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She leaned in. “You better not say that to me and not mean it, Beau. BecauseI’llmean whatever I answer, and you can’t take it back.”
He leaned in further. “Becca, you better—” He sucked a deep breath in through his nose, clamped his teeth together, and sat back. “Jesus.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “We’re actually arguing about this? Neither of us is going to be talking about that or saying any of that anyway, so this is a stupid conversation.”
“It’sstupid?” she repeated, looking angry. “The idea of all of that isstupid?”
“Look,” he said firmly. “We tried the more-than-friends thing, right?”
“Yes, and it was awesome.”
“Thesexwas awesome,” he said, lowering his voice, but making sure she saw how serious he was. “Yes. It was. And I don’t regret any of that. I wanted to be your first and I’m damned glad I was. I wanted to be sure you knew what you wanted and how to ask for it anddemandit. But we got all of that checked off.”
That was an asshole thing to say. It wasn’tentirelyuntrue. That had been a definite priority for him, but that had not been the entire reason he’d been with her. He hadn’t believed they would last, but he’d selfishly wantedsometime with her. Still, he was okay with her believing it had just been about sex. Her not liking him all that much would make them getting thrown together repeatedly by their hometown and families a lot easier.
But she was studying him intently and Beau realized that he’d forgotten something very important.
She knew him.
He’d been open and vulnerable and loving and all in with her. For three months, but still… she’d gotten a look at his soul.
“Okay,” she said, sitting back. “Fine. No diamond rings tonight.”
Had she emphasized “tonight”? Surely not.
“I’m not tying you down,” he said. “Because that’s exactly what it would be. I’m not leaving Autre. This is it for me. I know what my future looks like. It’s not fair for me to ask you to make my future yours.”
“But…I’m home. This has always been my plan.”
“You don’t know that. You’re just getting started,” he argued. “You can go anywhere. Teaching opens up a lot of doors for you. You’re not stuck here.”
She studied him. “Is that how you feel? Stuck?”
Yes. No. Not really. He just…wondered sometimes. If he’d missed something. If he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. He loved his life. He loved this town, the people here, being here for his mom and his family. But hewasstuck in the sense that he couldn’t leave. “I’m just lucky I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
“Maybe I don’t either.”
She was so damned stubborn. “Fine,” he finally said. “If you’re still here, and happy, and want to stay in ten years, we’ll go on a date.”
Her eyes widened. “Ten years? That’s how long you think it will take for me to figure out what I want?”
He shrugged. “That’s how long it will take to convincemethat you’re sure you want to behere.”
She sighed. “You can be such an asshole sometimes.”
He couldn’t help but smile at that. “Glad to see some things are getting back to normal between us.”
She actually cracked a small smile.
ten
“I honestly didn’t thinkit was possible for you to be a bigger bitch than you were in high school, but you’ve done it!”
Beau and Becca both turned at that. They weren’t the only ones. Everyone in the bar had turned toward the commotion.
Which was coming from Toby and Sam’s table.
“Oh, great,” Becca muttered.
Emmaline Morris was standing next to the table of teachers. And Landon Gilroy, the high school math teacher—and once a classmate of Emmaline’s—was the one who had delivered the remark.
