by Frankie Love
"It's true," Rosie pipes up from down the table. "She told me once she'd rather have the engagement and wedding in one fell swoop. Heck, didn’t you say that you wondered why people even got engaged at all? That there’s no point in waiting to start the rest of your life."
I look over at Josie whose cheeks are bright red. "Okay, new topic, please!" She laughs, but I can tell she's uncomfortable.
"Hey, it's okay to know what you want," I say, running my hand over her back. "I think that's pretty sweet. And you're right, Josie, if you know, why wait?"
I look over at Jonah who doesn't seem so convinced. His eyes are fixed on me with a scowl. And later, as everyone is cleaning up dinner, I see Josie drag him by the arm away from the crowd.
I try not to worry about what he is doing or saying to her or what she is saying to him.
I need to tell Josie the truth, so she can decide what man she really wants. I told the men I work for, but they agreed it is my story to tell.
But my time is running out, I can feel it. And I know I'm the man for her. I just need to make sure she knows that too.
Chapter 6
Josie
Jonah has been so ridiculous all week and tonight is no exception.
I pull him behind the garage, ready to give him a piece of my mind.
"What the heck, Jonah?" I'm angry at him for giving the man who is actually making me happy, such a hard time. "Why are you so intent on ruining this for me?"
Jonah frowns. "I'm not trying to ruin anything but Josie, what has Beau even told you about himself?"
"What do you mean? You think we don't talk? That we only have wild sex?"
Jonah raises his eyebrows. "I so don't need to hear that."
"Oh, so you're free to sleep around, but if I have sex with someone you're gonna judge me? That's seriously so messed up, Jonah."
He runs his hands through his hair. "I know. I don't mean it like that. I just... Josie, I care about you. And the last thing I want is to see some guy none of us really know hurt you."
"You aren't my boyfriend, Jonah. You don't get to decide who I hang out with."
"I know." Jonah kicks the gravel, shoving his hands in his pocket. "I know I'm not your boyfriend, but I am your best friend. And I'd think you would at least consider what I'm saying."
My defenses are on high alert, and I don't know why except for the fact that I really like Beau and my best friend doesn't think we fit.
"Why don't you think he's the right guy for me anyway?"
"I just know how much you value honesty and I know for a fact he hasn't told you his whole story. And after hanging out for a week, having him come inside your house and all, I just think he should have by now."
"How do you know that? What aren't you saying?"
Jonah raises his hands and steps away. "It's something Hawk mentioned, about Beau's past. Look, I don't want to get in the middle of anything, but as your friend, I think you need to ask him where he's been the last five years."
"Fine," I say, crossing my arms. "I'll ask him. But we've been honest with one another, I know we have."
"Good. Then prove me wrong, Josie."
"Are you mad that you and I aren't ...."
Jonah shakes his head. "No, it isn't about being jealous. It's about wanting to make sure you're safe."
I snort. "This is about my safety now?"
"Josie, you can't seriously know someone in a week."
I tell Jonah goodbye, anxious to take Beau home and ask him more, wanting to believe that Jonah is wrong about everything.
And I do know that he's wrong about really knowing someone in a week.
Maybe I don't know everything about Beau Montgomery, but I know enough.
I know that I am falling for him.
--
In my room that night, I undress, slipping on a cotton nightgown and letting down my hair. Beau comes in the room, wrapping his arms around me from behind, pulling me against him. I let my head fall back against his chest, but feeling as if there is something holding me back from giving him more.
Jonah's words from earlier have been on my mind for hours. After I spoke with him, I tried to recover and focus on my friends and the kiddos running around at the BBQ, but my mind kept going back to what Jonah said. That he knows Beau is holding something back.
"You okay, Jo?" Beau asks, pushing aside my hair and kissing my ear.
"Yeah, it was a long night is all."
"Is that all it is?" He holds me tighter, and in his arms, I do feel safe but I wouldn't be honest with myself, or him, if I don't say something.
"I don't know. Jonah got in my head tonight." I turn to face Beau, wanting to see his eyes for this. "He seems to think you have parts of your past you're avoiding telling me about."
Beau's arms are around me, and I feel him tense at my words.
"Is there something I should know?" I ask.
"I'm not trying to hide anything from you, Josie, but Jonah isn't wrong." Beau exhales as if whatever comes next takes his breath away.
I swallow hard, already feeling myself pull back, wanting to wrap my heart in a protecting layer, so it won't get broken during whatever conversation comes next.
"I've known you a week, Josie. And I don't want to scare you with the truth of my past."
"So, you've been doing more than build houses since you moved to Idaho?"
He nods, pulling away and walking toward the half-open window. The crescent moon is behind him, and the sliver of light seems to illuminate the reality of how little I know Beau. Really know him.
"Josie, I don't want to hurt you. And maybe it was wrong not to tell you straight away, but I didn't know that a week in, I'd feel like this."
"Feel like what?"
"Feel better when you're next to me. Feel complete when I can look over and see your face. Feel grounded when your body presses against mine. Dammit, Josie. I know it's been only a week and we haven't even had a proper date but you're making me crazy in a way that doesn't feel like chaos. It feels like you and I could build something together that is solid. That could stand the test of time."
His words peel away the protective layer. I feel it fall away and I fall more in love with him. There is no way I can protect my heart from Beau, because the truth is, it's like he already has it in his hands.
"You can tell me anything," I say. "Don't you trust me?"
He sits on the window ledge. "Of course, I trust you, but Josie, going to your friend's place tonight only emphasized how different we are. And I wonder if a man like me is going to ruin a girl like you. Maybe someone like Jonah is more deserv…"
I cut him off. I step toward him, pressing my hand to his lips, needing to contain those words that hold no ounce of truth.
"I don't want Jonah. And he doesn't want me. So, you can get that
out of your head for good."
"I want to believe you but he..."
"Stop it, Beau. Don't doubt me in this. Trust me. And let me trust you. Say whatever it is without being scared of me running away." I stand in front of him, between his knees. I won't let him talk me out of how I feel.
"I was in prison, Josie. For five years."
My eyes widen. I prepared myself for a lot of scenarios... an ex-wife, a child, debt ... but prison?
"For what?"
Beau's eyes meet mine. They are deep pools of blue and the sorrow they hold seems to spread the breadth of the ocean.
"For dealing drugs and trafficking guns."
My brows furrow. I can't reconcile the Beau I know with a man who sells drugs and guns. Not to the point of being sentenced to prison.
For five years.
But even still, I feel my body react to the words. I feel safe with him but should I?
"Who...? I mean, how?"
"I was driving a car filled with drugs. Not to mention a shit ton of cash and a trunk full of guns." His words force a chill over my bones. And for a second, I question all that I know about Beau. The room is still, and I want
to erase the words he has said.
Then he speaks again and it changes everything.
"But the thing is, Josie. It wasn't me. I was framed."
"You didn't do it?" I shake my head. "You're saying you went to prison for five years for a crime you didn't commit?"
"Exactly. I ran around with some guys who used my trust against me. They screwed me over, and now... Shit. I'm fucking terrified I'm gonna lose you over it."
"But you don't just get framed. The evidence must have been..."
"It was bad. I'm telling you. I'm loyal to a fault. And when my friend Tommy realized that he planted me in a car, knowing it was either him that would be busted or me."
"Beau, why didn't the investigators believe you?"
"Tommy knew what he was doing. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time more than once."
"Have you seen him since you got out?" I know my voice trembles, but I don't know how to still it.
"No. But I heard that was looking for me. Has questions only I can answer. But I don't know anything about him. Not now and clearly, I never really did. That's why I left town the moment I got out. I wanted to start over."
He looks so broken like his story nearly breaks him and I want to be the woman who holds him up, helping piece him back together.
"This is why I didn't tell you," he says. "I went to prison, the things I've seen. Fuck, Josie. I know you say you trust me, but believing my innocence is something a judge couldn't even do."
I press my hands to Beau's cheeks. "I believe you."
His eyes search mine. "Why?"
"Because I choose to."
He shakes his head. "I've seen too much, Josie. You're nothing but innocence and beauty and a life I know nothing about. This whole town is too good for me. I don't deserve…"
"Stop it, Beau. Stop saying what you don't deserve. It's not how the world works. And fair isn't equal." I blink away my tears, so wanting to be the someone solid Beau needs. I want to be his rock and together I want to build a foundation.
And maybe it's crazy to want all that, so soon. Maybe my desire is blinding me from some truth but I don't care. Right now, I'm willing to risk it all.
I watched Buck and Rosie do that. So, did Harper and Jax and Hawk and Honor. This entire mountain was built on choosing to love when it seemed like the biggest risk of all.
"You've known me a week, Josie. You can't…"
"Stop it," I say, louder than I intended. My eyes lock on his. "Let me love you, Beau."
His eyes are filled with tears now. This rock-solid man, with a mountain man beard and a rugged truck and a wild heart, he is crying when he looks in my eyes. "You love me?"
"I think I do, Beau. I'm not looking for the perfect man. I am looking for a man who feels deeply and understands that life is precious. I want someone who isn't scared of things being hard. I want a man who will fight for love. Fight for me."
"Let me be that man for you, Josie."
"Even with all the risks? Without any guarantees?" I ask.
"Even with."
"Make love to me, Beau. Please," I beg. Needing his hands on my bare skin and wanting his heart to beat hard against my chest and longing for his arms to cradle me through the night.
We don't know everything there is to know about one another, but as he carries me to the bed, presses himself inside me, and kisses my lips with a tenderness I've never felt from a man before, I choose the risk.
Love rewards the brave, after all.
And right now, with Beau Montgomery, I choose to be brave.
I choose to trust in his innocence.
Chapter 7
Beau
As another few weeks pass, Josie and I fall into a rhythm. She works at the diner until mid-afternoon while I'm working on her house and then we spend the rest of the daylight hours memorizing one another’s bodies. After we make love, we make dinner.
As she stirs spaghetti sauce, I make a salad. It feels good, after so long, to do something domestic. Even though I held a grudge against Judge Smith for a long time for putting me behind bars, right now, I realize all that has happened brought me to the here and now.
Cooking beside a beautiful woman, who has accepted me, despite my baggage.
“Too sweet?” Josie asks, holding a wooden spoon up to my mouth.
I taste the tomato sauce and shake my head. “It’s perfect, girl, just like you.” I kiss, her, loving the way she looks in her apron, and it’s impossible for me to keep my hands off her. She swats me away as I try to lift her shirt, her giggles filling the kitchen that’s barely still in working order.
After supper, we work on the kitchen project together. Right now, we're peeling off the wallpaper; a steamer in her hand and a wall scraper in mine. Tedious, but she's adorable with a kerchief holding her hair back, biting her bottom lip as she moves the steamer up and down, slowly and methodically, making me smile the whole time. Even though sticky glue covers us and the remnants of the fifty-year-old paper attaches itself to our arms and legs as we work.
But damn, it feels good to do this together, and while I may have been with other women in my younger years, I never stood beside a woman demolishing a kitchen.
We are building this place back up, one job at a time. And it feels so damn good to be putting something together after five years of feeling like I was doing nothing but getting torn down.
While we work, she asks about prison and I appreciate her ability to face something headlong. This girl doesn't tiptoe. She makes a choice and sticks too it. At least as far as I can tell. And her ability to take my stories and accept them without judgment, draw me closer to her than I've ever been with another person in my life.
"Do you believe things happen for a reason?" she asks, on her knees as she steams the paper along the floorboards.
I think about how to answer as I move the scraper over the loosened paper and push it away.
"I guess, if I didn't it would mean you and I were nothing but coincidence."
"And you think we're more than that?" she asks.
"I think coincidences are for people without imagination," he says.
She laughs. "And you're Mr. Imagination? "
I press my lips together, cocking my brow. "What, you think I don't do anything out of the ordinary? Don't know how to use my imagination to get a little crazy? Have a little spontaneous fun?"
"Um. Not really," Josie says looking at me like I don't know a thing, her smile hidden by a smirk. "No offense, Beau, but no one would describe you as spontaneous."
"Guess I need to do something to change that," I say, picking her up and throwing her over my shoulder.
"Beau," she squeals in my arms, kicking playfully. "Put me down, you crazy man."
"Not a chance, sweet cheeks," I say, carrying her upstairs. She's a sticky mess, and I'm no better. In the bathroom, I set her down, turning on the shower and then picking her back up and setting her inside the claw foot tub.
"Are you nuts? I'm dressed!" she cries as the shower head sprays her down. "Beau!"
"Then you better get out of those clothes," I tell her, keeping the shower curtain open, and crossing my arms, watching as she hurriedly removes her clothing, shimmying out of her cut-offs and peeling her tank top over her head. In seconds, she's naked and the hot water runs in rivulets over her bare skin.
"What are you smiling about?" she asks. "You're getting in here too, mister."
"That tub won't fit us both,” I tell her, eying the space. My broad shoulders and taller than average height were not meant to fit under that showerhead.
"Then let's take a bath," she says. She reaches for the tub stopper and the tub begins to fill. She adds bubble bath, then puts her hands on her hips. "Now get in here, Beau Montgomery, and clean me up."
I can't resist her, not when she's smiling like that. Her breasts so damn tempting and her round ass bare, but even when this girl is fully dressed, I know I'm hopeless for her.
As I step into the hot water in the quickly
filling tub, I pull her down on top of me. The water splashes over the sides and I know we're making a mess, but neither of us cares. The bubbles surround her, and our laughter fills the hundred-year-old bathroom that hasn't seen this much action in decades, far as I can tell.
She sinks down on me, our bodies barely fitting, and we crack up as we awkwardly adjust. I pull her mouth to mine, kissing her hard, loving the way she opens against me, her pussy and my cock finding where they belong even if we're in a bathtub made for one.
"Is this enough imagination for you, Josie?" I ask. Her laughter turning to whimpers as she rides my hard cock.
"Yes. This is no coincidence. This is..." She stops talking then because an orgasm washes over her and she grips the edge of the tub as she comes so fucking hard.
But I don't need her to finish the sentence. I already know how it is supposed to end.
With her in my arms, forever.
This is no coincidence. This is love.
----
A few days later, we pull up to her father's house. It's a few hours from the mountain, but it was a gorgeous drive through a forest of pine trees. We arrive in Boise before dinner time, and within a few minutes, I wished I were back at her Granddad’s house--back in the country--away from the traffic and Super Wal-Marts and fast food chains.
And that is just the half of it. The truth is, I’m not interested in running into anyone I used to know. Least of all Tommy. I haven’t heard a word about him since I moved to the woods, but danger seems to be lurking around every corner in a major city and I don’t want Josie to be in harm’s way.
Tommy is not to be trusted.
But the dinner with her dad was inevitable. I know things are going fast with Josie and me, but I don’t intend to put the brakes on anytime soon. She is the only woman I want.
Still, dinner with her dad makes me a little uneasy. The idea of sitting up straight with a man who I know works for the state makes me uncomfortable.
"And what exactly does your father do?" I’d asked her before, but she was always vague about his occupation.