Finding Bailey: A Lake Tahoe Romantic Suspense Novel Read online

  Finding Bailey

  Copyright © 2020 Dana Mason

  ISBN: 9798679635470

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Cover Design: Carrie Butler, Forward Authority

  Photo Credits: Mariusz Blach & Сергей Шуневич

  Editing: Nancy S. Thompson and Mo Sytsma, The Scarlet Siren

  Formatting: Mo Sytsma, The Scarlet Siren

  You can find Dana Mason at:

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/danamasonromance

  Instagram: www.instagram.com/danamason06/

  Twitter: www.twitter.com/danamason06

  Website: www.danamasonromance.com

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  OTHER BOOKS BY DANA MASON

  MORE FROM DANA

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  “Hope is the thing with feathers

  That perches in the soul,

  And sings the tune without the words,

  And never stops at all”

  ~Emily Dickinson

  CHAPTER ONE

  If she disappeared, would anyone notice? Would she matter to anyone ever again? A mother’s love was the strongest power in the world.

  Who was a person without a family? At twenty-seven, Bailey still felt like a child who belonged to her mother and her family. Now, her mother—both her parents—were gone, and she wasn’t sure who she was without them.

  After lying on her mother’s bed for a solid ten minutes, she opened her eyes and focused them on the large trunk in the corner of the room. Her grandmother’s steamer trunk had always been in her mother’s bedroom, but she didn’t remember ever seeing it open.

  She crept off the bed and wandered toward it, gliding her hand over the fluffy quilt that sat on top, the stitching as fine and tight as the day her mother had finished it. She lifted and hugged the quilt before resting it on the bed. Then she flipped the old latches on the trunk until they popped, and the lid lifted from the release of pressure. With a creaking noise, it gave way as Bailey raised it slowly.

  Two more handmade quilts sat cramped inside. She picked them up, inhaling the scent of cedar before she laid them on the floor next to the trunk. She looked inside, surprised to see a baby book in the center of the stacks of photo albums and scrapbooks.

  She pulled it out and quickly paged through it, getting glimpses of her own face as a baby. She couldn’t wait to spend some time reading the notes her mother had so carefully written inside. She thought she knew every nook and cranny of this house, but she’d never seen this book before.

  One by one, she lifted the books out and stacked them next to the trunk in a neat pile. The last and largest scrapbook, with its wood panel cover and threadbare binding along the spine, looked older than her. She placed the scrapbook in her lap as she rested against the trunk before lifting the old, wooden cover.

  The first page was a newspaper clipping dated a few weeks after she was born.

  Baby found by local couple dubbed ‘Baby Bailey.’

  A tingle traveled down her spine as her back went erect. Then her eyes rested on the text below the headline.

  Appleton, WI – At approximately 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, Ernie Morton went outside to check on a noise in his side yard. “I thought it might be some neighborhood kids. You know, sometimes they come prowling around looking for trouble. They’ve smashed my aluminum cans, knocked down a portion of my back fence, and trampled my wife’s garden there in the side yard. I planned to chase them off,” Mr. Morton said.

  But when 31-year-old Morton unwrapped the bundle resting between a juniper bush and a garbage can in his side yard bordering Bailey Drive, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

  Inside the bundle of blankets was a tiny baby girl, wide-eyed and alert. “I yelled at my wife to call the police, then I just picked her up and took her inside.”

  Officer Harper, of the Appleton Police Department, said the infant, dubbed “Baby Bailey,” appeared to have been well cared for. This led police to believe the mother might have a change of heart and return to claim the baby.

  “If it weren’t for the Mortons, she would have frozen to death in a matter of hours,” said Officer Harper, who seemed a little shaken at the heartless act of abandonment.

  Paramedics transported Baby Bailey to the emergency room, which reported her as perfectly healthy. Doctors determined her to be about six weeks old.

  Police are investigating the crime. So far, they have no new information, but they hope to have something to report within the next couple of days.

  Neighbors said they were shocked by the news.

  “I can’t believe someone would do something like this,” said Jeanette Roberts, who lives nearby on Mulberry St. “I’m just shocked. There are so many people who want families.”

  The Mortons said they want to adopt the little one. “It was fate,” Mrs. Morton later told reporters.

  If anyone has any information about the baby, they’re asked to call the Appleton Police Department.

  Bailey’s breath caught in her throat. She lifted her hand to her mouth, still staring at the article. When a hand clamped on her shoulder, she bolted to her feet, dropping the scrapbook on the hardwood floor with a smack.

  “Why didn’t you answer the door?” Ryan said, staring down at her.

  She tried to talk, but her mouth had gone dry. She swallowed hard and stared up at him, her breaths coming out in pants. “Ryan—I—oh, my God!”

  He lowered his hand to help her get up off the floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Oh, my God!” Bailey clutched her sides as she paced in a circle.

  “Bay
, what’s wrong with you?” He leaned in to see her face. She reached for the baby book, flipped open the cover, and came face-to-face with her birth certificate, as she’d always known it. She turned another page. The first few pages were all news articles, no photos or notes.

  She flipped another couple of pages to the first photo. The note above it read, ‘Baby’s first day as Bailey Grace Morton.’ She couldn’t have been more than six months old in the picture.

  “Ryan, I was adopted,” she whispered and sank onto the bed.

  “What?” He snatched the baby book from her. “No way.”

  “I had no idea. I was abandoned. Why would someone…”

  “Bailey, how is it you’ve lived twenty-seven years and didn’t know you were adopted?”

  She reached up and flipped the book back to the first page and pointed to her birth certificate. “That’s how. My mother never said a thing about it.”

  “I can’t believe she didn’t tell you.” He paced a bit, his eyes skimming the birth certificate. His right shoulder lifted in a shrug. “When you think about it, it makes sense.” His gaze drifted to hers. “You look nothing like your parents. Your mom was six inches taller than you, and she had blonde hair. You have dark brown hair with brown eyes.” He stared at her for a moment and said, “You never wondered?”

  “Not everyone looks like their parents.” She turned to him. “Did you ever wonder…about your parents?”

  “I tried to, especially when I was pissed at them, but I look too much like my dad to really question it.” He dropped down on the bed next to her. “I’m sorry. I—”

  “I can’t believe this. Why would my mother lie? My father—why didn’t they tell me about this?”

  “Maybe they didn’t want to hurt you or make you feel like you weren’t theirs. Family isn’t always about blood.”

  “I’m not sure what shocks me more, being abandoned in the snow or never being told I was adopted.”

  “Bay, I’m sure your mom and dad had to jump through hoops to keep you. Don’t think about being unwanted. Think about how much Helen and Ernie must’ve gone through to keep you.”

  She lowered her chin to her chest. “God, Ryan, I don’t even know where I came from. I could be the daughter of a serial killer or some nasty hooker from Wisconsin.” As if she didn’t feel orphaned enough after losing her mother, now she felt unworthy. She had been raised by decent people. Her parents had been the most honest, hardworking people she’d ever known, and now, to read that they’d taken her in…kept her. They’d raised her and taken care of her without having any idea where she’d come from. Her stomach twisted at the thought. God only knew what kind of people had created her.

  “You’re Bailey Morton, the same person you were when you woke up this morning.”

  “Ryan…” She shook her head, dizzy with her new reality, dizzy with her upturned world that had been so ordinary a few moments ago. “Ryan, I’m named after a street sign.” She turned away, fighting her tears.

  “I think it’s too early to work on the house. Helen’s only been gone a few days. Why don’t you wait a week or two?”

  “No. I need to know everything.” Bailey sprang off the bed and grabbed another scrapbook from the trunk before flipping through the pages. “Why would she leave these for me to find? Why didn’t she just tell me so I wouldn’t have to find out this way?”

  “Maybe she forgot they were here?”

  “How could she forget?” Bailey asked. “How could she forget something this important?”

  Ryan shrugged. “It probably wasn’t that big a deal to her. You’re her daughter, and I’m sure in her eyes, you always were and always will be, so this didn’t matter or change anything.”

  Bailey stared at him, not sure what to say. “Not a big deal? Are you crazy?”

  “Bailey, she was sick for a long time. It’s not like she didn’t have other things on her mind.” He gestured toward the stack of books. “Maybe she left them here on purpose for you to find.”

  “She should’ve just told me, Ryan. Someone left me on the street. What kind of people would do that?”

  “I don’t think it matters. Someone found you, kept you, and treated you like a princess your entire life. Don’t question that. Be grateful and continue to respect them for loving you.”

  “I am grateful.” She placed a hand over her heart and said, “I love my parents more than anything. Don’t doubt that. But, Ryan, this isn’t about respecting them. This is about finding out the truth. Wouldn’t you want to know why?” She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “Wouldn’t you want to know who you are?”

  “Yes, of course, I would want to know where I came from, but, Bailey, this doesn’t change who you are.”

  “Doesn’t it?” she said, sitting back down next to him.

  “No. You’re still my best friend, and you’re still their daughter.” He rested his hand on her shoulder. “Nothing has changed.”

  She looked at him and, with every sincerity, said, “Thank you for saying that, and thank you for being here.” And she meant it, too. Ryan cared for her. He was her best friend. But he was wrong—everything had changed.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Ryan took the stage at El Lago and wished like hell he’d booked someone else to play. As entertainment director, he could have, but he couldn’t have predicted the events of the past week. Helen Morton had been like a surrogate mother to him. She was there every day for him and his father while his mother had fought cancer. She’d kept Ryan straight and out of trouble when all he wanted to do was raise hell after he’d lost his mom.

  Now it was Bailey floundering in grief instead of him. She didn’t show it to everyone, but he saw it in her possessive need to stay busy. What she really needed was more time to deal with it, especially after today. He didn’t like leaving her alone when she was so emotionally drained.

  He couldn’t believe Helen never told Bailey she was adopted. Everything he’d known about the woman said she valued honesty above all. He remembered when he was a kid trying to make up stories to get out of piano lessons, but she nailed him every damn time he lied. Zero tolerance for lying. That was her motto. Humph… She’d told the biggest lie—to her only child, no less.

  With his guitar strapped in place, he cued the band for another song and turned back toward the crowd in front of him. These people were his friends, and he thanked the heavens he had returned to South Lake Tahoe after college instead of pursuing a recording career. Ryan had no desire to be famous; he just wanted to play. He just wanted people to listen.

  When he, Wade, and Lucas had dreamed up El Lago Bar and Dock, they never imagined it would be so popular. He could play his music to a crowd of eager listeners whenever he wanted. Lucas Madden, the chef, could cook for the masses, and Wade Seymour could manage the bar and flirt with the ladies to his heart’s content.

  As Ryan played, the atmosphere in the crowd felt electric, and he fought a wave of guilt, thinking about Bailey at home alone. Midway through the song, he saw her enter the club. Their eyes met, and Bailey smiled then waved at him. With her short stature, he could barely see her through the crowd. Her dark, thick, wavy hair draped her shoulders, nearly hitting her narrow waist. Her broad smile was mixed with a hint of sadness, and he wondered when the grief would subside a little and her spirit would return. It was hard to witness her sorrow. He was glad she’d gotten out after all. At least she was here at El Lago where they could keep an eye on her.

  * * *

  As Bailey dressed to meet her boyfriend, Dex, at El Lago, she felt like she was walking through a dream and couldn’t wake up. She knew Ryan was trying to help, but he didn’t understand. How could he? He hadn’t just found out his entire life was a lie. Not knowing where she came from and not knowing her true family history changed things for her. Not only for obvious reasons but also her own self-worth. She’d always felt secure in who she was and what she was doing with her life, and that had everything to do with having a loving and ac
cepting family.

  In her mind, she knew that hadn’t changed, but in her heart… In her heart, she felt like something was missing—or that she was just amiss.

  She tried to shake off the feeling. Dex was coming. They’d been apart for several weeks, and she couldn’t wait to see him. She needed him. He missed her mother’s funeral, and that stung. Going through that without his support was tougher than she thought it would be. She had Ryan and her other friends, but she needed someone to help her forget, and that was something only a lover could do. Not that she didn’t understand why. He lived too far to just drop everything when she wanted him.

  They met last fall at El Lago when Dex was visiting Lake Tahoe for a bachelor party for an old high school buddy, and they’d been dating ever since. Dex was an avid skier, so they’d spent a lot of time together over the winter when he came to ski. Dating didn’t seem like the right word, but their relationship was hard to describe. He lived a couple of hours away, so they only had weekends to spend together, but then, not even every weekend.

  His visits had dwindled as winter turned into spring, and she worried that when the snow melted, so would his affection. Dex had never made a commitment to her, and, until recently, she’d been okay with that, but she’d noticed a pattern with him. Whenever they seemed to get closer, more intimate, he withdrew. He’d disappear for weeks and not stay in touch. It was if he wanted to remind her that he wasn’t committed to her. She tried not to be needy. Men hated that, and she didn’t want to be one of those women, but missing her mother’s funeral was different. How could he not be there for her when she needed him the most?

  She walked into El Lago and made instant eye contact with Ryan. He was belting out a Gavin DeGraw song, which was perfectly suited for his voice…perfectly suited to his life when she thought about it. “I Don’t Want to Be” is sort of like an anthem for his life. He was who he was, and there was no changing him. He was the epitome of a reluctant rock star. The things he could do with all his talent…but that wasn’t him. He liked it here in South Lake Tahoe. He liked the smaller club crowds, and he liked peace when he wasn’t on stage.