Bailey was already halfway across the room. She unlocked the bedroom door and threw it open. “Dean!” she said, finding her brother standing in the mangled outer doorway. “What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be back for another week.”
“Anna had a feeling that we should come back early,” he said, scowlingly studying the vandalism of his newly finished cottage. “Looks like she was right. Aunt Mae and Cara just told us what happened while we were gone.”
Bailey stepped into his arms for a hug. “There are a few more things you need to hear,” she warned him.
He groaned. “I was afraid of that.”
“Oh, this is even worse than I imagined,” Anna wailed, stepping into the cottage and surveying the mess with appalled eyes. “I wish I’d been here when that terrible man showed up. I’d have given him a piece of my mind.”
“Why in the world did you stay out here alone last night?” Dean asked, looking at Bailey in bewilderment. “Aunt Mae and Cara couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t take a room in the inn.”
So Mark hadn’t told them that she hadn’t been alone.
Bailey cleared her throat. “I, er, didn’t spend the night by myself,” she explained. “Someone was with me.”
Looking bewildered, Dean frowned. “Someone? Who?”
“Congratulate me, Dean. I’m in love.”
He sighed, and appeared to brace himself for the worst. “Okay, who is he?” he said. “Really, Bailey, I hope it’s not another—”
Anna cut him off with a choked cry.
Knowing what Anna must have seen, Bailey turned toward the bedroom door.
Ian stood there looking at his sister. His dark hair tumbled over his forehead. His dark clothing was wrinkled. There was a bruise at the corner of his mouth.
Bailey thought he had never looked more handsome.
Anna must have agreed. She covered her mouth with her hands, and her eyes filled with tears. “Ian?” she whispered.
He took a step toward her. “Hello, Anna.”
“Oh, my God.” She threw herself at him. Her hands were all over him as she feverishly convinced herself that he was real, that he was here, that he was alive.
“Oh, my God,” she kept saying, over and over. “Ian!”
He pulled her into his arms and hid his face in her hair, the same glossy dark color as his own.
Her own eyes damp again, Bailey leaned her head against her brother’s shoulder.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dean breathed. “He’s come back.”
“For me,” Bailey told him with a beaming smile. “I love him, Dean. And he loves me, too.”
Dean shook his head. “I never even imagined—”
“There were some things you neglected to tell me about your wife, weren’t there?” she asked him a bit too sweetly. “Can you imagine what I’ve been through for the past couple weeks?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said fervently. “Trust me, I understand. If I’d had any idea that you and he—” He shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m so surprised. I should know by now that there are no rules.”
Bailey laughed softly. “That’s what I’ve decided. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Dean looked at his wife’s glowing face. “You won’t ever hear me complain.”
Anna flew across the room and threw her arms around Dean’s neck. “It’s Ian!” she said. “Dean, it’s Ian. And he’s alive!”
Dean laughed and hugged her. “I know, darling.” Tucking her into his left arm, he held out his right hand to Ian. ‘It’s good to finally see you.”