Baily's Irish Dream: Baily's Irish Dream / Czech Mate. Stephanie Doyle

      Wiggling his eyebrows, Daniel told her smugly, “I did offer him a bribe. That was months ago and they haven’t eloped.”

      “No, they didn’t elope. They just decided to get married and only gave you…how many days’ notice was that?”

      “Seven. Now I have only five days left to get there.”

      “Seven,” she repeated. “Enough time for you to make it home and walk your sister down the aisle. The bribe obviously didn’t work.” If smug was a woman, she would look like Baily.

      “Maybe I didn’t offer him enough,” Daniel muttered, not willing to concede total defeat.

      “If this guy is as slick as you say he is, then we’re going to have to do better than a bribe.” The sound of her brain clicking into devious action seemed to emanate throughout the tiny car. Even Miss Roosevelt looked up from her pillow in the back seat.

      “‘We’?” Daniel asked. When she said the word, it made it sound as if they were going to be together longer than they were. For whatever reason, the idea of them together for longer than a day didn’t sound as horrible to Daniel as it had that morning.

      “Lord knows you’re going to need the help. A bribe! How cliché.” Baily ignored his mention of the word “we,” but she couldn’t help but be affected by the significance of it. We. Frightening thought.

      Daniel chuckled and let his head fall back against the seat. He was content now to forget his worries and to let Red try to wrestle with the problem of how to separate Pierce from his sister. He was also long overdue for that nap he’d planned to take. “Wake me when you need a break.”

      “I’ll wake you when we get to Yellowstone. You can’t miss Yellowstone,” Baily informed him, her voice as serious as stone.

      “I wouldn’t think of missing Yellowstone.”

      In minutes Daniel was asleep and the occasional snore filled the car. As much as she could, Baily took her eyes off the road to peek at her passenger. It was odd, but he reminded her of a new toy that was fun to play with. He challenged her, made her laugh, and also made her feel comfortable in his presence. They barely knew each other yet they had basically spilled their life stories to one another.

      As a child Baily had received many toys. She would play with them nonstop, for hours on end. After a time, though, she would get bored and move on to her other toys. But every so often there came a special toy. Those toys became her best friends forever. Those toys she took to bed with her and snuggled with them under the covers to pass away the hours of the long, dark, lonely night. Those toys had become part of her life and she felt less than whole when she was without them.

      In a slight whisper Baily asked, “What do you think, Miss Roosevelt? Should we keep him?”

      “Meow.”

      “I agree,” Baily replied.

      Daniel, who woke at the sound of Baily’s voice, spent the next few hours trying to decipher what the cat had said.

      “WE’RE HERE!”

      Daniel felt the car jolt to a stop. Surprised that he had actually dozed off, he took a few minutes to get his bearings. There were cars in front of him, in back of him, to his right, and to his left. Either they were stuck in a really bad traffic jam or they were in a parking lot.

      “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