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“Babe, nothing is standing in our way. Not this time.” He caresses my arm while he regains control of his tears. “Do you have pain meds in your bathroom?”
“Yeah.”
He pushes to his feet and returns with a glass of water and two aspirin. When he draws me up by arm, I yelp. “I think I bruised my elbow.”
Beau inspects my arm. “It’s swelling. Does it hurt when I do this?” He exercises my arm by folding it in and out.
“No. I’m okay.”
“When we get downstairs, we’ll put some ice on it to keep the swelling down.” Beau checks his watch then taps out a message. “You’re taking the day off.”
“What?” I can’t.”
“You’re in pain. We’ve hurt each other, and we need to mend the past so we can have a future.”
“Can I see your tattoo of me again?”
He swallows, peeling off his tee and turning his back to me. It’s a sketch. A profile of me looking over my shoulder with my hair spiraling down over my shoulders. It doesn’t show anything else, just my face and hair. The tattoo doesn’t come from a photo that I can remember. “It’s beautiful, Beau.”
I hear him sigh, but his shoulders rise and drop slowly.
Dreading the secret that I’m about to share, I shut my eyes and take a breath. “What I’m about to confess isn’t going to be easy for me to say or for you to hear. It may change how you feel about Beckett and me. For better or worse.”
Laying my head on his back, I thread my arms around his waist, and we stay that way until he shifts his body, so we’re face-to-face.
He squeezes my hands. “I hope I’ve made this worse in my mind. I know you didn’t have sex but…I just hope all the thoughts running through my mind since that night aren’t as bad.”
Now it’s my turn to force the lump in my throat down. “Beau, it’s worse.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
BEAU
Worse? How could it be worse than Beckett and Vanessa sleeping together?
Vanessa’s hands dampen and red splotches spring up on every part of her visible, exposed body. She’s wearing a coral tank and a short pair of floral pajama shorts. I’m not complaining. Her legs are magnificent.
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. I finger an errant curl, bring it to my mouth, and kiss the untamed wave. “I’m listening, whenever you’re ready.”
“You were late, which was unlike you. And no, I wasn’t being impatient. Scotty, Wynter, Jessie, and Mark were down by the fire pit, drinking. I was so excited, I stayed up top with a few of our other friends so I would be the first person you saw on your last night in Kissing Springs.” Her hands wander over her reddened skin.
I was late because of Beckett. We had a fight, which was a breakthrough. We hadn’t spoken any words that weren’t necessary to appease our parents in the couple of years prior. I asked him if he would come to my basic training ceremony once I completed it. He declined and it was the beginning of a heated argument.
“I kept texting you, but you didn’t answer. I was worried so when Beckett pulled up, I thought he was going to tell me you had been hurt. But that’s not what happened.”
When her words sink in, I ask, “Whathappened? Why did you kiss my twin brother? It wasn’t an innocent mistake.”
She makes a tent with her fingers and covers her nose as tears spill over her lids. “He…he said that he was…he was…”
Vanessa pinches her eyes closed and I can’t wipe them away fast enough. “It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. Just tell me the truth.”
She sniffs up the snot threatening to run from her nose. Her whole body quakes and I don’t know how whatever she has to say could be worse than anything I’ve had nightmares about.
Finally, she holds my hands in hers.
“Beckett said he was going to…kill himself.” Her eyes float down to our hands. Her words aren’t registering. “He said he had loved me as long as you have, and he couldn’t live this way anymore.”
It’s as if we’re in a vacuum, and I can’t hear. Her words scramble together, and I have to figure out how to put them in order. My head tilts as her brows draw toward her nose and pushes out more tears.
