Page 77 of Expecting an Argument
I was a fool, a damn fool, but it was all over now.
I would never open Fontaine Manor to anyone ever again.
Despite Ashley’s protests, I got in the car.
“Fine, chase after him in your condition,” Ashley said through the Mustang’s window. “But Tyson and I are going to be right behind you.”
I nodded. Ashley lightly patted the roof of the car before jogging across the lawn of Miss Kaye’s house and telling her kids to get into Tyson’s truck.
My heart thudded as I adjusted the seat back to get my belly off the steering wheel and fumbled with the keys. Beau was probably at the manor by now. His mom and aunt had likely beaten me there since they wasted no time getting into Cheryl’s white BMW and speeding off.
I blew out a breath as I gently rolled across the lawn and dropped onto the curb below, holding my rocking belly with a wince. Tyson said he had no idea what had gotten into Beau when he stormed out of the baby shower, but I knew. I knew assoon as Beau looked back at me as he got into the pink Bel-Air.
He had trusted me not to hurt him and I had just blown through him like a cannonball.
Tears trickled out of the corners of my eyes as I drove, but I wiped them away and sucked up the ones that threatened to fall. I didn’t regret announcing that Beau and I weren’t together because it was true. I was never anything more to him than his friend and the mother of our twins, but that look he gave me before he drove away nearly tore me apart. I didn’t want to disappoint him by staying with him and I hadn’t wanted to hurt him when I eventually left, but Beau had made that impossible. I couldn’t fucking win!
My belly twitched as Brady thumped in my belly, then Annie followed.
I gave the babies a reassuring pat. “Don’t worry, kids. We’re just going to find Daddy and…have a hard conversation.”
I turned onto the country road that led to the manor and cursed every bump I hit. No matter how slowly I drove, Annie and Brady knocked into each other at the slightest dip in the pavement.
The sun was beginning to set when the Mustang crawled up the driveway to Fontaine Manor. I parked in front behind Cheryl’s BMW and slowly heaved my body out of the car. I smashed the pad of my thumb against the front door’s sensor. As soon as the lock clicked open, I flung open the door.
“Beau?” I called as I waddled into the dark foyer.
No answer.
I hissed out a breath and headed to the elevator to see if Beau was hiding in his room when I caught a blur of white fluff in the corner of my vision.
I turned my head toward the back doors and found Titus jumping up and pawing at the glass. I met him outside and he let out a booming bark just before a crack like a gunshot echoedthrough the dusk.
My heart leapt into my throat. My head whipped around to the source of the noise—a copse of pecan trees down the hill. What the hell was Beau doing?
Titus pressed his wet nose into the palm of my hand and then ran off the patio toward the trees.
I furrowed my brows just as a series of cracks broke the silence, the sounds not uniform enough to have come from a gun. Cursing under my breath, I picked up the hem of my white skirt and followed Titus down the gentle slope into the trees.
Cows mooed from the distant pasture. My hands cradled my heaving belly as I struggled to keep pace with Titus. Didn’t Beau consider that I was too fucking pregnant for his nonsense?
I was damn near out of breath when I finally found him. His face and bare chest glistened with sweat as he picked up a nearby log and set it on a stump. He swung the ax in his hands and split the log in two with the same loud crack I had heard earlier.
Titus sat beside me, on guard. I leaned my shoulders against the trunk of a pecan tree as I caught up with my breath. An unorganized pile of newly-split wood rested only a few feet away. Amongst the grass and leaves were long scraps of fabric, like Beau had torn his shirt clean in half before deciding to play lumberjack.
Once I had enough air in my lungs, I called out, “What thefuckare you doing?”
Beau looked up right before he raised his ax again and his eyes turned steely. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m preparing for a bonfire.”
He swung the ax on another log.Crack.
I swallowed. “And…what do you intend on burning?”
Beau hissed out a tense breath and picked up the splintered half of the log.“Wood,Olivia. If you want to make up a story foryour little friends about how I incinerated your clothes or the twins’ teddy bears in a fit of rage, be my fucking guest.”
I folded my arms. “How dare you think that I’d ever lie like that. I’m only concerned about you.”
“Why?” he huffed as he tossed the log into the grass. With a big swing of his arms, he stuck the ax into the stump and turned to me with his hands resting on his hips. “We aren’t together, remember?”
