Catching my breath, I shook my head and gave Beck my best “you’re a nut” glare.
“All joking aside, it sounds delicious. I was wondering when I’d get to benefit from this fancy French pastry training you’ve gotten.”
“I made you éclairs when I was back last year, remember? You licked the filling off the spoon before they even cooled.”
“I do. But now you’re an École Lenôtre graduate. Whole new ballgame.”
“Tell me about it. I thought I was coming around to home plate, but I feel like I’m back on first base.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “Forget I said anything about bases. Bad analogy.”
Beck’s grin told me he was indeed going to make another sexual innuendo. One of those for the morning was plenty, thank you very much.
“You’ll get there, Mae. It’s not a strikeout, just a curve ball. I have no doubt you’ll be rounding third base to home, even if it looks a little different than you expected, before long.”
I never knew what to say when he pulled out his serious side. Beck was more thoughtful than most people realized.
“Thank you,” I said simply.
“Besides, what other choice do you have? With a tattoo that says ‘fearless’ on your back?”
“True. Seriously though, you should check out Lucas’s shop. If you do, we have to hit the bar there too. You’d love the vibe. Maybe the guys would want to come? I could totally see Parker line dancing.”
“Sounds good to me. It’s a date.” He laughed. “I mean, not an actual date.”
I was playing with fire, bound to get burned. But since my life was already a dumpster fire…
“Obviously. Can you imagine?”
“You and me?” He shrugged. “Is that so crazy?”
My mouth dropped. “Um, yeah.”
Beck crossed his arms. “Because?”
As if we hadn’t been through this a hundred times before.
“Because”—I ticked the reasons off my fingers—“one, you’re a one-night-stand guy, and I’m a relationship girl. At least, I was. Especially at this stage of my life. Two, we are best friends. Something we don’t want to ruin. And three, I am no longer dating anyone. Ever. Too much pain.”
He watched me, but said nothing.
I waited.
“Are you done?” he asked finally.
“I suppose.”
“One,” he started, sardonically. “People change. Two, friendship isn’t a bad place to start from. And three…” Beck’s impish grin told me the next one would be a doozy.
“Au contraire, mon amour. With me, there’s only pleasure.”
15
MAE
“What are you doing here?” I asked, realizing Beck was a bit of a workaholic. “Thought you were taking the night off?”
Jules was sitting at the bar with a writer friend of hers who was staying in town for the weekend. I’d heard a lot about this guy, Boo, who dressed like a washed-up Oxford professor with Caribbean-blue eyes. Jules told me about his checkered past, including the time he was kicked out of book camp for having sex with the captain’s daughter. Although I think she’d phrased it differently. “Porking the captain’s daughter,” if I remembered right. She’d also left out one important detail… his good looks. I wondered if there was something more than friendship simmering beneath the surface with these two?
“Couldn’t stay away,” Beck replied.
