By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(33)
His face lit up. “Seriously? Okay, fine, you have a deal. But you have to drink the whole thing—you can’t just take one sip and make a face and act like you’re done.”
She took one of the bottles from the tray. “Fine.” She unscrewed the top and suppressed a shudder. “I don’t know why they call it green juice. Even this color is disgusting. More gray than anything else.”
He flipped open the laptop. “A deal is a deal, Izzy.”
She rolled her eyes and took a sip. Huh. This green stuff was actually…delicious? Not that she’d tell him that.
“It’s as disgusting as I thought it would be, but I said I’d drink the whole thing, and I will. Now. Go.”
He just looked at her. “You’re a bad liar. You even sort of like it. Admit it.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t help the smile she could feel on her lips. “I admit nothing. Don’t you have work to do?”
He flipped pages of the notebook, still smiling, and started typing. Izzy kept smiling as she looked down at her phone. Her pep talks for Beau worked so much better now. Probably because they knew each other a lot better now. And also probably because she really meant them now.
Priya texted her right after she set the timer.
Ugh, I’m at happy hour with other people from the office and everyone is boring and/or annoying except for you. It feels like you’ve been in California forever. I can’t believe you’re going to be there for another three whole weeks!
Izzy forced herself not to laugh out loud.
I miss you, too! Omg but I just realized, I think I’ll still be here when you come out for your cousin’s wedding, I can see you then!
Priya wrote back immediately.
Oooh yesss I almost forgot about that! And you’re going to introduce me to Beau Towers, yay! Holding you to that
Izzy would just ignore that. Should she go back to her notebook and her new project? Maybe just…look at it, to see if she had any other places to start brainstorming? But what if it was all bad, and she could tell immediately?
It’s okay if it’s bad, she’d said to Beau, just a few days before.
Okay, okay.
When the timer went off again, Izzy shut the notebook right away. She was terrified to be writing again, but she still liked this idea.
Beau started to close his laptop, but she stopped him. “Did you save it? Preferably in more than one location, so you have a backup?”
A panicked look washed over his face. “I…you’re going to think this is stupid, but…”
“I bet I won’t,” she said.
He tried to smile but didn’t quite make it. “I thought about that, saving it, but I didn’t know what name to give it. It felt—it feels—too, I don’t know, official, to call it a book, or even a chapter.” He looked down. “I’m sorry, I’m being ridiculous.”
She grinned at him. “How about this? Call it ‘Isabelle made me do this.’”
He laughed. “Now, why didn’t I think of that?” His hands flashed over the keys, and then he looked up at her. “Done.”
Izzy picked up the green juice to take the last sip, but it was all gone. She looked across the table at Beau, who had a very smug expression on his face.
“Admit it,” he said. “Admit the green juice is refreshing.”
Izzy set her lips in a firm line so she wouldn’t smile. “I will admit that it grew on me a little, in that same way mold does, but I admit nothing else.”
Beau laughed and stood up. “If I didn’t already know how stubborn you were, I would know for sure now.” He flipped his notebook closed and handed it to her, like he did whenever they left the library. “Same time tomorrow?”
She smiled on the way out of the library. “I prefer the word determined, thank you very much. But tomorrow is Saturday—I’m not going to make you work over the weekend.”
She expected to see relief on his face, but instead he looked disappointed for just a second, before that old angry look settled back on his face. “Oh. Okay. That makes sense.”
Did he want to keep going?
“If you want, we can meet over the weekend, too,” she said.
He shook his head, not looking at her. “I’m not going to make you work with me on the weekend, it’s your time off.”
She poked him with the notebook. He jumped and finally looked directly at her. “You’re not making me do anything. I’m offering. Beau, do you want to meet here tomorrow to work on your book?”
He looked down for a moment and then met her eyes. “Yeah. Okay. Thanks.”
She started to walk back to her room.
“Izzy.”
She stopped and turned around.
“I was wondering,” he said. “Maybe you’ve already watched some more episodes of This Provincial Life on your own, and if so, ignore me, it’s fine. But if not, tonight, do you want to have dinner and watch one or two?”
She did, as a matter of fact.
“That sounds great,” she said. “Meet you in the kitchen. What time?”
The tense look on his face relaxed. “How about seven? Kettle made lasagna. I’ll tell her I can handle putting it in the oven. I’ll grab us a bottle of wine.” He paused. “I don’t know if you want any, but…I don’t know if you noticed, this week was a little stressful for me.”