Page 62 of Back To Our Beginning

“I told her last weekend that we needed to take each day as it came. I was working up to telling her I loved her.”

Roan looked at me from across the room like I was the world’s biggest idiot. Hell, maybe I was. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and set down my beer. It’d gotten warm. “I’m worried that I might be moving too fast.”

“You’re acting like a pussy. That’s what’s wrong. But the boy I knew and the man I know isn’t a pussy. So, what else is it?”

I pushed up off the couch and started pacing. Roan was right. Something was stopping me from talking to Maddie, but what the hell was it? I’d loved her when I left Jasper Creek. I’d done my best to put her out of my mind when I was in the Marines, but that didn’t always work. Then all that had to happen was seeing her at Maverick’s and I was done.

Bam. My heart broke open.

I could think of nothing better than loving Maddie Avery. Even so, there was something stopping me from making a commitment.

I stopped pacing.

I just stood there in the middle of Roan’s living room.

“Do you have it?” Roan asked.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I think I’m scared to really commit… not because I don’t want Maddie, but because I know what it’s like to lose people you love. My mom was ripped away, Brady—I mean Kai—too. I think deep down I figured if I didn’t hold on too tight, it wouldn’t hurt as bad if it all went to hell.”

Roan nodded once, his eyes serious. “That’s not being a pussy, Beau. That’s being human.”

Chapter Sixteen

I jolted awake, and then noticed the smell of oregano, basil, garlic, cheese, and fresh bread.

What the hell?

I stretched then threw back the covers.

I was still wearing my bra and panties that I’d worn to work. Beau had taken one look at me when he’d picked me up and insisted, I take a nap when we got home. Hell, I was so tired I hadn’t even give him too much shit about the teeny, tiny little car he was now driving. I threw on one of the few truly frivolous purchases I’d ever made, a yellow-and-red silk kimono-style robe, and wandered into the living room. He was waiting for me. The man had the hearing of a bat.

Ahhh, the smell of cheese and bread. I was in carbohydrate heaven.

“What did you make?”

“Five-cheese vegetable ziti, with cheesy garlic bread.”

The man knew exactly how I liked my vegetables. Smothered in cheese.

“Do I get a kiss for all my efforts?”

“Damn right you do.”

He sauntered over to me with a gleam in his eye. He grabbed my left hand and walked me over to the counter that separated the dining room from the kitchen, then lifted me up on top of it. We were now eye to eye.

“Oh, so this is going to be a serious kiss.”

He looked over my shoulder, then back at me. “There is still nine minutes until the timer rings. Let’s see what I can accomplish, shall we?”

“On the counter?” I squeaked.

“The curtains are closed.” This time I peeked over his shoulder and saw that he was right.

“You planned this. How’d you know I was going to wake up when I did?”

“I might have slammed the front door shut,” he smirked.