Page 42 of Home Town
And now Quinn was here. No doubt he’d add to that list and come up with more ways she’d erred. His top contribution would probably be that she always had screwed things up, her whole life.
Ugh!
But just as the weight of the pressure and guilt pressed down upon her, Corey shot her a glance and half a crooked smile while he and Quinn spoke. And Bailey bumped her shoulder against hers in a way that old friends had of telling you without words that they were there for you.
“It’s so good to be here,” Bailey said, glancing at the house that had been her second home.
“It’s good to have you here,” Josie said, meaning it more than Bailey could know.
Bailey lifted her chin toward where Quinn and Corey were still engaged in a display of male bonding and said, “So… Corey, huh?”
“No.” Josie spun to shoot Bailey a glare. “I mean, yeah, he’s been around because of the com…uh, event thing.” Damn, she’d almost slipped. “You know, because his mother is on the committee. But no—he’s not hanging around for any other reason. Definitely not for what you’re thinking.”
“We’ll see.” Bailey’s smug smile told her there was matchmaking afoot.
“Yes, you will see—that there’s nothing like that going on between us.”
“Okay.” Bailey nodded still looking unconvinced, which only drove Josie to be more adamant.
So much so Josie stomped her foot. “Oh, my God. Bailey, I swear?—”
“Remember when I moved in here last year?” Bailey asked, interrupting Josie’s hissed rant.
Josie frowned. “Of course I remember. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Remember how you insisted Quinn was into me and I refused to see it? Just like how you’re refusing to see it now, with Corey,” Bailey continued. “He’s into you.”
That had Josie barking out a laugh. How wrong Bailey was.
Yeah, Josie was sure Corey would be perfectly happy to be her booty call. But he was most definitely not into her the way Bailey meant.
Corey was not Quinn, who’d fallen hard for Bailey, flying back from California to declare his love for her on stage in front of a sold-out crowd at freaking Madison Square Garden.
“You don’t know him,” Josie said, keeping her voice low so the two men didn’t hear. “He’s not who you think he is.”
“Maybe you don’t know him,” Bailey pointed out. “People do change. How much have you even talked to him since he graduated high school and joined the Navy?”
That one summer when he was home for two weeks, they’d talked pretty damn often. When they weren’t busy doing other things. After that—not so much. Not at all, actually.
That was exactly the problem.
Maybe Bailey was right. Maybe he had changed. The military, the injury, age, experience…any of those things could have changed him. But her heart was still scarred from opening it once to Corey Jacobs. She wasn’t all that willing to tear down her walls and let him in to hurt her all over again if she were wrong.
Josie shook her head. “We’re not talking about this anymore,” she said out of the side of her mouth as the two men started to meander over. Still chatting but getting close enough to hear her conversation.
“I don’t see you in years and now I’m seeing you twice in one month,” Quinn said as he walked away from the trunk of the rental car with a carry-on strap looped over one shoulder and a large roller bag in tow.
“Yeah. Funny, huh?” Corey grinned at Quinn, but Josie could see it was forced. It didn’t reach Corey’s eyes. Didn’t match the tenseness in his shoulders.
She knew as well as Corey did there was nothing funny about any of this. Not the head injury that had brought him home to New York. Nor the still missing compass that could ruin both of their reputations.
Bailey was wrong about that. Josie did know Corey. Knew they had one thing in common. They both had something to prove to the people of this town. Without their reputations, in a town this small, there was no hope for either of them.
Chapter Nineteen
The morning air still had a touch of coolness to it, but as the sun that sat low in the sky glared brightly, Corey knew it would be another scorcher later today as he stepped out of his mother’s garage.
He’d been about to head next door to the Baldwin’s to retrieve Josie. They were going to make another attempt at getting a look at the surveillance footage from the gas station.
