Rubbing a thoughtful palm over his beard, his eyes stay firmly on me. “Sweetheart, that door has been open to you since last October. Been waiting on you. But you gotta give me some answers. I’ll be damned if you walk in here just to walk out again.”
I swallow loudly. “That’s fair.”
“And if you stay, we’re doing it right. I’m going to date you, woo you, make you mine. For keeps now, sweetheart.”
“Easy as that?”
“Levi.” Beau says my real name like a curse, but there’s an undercurrent of love that stops my anxiety from spiking. I don’t think I like my real name on his lips. “I’m not a complicated man. You want me? You can have me. But there won’t be any going back and forth like last time. I’m not hiring you. This time, you’re mine because you want to be, because there’s something between us that I’ve been waiting for you to see.”
“I saw it too,” I interrupt him, not caring a bit when his eyes flash at me. “I just need to be clear. I felt it last time too. I just…I’m not even twenty-five. I carry so much shit with me and I needed to finish my degree, and it all felt so… much. It felt so much. Don’t you understand?”
“Yeah, I know,” Beau agrees and takes a seat next to me on the couch. He carefully takes my hand in his own, caressing my knuckles with his thumb. “I wish you had just talked to me last time. Tell me why you couldn’t?”
Just rip the bandage off. “My real name is Levi Shaw.”
He stares at me in confusion. “You told me that already.”
A riot of nerves rolls through me. This is Beau. He waited for me, and I came back here for me. To see if we can have something real. So, I owe him the truth, the full truth, so that he can decide what he wants.
“My parents are Turner and Lyla.”
He continues to stare blankly at me. It must be so nice to be so disconnected from national-level news.
“Turner and Lyla Shaw. My parents are serving life in federal prison for swindling thousands of people out of their retirement in a Ponzi scheme. They… took everything from people. Most of the country thinks they’re the worst villains in the world. And they’re right. My parents did evil things, made awful decisions, but sometimes people think that I’m just like them. I mean, they raised me, so I have to be kind of evil too?”
Out of breath by the time I finish, my chest heaves with the weight of my words. But Beau remains staring at me, fingers playing with my hand, gaze warm and intent.
“Can you say something?” I ask quietly.
“Sweetheart, what makes you think what they did is a reflection on you at all? Weren’t you a kid?”
Oh God. Beau makes it sound so simple. Tears well up in my eyes because his words are just so matter of fact. So Beau. Something I’ve struggled with for so many years is just… narrowed down to the truth of one single statement.
“Yeah,” I admit around the rock in my throat. “I was a kid.”
“Well then, you didn’t help them make their mistakes. I think you’re trying to do better, right? You finished school this spring?”
I nod as I take a few steadying breaths. “I did. I also don’t do the boyfriend anything anymore, just so we’re clear.”
“Even if you did, that’s not something I’d have an issue with.”
It’s my turn to aim a confused look at him. “You’d be fine with me fucking someone else?”
He chuckles wryly and shrugs his broad shoulders. “I don’t know about fine, but sex work is sex work. Matters more to me that I’m the one you come home to at the end of the night, the one you say three special words to before bed.”
“Beau.” My lip trembles as I fight back tears. “You’re perfect.”
“Not really.” Beau gives me a sheepish look.
“To me you are.”
“So, if you don’t do the boyfriend thing anymore, what do you do?”
“I graduated with a psychology degree. I want to go on to get my master’s in social work so I can become a therapist.”
Beau smiles that gorgeous, sweet smile at me. “That sounds perfect for you.”
“But there’s online degrees for graduate school… so I can do most of it online. Minus any clinical hours I need. It’ll take some time. But I need to apply… it probably won’t be until next year.”
