Free Take Two by Karen Kingsbury Page A

time.”
    They compared notes about the day and ate pie and played a new board game — Eye to Eye — and when the night was over sometime
     after ten o’clock, he hugged her again and they went their separate ways. The ride back was quiet, with Ricky and BJ nodding
     off before they had gone far. The trip gave Bailey time to review her evening with Tim. They’d had fun, for sure. They laughed
     and enjoyed being together. But if she was painfully honest with herself, something was missing. Something in the way Tim
     looked at her.
    She remembered her mom’s words.
“I saw how he looked at you … He adores you.”
    Maybe that was it. Tim looked at her on a surface level. He smiled and seemed happy to see her. But when Cody looked at her,
     there were no layers left, nothing he didn’t reveal, nothing he couldn’t see. He didn’t really look at her so much as he looked
     into her. To the deepest, most real, places in her heart and soul.
    Her mom seemed to sense she needed alone time, so she didn’t ask about Tim or how Bailey had felt seeing him. Good thing.
     Bailey didn’t have an answer for herself, let alone her mother. Not until she was changing out of her jeans did she remember
     her phone and the text message she’d never read. She pulled it from her pocket and clicked a few buttons.
    I MISS YOU TOO.
    She was drawn into those four simple words as if he was standing right here beside her. Again her breath caught. Tears stung
     her eyes, and she blinked them back. She wasn’t crying because she was sad. The tears were because maybe her mother was right.
     He must care more than he let on or he wouldn’t have sent this text a full hour after his last one. Maybe he’d analyzed his
     message about Tim and how Bailey hadn’t answered, and finally — after a very long time — he’d texted how he felt. How he really
     felt.
    He missed her too.
    As she finished getting ready for bed, her thoughts moved from the text message to her conversation with Ashley earlier that
     day. Love was complicated. That was true with Tim, and it was true with Cody — whatever sort of love she had for the two of
     them. Landon had been the difficult path for Ashley, and right now Cody was the difficult path for Bailey. So maybe Cody would
     be a bigger part of her life again someday. Or maybe they’d only be friends. Even that was more than they now shared.
    She thought about Ashley’s advice: to pray about Cody and Tim, of course, but also to look for the answers.
“That sort of love rarely happens twice.”
Yes, that’s what Ashley had said.
    Bailey climbed into bed and lay still on her pillow, the darkness around her.
I’m looking, God. I want to hear You, but nothing seems very clear.
    I am here, my daughter. All things work to the good for those who love me. Remember that.
    The answer came quickly and easily, the way it rarely did. The response was part of a Bible verse from Romans chapter 8. Something
     she’d read yesterday morning before class. But still … it was sort of surreal to think God loved her enough to speak peace
     to her like that. That He loved her whether she heard His responses or not. He was here, with her, regardless.
    She closed her eyes, wrapped in the Lord’s arms, loved and cared for. Only one thought from the day remained as she drifted
     to sleep, and it made her smile, lying there in the darkness.
    Cody missed her.
    One more thing to be thankful for.

Six
    T HE DEADLINE TO FINISH EDITING THEIR movie was a living, breathing being, hounding them through every day and crawling into bed with them at night. Even still,
     Chase and Keith took Thanksgiving off. Their families deserved that much. Chase had pushed for dinner at their house, since
     that way they could put the girls to bed after dessert. But now the meal was behind them, he wondered if he’d made the wrong
     choice. Maybe pulling off a big dinner had been too much for Kelly, or maybe she was still upset with his schedule. Whatever