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“What do you have in mind?”
“What are you supposed to be doing after this?” he asked.
“I was going to help your mom set up downstairs. Then I was going to stop by my mom’s.”
“Awesome. I’m sure they’re waiting for us to text or call them asking why the hell the door is locked, and for someone to come help us.”
Becca nodded.
“Instead, text your mom that you’re going to be a little late. Tell her something came up. She obviously knows that we’re locked in up here.”
Becca felt her smile widen. “Very nice. She’ll be wondering why I’m not freaking out.”
“Exactly. We’ll make them think we’re happy about this.”
He pulled his phone out and started typing.
“Who are you texting?” she asked.
“My mom. I’m going to tell her that we’re gonna be up her for a little bit and not to worry.”
“You’re going to pretend that you don’t know that she locked us in?”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t even try to get out.”
Becca felt her stomach swoop again. She was imagining the look in his eyes. She had to be. That hot, flirty look was probably just excitement about this fun little game they were going to play with their entire hometown.
She texted her mom at the same time Beau sent his message.
Then he stretched to his feet. He crossed the attic to the far end where she hadnotexplored. It was way too dark, and she was sure that Remy had a number of relatives shacked up over in that corner.
When he emerged from the shadows, he was carrying an old cassette player and had three cassettes in his other hand.
“Oh my gosh,” Becca laughed, getting to her feet.
“My mom’s. She has a huge collection of tapes back there. My dad at least upgraded to CDs.”
He set the cassette player on the chair where Becca had been sitting. He stretched the cord over to an outlet and plugged it in. Then he popped one of the tapes in and pressed play. An old 80s love song came from the speakers. Becca couldn’t have named it, but she’d heard it on the radio with her parents.
“Let’s dance,” Beau said.
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Let’s give them some noise on the ceiling to wonder about. Plus, what else are we going to do?” He held out his arms and wiggled his fingers in acome heregesture. “They’ll sneak up here to try to figure out what we’re doing. They’ll hear romantic music. But they’ll also unlock that door. There won’t be a reason to keep it locked, and then Mom won’t worry about me being pissed about it being locked later.”
All of those points made total sense to her. Or at least to her heart—and body—that really wanted to dance with him.
He had come up to go to one dance with her at LSU. She’d known at the time that it was ridiculous. She’d been in college, going to parties, ballgames, worrying about her exams, while he was back in Autre building a business, helping his mom run hers, and hanging out with other people who were grown adults, with bills, responsibilities, and real jobs.
Still, he’d humored her. He’d sat through a couple of basketball games, had gone to a few parties, and that one dance. But it felt weird. He hadn’t fit in. He’d done it for her, but she knew he’d been internally rolling his eyes.
Now, though, when she stepped into his arms, and he put one big hand on her lower back while tucking her head under his chin, it felt really good.
He didn’t keep any space between them, he pulled her against his body as if it was completely natural and very familiar.
Which it was. They’d been up against each other countless times during those three months. It was a fraction of the time they’d known one another and been friends, but it was deeply imprinted on her. She melted into him, and they started moving to the music, and she let out a big, contented sigh.
He chuckled, the deep sound rumbling under her ear, “You like this song?”
