Spring River Valley: The Spring Collection (Boxed Set) by Wynter Clarice

Author:Wynter, Clarice [Wynter, Clarice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

Bailey stood in her kitchen at five forty-five p.m. holding a leash, a set of plastic food bowls and a half-chewed rawhide bone. Her brother Aiden had just plopped a twenty-five pound bag of dog food on her kitchen floor, narrowly missing her feet. Barkley, his golden retriever, sat in the kitchen doorway, panting.

“I’m sorry to spring this on you with no notice, but it really is important,” Aiden said as he knelt beside Barkley and ruffled the dog’s fur.

“The last time you said that, you wanted to drive to Buffalo to hook up with a girl.”

“This is a real emergency. A friend of mine needs someone to fill in as a competition judge, last minute. I told him I’d do it, but I have to be in Schenectady at eight a.m., and I’ll be gone all day tomorrow. You know Barkley hates to sleep alone.”

“Don’t we all?” Bailey smirked. She loved the dog, and she loved her older brother, so saying no wasn’t an option, but she had to let him squirm a bit. “I’ve got a date, and he may very well be allergic to dogs.”

Aiden tilted his head to the side, mimicking Barkley’s curious expression. Or maybe the dog was mimicking him. “Seriously?”

“Whatever.” Bailey shook a finger at the Golden Retriever. “It’s a good thing you’re so cute, or I would say no.”

Barkley licked her hand, and Aiden rose to his full six-foot-two-inch height and put a hand on her head, like he’d done since the day he outgrew her when he was fourteen. “Thanks, kiddo.”

She ducked out from under his hand. “Cheez, I have a date. Do not touch my hair.”

Barkley rose too and wandered into the living room where he plopped down in front of the TV. Aiden turned the set on for him. “If you’ll be out for a while, can you leave the TV on for him?”

“Only if he’s chipping in for my electric bill this month. Dogs don’t watch TV.”

“He likes the voices.”

Bailey snatched the remote from her brother. “Fine, on low, no Pay Per View this time.”

“He doesn’t like reruns.”

“Out.” Bailey pointed to the front door. “Before my date gets here.”

Aiden shrugged, a curious smirk on his face. “You’re finally falling off the wagon, huh? You think taking yourself out of commission for a whole year finally taught that dirtbag Dan a lesson?”

Bailey turned a jaundiced eye on her brother. He’d offered, on a number of occasions, to teach Dan a lesson, and she’d always declined the offer. She hadn’t yet been able to get her brother, a staunch commitment-phobe himself, to understand why she needed so much time on her own to deal with Dan’s betrayals. “We’ve been over this. It’s not what Dan learns, it’s what I learned.”

“So who is this guy? Somebody I know?”

“He’s…an architect.” For some reason she stopped herself from telling Aiden Matt was the weekend bartender at Colette’s. Aiden had probably met him more than once, but she wasn’t ready for her brother to know who she was seeing and have him start asking a million questions.

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