on his chest with a contented sigh. Jack smiled and
adjusted their positions so they could stretch out on the couch,
side by side, arms around each other, enjoying the
moment.

THEY SPENT A LAZY DAY JUST cuddled up on the
couch, Jack only getting up to add more wood to the fireplace. The
temperature outside continued to hover at the thirty degree mark,
meaning everyone else in the family was still stranded throughout
Texas.

Mid-afternoon, Jack’s cell phone rang. “Hey,
Mitch,” he answered, his hand rubbing circles on Bayleigh’s back.
With her head on his chest, she could hear both sides of the
conversation. Poor Mitch was going crazy, stuck in Waco, with his
wife and newborn son in the hospital in Waketon.

“
Shit!” Bayleigh sat up and
reached for the phone. “Let me talk to him, please!”

“
Hold on, Mitch. Bayleigh
wants to talk to you about something,” perplexed, Jack handed the
phone over to her.

“
Hi, Mitch, sorry to
interrupt, but I just realized I know someone who might be able to
help. Where exactly in Waco are you?” she asked him.

“
The Hilton.”

“
Okay. Let me make a few
calls and I’ll have Jack call you back,” she disconnected the phone
and scrambled off the couch. “Where’s my phone?” her eyes scanned
the room.

“
Here,” Jack picked it up
off the coffee table and held it out to her but didn’t let go when
she reached for it. “Take a breath and talk to me. What’s going
on?”

“
Maddie, my friend? Her
brother Brian owns a security firm, private investigation team,
something along those lines. Honestly, I’m not sure exactly what
they do, but he and his friend Rick are both pilots, and they can
fly helicopters as well as jets.” She paused and caught his eye, a
slight smile on her lips. “They paid Will a visit after I hurt my
leg, let him know that if he had anything to do with it, they’d
make him pay. I think if a line forms behind you and Jason, you can
start with them.”

“
They interested in you?” he
tugged on the phone, pulling her up against him.

“
Interested? Not at all. I’m
just Maddie’s friend, who was there when she needed someone to lean
on. Brian has his own troubles with the opposite sex. Some girl
back home in Virginia. And Rick has it bad for Maddie,” Bayleigh
wrapped her arms around him. “Jealous?”

“
Just checking,” he tucked
his head and kissed her. Hard. Bayleigh melted against him for a
moment before pulling away. “Hold that thought. If one of them is
willing to fly into Waco and pick up Mitch, maybe we can have him
home tonight.”

“
They’d do that for
you?”

“
Yes. I told you, I was
there for Maddie when she needed a friend,” she held up her finger
as her phone made the connection but she didn’t move away from
him.

“
Hey, Maddie, it’s me. I
need a favor from Brian or Rick. How can I get in touch with
them?”

“
Brian’s actually here with
me this weekend. You okay?” Jack could hear Maddie’s worried voice
over the speaker.

“
I’m fine, Maddie. We’re
still iced in. I need to see if Brian can help a friend, though. It
involves flying.”

“
Oh, well, let me go find
him.”

A moment later, a deep voice came on the
line. “Hey, Bayleigh. Maddie says you need help?”

“
Hi, Brian. Well, a favor is
a better description. My brother’s best friend had a baby, but he’s
in Waco and the wife and baby are here in Waketon. No one can get
anywhere because of this damn ice storm…”

“
And you want me to come
save the day.” Brian finished for her on a chuckle.

“
Yeah, pretty much. Can
you?”

“
Let me check the weather
reports. You said this guy is in Waco?”

“
Yes. And then you’d need to
fly him to Waketon. You’d have to talk to him and Jack to figure
out where all to land.”

“
Who the hell is Jack?”
Brian muttered.

“
Not important right now,”
Bayleigh told him, feeling her cheeks growing warm as Jack chest
shook with suppressed laughter. “Maddie can fill you in, if you’re
that interested.”

“
Fine. Give me twenty
minutes to check weather reports and I’ll call you back,” Brian
hung up and Bayleigh tossed her phone on the couch.

“
He’ll call back in twenty
minutes.”

“
I heard him,” Jack’s arms
wrapped around her. “So these guys will really just drop everything
to help you out?”

“
Like I said, I was there
for Maddie when she needed me,” Bayleigh laid her head on his
chest. “It was back when I was in college and she was engaged to
that guy in the Army. She’d gotten pregnant and he decided he
wasn’t cut out to be a daddy, so he left her. Brian was overseas at
the time and she wouldn’t talk to Rick. And then she went into
premature labor and lost the baby.”

“
Chandler,” Jack whispered,
his arms tightening around her.

“
Chandler,” Bayleigh took a
ragged breath. “Hardest thing I ever did, watch my best friend go
through hours of labor just to hold her baby that was already
dead.”

“
Jesus, Bayleigh. That poor
girl.”

“
That wasn’t even the worst
of it. Her ex found out she’d miscarried and showed back up on her
doorstep, almost as soon as she got home from the hospital, wanting
to ‘reconcile’.”

“
You have got to be kidding
me,” Jack pulled back and stared down at her.

“
I wish I was. Maddie was
too weak and out of it at the time to do anything about him, but I
wasn’t. I laid into him, full force. And when he wouldn’t leave, I
may have ‘accidently’ thrown a paperweight at his head. It may have
hit him. Police reports are vague on that.”

“
Wait…
WHAT?”
Jack’s eyes had gone
wide.

“
I refuse to say anymore as
I can’t recall if there’s still a gag order, or statute of
limitations or anything like that still in effect,” Bayleigh
pressed her lips together.

“
Are you
serious?”

“
Ask Brian when he calls
back. He helped bury it for me.”

“
Jesus. Remind me never to
piss you off. Paperweights and guitars,” he muttered, eyes narrowed
as he considered her. She waggled her eyebrows at him and smiled as
her phone rang. She wiggled out of his arms and snagged her phone
off of the couch.

“
That wasn’t twenty
minutes.”

“
It didn’t take that long to
pull up the weather,” Brian replied. “Is this guy Jack nearby, can
I talk to him to get some details? I’ve got a short window of time
to do this before the next front moves in.”

Jack took the phone from her with a grin.
“This is Jack Williams.”

“
Hi, Jack. Brian Tucker
here, your pilot-du-jour. This is going to take some fancy
coordination. I’m going to head to Waco in the company jet. I have
a friend who lives near Waco who owns a helicopter and he owes me a
favor, and his private airfield isn’t iced in, he said. So I can
land there. He’s going to meet me there with the helicopter, fully
fueled and ready to go. So, who am I picking up and
where?”

“
My cousin Mitch. He’s in
Waco, staying at the Hilton. I’ll get you his number and you and he
can coordinate that part. As for drop off, if you’re coming in by
helicopter, I’m going to get you clearance to drop off at the
police department here in Waketon. The chief here is the cousin of
his wife. He’ll make sure Mitch gets to the hospital from there.”
Jack’s hand reached for Bayleigh’s and gave it a squeeze. “I can’t
tell you how much we appreciate this.”

“
Bayleigh’s like a sister to
me. Anything she ever needs, she’s going to get. She knows it,
too.” Brian laughed. “I’ll be wheels up in about an hour. Text me
your cousin’s number and I’ll call him from the road so I can have
Rick file the flight plan for me. Can I talk to Bayleigh for a
minute?”

Jack handed the phone over to Bayleigh.
“Brian, thank you so much for this.”

“
Don’t go there, kid. You
doing okay? Maddie caught me up on the highlights.”

“
I’m fine. I’m still working
through it all but I have a lot of support now.” She looked over at
Jack and felt her cheeks grow warm, knowing he could hear both
sides of the conversation still.

“
Yeah, Maddie was pretty
sure about that, too.” Brian laughed in her ear. “You always have
our support if you need it. Take it easy and I’ll call you when I
land there.”

“
Fly safe, Bri.”

“
Always do, ‘Leigh. I always
do.”

Bayleigh hung up the phone again and looked
over at Jack. “Did you text Mitch?”