AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes. I could do the second semester in Houma. They’d have to cover me in Autre, but that won’t be hard.” She sighed. “Emmaline’s sister could do it. She graduated in May too and isn’t working anywhere right now.”
“But I…” Beau had no idea what he was going to say. He frowned. “I had no idea you were thinking about leaving so soon.”
“I wasn’t really. It just came up in conversation. But it’s worth considering. Things in Autre are tense. And of course, there will be issues in Houma too. No place is perfect. But it will be different somewhere I didn’t grow up. Where my dad isn’t my boss. Just like you said.”
Beau tried to process all the information. His thoughts were spinning and his heart was pounding.
This was good. This sounded great for Becca. It would get her away from all the tension that was making her unhappy.
So…she’d leave.
Exactly as he’d expected.
“It sounds great,” he finally said.
She leaned in. “It’s only an hour away. We could date. I could easily make that commute.”
“Long-distance again? Didn’t we learn from that?”
“One hour and five hours are very different. Hell, I could live in Autre and drive to Houma.”
“Come on, Bec. You’ll have parent-teacher conferences and activities. And don’t you think it would be good for your kids, andyou, for you to live there and really get to know the community and the families?”
“I’m a kindergarten teacher. It’s not like I’ll be at ballgames and science fairs. Sure, there might be meetings and things once in a while, but it’s not that far, Beau.”
“Yeah.”
But there was a huge pit in his stomach. It wasn’t that far and that road was good. But his hours were crazy. And there was no promise that she would stay in Houma. Yes, it was bigger than Autre, and maybe more progressive. There were more kids for her to interact with. A bigger staff to learn from and share with professionally.
But it could be a steppingstone to something even bigger. She had no idea if she would like it there. She’d never spent time in Houma, didn’t know anyone there except for this Sarah. She could get there and not make any friends, not like the school board or the administrators, a million things could make her want to move on from there.
“Beau,” Becca said. “Look at me.”
He did.
“This can work. We don’t have to be friends with benefits. We can actually be together.”
“Are you doing this because of me?” The thought occurred to him as he said it out loud.
“Sure. Of course. You’re part of all my considerations.”
He frowned. “Becca, that’s not okay.”
“It’s not okay to consider how I can make a relationship work with the man I’m in love with?”
He leaned back, oxygen rushing out of his lungs. They’d just said it to one another upstairs, but hearing her confess that she was keeping him in mind while she was making huge life decisions suddenly made him feel cold. He did not want to be responsible for her making decisions that might be wrong. He’d made his choice to stay in Autre because of other people and he didn’tresentit, but he did wonder if he’d done the right thing. He didn’t want Becca wondering about anything. Not about anything having to do with him anyway.
“We need to head back to Autre,” he said.
Her eyes went wide. “What?”
“We need to head back. Tonight.”
“How are we going to do that? We don’t have a truck.”
“We do. They’re gonna put the part they took out of my truck backinmy truck. Tonight. Now.” He shoved back from the table and stood.
“Beau—”
