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Clay followed her, fighting an overwhelming need to plead his damned case. To convince her that leaving Value was the last thing she wanted. The thought of her not being there every day was sinking in. Rapidly.
Those four months without her had been some the darkest he’d had in a long, long time. He didn’t want to think of a future of darkness. Not any longer.
“Bailey...” He wanted to say more, but he didn’t know what the words should be.
“I...we have work to do.” She stopped walking. Bailey wouldn’t look at him, instead staring off in the distance. Toward where he had found her that day.
Clay came up behind her. Before he could stop himself, he had his hands on her shoulders. He felt the sigh go through her.
“It was different then, Clay. Before.”
“Me? What?” His fingers flexed. Bailey had fine, narrow shoulders. The blond hair tickled his fingers.
“Everything. You. Me. The TSP. The world.” She looked up at him. The sadness in her expression pierced through him. “Things made sense to me back then. I had a plan, goals. Things felt right. I hadn’t even thought about my father or what he had done in years. I was so tunnel focused on being a good cop. That was all I cared about. Until April. I was naive, I guess.”
“Not naive. Just young. Inexperienced.” Beautiful, wonderful, maddening. Perfect. To him. She had drawn him the moment she’d walked in. That hadn’t changed for even a moment since. It never would.
Just what that meant for him was sinking in fast.
“I have that now.”
“Yes.”
“Things have changed between us. I’m not sure I understand how.”
Clay wasn’t certain he did, either.
Bailey was practically in his arms again. Clay turned her, and before he could stop himself, he lowered his head.
Just waiting for her to pull away.
But Bailey didn’t.
***
It wasn’t like the last time. Not the same heat. The fire was still there, but the intensity had shifted. He kissed now to comfort, to connect.
Before, she’d suspected he’d kissed her out of anger because he didn’t want what was there between them.
Clay fought everything. Especially her.
But he wasn’t fighting now.
Bailey just stood there, stretched up against him. He felt hot and hard against her. Strong. Like nothing could knock him down. Nothing could ever stop Clayton Barratt Addy.
Not when there was something he wanted.
That he wanted her was just more proof that the world had shifted on its axis in ways Bailey would never understand.
But like the idiot she knew she was, Bailey pressed closer. And kissed him back. Just one more time.
It was Clay that pulled away first. “Bailey...I...”
Bailey didn’t want him to talk. When they talked was when things didn’t make much sense.
Of course, they didn’t exactly make much sense now, either. “I’m going to go to Finley Creek. I think it’s where I belong.”
She didn’t miss the panic that hit his green eyes. “I don’t want you to.”
“The problem is that you don’t know what it is you do want. Just what you don’t. I can’t wait around for you to figure out what scares you so much about me.”
Her life had been in stasis for long enough where Value was concerned.
She’d found one thing in Value that really mattered—her family. She was healing now, thanks to them.
Her position in the Value TSP didn’t matter now. Not like it used to.
She could leave. Go on. Find a different future for herself.
Take charge of it for herself.
Bailey deliberately pulled away.
No matter what was there between them she was making choices for herself. And wasn’t going to let him confuse her any more.