“I beg your pardon?” A rumble of discontent stirred deep in my chest. While Sam had a lot of nerve saying something like that to me, I also knew he wasn’t in the wrong.
“You’ve done a number on that poor girl.” I picked up a hint of a shake in his voice, as if he were slightly afraid of me. Sam was book smart - a scrawny, nice guy. He had soft hands. The guy didn’t have an ounce of fight in him, and yet he loved my Dakota enough to tell me to stay the hell away from her. “Rebecca’s been taking care of her like it’s her full-time job.”
“Taking care of her?” I’d never known Dakota to not be able to care for herself.
“Yeah, after that situation you left her in,” Sam said with a huff.
I knew exactly what I’d done: I’d smashed her heart into a million pieces. She probably cried herself to sleep every night thinking I didn’t love her, when in reality all I was doing was saving her from the monster I’d become.
“I don’t know if she’s coming home for spring break this week,” Sam said, “But do not go seeking her out, Beau. Don’t make this worse than it already is.”
My lips pursed into a straight line as I raked my hand through my hair. Sam had a point. I had no business bothering the poor girl, and anything I said or did might make her even more upset with me.
He stepped toward me, placing his hand on my shoulder and squeezing it as he offered a nod and pushed on by. “Good talk.”
I huffed and shook my head. He had a lot of nerve.
But then again, so did I for thinking I had any business getting that poor girl all stirred up at a time when my promises meant jack squat to her.
And what were my intentions anyway? I wanted to hear her sweet drawl, see her pretty smile, but I also wanted to bend her over behind the gate of my truck, taste her sweet mouth, and devour every other square inch of her body.
And then what? Send her back to school with an even bigger hole in her heart and hit the road like it never happened? I couldn’t do that to her. Not again.
Climbing back into my truck, I sped back home to help my dad with some chores.
I’d have to come back for her another time, when I was the kind of man she deserved to be with.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke up Tuesday morning alone in his bed. The distinct smell of peppered bacon and fried eggs wafted upstairs and a satisfying soreness between my thighs instantly sent a guilty smile to my face. Stretching my arms overhead and dipping my bare toes onto the cool wood floor, I pulled myself up and helped myself to Beau’s dresser, pulling out an old Darlington High t-shirt that hit mid-thigh and sauntering downstairs.
Standing back a ways, I watched him cook us breakfast in nothing but a pair of blue jeans. I snuck up behind him, slipping my hands around his chest and pressing my cheek into the flexed muscles of his back. His free hand covered mine.
“Morning,” his deep voice rumbled through his body and vibrated against my hands. “How’d you sleep?”
Like a million bucks.
“Well. Thank you.” I peeled myself off him and took a seat at the table as he plated food and poured orange juice into two glasses with yellow and orange flowers on them. He took a seat across from me. The way he held his fork made it look tiny in the claw of his grip, and he chowed down like a man who’d worked up an appetite in the naughtiest of ways. “Why are you retiring, Beau?”
I didn’t need my recorder. I didn’t need a pen and paper or a list of questions. There was no way I was going to forget a single detail about that week.
He sat up, swallowing his bite and setting his fork aside. “Because the life I was living didn’t suit the man I wanted to be.”
“You had the entire world at your fingertips,” I said, my tone borderline careful. “You still weren’t happy?”
He shook his head, his jaw clenching and releasing as purpose claimed his eyes. “All I need to be happy is a warm house, a couple hundred acres, and you.”
“Beau,” I said, angling my head. “You’re giving it all up for me?”
“It would appear that way. Yes.”
“But what if we’re not meant to be? It’s quite a gamble, don’t you think? I mean, last night was fun and all, but come tomorrow morning, I’m on a plane back to the city. And then what happens?”
“That’s on you,” Beau said, leaning back in his chair. “You know you’ll always have a home here. With me. On the ranch.”
His lips inched into a slow half-smile, his eyes twinkling as if he were recalling all the things we’d done the night before.
“We have one more night, Dakota,” he said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m making it my mission to ensure you won’t want to leave here come tomorrow morning.”
My heart warmed and skipped a beat. That man was relentless. Beau Mason was like one of those Chinese finger traps, where the harder I pulled the more I just got stuck.
His hands slowly sailed behind his head as he gifted me a cocky wink. “You’re going to love the shit out of me all over again by the time you have to go home.”
I never stopped.
“You’re awfully sure of yourself there, Mr. Mason,” I teased. “I believe your breakfast is getting cold.”
Chapter Twenty
Dakota’s laugh and cheery disposition that morning was nothing short of a tribute to what once was and what could possibly be if only. Watching her sitting across my table in nothing but a ratty old t-shirt of mine, all fresh-faced and good-humored was almost as if God was telling me all would be right in the world if I kept on trying.
Too many times before I’d convinced myself I didn’t deserve her. I let her go. I walked away. I set her free. Times had changed, though, and I was ready to be the man she deserved – the man who’d never break her heart again so long as he lived.
“So what are you going to do after your final show in a couple weeks?” Dakota asked, lifting her fork to her mouth.
“Celebrate,” I said without pause. She swallowed her final bite and carried her plate to the sink, rinsing it off and carefully patting it dry. If I squinted my eyes hard enough, I could almost picture her barefoot and pregnant. I rose up and followed her, pinning her against the counter. My lips found her soft neck, depositing a single kiss against her flesh. “Up for a cruise around the countryside?”
She nodded as I released her. She tiptoed upstairs, coming back a few minutes later dressed in blue jeans and a white cotton tank top that played against her sun-kissed skin and the deep hue of her coffee-colored ponytail.