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He slapped his hand down on the table. “They’re gonna fix the truck, Becca. We’re going home.”
* * *
Beau was right.Jack fixed the truck.
Sure, it took some growling from Beau. And a phone call to Leo. And a threat to just take the part out of another, newer, truck and put it in his truck himself.
But eventually Jack fixed the truck.
Then they took the four-hour road trip back to Autre that felt like it took four years.
Beau didn’t want to talk about their relationship. He did not want to talk about her new job. He didn’t want to talk about much of anything. And when she tried, he cranked up the new Jason Young album to a level she couldn’t talk over.
So she let him stew. She researched facts about Houma and the school system on her phone. And forwarded several to Beau’s phone.
Every time his phone dinged with a new text from her, his jaw clenched.
At least that part was fun.
That ride home was only slightly more pleasant than the following six days. It was shorter, for one thing. And it had a great soundtrack to it at least.
seventeen
The almost-week followingthat trip was annoying, sad, frustrating, and lonely. Because he avoided her. Completely.
And when she listened to Jason Young without him, she oscillated between wanting to cry and wanting to punch someone. Well, okay, wanting to punchBeau.But he wasn’t around so that just made her even more angry.
She’d been by his shop, but he’d been “way too busy, Becca, I have a business to run” to stop and talk. She’d gone to his house after hours, but he hadn’t answered. Because he was a chicken. Which she’d told him—by yelling at his front door, on the note she’d taped to that front door, in the three texts she’d sent, and in the three voicemails she’d left.
He also wasn’t returning texts or voicemails.
Even the ones where she’d sexted. And included a video.
She hadn’t been proud of that. In fact, she’d been pretty embarrassed when even the video of hernakedin bed telling him how much she missed him failed to get a response.
Finally, desperate, she did something that shereallywasn’t proud of.
But dammit, it was his own fault.
She texted again. With the thing she knew he wouldn’t ignore.
I’mat Ellie’s. Don’t feel good. Need a ride home.
She knew he’d assume she was drunk, but she hadn’t actuallysaidthat, so she wasn’t lying to him—and if he’d just return her phone calls, she wouldn’t have to resort to this—but she also knew that he would definitely come if he thought she really actually needed him.
She watched the little bubbles pop up showing that he was typing.
They disappeared.
They popped up again.
Then disappeared with no message coming through.
It waspossiblehe would try to call someone else to come pick her up, but she didn’t think anyone else would. They all still wanted to throw her and Beau together. And, honestly, Beau had this thing about being the person who was there for her. The one to be her hero. The one she could depend on.
But just to be safe, she texted Toby, Sam, Mitch, and Zeke telling them that she neededBeauto come pick her up. None of them.
She didn’t bother texting any of the other Landry cousins. They were all sitting in the back of Ellie’s at the family table, eating dinner, laughing and talking, as usual.
