Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

B eau kept his eyes wide open as he danced with Charlotte. Ben's wedding had been perfect from beginning to end, and he was glad for his friend. Truly. He wanted to sink into the apple blossom scent of Charlotte's hair and drift lazily back to their cabin together, but he had a bigger, more knowing audience than would allow him to act like he had in his younger years.

He didn't want to be that twenty-something anyway.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked as the last notes of the song faded.

"Are you?"

"Yes," he said honestly. "We've been here long enough. Ben won't care." He turned to find his friends, and thankfully, they were only a few paces away. He went toward them and wrapped both Ben and Ellie into the same hug. "Love you guys. We'll see you when you get back from New Orleans."

They weren't going far, nor for long, as neither of them had much money. But Beau couldn't remember a day out of the last eighteen years that he hadn't seen and talked to Bennett. Tomorrow would be the first one.

His emotions clapped like angry thunder, and Beau couldn't wait to leave the public eye. He just wanted a silent cabin without lights on and a really good hamburger.

"Love you, Beau," both Ben and Ellie said, and then he faced Charlotte again. She said her more formal good-byes, and they left the party. He took her the back way in front of the barns and stables to their cabin, and he said nothing along the way.

He loosened his bowtie the moment he got behind a wall separating him from everyone else on the ranch, and he had it off and his shirt unbuttoned by the time he reached the steps. At the porch, his jacket was coming off, and the moment he stepped inside, he felt like he could breathe again.

He walked toward the hall, semi-forgetting he wasn't alone until the door closed behind him. "Oh." He turned back to Charlotte, his shirt untucked and undone and his hands full of his jacket and tie. "I'm going to go shower."

"Okay," she said.

He wasn't used to giving an accounting of what he was doing and why, so he left her there. "What's she going to do?" he wondered. Of course she'd have to change out of that pretty party dress. Take off her makeup, maybe. Beau didn't rightly know what women did to "dress down" and get more comfortable.

They'd spent last night eating dinner and watching TV, and he figured they could do the same tonight.

When he returned to the kitchen, the scent of coffee beckoned to him, and he wore a pair of gym shorts and a gray t-shirt with the Three Rivers logo on it. He didn't see Charlotte anywhere, but he figured he could pour himself a cup of coffee in his own cabin.

He'd no sooner done that before his phone chimed. He picked it up and saw Charlotte had texted. I made coffee, so help yourself.

Do you want to be alone tonight? I'm fine to stay in my room to give you your space.

He looked up from the texts to find his dogs both sitting beside their food bowl. He was late feeding them, so he flew into motion to do that. Did he want to be alone tonight?

Beau honestly wasn't sure. He didn't want Charlotte to feel like she had to sequester herself in her bedroom, but he was used to having free rein of everything in the house.

After feeding his hounds, he typed out a message to Charlotte. You can do what you want. I'm fine. We'll go help the vacation crew feed the horses in about an hour. Or I will. You don't have to do anything until tomorrow.

Her official start date.

She didn't answer, and Beau turned to the fridge, though he'd eaten a full meal only an hour ago at the wedding.

"I'll come," Charlotte said from behind him, and he nudged the fridge closed as he turned to face her. She wore a pair of jean shorts that went all the way to her knee and a tank top the color of the apple-y scent she put off. Bright red.

"You don't have to hide in your room," he said. "Ever. This is your house too."

"I thought you might want your space."

"If I don't want to be around anyone, I can go to my room."

"Fair enough." She moved to the other side of the counter. "Is it hard? Having him get married?"

Beau blinked, the question out of left field for him. No one had ever asked it outright like that. "Yes," he said just as bluntly. "He's been my roommate and best friend for a long time."

She nodded, her expression unreadable. "Are you dating anyone right now?"

His eyes widened now, and he leaned back against the fridge. "Am I dating anyone right now? Do you think I'd hold your hand if I was?"

"I don't know."

Irritation foamed through him. "Okay, well, I wouldn't. Who would do that to someone—both the person they were dating and the person they weren't? Or wanted to? Or…I don't know. It's a weird question."

Charlotte finally dropped her gaze, her cheeks turning bright red in the next moment. "You're right. It was a weird question. I haven't been out much lately."

"Out much? Like in public or with a man?"

"Both." She turned away from him. "I'm going for a walk." She wore the sneakers to do it too, and Beau simply watched her go.

"Okay," he said when she opened the door. She didn't say she'd see him later, and he honestly wasn't sure what had just happened. Once the door sealed him back in his cabin alone, breathing did feel easier. "Maybe she's just a little awkward," he told himself.

But she hadn't been awkward in that dress or heels. She knew how to greet strangers and ask them about themselves. She'd been a full participant in the wedding, the conversation at dinner, and all through the dancing.

"So maybe she's exhausted too," he said. And maybe she hadn't been out with anyone in a while. He'd learned to gather as much intel as possible over the years, but there was no way he was going to text Mason and ask him about his sister's dating history.

Absolutely no way. Mason had already made it quite clear that he didn't want Beau to take his relationship with Charlotte past professional, and his fingers tingled where she'd touched them.

"You're both adults," he told himself as he sat on the couch and held his phone in front of him. He had other people to text, and he busied himself with that until it was time to go feed the horses. Charlotte didn't show up, and Beau let himself turn into the fanciful dreamer he'd always been.

And he saw the two of them horseback riding, running and laughing through fields, before they came back to this cabin together and he kissed her good-night.

Definitely a dream, and a good one. Maybe one that could come true , he thought. Yeah…maybe.

"There he is," Preacher Glover said when he opened the door to his beautiful, new farmhouse. "Howdy, Beau." He grinned in a rare display and stepped out onto the porch to give Beau a hug.

"Howdy, Preach." He clapped the man on the back softly, so as to not make his bad leg buckle. "Something smells amazing inside."

"Holly Ann catered dinner for us."

"You're joking." Beau stepped back. "I'd have been here an hour ago if I'd have known."

"She just brought it," Ace said. He'd married Holly Ann several years ago, and they had two kids now. In fact, she was pregnant with their third and would have the baby this fall.

Beau stepped into the house and hugged Ace too. "Thanks for getting us dinner."

"Holly Ann's already filling every fridge and freezer up here at Shiloh Ridge." Ace grinned and indicated his wife standing at the back wall, in front of the kitchen sink. Charlie, Preacher's wife lingered there with her, their two-year-old clinging to her pant leg as if Hank never saw strangers.

And Beau wasn't a stranger here. Hank loved him; he simply looked like he'd been crying.

She and Preacher had just announced they'd welcome another baby to their family this winter, and Beau had congratulated them heartily via text.

Beau had gotten used to literally everyone around him getting married and building families—he'd literally been a witness to it for almost two decades now—and it had never bothered him.

Until the past several years, that was. Until he'd finally matured enough to want those things for himself.

Charlie caught sight of him, and she came into the living room. She grinned from ear to ear, Hank stumbling after her. "Did you get into the inner sanctum?"

"Twice," Beau said as he smiled back. He bent down and swooped Hank into his arms. "Heya, buddy."

The little boy smiled, and sure enough, Beau's heart pinched with want. Then it howled. He couldn't even imagine how he'd feel if he held his own child, but it was something he wanted to experience badly.

"How was the wedding?" Preacher asked. He had a way of driving nails straight into the heart, because as one of the foremen at Shiloh Ridge, he didn't believe in beating around any bushes.

"Fine," Beau said as he lifted his eyes to Preacher's. "Good, even."

"How are you?" Preach asked next.

"I'm…coping," Beau admitted. Ben had been out of town for a week, but he'd been at work today. Beau had eaten lunch with him even. Heard all about New Orleans and the big river boats.

"Did you get a Stable Manager?"

"Is this going to be the extent of the questioning?" Beau gave him a dry look and then switched his gaze to Charlie. "If I answer everything now, can we eat and play without the interrogation?"

Her grin didn't so much as falter. "I'm sure that's Preacher's plan."

Preacher didn't apologize, and he didn't back down. He simply stood back a few feet, and when little Hank reached for him saying, "Daddy, see Rex," he switched his attention to him. He didn't take him from Beau, probably because his back couldn't handle lifting someone or something as big as a two-year-old.

"No, son," he said. "Rex is asleep for the night."

"Like you will be soon," Charlie said, reaching to take Hank into her arms. "Let's eat." She threw Beau a look that said she knew he had more questions to answer, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay, but outside Ben and Garth—neither of whom lived at Three Rivers Ranch anymore—these were his best friends.

He'd been playing online games with them for years, and he even tried a brief relationship with Ace's sister, Etta. That had been a disaster, and Beau hadn't tried to meet anyone new since then.

He hadn't tried to meet Charlotte either, and as they shifted toward the dining room table, he said, "I met someone."

Preacher stilled, only his eyes drifting up to meet Beau's. "Oh?"

"Is everyone going to want to hear the story?"

"I'm sure," Preacher said. "You've met my family, right?" He rolled his eyes and led the way toward the table. "Charlie, Beau's met someone new."

As if Preacher didn't love the drama and gossip as much as everyone else. Beau chuckled and shook his head as he joined everyone at the dining room table. "It so happens that she's my new Stable Manager." He pulled out a chair beside Ace and sat down. "And she, uh, we didn't have anywhere for her to stay, so she's living with me."

Beau picked up his napkin and snapped it open, aware of the complete silence around him. No one even moved, and only Ace had sat down. He laid his napkin in his lap and looked up to find Holly Ann frozen only a couple of feet from the table, a large bowl of salad in her hands.

Charlie had been buckling Hank into his booster seat, and Preacher had his hand on the back of his chair, as if he'd pull it out at any moment. But none of them moved. Or spoke.

Betty, the five-year-old, didn't get the memo, and she loudly scraped her chair over the tile as she pulled it out and started to climb up to the table.

Beau chuckled, glad he'd caused such a reaction. "What are y'all most surprised about? That I met someone new? That I got a great Stable Manager? Or that we're sharing a cabin?"

Only a beat of time passed before Preacher said, "I'm only surprised about the cabin thing."

"Three bedrooms, two baths," he said. "It's not scandalous or anything." Words he'd said to his mother too. She'd had a lot more questions for Beau, and to be fair, he hadn't told her he had sparking feelings for Charlotte. He wasn't going to use those words tonight either, and thankfully, Holly Ann put the salad on the table.

"I think it's great you met someone," she said as she took her seat on the other side of Ace. "Now, tonight, Ace said he needed brain food to get through the inner sanctum, so I've made a kale, apple, and cranberry salad as a starter."

Preacher and Charlie sat down too, both of them looking at him. "I'll say grace," Preach said.

"And we won't ask any more questions," Charlie promised.

"Tonight," Preacher said. He cocked one eyebrow at Beau, who only grinned back at him. Then he bowed his head for grace, the start of a hopefully great evening of food, friends, and games ahead of him.

As the night unfolded into exactly that, Beau found that he couldn't wait to get back to the cabin and tell Charlotte about his friends. As he made the turn after the ninety-minute drive back to the ranch, he wondered, "Maybe she could come with me next time."

He didn't go to Shiloh Ridge often, because it was a long drive, and he was a busy man. They played online, which he could do from the comfort of his own cabin, any time of day or night.

But maybe next time, when he did go to Preacher's or Ace's for dinner and gaming, Charlotte could come with him.

"You better tell her about your live-streaming and your gaming then," he told himself. He'd lost girlfriends over his video games in the past, so it could be an issue for her. Of course, he hadn't asked her out yet either. They simply spent time together in the place where they both lived, and he'd been getting to know her.

Perhaps it was time for things to change, and Beau searched for his next move to get the future he wanted.