Page 29 of Lost and Found

“You think you’re going to get married again?” That couldn’t have been any farther from his business. Asking questions like that was too nosy—and he was too curious. Not about marriage. God, he’d thought about that once before, and that had gone down in flames. But still. He wanted to know.

She snapped a chip in half. “Maybe. Never say never. Have you ever been married?”

“Almost.”

“Really?” Bailey rounded her eyes. “Are you broken-hearted?”

“Not anymore.”

“I can’t see you heartbroken over a woman.”

He shrugged and needed to cement his mouth shut. What was he even doing with this topic?

“And that’s the reason you don’t believe in happily ever after?” she asked.

Wes scooped salsa onto a chip and shoved it in his mouth, not answering.

“You know what happened to me,” she said. “Do you want to tell me what happened to you?”

Not particularly. He sipped the lemonade but found himself saying, “She left me.”

“Then it wasn’t meant to be, and you deserve better.” Bailey cracked a chip in half. “You just haven’t found your happily ever after yet.”

Their food arrived, interrupting the downward spiral of discussing the end of relationships. His fajitas sizzled. Her chimichanga steamed. Wes busied himself wrapping steak, onions, and peppers into a tortilla, but he couldn’t shake the unfinished conversation. He didn’t know if he deserved better or believed in happily ever after. He had done nothing wrong, but it wasn’t in the cards for him.

Since his split from the FBI and his ex-fiancée, he’d come to terms with his life plan going haywire. Bachelor for life. Wasn’t that what Eli and Decker had jokingly named their group chat?

But not explaining his history to Bailey was like ignoring a loose thread in a conversation already partly unwoven. Wes finished the fajita wrap and shared, “My fiancée dumped me when the FBI fired me.”

Bailey stopped chewing. Her eyes widened like before, but this time, instead of playful curiosity, it was as if she could see how she’d unknowingly shoved her foot into her mouth.

“Hindsight…” He lifted his shoulders, ready to offer too much information. “I’m glad the relationship ended. You don’t want to spend your life with someone who doesn’t believe conflicts can be overcome, right? We never got to the transformation you’d mentioned. The life she wanted wasn’t what was unfolding, and she bailed.”

Bailey visibly forced herself to swallow. “I didn’t know.”

“There’s no reason you would have.” He reached for another tortilla. “We parted ways. You’d lost Ryan. You and I never spoke to each other again.” Wes piled on the steak. “I was more angry than heartbroken, if you want to know the truth.” Lost his job to rich people pulling strings. Lost his fiancée to a bump in the road. Lost his seemingly standard plan for what life was supposed to look like. “Anyway, I just wanted it out there. Guess I’ve ruined lunch.”

“No, you haven’t!”

He shrugged and bit into the fajita.

Bailey set her fork down. “Let’s make a pact.”

He chewed, waiting for her to elaborate.

“Once the research is done,” she said, “and we go our merry ways, we’ll stay in contact.”

“Maybe.”

She balled up her napkin and tossed it at him. “Maybe?”

Wes laughed. Bailey held out her hand. He hesitated. Awareness pricked at the back of his neck. He hadn’t wanted to let go of her hand when they’d left Erick bitching and moaning in the parking lot. Wes liked the way her palm pressed into his, how they fit together, and how his fingers wrapped around hers. Shaking her hand now wouldn’t be like taking it earlier, yet he knew that as soon as they touched, he’d feel that rush of excitement again.

It was the same buzz that electrified him last night when she’d answered his phone call. And the same again when he said, “Sweet dreams.”

“Wes Wilder, do not leave me hanging. We’ll stay in touch this time. You won’t be able to get rid of me.”

His hand surrounded her smaller one. “Deal.”