Page 81 of Sudden Summer

“Yeah, I would. I have almost thirty fucking lady bugs tattooed on my body for you.”

I swear my heart stopped beating in my chest. The wind died down, the crickets stopped chirping, and the only thing I could hear was the blood rushing through my veins. “What do you mean they’re for me?”

He stared at me for a minute, like I’d lost my mind. But I truly had no idea what he was talking about. “One for every year you’ve been my best friend. Hidden across my skin, just like your presence became a part of who I am over the years. There is no Beau without Birdie.”

“Why ladybugs? Why didn’t you tell me before now?” My throat ached. This whole night—the whole day—had been an emotional roller coaster. I didn’t know how much more I could take.

He groaned. “Because I’m an idiot who was destined to be the biggest asshole. Had to make sure I really screwed things up before I could set them right.”

“Beau…”

“I should have told you a million different times that I wanted to take things to the next level, but I chickened out every time. And then you’d tell me how you were really stressed about school, or work, and I wanted to make sure I never stood in the way of your dreams.”

“It’s not all on you,” I said, sitting up. My dress was still wrapped around my hips, so I awkwardly tried to fix the fabric to cover my body back up while I kept talking. “I should have said something. The crush I’ve had on you for the last thirty years should probably be studied by a psychologist or something. Maybe Sloane would want to write a research paper on me.”

“She’d have to write it on me, too, because I’m in the same boat.”

I smiled, finally wrapping the top part of the dress around my neck and securing it with a bow. My fingers went back to Beau’s arm, finding the ladybug closest to me and tracing over it. “So why the ladybugs?”

“You don’t remember the very first conversation we ever had?”

“Of course I do! You told me cows didn’t belong inside the dollhouse I was playing with. Then you invited me out to the ranch to see cows in person for the first time.”

“No. That wasn’t the first thing we talked about.”

I couldn’t hold back my frown. I had a fantastic memory, there was no way I wasn’t remembering that day right. “I remember exactly how it happened.”

He shook his head playfully. “I’m not wrong, baby. I was watching you play with the dollhouse, and I remember trying to come up with something to talk to you about. You were wearing a black dress with ladybugs all over it. I asked you if you liked them, and you told me they were good luck. You wanted to have good luck on your first day of school, so you begged your mama to let you wear that specific dress.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat and dropped my eyes back to his arm. Here comes the dang tears.

“And you were right. Ladybugs are lucky. Because from that day on, I had a best friend. Someone who kept me in line. Someone who loved me even with all my flaws. Someone who laughed with me. Someone who became family. Someone who grew to be the love of my life. So, every year around September, I get a ladybug tattooed on my body, in honor of the thing that opened the door to our friendship.”

“That’s so sweet, but you have to stop. They’ll cover you head to toe soon.”

“Does that mean you plan on sticking around? I can stop tattooing reminders of you on my body, because you’ll just be with me all the time?”

“If you don’t know by now that you’re never getting rid of me…”

Beau sat up, his arms tightening around me as his lips pressed into my hair. “I don’t want to get rid of you, Chickadee. I never want to spend another moment without you in my arms.”

A crack exploded through the air. For a second, I thought a thunderstorm had taken us by surprise. But a second crack sent the wine bottle next to the picnic basket flying, exploding it into a thousand different pieces.

“Whoa, hey!” Beau shouted, waving his hands over his head. Another crack, followed by a string of curse words half a mile long came out of him.

I couldn’t make sense of what was happening, only that Beau’s body was traveling toward mine impossibly fast in the next second.

He pressed into me, bowling me over so I was snug between him and the ground.

“What was that?” I panted, adrenaline dumping into my blood stream so quickly I felt nauseous as my arms and legs began to shake.

“Someone’s shooting at us,” he whispered. His eyes were darting back and forth over the horizon.

“What?!” I nearly shrieked. Beau’s mouth was quickly on mine, muffling my voice as he poured his calm into me.

“You have to be so quiet right now, Birdie. I need you to listen to me and follow my directions, okay?” he whispered as he ended the kiss.

I nodded.