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My face was so red it was probably glowing as I grabbed a couple pint glasses and began filling them.
“All right now. Thank you for the sweet words, Freddy, but how about we stop discussing my love life while I’m at work, yeah?”
To my dismay, Freddy snorted into his Coke as I placed the fresh beers in front of Beau and Romero without meeting either of their gazes, despite feeling them waiting. “What love life? Girl, you’re having a worse dry spell than the Sahara in middle of a sand storm.”
I sent up a silent prayer that the ground would open up and swallow me whole, but it appeared as if luck wasn’t on my side this evening.
On a laugh, Romero leaned over, hand extended to Freddy. “Luis Romero. And I feel like the two of us just became good friends.”
Freddy tried to play it cool as they shook hands, but I didn’t miss the way his cheeks went ruddy with excitement. “Freddy. I’m like, the unofficial security for this place.”
The corner of my mouth hitched up slightly when I caught one of Beau’s brows winging upward. “He’s a regular,” I explained. “He likes to stay close and walk the ladies to their cars when we’re working late.”
Beau’s mouth pulled into a frown, and, if I didn’t know any better, I would have said that he actually looked concerned. “How often do you work that late?”
“Well, I’m the manager,” I answered, “so at least a few nights a week.”
His frown only deepened. “And you don’t have any kind of security?” He cast a look at Freddy. “Realsecurity? That’s dangerous as hell, Presley.”
Heat started to rise in my belly as his words stoked that anger I always carried for him, bringing it just below the surface.
“And I’m more than capable of taking care of myself,Beau,” I threw back childishly. “Besides, we look out for each other here. It’s a safe place.”
He grunted in response, bringing his beer to his lips as Romero laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.
“What he actually meant to say before going all caveman is that he’s worried.” He hit me with that charming puppy dog smile. “You’ll have to forgive my friend here, He’s got a heart of gold, just a terrible way of showing it.”
He must have seen the look of disbelief on my face, because he leaned deeper into the bar, propping his elbows on it as he waved me closer. “Let me tell you the story of how I met my wife and how this man here helped me convince her to take a shot on me.”
Well this ought to be interesting.
Nearly an hour later,I was keeled over, clutching my sides and howling with laughter as Romero regaled me and everyone close enough to hear stories of the things the two of them had gotten up to with the rest of their teammates back before Beau retired.
As much as I didn’t want them to, Romero’s stories had been like a battering ram to those walls I’d worked so diligently to keep up around myself where Beau was concerned. He was showing another side of the man I hadn’t thought existed, aside I caught the very faintest glimmer of twice in my life, but convinced myself couldn’t possibly be real.
Back in high school and college, it was hard to get a feel for Beau as a friend because the things we cared about as kids were a lot more shallow and self-satisfying. But hearing Romero talk about him and seeing the true, genuine affection he had for his friend, well, I was beginning to see Beau in a whole new light, and it was a disconcerting feeling to realize that side of him I thought was only a fluke was actually something real.
“So, I’m standing out there in the pouring rain, trench coat and everything, doing my bestSay Anythingat Carmen’s bedroom window, trying to get her to talk to me, but the goddamn Bluetooth speaker I was using stopped working mid-song, ruining the entire moment.”
“Aw.” I giggled, bending at the waist with an elbow propped on the bar top and my chin cradled in my hands, fully enraptured by Romero’s story. “So what did you do?”
“Wasn’t me.” He flung his thumb at Beau. “This guy was hiding in the bushes with a couple of our teammates, you know, as moral support. He saw me panic when the speaker cut out, so he started singing ‘In Your Eyes’ at the top of his lungs. The rest of the guys joined in on the chorus.”
I couldn’t help but look in Beau’s direction, my heart doing a weird sort of flip-flop in my chest.
The man shrugged like it was nothing as he sipped his beer. “You looked like a deer in the headlights. I felt sorry for you.”
Romero elbowed him in the side with another hearty laugh, something he did a lot. “Anyway, Carmen finally comes to the window and says she’s forgiven me as long as I can make Beau stop singing, then she agreed to marry me if I promised I’d never let him do it again.”
For the life of me, I couldn’t picture the Beau Wade I knew—or the one IthoughtI knew—crouched in shrubs, singing a PeterGabriel song to help a friend win the love of his life. That was something I probably would have paid good money to see. If I’d had it, of course.
“That’s really great, Romero. I’m so glad it worked out for you, and you have to be sure to come back with your wife. I’d like to meet her.”
“I sent her pics of the beach earlier, and she’s already planning our next trip.”
I was glad to hear it, not only because I’d managed to be charmed stupid by this man, but because it had actually been nice to see Beau loosen up with someone he cared about. Someone good and kind, a true friend. I wasn’t sure the boy I’d known all those years ago had ever had that, so it was nice to see he’d managed to find it as an adult.
I looked at Beau and saw him watching me with a tender look, a look that made me feel like I might have actually been important to him somehow.
