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Not that he was going to mention that to Becca.
She stood studying the jar. He crossed to set it next to Emmaline’s. Becca backed up. But then she said, “We should punch holes in the lids.”
He lifted a brow. “You’re afraid of the spiders suffocating?”
“Well…” She lifted a shoulder. “Yeah.”
She was...sweet. Sunshine. Goodness. Optimism.
Unexpected.
She confused him. Made him do things completely out of character.
He crossed to the shelves to find something to use to punch holes in the jar lids.
And he was crazy about her.
eight
Another not-terrible thingabout dying up here and haunting the place was that she’d be able to keep seeing Beau, Becca decided. This was his mother’s B and B and he did all the maintenance and handyman work. Which meant he was around a lot.
With his shirt off.
They were past the point of him having his shirt off around her on purpose, but hey, if she had to be a ghost, at least she’d have that.
The guy wasmeantto have his shirt off.
Beau Hebert was hot. Period. Muscles for days, beard, crooked grin, deep green eyes, a growly gruff attitude that went all soft and sweet for a handful of people—his mom, his grandma, his aunt, his mom’s best friend, andher.It made Becca feel special that she could get past that gruffness.
But now, the hotness was also made more potent by the fact that she knew the guy had a dirty side. Averydirty side. He talked it and walked it. The things his tongue and those big, working-man’s hands could do…
Becca felt herself flushing. That happened all the time around Beau and she hated it. It was ridiculous. She’d known him since she’d been ten. She hadn’t even liked him for a good year or so. Probably longer. Then she’d…tolerated him. Then she’d liked him. But she’dneverwanted to kiss him. Until…
It didn’t matter. It. Did. Not. Matter. They’d been there, done that, and were past it. It hadn’t worked out.
“You know when we were kids, you would have thought this was all ridiculous.”
He paused in the process of punching holes in the lids of the jars with a nail he’d found on the shelves. He nodded. “Yeah. For sure.”
She smiled. “And you would’ve told me so.”
He nodded again. “Definitely.”
She crossed her arms. “So why aren’t you telling me that now?”
He blew out a breath. And she suddenly had the feeling that she had said something she shouldn’t.
Things had changed between them when they dated. She supposed that was natural. When you dated someone, your relationship changed, of course. But her friendship with Beau had always been built first and foremost on total honesty.
The fact that they had developed softer feelings for one another had brought them closer in many ways. Physically, for sure. Again, she felt the warmth wash through her and she had to shut down those feelings before her mind wandered down a very dirty and probably inappropriate-for-the-moment path. Or inappropriate foranymoment now. He wasn’t her boyfriend anymore. And that was for the best. She had to just keep telling herself that.
But their relationship had changed in other ways. They’d stopped being fully honest about everything. In fact, that was what had finally caused their breakup. While they’d been fully open with one another about a number of things—like her virginity and the things that she was discovering about herself and her sexuality that he’d happily and eagerly helped her explore—he’d stopped being honest with her about the toll the relationship was taking on his career and life here back in Autre.
So now she was keeping one of the biggest secrets from him of all—that she was still in love with him.
“I guess I’ve realized that I kind of like being your hero,” he finally said in answer to why he wasn’t telling her she was being ridiculous.
That made her heart flutter in her chest.
