I’d seen Dean nearly every workday in passing at my building, but in all the times I saw him, we never spoke. Maybe he was waiting for me to apologize, or maybe he was giving me space to come to terms with everything he’d told me. Maybe I was still too embarrassed about what I’d let happen. Either way, I’d kept my head down and my mouth shut, hoping the problem would solve itself.
We were a war. Not at war, but the very war itself. Two people dancing around each other, armed to the teeth and never knowing when the other would stumble across a landmine and blow it all to shit.
Yes. Dean and I were unfinished business, no doubt.
That aside, the man next to me, I continued to grow fonder of. Beau never ceased to amaze me. We’d been to dinner at the revolving restaurant on our second date, and he’d taken me to see the Vancouver Canucks play the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Arena on our third date.
Each time together, he made me feel special, cherished, and like I was normal.
He didn’t see a damaged person when he looked at me.
Though sometimes, like tonight, I’d find myself thinking of Maverick. He seemed to have taken a hiatus from my dates with Beau. I hadn’t seen him since that night at the theatre, and it had always been Jason on protective detail ever since. I sometimes wondered where he was, or if he’d been there and I simply hadn’t noticed.
It perplexed me why it mattered, but often I tried not to examine those thoughts too closely.
“Did you enjoy the lights?”
I felt his head lay down to rest on top of mine. I smiled into the dark interior of the town car. “They were beautiful. I had a wonderful time.”
Every year, as Christmas approached, the train in Stanley Park would host the Bright Lights. It was romantic, although the snow had yet to fall and it was unlike any date we’d shared thus far. It seemed more intimate. We sat curled up on the train with a blanket in our shared laps and hot chocolate in our hands, while the train took us through the park showcasing some of the most exquisite Christmas light displays in all of Vancouver.
I’d loved it, but more so, I loved experiencing it with Beau. I felt at home with him in a way I never had before, but like I said, Beau was easy to like.
“Never as beautiful as you,” he whispered, and my heart flipped in that happy way it tended to do when I was around him.
Beau was a steady high.
Sitting up, I twisted in my seat to look at him. “Tell me something imperfect about you.”
He was smiling that boyish grin he had that I adored, but also, he was frowning with his eyebrows. “What?”
Leaning forward, I rested my palms on his chest. “You’re the most perfect person I’ve ever known. Tell me something that makes you human.”
He laughed, and I kissed the hard lines along his jaw. “I’m hardly perfect, Charleston.”
“You are,” I corrected him.
He was.
Beau was the catch of the century in so many ways.
I continued to be more and more smitten with him each and every time we went out.
Part of me was worried he had no imperfections at all, which was terrifying for someone as flawed as me.
“No one is perfect,” he told me, and yet, I still did not believe him.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I tipped my head up for a kiss, but stopped just before his lips. “Make me believe you.”
“I’ll oblige…” His sentence was interrupted by the driver, whose name I’d learned was Carlos, as he retracted the privacy screen and spoke, looking into the rear-view mirror.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but you have an urgent call.” Carlos paused. “It’s your mother.”
Beau reached through the window and took the phone Carlos held out to him.
“Good evening, Mother,” he spoke formally but fondly into the receiver.
I couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the call. All I could tell was it had to have been bad with the way Beau’s face paled.
“Do the doctors know anything yet?” He seemed worried, so I slipped my hand into his free one and squeezed.
He squeezed back.
“I’ll be on the next flight out of YVR,” he told her. “I love you, too.”
Then he passed the phone back through the retracted privacy screen to Carlos.
“I’ve been instructed by Jason to take you home first, sir. It’s closer than Miss Smith’s apartment, and they’re fuelling the jet for you now.”
Beau nodded. “Very well, thank you, Carlos.”
He turned to me as Carlos lifted the screen once more. “My father had a heart attack.” I let go of his hand and held him around his torso instead. “They were vacationing in Lake Louise, but he’s been airlifted to the hospital in Calgary.”
“I’m so sorry, Beau,” I whispered, and my stomach sunk.
Loss was an ugly, ugly thing. I hoped a soul as pretty as Beau’s wouldn’t have to bear that burden tonight.
“The doctors don’t know anything yet, but I need to go see him.”
I looked up to him and nodded. “Of course. I understand.”
“I’ll likely be gone a few days. Someone will need to be there for Mom and the girls.”
During our dates, I’d learned Beau had three sisters, all of which were younger than him by a margin and admired him greatly.
He was a family man.
“Once he takes me to the estate, Carlos will take you home.”
I kissed his lips softly. “Don’t worry about me. I can take a cab.”
Beau shook his head. “I like for you to be taken care of.”