Ten Days of Perfect (November Blue #1)

Too late.

As soon as I blinked, tears spilled messily down my face. I didn’t try to wipe them away, and I didn’t break my gaze from his. Bo’s forehead creased momentarily as he watched the tears - filled with so many things I wanted to tell him - fall to the sand. He didn’t look away as he brushed the salty confusion from one of my cheeks with his thumb.

“Ember. . .”

“Bo, it’s just . . .” I wiped my eyes, finally, and turned my face back to the ocean. “I’ve never felt like this with anyone. Not just physically either. You’ve burrowed yourself deep in my soul. All the evidence my parents needed was the guitar I’ve never really played, just sitting causally in my living room. You’ve sparked something in me . . .” Out of the corner of my eye I saw him half-smile.

“You’re crying because of how you feel about me?” He kept the grin as he tried to understand.

“It’s not about you, it’s about me. I am not the person that fantasizes about running away with hot, guitar-playing man-gods.” I was able to force a laugh through my tears, “There’s this part of me that’s longed for you for so long, and when you showed up it was like an ice-cold shower shocking me to life. I like structure, predictability, an unbroken heart . . .” I shot a glance in his direction and he seemed to cringe at ‘an unbroken heart’.

Bo moved to a kneeling position in front of me, commanding my attention.

“November, if your heart was mine it would never break.” His hands tightened around mine as he spoke the sweetest words my ears had ever hosted.

“Even in a thousand lifetimes?”

Shit! I dropped Bo’s hands, flew to a standing position as he flinched, again, against my words, and I walked away. I was embarrassed that I let that slip out, and suddenly felt angry that he would tell Josh, and not me. When you feel that strongly about someone, you tell them.

“Josh . . .” he half whispered to the now vacant place I had previously occupied. He stood up and briskly followed my pace down the beach.

“Ember, I shouldn’t have said anything to anyone.” He wisely stayed slightly behind me, seemingly trying to judge my level of anger.

“A thousand lifetimes, Bo!? You feel like you’ve known me for a thousand freaking lifetimes? That’s a bit intense, don’t you think?” I didn’t slow my pace.

“You just told me that I shocked your soul to life and you’re accusing me of intensity of emotion?” His firmness road-blocked me.

“But I told you, Bowan. You told Josh, and he used it as an excuse to break up with my best friend!” Bo stared out at the ocean unapologetically.

“Ember, I’m really sorry about what happened with your friends. I’m sorry that Josh freaked after we talked. Look at me - that has nothing to do with us.” He grabbed my shoulders, forcing my eyes on his. “I have never felt this way about anyone in my entire life. And the other night, at your place, when we-”

“Had sex?” I interrupted.

“That’s not the phrase I would use, but, yea. That was the single-most mind, soul, and earth shattering experience of my life.” His eyes searched mine in a panic.

“Bo, I haven’t ever felt this way about anyone either, and it scares me.” I looked just past him to avoid being consumed by the intensity of his now nearly black eyes.

“Even about Adrian?” He dropped his hands from my shoulders and backed up a step to gage my reaction.

“Excuse me?” My brow furrowed in sardonic consternation. “You’re seriously bringing up Adrian fucking Turner? I told you it was ancient hist- wait . . . Did you see him today when you went back to Concord?”

The question suspended in the space between our bodies.

“He is a member of our legal team and was briefed on today’s meeting.” Oh, that’s it? You’re going to leave it at that?

“You couldn’t have briefed him over the phone?”

It occurred to me that my reaction to Adrian’s name during the meeting did not sit as well with Bo as he had led me to believe. It appeared Mr. Y-chromosome drove 2.5 hours to size up my ex-boyfriend with fresh eyes.

“Wait a minute, Bo, you didn’t tell him . . .”

“I didn’t tell Turner about us. I needed to sign some contracts for some other things, and I told him the meeting went well. I told him that you and Monica both spoke fondly of his abilities, and that the two of you would be arriving with your boss early next week.” Oh shit.

“Hm.” Ember, get a damn grip. Hm?

“He seemed quite pleased about you ladies coming to Concord.” Bo’s face fell, as if he was trying to work out the history between Adrian and me.

“Look,” I took a deep breath at the realization that this night was not going as envisioned. “I know that you said I didn’t owe you an explanation about Adrian-”

“You don’t.”