“What is it?”
“I’m nervous.”
“But why?” I pat her hand and rub her leg softly. “What is it that you’re worried about, babe? You think she won’t like me? ‘Cause let me tell you: I’m quite lovable.”
I wiggle my eyebrows at her and she erupts in giggles.
“It’s not that. It’s just that nothing I ever do is good enough for my mom. Kasey was right.” She furrows her brow. “I should have known a long time ago that I couldn’t please her.” Bailey takes a deep breath, but she’s on a roll now, and she continues. “I don’t want her to ruin this.” She waves her hand between us. “Whatever this is that we have going. I don’t want her between us. I don’t want to lose us.”
“Nothing that happens today will ruin what we have, honey.”
“Are you sure?” My poor Bailey looks close to tears, so I hug her tightly and kiss her tiny little nose. “We can go. We can go far away from here.”
I hate the idea of her mom hurting her feelings. I hate the idea of anyone being rough or careless with Bailey. In such a short time, she’s come to mean so much to me. That’s why I hate her asshole ex-boyfriend so much. It’s not that I’m jealous of their time together. I’m not. We all have people in our past we’ve spent a lot of time with, shared a lot of ourselves with.
What I hate is the fact that no one in Bailey’s life, except maybe Kasey, seems to appreciate her.
“It’s okay,” Bailey puts on a brave face. “It’ll be okay. We should just do this. I want you to be in my life for a long time, Cooper. You’ll have to meet her eventually. I’m just being stupid about this.”
Finally, we get out of the car and walk quietly up to the door. A woman – Bailey’s mother, I presume – opens the door when we reach the porch.
“Well, I was wondering when you’d finally get out of the car and come inside,” she says, but her voice isn’t playful.
I realize at that moment that we should leave, but for some reason, Bailey really wants to talk to her mom today. I think she wants to fit in, just for a little while.
So we go inside.
Bailey turns to her mother, who is staring at me.
“You didn’t tell me you were bringing a guest,” she says.
“Mom, this is Cooper. Cooper, Lucille.”
“Nice to meet you,” I hold out my hand, and she stares at me for a moment before shaking my hand, then turns back to Bailey.
“I didn’t know you were bringing someone.”
“I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Well, you should have told me,” Lucille hisses, and I wonder why it’s such a big deal to Bailey’s mom, but then another person joins us in the living room, and suddenly, it all makes sense.
“Hey, is that Bailey?” The man is wearing a goofy grin until he spots me, then it falters. “Who the hell is this?” He glares at me.
“Dominic,” Bailey squeaks out. “What are you doing here?”
She tenses next to me and I know she’s as caught off-guard as I am. As far as I know Bailey hasn’t spoken with Dominic since he and her cousin got together. Well, at least since Bailey found out about him and her cousin getting together.
“I think we should talk, Bailey.” Dominic’s words are cautious, guarded, and I know exactly what the fuck he’s about to say. He wants to get back together with her. Why else would he be here? What? Things didn’t work out with her cousin, so now he wants her back.
Bailey’s mom keeps glancing nervously at me, like she thought this would work, like she thought things would magically fall back into place between Dominic and Bailey.
I’m the wild card she hadn’t counted on.
And she has no idea how wild I can be.
“Why are you here?” Bailey repeats, then she turns to her mom. “Why didn’t you tell me Dominic would be here? You invited me to have dinner with you and Scranton.”
“Professor Scranton is in the kitchen making the potatoes,” Lucille says coolly. It seems like she’s gotten control of herself. She runs her hands over her smooth pastel skirt, getting rid of invisible wrinkles, then looks back to Bailey.