“The outside sign has arrived,” Amelia called from the reception area of my newly leased office space.
The property had two floors. Downstairs consisted of three rooms. The front space was big enough for Amelia’s desk and another desk for a paralegal once I was able to hire one. My office was located in the back, which was a decent size and offered privacy for client meetings. The last room on this floor was a bathroom. Along the side of the front room was a staircase leading to the top floor which currently housed my extensive wardrobe. If it worked out, and my little firm grew, the second floor could provide additional office space for any associates I hired.
Amelia and I had been working hard, painting the walls in contemporary colors and modernizing the space before my new desk and office furniture arrived tomorrow afternoon. I wished I could say I’d been financially frugal with my purchases, wanting my start-up to pay its way, but that wasn’t the case. After I’d learned Beau was the local UPS delivery driver, I’d had no choice but to work with companies who used UPS for their deliveries.
After tomorrow’s delivery, I’d arranged to have something arrive every day for the next month. For much of the last fourteen days, I’d searched for Beau in the local area. I did my best detective work, but unfortunately, I couldn’t uncover much about him. Nothing at all, actually. Except my neighborwith the office to the right of me said he was our UPS driver. Hopefully, Beau sees my antics as devotion, not stalking. Worst case scenario, he’d move again, forcing me and Amelia to follow. Eventually, I’d wear him down.
“It looks fantastic. The logo pops,” Amelia said. As many times as I’d crawled up and down this ladder, I was reluctant to do anything more than finish painting the back wall corner, but she wasn’t wrong, from this angle, the sign looked great. Dammit, I had to see. I crawled down, carefully walking over the drop cloth that we’d used to protect the newish flooring.
From this angle, I was proud of our progress and even happier to hang my sign underneath the awning outside. I liked color even though I rarely had it in my life. Well, until now.
“It turned out quite nicely. Let me wrap up the corner. I’m nearly finished then I’ll hang the sign.” I turned back to my painting task but stopped first to look through the brackets and hooks that accompanied the sign. “Can you call the guy who’s going to etch the front window? I sent an email last night with the logo. I don’t believe I’ve heard from him.”
“Sure, I’ll call him.” Amelia was truly putting in her best effort to assist, and she was making an impact. She managed her chores with precision. I didn’t think she ever tires.
As much as I wanted to hang the sign, I left her to her work and went back to finish the painting. Just as I suspected, the remaining wall took only a short time. Much like I’d done every time I painted, I glanced down the length of my body, searching for any splatter. Dressed in jeans and a University of Chicago sweatshirt, I opted for a classic Beau choice with a baseball cap worn backward on my head. No drops violated my ensemble. Huh, who knew I had a backup plan if law didn’t work out. I could be a professional painter by trade.
I folded the ladder, lugging it outside to hang the sign, then went back for the sign itself. The task seemed prettystraightforward. Hooks and chains hung from the awning. The sign was designed with holes at the top to hang it securely in place.
“Need my help?” Amelia asked, walking out of the office with me.
“I feel like I’ve got it,” I said with more confidence than I actually had. I climbed the ladder, cradling the sign against my chest with special care. The last thing I wanted was to lose my balance and have both the sign and ladder crashing down on me.
I steadily made my way up the rungs, as if dealing with the finest china. I hooked one side then balanced to do the other side.
“It’s perfect, Dash,” Amelia said. Great, the office was coming together nicely. On the last rung, before my foot hit the front stoop, a sudden honk drew my and Amelia’s attention to the street. A brown box truck was stopped directly in front of my office. Beau was staring at me.
The love of my life, the most important person in my world, appeared dumbfounded. I lifted a hand to him, grinning the smile I knew he loved. I hadn’t seen him face-to-face in months. My body tingled at how handsome I found him. He was fit and tan, his hair cut into a style I couldn’t see with his backward baseball cap in place.
Oh man, nothing about my love for this man had changed. If anything it had only grown while we’d been apart.
Amelia was hovering near the door. “Is that Beau?”
His stare switched to Amelia who waved toward the UPS truck. After another unnecessarily loud honk, Beau repositioned in the seat to drive away. The impatient vehicle behind Beau drove past us, shooting me the finger as if I had stopped in the street.
“Now, he knows we’re here,” Amelia said happily. I completely agreed with the sentiment. My heart smiled for thefirst time in a long time. “The sign looks great. The most prominent one on the street.”
I turned to look down at the other shop signs. Mine did stand out. What a difference a cool font made. The smile I’d given Beau stayed on my face. I’d never doubted my decisions to liquidate everything and move to Sea Springs, but it was nice to have the reassurance. For sure, Beau loved me, and I was here to stay.
26: The Walnuts
Beau/Dash
Beau
Sea Springs, Texas
“Mr. Beau,” Amelia said, lively. “Hello. I missed you.” True to form, she moved around her desk to envelop me in a warm hug. I embraced her just as tightly, balancing the small package and scanner with one hand. “I have something for you. Don’t leave.”
Naturally, she didn’t make it easy on me to slide in and out with only a quick greeting. In her enthusiasm, her hands waved in the air as she rushed back around her desk. That was when I noticed Dash leaning against the doorframe to what must have been an office, arms crossed over his chest, appearing as if he had all the confidence in the world, which technically suited him perfectly. Man, he looked incredibly good. So good. His stare was locked on me, but he didn’t say a single word.
“Dash and I baked these for you last night. They’re chocolate chip cookies,” she said proudly, bringing up a festively decorated tin from a drawer at her desk. Her gaze shot back to Dash, as if to include him in the conversation.
“With walnuts,” Dash added. My mouth watered. I missed lunch today to make time this afternoon for Dixie’s veterinary appointment.
“With walnuts,” Amelia repeated, completely aware of how much I enjoyed her cookies. I hadn’t had them since her last visit to Chicago a few years ago. She handed over the container as ifpresenting me with a special prize. I scanned the barcode on the package and traded it for the cookie tin. The delivery required a signature, so I passed over the handheld scanner for Amelia to sign. She was much better at juggling the load than I had been.
“Thank you. It’s hard to believe Dash was in on this,” I said, my attention divided as I clicked through the screens to submit the delivery details.
