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Lauren finally smiled. She waited for the gate to trundle open, and she said, “What are you doing right now? Can you talk for a second?”
“Yep. What’s up?”
“I…” She exhaled. She just had to admit it. “I put a little distance between me and Blake, and I’m currently driving to his house.” She gripped the steering wheel. “Tell me it’s not a bad idea.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Bea said dutifully. “You like this man, Lauren. Why would you put distance between the two of you?”
“Because I’m self-sabotaging?” Lauren guessed. “Because he teased me about having a strategy for everything?”
Bea remained silent for a few moments. “Honey, you do have a strategy for everything.”
“I know.” Lauren exhaled.
“It’s like me and my lists,” Bea said. “Y’all tease me about them, and yeah, sometimes it makes me feel stupid. Or like I should do something different, but you know what? I make lists. That’s what I do. You strategize before you do anything. You think four or five moves ahead, and you won’t make one until you can see that path. It’s fine. It’s who you are.”
“What if he doesn’t like who I am?” Lauren whispered.
“He does,” Bea said. “I’ve seen the two of you together, and he does. He was teasing, probably because he’s nervous.”
“He has nothing to be nervous about.”
“Men get nervous,” Grant yelled. “Trust me on this.”
“Did you hear that?” Bea asked.
“I heard.” Lauren smiled, because she did like Grant Turner a lot. He had a sunny personality, and he complimented Bea perfectly. She drew in a big breath and kept driving. “Okay,” she said. “Wish me luck.”
“You don’t need it,” Bea said. “But good luck. Call me back after you talk to him.”
“I’m not going to do that,” Lauren said.
“Why not?”
“Because, if things go well, I won’t have time, and if they don’t, I won’t want to talk about it.”
“Fine,” Bea said with a sigh. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Now, that’s a good plan.” They laughed together, and Lauren’s fingers released their death-grip on the steering wheel. She finished the drive, relief flooding her when she saw Blake’s SUV in the driveway.
She didn’t know if he’d have Tommy or not. He hadn’t asked her out for tonight. “Probably because you’ve turned him down the past two times,” she murmured to herself. She pulled up to the curb and parked, but she didn’t get out.
She had no strategy here. She couldn’t predict what Blake would say or how he’d react to her pop-in. A groan started in her stomach. “He hates the pop-in.”
But she’d driven all this way—fifteen minutes, tops—and she wanted to make things right between them. Lauren reminded herself that she’d been questioned by FBI agents not that long ago. She’d done presentations for Fortune 500 companies, to men with nine zeros in their bank accounts.
“You can talk to your boyfriend.” She got out of the car and made her way across his lawn. The doorbell rang inside and out in the quiet neighborhood. Lauren almost fled when he didn’t answer in the first three seconds.
She waited what felt like a long time, and finally, the door swung open. Blake stood there wearing a pair of gym shorts and nothing else. Lauren’s mind went on the fritz. Even if she’d had a strategy, with a well-crafted speech prepared, it would’ve fled at the sight of those abs.
All the muscles in his pecs. His shoulders went on for days, and there was no farmer’s tan in sight. Just golden, glorious skin forever.
“Hey,” he said, leaning into the open door. A smile touched his face. “What are you doing here?”
“Is your son here?”
“Down the street.” He nodded to her left, but she couldn’t look away from him. “He won’t be home for a while. A friend of his invited him to play video games.”
Lauren’s eyes drifted down his body again. She swallowed and said, “I don’t like the distance between us, so I decided to come erase it.”
