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But Ireallydidn’t like this when it came to her family.
I knew that her brother—and Bailey’s dad—was an ass, but I’d always heard that her parents were great. Involved members of the community. Her dad a former mayor and her mom rabid volunteer. Together, they’d spawned all that was Billie Rose.
River’s Bend’s youngest mayor.
One who’d turned the town from small and isolated to small and thriving.
One who’d made it a point that no one was left behind in that process.
One who’d turned a band of fucked-up hockey players into upstanding members of society.
Yet…that didn’t seem to be enough for them.
Or for her dad, anyway. Her mom…I didn’t get yet. There was love there—in both, I supposed. I could tell that both of her parents felt love, but it was masked with brusqueness from her dad and that odd sort of distance from her mom.
There was more to unpack there.
Another layer.
One I knew would take time to get to the bottom of, but I also knew it was a layer that was really important.
That wasn’t for tonight, though.
But Ididneed to know one thing.
“Why do you drink beer if you don’t like it, sweetheart?”
Billie had been staring up at the sky, but my question had her gaze flying down, darting to mine and away. “What do you mean?”
“Beer, baby. You don’t like it, but you drink it.”
Silence.
For long enough that I thought I’d stepped firmly into the realm of topics that shouldn’t be touched on Date One.
But then she turned to me, brows drawn together. “How do you know I don’t like beer?”
“Baby,” I murmured, tugging at a curl. “I pay attention.”
“I—” An inhale, exhale. “Oh.”
I watched her, waited for her to say something else, and when she didn’t, I asked again. “Why, Rosie girl?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I just…do.”
I wanted to delve into that. I wanted toknow.
But Date One.
It was too soon to press, especially when I was finally getting somewhere with her. Except…fuck that. Dancing around and sitting back hadn’t done shit to move us forward.
I leaned closer. “That’s bullshit, baby.”
Her shoulders stiffened, jaw going tight.
I cupped that jaw, ran a finger over the taut muscle. “It’s bullshit and if we’re going to make something of this, ofus,then we can’t sit on this stuff. We justcan’t.” It would eat us alive from the inside out. It would undo all the progress we’d made to date.
Andfuck, it had been a haul to get us to this point.
