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Her stomach flipped in spite of knowing that he didn’t mean that to sound dirty or send her thoughts spinning back to all the things they’d done when they’d dated. The things that weretheir thingsin her mind. The things she’d never done before or since with anyone else. The things she couldn’t imagine doing with anyone else…
“What’sourthing?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound funny.
“Being friends.” He gestured to the attic. “For instance, we stay locked in up here together until they decide to let us out. Then we go about our business as usual, proving nothing changed.”
She watched him, trying not to let on that her heart was squeezing hard in her chest.
“We let them put their plans in motion,” he went on, clearly thinking out loud. “We don’t protest or argue. We pretend to not even really notice. They throw us together as much as they want. We do the plays. We hang out in the attic. We do…whatever. But things between us stay the same. Over time they’ll get bored, or they’ll finally realize that it’s not going to happen.” He shrugged. “But we can’t fight with them or push back. If we protest, they’ll read into it.”
She swallowed hard. He seemed to think it would be no big deal to spend a bunch of time alone together and then just go on like usual. While she was very afraid this crazy plan of throwing them together to make them realize they had bigger feelings was going to work quite well on her.
“So whatever crazy plans they come up with—and you know they will—we just play along. And eventually, after all of their ideas fail, they’ll give up,” she summarized.
“Yeah. It will be a giant game of chicken,” he said with a small grin.
She thought about that. And could admit that his grin was part of what made her more inclined to go along with this. She loved seeing him smile.
It was a Beau smile, so it was more of a half-smile, but it still made her heart trip.
He wasn’t a smiley guy. He had a very dry sense of humor, and was sarcastic more than outright funny, but she could get him smiling and even laughing. There was a soft side to him that she saw that no one else did. That always made her feel really special.
Kind of like his dirty side.
She knew that people wouldn’t be shocked by that side, though. Her friend Savannah had mentioned more than once that she bet Beau was dominant and growly in the bedroom.
She’d been right about that. But he’d also been sweet. In a growly way. But he’d absolutely made sure that Becca had as much fun, if not more than he did. He was very attentive. And demanding. But only in the ways that brought the most pleasure.
They might’ve only had actual sex that one night, but he got to know her body very well. He taught her things about her body that she hadn’t even known.
Again, Becca had to distract herself from those thoughts.
Okay, this plancouldbe some fun. Who knew what the town would come up with? And hanging out with Beau was…well, it was hard on her libido and heart in some ways, but she would rather fight the urge to beg him to kiss her—or worse, fall in love with her again—than tonotspend time with him. He’d been avoiding her since right after she’d moved back to Autre. It had been obvious. So, would she take some help from her hometown in getting his cute butt in her personal space, even if it was only platonically? Yes.
“Even better,” she said, leaning in with a conspiratorial smile. “Whenever they suggest we do something together, wehappilyagree. I mean, that will just emphasize that we arefriends. If we seem reluctant, they might take that as a sign that we’renotfriends. You know people wondered about our break-up. They might think we’re bitter toward one another. Or…that we’re fighting bigger feelings.”
That was as close as she was willing to get to asking if he was fighting anything bigger than feelings of friendship for her. Because he had definitely tried to avoid spending time alone with her.
He simply nodded. Which didn’t really tell her anything.
“Okay, I’m in,” he said, nodding again. “It’s the only way to actually get the point across to them. They’ll want to go through with their crazy plans no matter what.”
She laughed. “I’m sure. I’m envisioning them meeting down at Ellie’s, or even just right downstairs, and coming up with this stuff and assigning roles. Our moms have put a lot of effort in, what with directing the play and all. Everyone will be so disappointed if they come up with some fun plans and don’t get to eventrythem. They’ll always be convinced that if they’d just triedtheirplan, everything would have worked out.”
He shook his head. “They’re all nuts.”
“But they’reournuts,” she said affectionately.
He met her gaze and she saw a mix of emotions there. Most she couldn’t name. He almost seemed sad. Which made no sense.
She took a breath. “So how long do you think they’re going to leave us locked up here?” she asked.
“That is a very good question,” he answered. He had a thoughtful look on his face. “You know, as long as we’re playing along with all of their crazy plans, I think we should punish them a little.”
“Punish them?” Becca asked. “What does that mean?”
“Give them reason to think that things are going well with their plan. Before we crush their hopes.”
Her eyes widened.Crush their hopessounded kind of intense, but she liked the idea of having a secret project together. She wanted to re-establishsomekind of relationship. She wanted to feel close to him again. Partners in crime could work if they weren’t going to be hot, up-all-night lovers.
