A Maverick To (Re)Marry

Ignoring the sudden sweet image of Amy that popped into his head unbidden, Derek forced a wry laugh. “Put a sock in it, Bailey. Your brothers look pretty damn happy to me.”

Bailey groaned. “They all start out happy, now don’t they?”

“You’re getting obnoxious,” warned Luke. “Quit while you’re ahead.”

But Bailey wasn’t about to take his brother’s good advice. “What I’m ‘getting’ is honest. It’s too late for Danny and Jamie here. They’ll just have to learn the hard way that marriage is a game for fools.” He leaned close to Luke and stage-whispered in his ear, “Get away. Get away while you still can.”

“Knock it off.” Luke elbowed him hard in the ribs.

“Ow!” Bailey rubbed his side. “Big brother, you got an elbow on you.”

“And you have a big mouth. One you need to practice shutting.”

Bailey put on a hangdog expression. “It’s hopeless, I tell you. You’re doomed, brother. Doomed.” He tipped his head back and asked the ceiling, “Oh, why won’t anyone listen to a man who knows?”

“Get real, Bailey,” said Luke. “You love Eva.”

“’Course I love Eva. She’s a fine woman. So is Annie, for that matter.” That was Daniel’s wife. “Fallon, too.” Fallon O’Reilly had married Jamie the year before. “It’s not the women I object to, it’s the institution itself. Marriage. It’s what ruins people’s lives.” Bailey wrapped his hands around his own throat and pretended to choke himself. “Slow strangulation, you hear what I’m sayin’?”

Derek decided to step in before Bailey got too far on the wrong side of his own brothers. “Come on, Bailey. Nine-ball. Two out of three.” He nodded toward the pool table.

“Go.” Daniel made a shooing motion. “Give the rest of us a break.”

Bailey scowled. “I’m trying to help you.”

“We don’t need your help,” said Jamie.

Bailey hung his head. “Why does no one appreciate the wisdom I’m offering?”

Derek got up. “Nine-ball. What do you say?”

“Why not?” Bailey rose, grumbling, “I’m not makin’ any progress here, and that’s for sure.”

At the pool tables, Bailey continued to trash-talk marriage as Derek proceeded to win the game. Twice.

“Not only smart enough to stay single,” declared Bailey when they started back to join the other guys, “but a pool shark, too. What other talents you got?”

As he considered what to try next to get Bailey to stop annoying his brothers, Bailey muttered, “Uh-oh. Here they come.”

They were Eva, Bailey’s sister Bella—and Amy.

Amy. Looking like a bright ray of sunshine in a pretty yellow dress.

The three women marched straight to the table where the Stockton men were sitting.

Bailey, still beside him, said something else. Derek had no idea what. All rational thought had fled his mind, along with his ability to understand words. He felt sucker punched. And also guilty.

Yeah, he should have called her. But how could he? Even after all these years, she made him forget the English language, made him blind to everything but her.

Somehow, he did what he had to do—put one foot in front of the other, kept walking alongside Bailey until they reached the table again.

“There you are,” said Bella, glaring straight at Bailey.

Bailey widened his eyes. “What’d I do now?”

“Don’t play innocent,” said Bella. “Nobody believes that act from you. You’ve been driving everybody in the place crazy, going on about all the reasons men should never get married. We just came over to offer you a ride back to Sunshine Farm.”

“Somebody called you to come and haul me out of the Ace?” Bailey huffed in trumped-up outrage. “I don’t believe this town. A guy can’t express an honest opinion without some busybody callin’ his sister to come drag him home.”

Luke, who’d gotten up to give Eva a quick kiss, advised, “Maybe you’ve had one too many, huh, Bailey?”

“I’m not drunk,” Bailey insisted.

Eva suggested wryly, “Just opinionated?”

He frowned at her. “And where do you and Amy come in? That’s what I’d like to know.”

“We were over at Bella’s when she got the call.”

“The call from who?” he demanded.

Bella shook her head. “You don’t need to know.”

As the others discussed whether Bailey should go home or not, Derek stood by the table and tried not to look at Amy. When he finally couldn’t stop himself from shooting her a glance, he caught her at the moment that her gaze skittered away from him.

Just like on Monday, the two of them sitting there in Eva’s living room, both of them trying their damnedest not to look at each other.

They’d had love once, powerful love that he’d believed could conquer anything.

Now they just tried not to look at each other when they met up by accident. And when they had to speak to each other, they blathered on about how their secret past was long ago and they were both just fine.

Bailey said, “I’ll switch to ginger ale. Will that satisfy you women?”

“And stop running down marriage,” said Jamie.

“Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “We’ve heard enough about that.”

“Fine, fine. It’s hopeless to even try, anyway,” Bailey groused. “I got the message, loud and clear. You all can keep your happily-ever-afters, see if I care.”

“All right, then,” said Luke. He turned to Eva. “Stay for a little?” He sat again and pulled her down into the chair next to him. “Come on, Bella. Amy. Stay.”

Bailey helped Derek grab some more chairs and then the two of them went and got another round—including a pitcher of ginger ale for Bailey and anyone else who didn’t want beer. When they got back to the table, the chair on one side of Amy was empty.

Derek took that chair because he couldn’t bear not to.

Someone put a love song on the ancient jukebox. A girl from out of town grabbed Bailey and pulled him up for a dance.

Luke led Eva out onto the floor. They swayed to the music, whispering to each other. Eva tipped her blond head back and laughed. They looked so damn happy.