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Filled with frustration, she stomped around Beau’s room, gathering her clothes. How could an intelligent man be so dumb? He didn’t see the big picture.
She pulled on her slacks, buttoned her shirt, and searched for her heels. When she could only find one, she tossed the lone shoe across the room and walked into the living room barefooted. Damn it.
She pulled her lips between her teeth and chewed. Confrontation was the bane of her existence, but she wasn’t a stranger to it. The last several years had been an uphill battle. She had hoped and prayed to be past the negative stuff in her life, but it looked like she had more climbing to do.
Beau was something beautiful in a world full of ugly, but she wanted him to be her everything. He couldn’t be her world if she had to give up her mother’s fight to be with him.
She could hear her mother’s laboring breaths and see her translucent skin for a second. She’d made promises on her mother’s deathbed that she intended to keep. Save the world, she had said, and Bobbie intended to do it one life at a time.
Beau stood in the middle of the living room, shoulders hunched and inches shorter than his norm. “Damn it, Bobbie. I asked you to trust me, and you said you did. Now you’re telling me I let you down. How in the hell am I letting you down?” He pulled at his hair.
She collapsed in a seat at the table and buried her head in her hands. The chair beside her creaked, and the air grew heavy around her.
“Don’t you see?” he pleaded. “I’m making Aspen Construction toe the line. I’m protecting the jobs of fifty crew members and countless suppliers that need our business to feed their families. This is the only way.”
She scrubbed her face with her palms and groaned. “You’re wrong.”
“Trust me, Bobbie.”
“I can’t. You’re not approaching this logically.” She pushed away from the table. “You have the power to bury Pete and Todd, and yet you’ll do nothing.”
“In burying them, I’ll hurt every family working for Aspen Construction.”
“See the bigger picture, Beau. You’re not a stupid man. Stop acting like one.” She couldn’t believe she’d vocalized her inner thoughts. The instant she said them, she knew her words were hurtful. The pain was etched on his face.
“I can’t believe you said that to me!”
“I can’t believe you’re protecting them. Don’t you see that protecting Aspen Construction puts the world at risk? Sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort to save lives. Your crew would survive a downturn, but what about the next job, the next cover-up, and the next crew? You have the chance to end it all, and you refuse to do it.”
She grabbed her purse from the table, turned, and walked toward the door. “You’re not the man I thought you were. Here are a few S words for you. Stubborn. Shortsighted. Sleeping alone.” Her heart fragmented as she walked out the door. She didn’t want to walk away from him, but she couldn’t stay.
* * *
Beau
He paced the living room and replayed the evening in his head. It was perfect. Perfect dinner, perfect playfulness, and perfect lovemaking. Then it all went to hell. He pulled the cork out of the bottle of wine and sat on his couch. He drank straight from the bottle and looked at the wall above his television. The only art he had was the plaque from his dad.
Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.
He closed his eyes and thought about the day his father died. He’d been thirteen years old, and the world’s weight had been placed on his shoulders. It was decades later, and nothing had changed. He pulled the bottle to his lips and drank deeply. Bobbie hadn’t said much, but what she said was powerful. Did he save a livelihood or save a life? He’d never been a one-dimensional man. Everything had layers, and he had to peel them back to see the truth. Not Bobbie’s truth, not his truth, but the truth he could live with. He corked the bottle of wine and set it back on the table. He would not drown his loneliness and sorrow in a bottle like his mother had. Instead, he texted Bobbie.
Sweetheart, I love you. Trust me to make the right choice, and thank you for always seeing to my education. ? Love, Beau
He had a lot of thinking to do.
