Page 58 of Back To Our Beginning

“Well, I do.”

“I love you, too. Do you love your Raider?”

I sat up straight in my chair. What a question.

“Come on, answer the question. This is Beau we’re talking about. It’s not a hard question.”

I still didn’t say anything.

“Maddie, you there?”

“Oh my God, Evie. I do. I really do love him. I’m head over fucking heels in love with him. He means everything to me.”

“Is he going to leave the teams?”

“Huh?”

“He’s special operations. A Marine Raider. Is he going to skip his retirement and move to Jasper Creek?”

“I don’t know,” I wailed.

Richard peeked over my cube, and I glared at him. He sat back down.

“It isn’t the end of the world if he doesn’t. You can do like I did. Move to California and wait til he retires. That’s what I’ve done with Aiden.”

“Evie, he hasn’t even said he loves me.” I choked out the words.

“He loves you,” she assured me.

“How do you know? Are you reading tea leaves these days?”

“Don’t have to. I’ve talked to Trenda and Drake. They both said Beau’s crazy about you.”

“They did?” I winced at the hope in my voice.

“Yep.”

My shoulders slumped. “They don’t know him all that well.”

“Well, I know somebody who does,” Evie responded.

“Who?

“You. You know him that well, Mads. Sounds to me like it’s time for you to have a heart-to-heart talk with him.”

I sighed. She was right.

“I heard that sigh. You’re going to have to pull up a pair of big girl panties. Probably cotton granny panties. Knowing you, you have a pair. Go dig ‘em out and put ‘em on. Then talk to the man.”

“Fine,” I muttered.

“Then I want a full transcript of the conversation. Got it?”

“Do you want me to record it?” I asked sarcastically.

“That would be great!” She sounded far too excited.

“Dream on, big sister. Dream on.”