Baily's Irish Dream

“Come on, sleepyhead. I let you sleep through the elk sighting, but this is Old Faithful,” Baily informed him. She pulled Miss Roosevelt from her spot with difficulty, as Theodora was also unwilling to relinquish her nap time. “I swear between the two of you you’re like a bunch of babies. There will be time to sleep later. Right now we have a national treasure to see.”

“Meow,” Theodora complained.

“I agree with the cat. Wake us when you get back,” Daniel groaned. He’d been in the middle of a wonderful sexy dream, and he wanted to return to it. A vision of Red flashed in front of his eyes, and he suddenly realized that she’d been the focal point of his dream. Since that kind of thinking had been outlawed this morning, Daniel forced himself to wake up, but his eyes wouldn’t cooperate.

Baily decided to encourage him.

The loud blaring noise of a horn rang throughout the car, and Daniel wondered whether or not they were in a state that permitted spanking. Her point made, he opened his door and left the car.

Satisfied, Baily removed her hand from the horn and scooped up Theodora in her arms. She moved around the car and began to follow Daniel as he headed in the direction of all the other tourists.

“Sorry about the guerrilla tactics to wake you up, but I’m convinced you would have been devastated if you had missed this,” Baily apologized.

“Devastated,” he assured her insincerely.

In front of a large clearing where the hot springs were located, Daniel could see a huge clock on the side of the recreation center. It was eight minutes to countdown until the ever-faithful gusher blew.

The two moved up to the barrier that kept the tourists at a safe distance from the hot water. Daniel turned to see that Baily was practically jumping out of her skin with excitement over what was about to happen. He was about to tease her, after all it was just some bubbling water, but somehow her excitement became infectious. Even Miss Roosevelt’s ears had perked up.

“The pressure from the heat of the spring builds up until finally it must be released,” the tour guide lectured to the group standing around the barrier. She continued with a complete explanation of how the spring worked.

Baily hung on every word. Then water suddenly began to spout from the opening in the ground. It wasn’t exploding yet, just a bubbling of water that indicated the time was at hand.

“Isn’t this thrilling?” Baily turned and with her free hand she clasped Daniel’s, squeezing it tightly as the water began to shoot up higher and higher.

Daniel looked down at their joined hands. He didn’t feel any spark of electricity. He didn’t see fireworks in the distance or hear the clamor of bells in his ears. Instead he felt the crush of people around him, smelled the stale steam that emanated from the water, and saw two hands joined. His and hers linked together. He sensed a swirling in his stomach and decided that he must be hungry.

“Wow!” The water was twenty feet high now, exploding from the ground like a rocket headed for space. Baily jumped up and down, subconsciously imitating the water. Theodora whined at the treatment, but Baily was heedless of her irritation. She didn’t just witness Old Faithful—she experienced it as no one else around them was doing.

All too soon it ended. The water subsided, as did Baily’s jumping. She turned to Daniel who seemed to be more enthralled with her than he was with the spectacle. “Wasn’t it wonderful?”

“Yes it was,” he answered truthfully.

Baily thought that he sounded a bit cryptic, but she didn’t pursue it. “Well, let’s make tracks. We want to make Jackson Hole by nightfall. There will be a place where you can rent a car. Then tomorrow you can head east.” For what ever reason the words turned sour in her mouth.

And the words sounded sour to his ears. But it made sense for him to get his own car. Didn’t it? Of course it did. This woman was trouble. And he was too damned attracted to her. He couldn’t deal with that attraction and save his sister at the same time. Besides, any attraction he might feel for Baily would be a lesson in futility. They might be driving in the same direction, but emotionally they were headed their separate ways: one toward a home and family, the other as far away from a home and family as he could possibly get. The only thing to do was to separate.

Without argument, Daniel followed Baily back to the car. Purposely, he moved to stand by the driver’s side door. Now that he had decided to leave her, he wanted to get the leaving over with as soon as possible before he did something stupid such as reconsider his options.

Baily looked at him suspiciously.

“If you want to make Jackson Hole by nightfall, trust me—this is the only way,” Daniel reasoned, and stuck out his hand for the keys. Baily acquiesced and handed him the keys. As soon as he had them in hand, Daniel completed his thought. “You drive like an old lady.”

Affronted, but not really because it was more or less the truth, Baily made herself comfortable in the passenger’s seat, snuggling Theodora into her lap. Her legs bumped into her cooler, and she remembered that she had put another six-pack of Diet Pepsi on ice this morning. A cold soda sounded delicious to her while she still felt the residual heat from all that steam at Old Faithful.

“Do you want a soda?” she asked, her hand remaining in the cooler in case he answered in the affirmative.

“Diet?” Daniel questioned. Baily’s nod prompted his answer. “No, thank you.”

With a shrug Baily pulled out a can for herself and cracked it open. She took long, audible gulps and sighed after she pulled the can away from her lips. She was like a commercial; she compelled Daniel to watch. Once again her actions were bolder than Daniel thought they should be, bolder than anybody else’s actions would have been. She didn’t just drink the soda, she consumed it. He couldn’t help but be distracted by the sizzle of the soda, the sound of her sigh, the sight of her neck arched back and her throat as she swallowed. Then to really drive him nuts she placed the perspiring can against her neck, her cheeks and her forehead to cool herself.

Catching his gaze, Baily asked, “Are you sure you don’t want one?”

“I don’t like diet soda,” he explained. “Besides, what do you need diet soda for anyway? You have a perfect figure.”

Smiling at the compliment and blushing slightly, too, Baily replied, “I hardly have a perfect figure, but what I do have I owe to diet soda. It’s not so bad once you get used to it.”

Another gulp oozed down her throat and Daniel crumbled. “Okay, give me a sip.”

“Why don’t I just get you your own?”

“I don’t know if I’ll like it, and I don’t want you to waste a whole can on me.” I want that one, he thought. I want to put my lips where yours have been and taste the sweetness of your mouth, which I’m sure, is far sweeter than any soda could ever be. He kept that opinion to himself.

Baily seemed almost reluctant to give him the can. She, too, was thinking about where her mouth had been, and where his would be, and where hers would be after his had been there. It was practically kissing!

Reaching his hand around the can, Daniel actually had to tug it away from her. “I don’t have cooties.”

With a laugh that gave no hint of humor, Baily relinquished her soda. She watched him as he put his lips over the rim and craned his neck to take in the sweet, carbonated fluid. His bottom lip was fuller than his top lip and it flattened against the can, leaving a trace of moisture where his hot breath had formed dew against the cold can.

Gulp. Baily swallowed. And she wasn’t the one drinking. Daniel handed the can back to her with a satisfied, “Ah.”

Then he waited.

Baily looked down at the can. She saw where his lips had been and felt him stare at her between the glimpses he shot at the road. All she had to do was wipe his presence from the can with her fingers. It would have been a clear signal to him that she meant to keep her distance from this stranger who had so suddenly entered her life.

Instead she lifted the can to her lips and took a deep swig. What the hell, she thought. Maybe it was time to start living a little more dangerously. After all, she was headed home to Harry. Life couldn’t get any less dangerous than Harry.

For some reason Daniel was inordinately pleased. “So are you one of those diet fanatics who always watches their fat content?” he asked, turning the conversation back to the mundane to ease the sensual tension they had just created.

“Yes,” Baily sighed. “Sad to say I am. But I do have the occasional lapse. Actually it’s more than occasional, as you might have noticed by the way my shorts snug my rump a bit to…snugly.”

He had noticed. But he had liked the result.

“I have this awful craving for chocolate-chip cookies,” she admitted. “It’s like an addiction.”

“You mean the soft gooey kind with big chunks of chocolate,” Daniel elaborated. He often suffered from similar cravings.

Baily closed her eyes with desire. “Oh, yeah! You pull it apart and the chocolate drips from one end of the cookie to the other. Yum-mm.”

“And walnuts,” Daniel added. “I love it when they add the walnuts.”

Baily’s mouth popped open and she sat up a bit straighter, her expression incredulous. “You don’t really like the walnuts.”

Taken back by her fervor, Daniel corrected her. “I love the walnuts.”

“Nobody loves the walnuts.”

“I love the walnuts,” Daniel insisted.

Baily simply couldn’t believe it. “But that’s impossible. Everybody knows that the easiest way to ruin a perfectly good chocolate-chip cookie is to throw in walnuts. It’s a myth. Everybody really hates the walnuts.”

“Not me!” Daniel retorted, irritated at her suggestion that he was a freak just for liking walnuts in his damn cookies. “I adore the walnuts. I worship the walnuts. A cookie isn’t a cookie without the walnuts!”

“You know it’s people like you who ruin it for the rest of us. I can’t go to a bakery these days without having to specifically ask for cookies without walnuts. It should be the other way around. You freaks should simply do your walnut eating at home and let the majority enjoy their cookies the way they want them.” Baily was incensed. Just the other day she had bought a cookie only to find that it had walnuts in it. Yuck.

Daniel wasn’t about to let up so quickly. “Ha!”

“Again with the ‘ha.’”

Undaunted, he continued. “Did you ever think that maybe us walnut-eating people were the majority, and that’s why all the bakeries make their cookies that way?”

“No.”

It lasted for hours. The great walnut debate continued long into the afternoon and into early evening. Textures, taste, fullness, richness, all were debated with one being pro walnut, the other con walnut. It wasn’t until they reached Jackson Hole and found a motel that they both realized that they had spent an entire afternoon arguing about a nut.

Getting out of the car and stretching, they looked at each other.

“We’re nuts, no pun intended. You do realize that? We’ve spent hours talking about cookies.”

“Well, if you hadn’t been so insistent….”

“I was insistent? What the hell were you?” Daniel asked as he started toward the hotel lobby to check in.

“I wasn’t insistent. I was right,” Baily shouted over her shoulder. “And wait a minute, wait a minute! Let’s first find a place where you can rent a car, then we’ll check in.”

“Fine,” Daniel said huffily. “Once that’s done I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

Forever, Baily thought.

Forever, Daniel thought.

4

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS has happened.”

“It’s seems like par for the course for you on this trip. You haven’t broken any mirrors lately, have you?” Baily asked, hitching Theodora up over her shoulder. The cat had been cooperative so far, but if they didn’t settle her in their room soon for her nap she would be impossible to travel with the next day.

“No, I haven’t broken any mirrors or walked under any ladders. I have spent too much time with a black cat and its wacky mother.”

“Oh, is this going to be my fault, too?” Baily asked. They stood outside the car rental place, which was only a few blocks from the motel where they had parked. Baily had suggested they see about the rental car first as it was getting late and the place might close. Daniel had agreed. To stretch their legs, they’d decided to walk the few blocks through the crowd of tourists that filled the streets of the trendy new boomtown in Wyoming. Through the tourists and one pickpocket, that is.

“I didn’t steal your wallet,” Baily reminded him.

“It was your idea to walk!” It was a ridiculous accusation said out of aggravation. Still it felt good. No wallet. No credit cards. No license to rent a car even if he did have his credit cards. He could get his V.P. to wire him some cash first thing tomorrow morning, but what was he going to do about his license? More importantly, what was he going to do for a room tonight?

Unfortunately, the answer to his question had red hair and was an endless source of irritation.

“You realize what this means?” Daniel asked her.

Of course she knew what it meant. It meant that he would be making the trip with her all the way to Philadelphia. The thought made Baily queasy. Originally when she had asked him, she thought his presence might mean good company, protection, someone to break up the driving. That was two shared Diet Pepsi’s and a walnut debate ago. What Baily had come to understand during their trip so far was that she was much too interested in this man than an-about-to-become-engaged woman should be. She liked him. Even when they fought, she liked him. That in itself was bad, but worse was the fact that every time she gazed into his hazel eyes her heart pounded heavier, her blood raced thicker, and violent flashes of the two of them together naked flashed before her eyes. That was really bad.

The first thing she’d wanted to do when they arrived at Jackson Hole was to get him his own car. She couldn’t take the risk that she might have to spend another day with him. Now it appeared that she was going to be spending more than just one more day with him.

“It means,” Daniel finished, “that we’ll drive to Philadelphia together. That is, if your offer is still open.”

“U-uh,” Baily stuttered.

“What am I saying? Of course it’s still open. You wouldn’t leave me stranded in Jackson Hole, would you?”

“No?” Baily asked, not as certain of that fact as he seemed to be.

“No.”

Defeated, Baily nodded. She was just going to have to keep a stranglehold on her wayward thoughts and her out-of-control hormones.

The couple backtracked their route just in case Daniel’s wallet had dropped out along the way. Since he’d kept his wallet in his back pocket, it seemed unlikely that he could have dropped it, but both of them wanted to be positive, each for their own reasons. After a thorough search, their conclusion was still the same. The wallet had been pinched. Baily suggested that they file a complaint with the police. Daniel agreed and the two went in search of the local cops. The officer on duty quizzed Daniel for details, but Daniel couldn’t tell the man much. Equally, the officer couldn’t offer Daniel much in the way of hope that his wallet would turn up.

As the two headed back to the motel Daniel reiterated what he had told the police, in the hope that maybe something would spark his memory.

“I thought I felt somebody bump into me a bit harder than one would normally expect. But no way I felt a hand reach into my back pocket. It must have been a pro. A serious pro.”

“Heaven forbid that you get ripped off by an amateur,” Baily snickered. Typical man. Not just any old pickpocket was brave enough or smart enough to outwit the almighty Daniel Blake. It had to the best pickpocket in the West.

Finally they reached the motel lobby. Daniel held the door open for Baily and graciously allowed her to enter ahead of him. Together they approached the motel clerk.

The young girl with the bright smile and blond ponytail was completely unaware of the brewing storm that had just entered the small little lobby. They looked like two normal people and a cat. She would never know what hit her.

TEN MINUTES LATER an enraged Baily emerged from the lobby holding on to Miss Roosevelt with one hand while she held the door in the other.

As soon as Daniel reached the door, she slammed it backward with intent to kill. Or at least to bump him in the nose real hard.

If Daniel’s reflexes hadn’t been as quick as they were, Baily might have succeeded. Fortunately for her, he knew her well enough by now to expect the dirty trick. A chilling notion if he thought about it for too long.

“You behaved like a child. I don’t see what the big deal is.” Daniel fumed under his breath as he trailed her to their room. He’d never been so completely humiliated in his life. Humiliation, a heretofore unknown emotion, was now as commonplace to him as breathing thanks to an unreasonable redhead.

“You wouldn’t,” Baily responded to his muttering. “But trust me, it is in fact a big deal.”

“Meow,” Theodora concurred.

“See, even she agrees with me,” Baily announced.

“Oh, now I’m convinced because the damn cat said so.”

Baily lifted Theodora off her shoulder so she could see her face. “Did you hear what he just called you?”

“Meow.”

“Clearly the man has no sense of propriety,” Baily said, cuddling Theodora once again over her shoulder.

In one coordinated motion, Daniel passed Baily and her cat en route to the room and removed the key from her hand. He had opted not to rise to her previous challenge. Daniel fast discovered that Red took a profound delight in having the last word. If he chose to respond to her comment, he knew there would be more to follow. And between the morning’s argument, the afternoon’s argument, and the early evening’s argument, he simply wasn’t ready to engage in a late-evening argument.

Once inside the room, he couldn’t ignore the gasp from immediately behind him. So much for détente.

“Look at how small the room is! It’s minute, minuscule, miniature, tiny, teeny, weeny—”

“I get the point,” Daniel interrupted.

“But you said it probably wouldn’t be that bad. You said we’d never even notice one another. You said we would forget the other person was even there,” Baily protested, throwing Daniel’s words back at him.

“I said we would try to forget the other person was there, and believe me I will do everything in my power to make that true. It would help things considerably if you shut your mouth for more than five seconds at a time. Not that I think you could even if you wanted to.”

“You don’t think I can keep my mouth shut.”

“Yes, I’m pretty positive you couldn’t keep your mouth shut for any extended period of time.”

Baily closed her mouth, determined not to talk. Which was her misfortune, since she still had a considerable amount to say. It was like shaking up a soda can and then refusing to open it. All her fizz was bursting to get out. Then again, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t said everything already.

At the registration desk, she had asked for one room for herself and Theodora. She’d then stepped aside so that Daniel could ask for his room.

That was when he reminded her that his wallet had been stolen.

She told him he couldn’t share her room. It was unthinkable. She wasn’t that kind of girl.

He told her he wasn’t that kind of guy, but where in the hell did she think he was going to stay.

She told him she couldn’t afford two rooms. It would run up the limit on her credit card too fast, what with the bulk of the trip in front of them. And she had no idea where he was going to sleep.

He told her to get a grip. He was staying with her. Then he added all that stuff about the room being so big they would miss each other.

She told him that she wouldn’t miss him even if he were the last man on the planet.

Then he’d tried to walk out on her.

And she’d discovered that she did miss him. That is, she missed the opportunity to punch him right in the nose. So she’d walked out on him first.

Now she sat on her bed, the one that was only a foot away from his bed, and sulked. She threw in a few pouts and sighs every now and again for good measure. But she didn’t say a word. He was lying back on his bed, seemingly oblivious to her irritation.

“Uh-hh-hh,” she sighed once more, this time so audibly that he couldn’t miss it. She waited for his reaction.

Slump. A large white puffy mass hit her square in the face. For a moment she was too stunned to think. Then it hit her. Literally. Why that arrogant, no good, stinking, rotten, conniving…jerk! No, wait. Bastard! He’d just thrown his pillow at her.

Taking the weapon in hand, Baily stood over him astounded that he had the nerve to close his eyes. Didn’t he know she would retaliate? She poised the pillow high above her head in attack position ready to bring it down on his face…hard.

It was as the pillow was on the way down that she realized she had made a tactical error. She’d been suckered into a trap. The most obvious trick in the book. The play dead routine. After having used the same ruse on her brothers a multitude of times, she should have been adept at spotting it herself.

In an instant Daniel’s eyes were open. His hands sprung up and captured her wrists. Stopping the attack wasn’t enough, however. He had to disarm her before he could truly consider himself safe. Keeping a firm grip on her wrists, Daniel pulled her toward him while at the same time rolling so that her natural momentum threw her down next to him on the bed. In a flash he rolled on top of her, pinning her arms high above her head. A quick glimpse confirmed she still had the pillow.

Panting with sudden exertion and blushing with humiliation at having been so easily duped, Baily confronted her conqueror. That was her second mistake. Hazel eyes loomed above her. Their color was extraordinary. But no more so than the man to whom they belonged. His breath blew in little puffs on her mouth. An odd expression suddenly crossed his face. It must have just occurred to him—the predicament he had put them in.

Daniel looked down at his captive. He’d been prepared to taunt his victory over her, but once he saw her eyes and dove into those green depths, he was helpless to stop the rush of desire that crashed over him. Red tresses shot like flames from her head to decorate the whiteness of the pillow beneath her. They demanded to be caressed. Freckles called to him for a kiss, each one individually.

“Red…” he whispered. Then, “Red?”

“Daniel?” Baily replied, not knowing what else to do. Her neck arched ever so slightly, bringing his lips into closer contact. He lowered his head and the touch of his lips was like the brush of a feather across her own.

“Meow!” Theodora chose that moment to launch an attack on Daniel’s back. She used her front paws to scrape at his back through his cotton shirt. Apparently, she didn’t like the idea of anyone pouncing on her mistress—other than herself, of course. “Me-ow!” she roared furiously.

“Miss Roosevelt! Really,” Baily scolded, although she didn’t know whether she was grateful, angry, or frustrated with her cat’s interference. She’d lay odds on frustrated.

With a groan, Daniel slowly rolled to his side to give the cat a chance to jump. She did and went along her merry way now that her mistress was out of trouble.

“What just happened?” Daniel asked.

“How about dinner?” Baily suggested, completely ignoring his question. Her voice was tense and high-pitched. She bounced off the bed and ran to the bathroom. Her only hope was that she didn’t trip in her urgency. “I’m starved. Why don’t you check the hotel guide for a restaurant,” she called out from the other room.

“Red…” Daniel began, uncertain of what to say. Perhaps dinner was the best idea. They had the whole night to talk about the attraction that had sprouted between them. The whole long night in the same room with their beds mere inches apart. Yes, dinner for now. Later…Well, who knew what the night would bring. He was, however, going to have to do something about that cat. One pussycat in his bed was enough.