Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

C harlotte wanted to get closer to Beau, but she didn't know how. "Yeah, I'm going to say something." As soon as she figured out what. Or how to make the things she felt in her heart turn into words she could utter.

Beau waited, because he was one of the most patient people on the planet. Except for this afternoon, though he had told her three times she needed to be done before he called her training session.

"I've been a little distant this week too," she said.

"You don't say."

She wanted to shut down, but she'd waited out here on these steps specifically to talk to him. "You're just so good at saying what you want to say."

"I'm not," he said.

"But I'm not," she continued. "And I started feeling all these things for you last week on your birthday, and it's confusing to me."

He let some silence pass through them, though plenty of people kept coming and going from the stable only thirty yards away. "What kinds of things are you feeling?"

"Same as you," she said, her heartbeat pumping hard.

"Oh, I'm gonna need to hear you say it," Beau teased.

Charlotte raised her head and looked at him. The smile dropped from his face instantly, his expression replaced with pure desire and flaming emotion. She swallowed, and said, "I've never told someone I love them."

"You shouldn't say it unless you mean it," he said. "And I didn't say I loved you, I said I was falling in that direction." He raised his eyebrows. "Are you saying the same thing? Because if you are, I think you should say it instead of just piggybacking on what I said."

His mouth twitched into a smile that didn't last long. Charlotte could dive into his eyes and stay there forever.

"I'm going to kiss you," he whispered. They hadn't been doing much of that this week, and the moment his lips touched hers, Charlotte realized how much she'd missed kissing him. How much she'd missed him , though he'd been living right across the hall from her.

Fireworks popped between them, and choirs of angels sang from heaven above. Charlotte had been sifting through abstract things in her bedroom the last few nights, and she still didn't know everything.

But as she kissed Beau on the front steps of their cabin, she finally let go of…everything. She let go of her fears. She let go of her stubbornness. She let go of her reservations, and she allowed herself to freefall.

"Mm, yep." Beau stopped kissing her, but he didn't pull away. "Definitely falling in love with you."

Charlotte still hadn't said the words, and her head felt so light, with a pair of very heavy lips as she said, "I'm falling in love with you too, Beau."

He laughed, a low chuckle that started in his chest and grew as it came out of his mouth. He turned his head away and covered his mouth as his laugh turned into a cough.

Compassion filled her, and she just wanted tonight to be easy on Beau. He'd been fighting a cold for days now.

"And there it is." He took her face in both of his hands, his eyes searching hers. "You okay? Is your heart freaking out?"

"No," she said. "But I'm freaking out."

Beau smiled and said, "I've already kissed you, and I'm afraid you're going to get sick now, but could we…go work on dinner? I'm beat, and I just want to lie down."

Charlotte got to her feet, feeling like someone had poured glitter and unicorn horns into her bloodstream. "Come lie down while I work on dinner."

"I was going to make dinner."

"Are we going to argue over this?" Charlotte took his hand and pretended to pull him to his feet. Like she could do that. They went inside together, and Charlotte hurried ahead of him to pull boxes of cereal out of the cupboard.

"I know what you want." She got out the milk and a carton of cream. "Just sit down and let me serve you."

Beau sat at the bar and watched as she poured half a bowl of Only-Berries and then added another half-bowl of Corn Chex. He started to chuckle, and that made Charlotte's heart happy and light. She pushed the bowl in front of him and got out a spoon.

"You pour your own milk and cream," she said.

"Just the fact that you know I like cream with this tells me something."

"Yeah? What does it tell you?"

"That you really are falling in love with me." Then he picked up the carton of cream and proceeded to pour only cream on his mixed cereal.

Withholding her judgment, she picked up the box of Special K Red Berries and poured a whole bowl for herself. Then she sat beside him and only added cream to her cereal too.

She met his eye and lifted her spoon as if to toast him. He clinked his spoon against hers, and that made her giggle, a giddiness parading through her that she couldn't squash no matter how she tried.

Maybe this was what love felt like. Charlotte wasn't sure, but she catalogued the feelings to analyze once Beau had taken some medicine and gone to bed.

Evenings later, Charlotte raised her head when someone knocked on the cabin door. Beau had already gone to bed, and Charlotte should be heading that direction herself. Instead, she moved Pepper off her feet—the dogs stayed with her until she gently opened Beau's door when she went to bed. Then, Pepper and Ruby went to sleep with their master—and got up.

The door opened as she rounded the couch, and while it surprised Charlotte, it didn't scare her. Especially not when she saw Kelly Ackerman entering with a huge pot in her hands.

"Hey," Charlotte said.

"We brought you dinner." She advanced toward Charlotte, who backed up to give her room. Squire came right behind her, carrying a plastic grocery sack in one hand and a big container of apple juice in the other.

"Beau loves apple juice," he said as he lifted it.

"I brought chicken tortellini soup," Kelly said. "Squire's got salad and rolls." She groaned as she lifted the obviously heavy pot onto the counter. "Should be good for a few days."

Squires wares joined Kelly's, and Charlotte looked at the food and then them. Gratitude filled her, and she stepped into Kelly's arms to hug her before she started crying. "Thank you."

"You've been eating cold cereal for days, haven't you?" Kelly laughed, but Charlotte didn't.

She stepped back and grinned. "It's just so nice to have someone else thinking about you." And not in a way that made her feel weak. Like her heart wasn't good enough to do anything.

"We know you haven't been to town and couldn't have much. Then Ben came and spied for us, and sure enough, he said y'all needed food." Kelly smiled at Squire. "Is Beau in bed already?"

Charlotte nodded. "He's going to the doctor tomorrow, finally. He's just not getting better, and the over-the-counter stuff isn't helping much."

"And you haven't gotten it?" Squire asked.

She shook her head. "So far, no. Thankfully." Charlotte had actually thanked the Lord she hadn't gotten whatever bug had bitten Beau. If she got sick, Mason would insist she come home and let Felicity nurse her back to health. Or maybe he wouldn't. Charlotte wasn't sure anymore.

They'd been getting along just fine since the incident in the feed store, and he hadn't been texting as much now that she thought of it. She simply hadn't noticed, because she didn't have the time or energy to deal with one more emotional thing. Who knew falling in love would be so time-consuming and an emotional rollercoaster?

Maybe it wasn't like that for everyone, but for Charlotte, it had been. So far.

"You and Beau are gettin' along?" Squire asked.

Kelly swatted his chest. "Squire, what a question."

"What?" he asked. "I'm just making sure everything is okay here."

"You made it sound weird."

Charlotte laughed, as she enjoyed their bickering. "Beau and I are getting along great," she said, glancing down the hallway like he might appear. "We had some rough spots, but we've smoothed them out."

"Beau is pretty smooth," Squire said with a smile.

"Okay, we're leaving," Kelly said.

"What did I say now?" Squire moved as she nudged him toward the door. "It's true. Beau is a cool cat."

"You made it sound like he's not real," Kelly said. "Charlotte, Beau is one of the most genuine, caring, hard-working men we have the privilege of knowing." She put both hands over her heart. "I swear."

Charlotte blinked at her. "I know that."

"See? She knows that," Squire tore his unhappy gaze from his wife and nodded to Charlotte. "We hope the food goes to good use."

"I've already eaten tonight, but I'm going to have some anyway," Charlotte said, putting on the best smile she owned. "Thank you so much, really. You've saved us from starvation."

Squire chuckled then, and he stepped out onto the porch. Kelly went with him, pulling the door closed behind her with a "Goodbye, Charlotte. We're so glad you're here at Three Rivers."

Charlotte stared at it for a moment, wondering what had just happened. "You were just reminded that you belong here," she said. Then she stepped over to the soup pot and lifted the lid. The scent of cream and herbs filled her nose and made her mouth water.

"Wow," she said to the dogs. "We are feasting tonight."

The following morning, Charlotte left her bedroom and glanced across the hall to Beau's. She'd done this every day since she'd moved in, and every day, his door had been open. He always got up ahead of her, as he had to get outside and stage himself for his Sunrise Cowboy broadcast.

Alarm tugged through her, because the sunrise couldn't be far away. True, it had started happening later and later in the morning, as they moved into the winter months—if Texas truly had any of those.

She'd been told the Panhandle did occasionally see snow, and Charlotte secretly hoped for that. But she knew Beau would be out there in the morning, doing his sunrise live-stream, even in the bad weather.

So why wasn't he out there today?

She moved over to his door and twisted the knob quietly, just like she did to let the dogs into his room at night. They'd both gotten off the bed already to greet her, and she whispered, "Hey, guys. Go to the back door, and I'll let you out."

Both Pepper and Ruby trotted off, but Charlotte peered into the dark recesses of Beau's bedroom. She had not been inside it, not one time, and now, she clearly heard the soft, steady breathing of the cowboy she lived with.

He had not gotten up, but he was clearly still alive.

A wild idea formed in her head, as quickly as tornadoes formed and touched down. She stole across the room to his nightstand and picked up his phone. He kept his tripod in the loft, and Charlotte left as quickly as she'd come, and she closed his door behind him.

With the dogs waiting for her at the back door, she went up into the loft and got the tripod. "You can't go out in your pajamas."

Moving fast now so she could beat the sun, she dashed to the back door and opened it for the dogs. Then she flew back down the hall to her bedroom, where she shed her silky pjs in favor of jeans and a sweatshirt.

"You don't have to be on camera," she said. "You just have to find a place to film the sunrise and talk about the ranch."

She knew what Beau did, because she watched him every single morning. He'd even called her out once or twice, naming her as his girlfriend.

Calling her his.

Her heart pounded and swooped to the soles of her feet. "Calm down." She took a big breath and tried to slow everything in her body as she pulled on her running shoes. Then she grabbed his phone and the tripod and followed the dogs outside.

She had no idea if Beau planned his sunrise shots or not. In her mind, the prettiest place would be on the other side of the stables, with a shot of the pastures Courage Reins used for their horses.

For Charlotte, it always came down to horses.

It wasn't completely dark, and she couldn't whistle like Beau, but she did her best to call the dogs as she hustled toward what she felt certain would be the perfect place for the Sunrise Cow girl to do her first live-stream.