A Wish For Love (Gates-Cameron 2)

She really was a very attractive woman. Her hair was shorter than he might have liked, swinging in a soft bob just below her chin, but he liked the brown-shot-with-red color. Her eyes were blue, with long, dark lashes. Small nose, firm chin, sweetly curved mouth. She was of medium height and on the slender side. Her legs looked long and shapely in the dungarees she wore with an oversize green sweater. Hardly feminine garments, but she looked decidedly feminine in them.

He’d been watching her for almost a week now, since she’d arrived at the inn with the excuse to her family that she needed some time away from her work. A leave of absence, she’d called it. Nothing was wrong, she’d said too casually. She was just tired and needed a few weeks’ vacation.

Her brother had looked skeptical, but hadn’t pressed. Ian, too, had thought her excuses were patently flimsy, especially when combined with the forlorn look that occasionally crossed her face.

Bailey had made a valiant attempt at hiding her problems from the other residents of the inn. She’d smiled brightly at her aunt, Mae Harper, and at the housekeeper, Cara McAlister, and her young daughter, Casey. Her smiles faded only when she was alone—or when she thought she was alone.

She would have been startled to learn that she wasn’t alone quite as often as she believed.

Now, for instance.

Ian watched as Bailey glanced up from her book, looked cautiously around, then closed the book and stood.

She stretched, and the movement pulled her thin sweater tight across her nicely full breasts. He felt the tug of attraction and smiled grimly, thinking what a useless response that was from someone in his state.

Bailey walked away, toward the inn, and Ian faded into the grayness, still wondering what it would take to put a smile into her melancholy blue eyes. And wondering what it was about her that made him wish he could try.

ALONG WITH BAILEY, the entire staff of the Cameron Inn gathered in the lobby the next morning to see the owner and his wife off on their belated honeymoon. Aunt Mae was the first to step forward for a farewell kiss. She had been with Dean at the inn from the beginning, helping him through renovations and the opening for business six months later, and now staying on as the inn’s hostess.

Short and plump, her hair dyed a bright coppery red, sixty-something Mae Harper looked like everyone’s idea of a favorite aunt—except for her rather eccentric taste in clothing and accessories. This morning, she wore a black sweater appliquéd with huge satin flowers and studded with multicolored stones, red stretch pants, half a dozen jangling bracelets and dangling red-and-black earrings. Her eyeglasses were also red, and accented with rhinestones. Beneath the color and glitter lay the warmest heart and purest soul Bailey had ever encountered.

“Now don’t you waste one minute of your vacation worrying about this place, you hear?” Mae demanded as she tugged her nephew’s head down for a smacking kiss that left a smear of crimson on his cheek. “We are perfectly capable of running the place without your supervision for a few weeks.”

“You have the telephone number of the resort?” Dean asked.

“I have the number of the resort,” she answered patiently. “And the number for the plumber. And the electrician. And anyone else I could possibly need during the next three weeks.”

Dean chuckled. “Sorry, Aunt Mae. Old habits die hard.”

Mae smiled and moved on to speak to Anna.

Still waiting her turn, Bailey watched as Cara and Casey McAlister stepped forward. Bailey was intrigued by the beautiful housekeeper and her shy, sweet daughter. Dean had told Bailey that the pair had arrived at the inn when renovations were barely under way, long before he was ready to hire staff. He had found himself unable to turn them away.

He’d told Bailey that he had never regretted his decision; Cara had p

roven to be a loyal and hardworking employee who fully earned her pay. Little Casey had caused no problems—just the opposite, in fact. Everyone doted on her.

Dean still knew very little about what he suspected was an unhappy history for the two, which had left them quiet and wary and slow to form outside bonds, but he said that everyone had noticed that they seemed happier and more secure with each passing week.

The cook, Elva Tippin, and the two other members of the kitchen staff all reiterated that the Cameron Inn and its dining room were in excellenthands for the next three weeks. Millie, the part-time maid, waved a quick salute as she hurried upstairs to make beds and vacuum. And then everyone went back to work, leaving Bailey alone in the beautifully decorated lobby with her brother and sister-in-law.

Dean took Bailey’s hands in his, looking searchingly into her face. “Will you still be here when we get back?”

He’d asked before, but she hadn’t been able to give him a firm answer. She was no closer to doing so now. As long as her past didn’t catch up with her… “Probably,” she hedged. “I really have no definite plans right now. Of course, if you need the cottage, I’ll…”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dean interrupted brusquely. “The cottage is yours for as long as you want it. Got that?”

She smiled and kissed the part of his cheek that wasn’t marked by their aunt’s lipstick. “Thanks, Dean.”

He hugged her. “You’ll be okay?” His gruff tone, and the concern behind it, let her know that he’d never really accepted the vague excuses she’d given when she’d arrived unexpectedly a week ago.

She’d told him that she’d simply been tired and in need of a break from work and routine. That she’d made the decision impulsively, almost whimsically. That he wasn’t to worry about her, she was fine. She’d lied, of course. She’d just hoped he wouldn’t realize it quite so quickly. She should have known better. Her older brother had always understood her better than anyone else in the world.

Anna moved closer, a smile in her dark eyes. “Stay as long as you like,” she told Bailey. “In fact, I wish you would stay on permanently. It’s so nice having family all together.”

There was a hint of a catch in her voice. Bailey now understood that Anna was thinking of her own brother—whatever the circumstances of their separation.

Dean pulled his bride away a moment later. “We’d better go,” he said gently. “We have a plane to catch.”