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Beau barked a harsh laugh. “Jesus, you guys are too fucking much. Don’t you have anything better to do up there than mind everyone’s business?”
“Not when one of our own has been hurt. Lia and Lucia are like sisters.”
“Well, you don’t need to worry. You can announce it over The Enclave loudspeakers. I’m heading to her place as we speak. And as to what happened, Renee Carter showed up at my doorstep this evening wearing my slave collar and basically hurled herself into my arms. And if that weren’t bizarre enough, Lia chose that exact moment to appear and she, uh… she drew her own conclusions.”
“Are you shitting me? No way! That’s crazy. Renee, after all this time? What the hell?”
“Right? That’s what I said. And I’ll tell you, Mark, her showing up like that, even before Lia made an appearance, really brought it home to me. I’m totally, completely over Renee. It took me a while to get her out of there, but I finally managed to send her on her way with zero illusions left about any kind of possible reunion. I was just about to call Lia but you beat me to the punch.”
“You’re driving right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Focus on your driving. Get there in one piece and then fix it with Lia.”
“That’s the plan.”
≈
Lia’s doorbell rang, three quick jabs. Still sprawled on the beanbag chair, she lifted her head. It wouldn’t be the first time someone else’s DoorDash delivery showed up at her place.
“Wrong door,” she called out. “This is unit 124.”
“Lia? Lia, it’s me. Please open the door.”
Lia’s brain stuttered as it tried to reconcile the pizza delivery guy with Beau’s beautiful baritone.
The doorbell rang again, followed by a forceful knock on the flimsy wood.
Without making the conscious decision to rise, Lia found herself on her feet. As if drawn by a magnet, she moved in a kind of trance toward the sound. “Beau?” she whispered, not quite believing it. Hope, horrible, terrible, impossible to repress hope, had once again spread its broken wings.
“Please open the door. I need to talk to you,” he persisted. “Please, Lia. I need to explain.”
Ugh. She’d heard that one before. Master Pain had desperately wanted to explain as well, after she’d busted him.
Still, unable to help herself, Lia placed a tentative hand on the knob. She was torn between a fierce, aching need to let him in and her determination to shut him out of her heart once and for all. She stood on her toes to peer through the peephole. He was staring directly at it, as if he could see her, too. She drew in a sharp breath and immediately dropped back down out of sight.
Her heart was racing, as if a thousand tiny birds were fluttering frantically in her chest. As if it had a mind of its own, her hand reached once more for the knob. Just as her treacherous fingers started to turn it, he spoke again.
“Lia, please, open the door and let me talk to you.”
Silent as a mouse, she lifted again to her toes and focused on him through the peephole. He was still looking straight at it, his expression earnest, even pleading. Her heart gave a painful lurch, but this time she didn’t look away.
“First, I need to explain what you saw earlier tonight. I promise, it’s not what you thought. That was my ex. We broke up years ago. For some reason I have yet to understand, she decided to just show up at my doorstep. What you saw—that kiss—that was all her. I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but she threw herself at me. There’s really no other way to put it. I was in the process of trying to disengage when you appeared.”
Lia remained still, listening hard. She wanted to believe him, but something still held her back. She lowered herself again to flat feet.
Beau continued, “I thought it wasyouwhen I opened my door, Lia.” His voice cracked with emotion, which brought fresh tears to Lia’s eyes. “I wanted it to be you.”
“Oh, Beau,” she whispered to the closed door.
“I’ve been a total jerk. I can’t blame you for being pissed. I walked away from something amazing because of my own issues and fears. I spent the last week talking myself into believing there was no way we could work out, long term.”
She rose again on tiptoe to peer at him through the peephole.
Beau blew out a breath and ran his hand through his hair, leaving it adorably tousled. “I fucked up, Lia. I ended things so abruptly between us, not because I was afraid there was nothing there, but because I knew there was. I was a coward, Lia. I wanted to protect my stupid heart from another break. Which is ridiculous, because what are hearts for, if not to break and mend and grow stronger in the process?”
As Beau spoke, Lia felt as if her body were growing lighter and lighter. As if she might at any moment rise into the air and hover there like that thing with feathers.
