By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(38)

Izzy didn’t go back out to the pool, though. It was too dangerous out there. She and Beau were working together. She couldn’t get her mind all full of Beau’s bare arms and shoulders and back and dear God, his chest. At least he’d been in the pool the whole time and she hadn’t been able to see the rest of his body. Better to stay inside, where there was no chance of that.

On Friday, when she walked into the library at three, Beau was already there, his laptop open, the tray of snacks on the table, and the bottle of green juice at Izzy’s seat.

She sat down and twisted the cap off. “Okay, where were we?” She pushed Beau’s notebook across the table to him. “You know what? It’s Friday, you’ve worked hard all week, let’s do something fun: Today, why don’t you write down your favorite story about yourself. You know the one I mean, the funny one you tell at parties, some adventure you went on, something fun you did as a kid, whatever. Write as much as you can get to today; this weekend you can type it up and work on it. Starting…now.”

Izzy set the timer. She looked down at her phone and sighed. She had more work to do, but she didn’t have the heart for it today.

All of a sudden, Beau flipped closed his notebook and pushed it back across the table to her. She looked up from her phone. “What—”

“Today is a break day,” he said. “I decree it.”

Break day. What a concept.

“Oh, you decree it? Then it must be true.” She took his notebook. “It’s fine if you need a break, we all do sometimes.” She started to get up. “Okay, well—”

“No,” he said. “Not just me. We both need a break. It’s Friday, and you’ve been working with me every day for almost two weeks. You need a break even more than I do.” He stood up. “The thing I started writing was actually fun, but it reminded me that it’s too beautiful a day to be inside. Get your stuff, we’re going to the beach.”

She stayed where she was and looked up at him. “Oh, I don’t have…beach stuff here. I actually haven’t been to the beach yet.”

He looked at her, his mouth in a perfect O. “You haven’t been to the beach?” She started to explain, but he kept going. “This is unacceptable. We have to teach you the true meaning of fun. There are plenty of places to buy everything you need. Be at the car in ten minutes.”

He left the room before she could argue with him.

Izzy stood up slowly. The beach. It did feel sort of criminal that she’d been here for over two weeks and hadn’t been to the beach yet. She looked out at the Pacific Ocean from her bedroom window every single day, but she’d never seen it up close. Beau was probably right; she should do something about that.

Okay. She smiled. The beach.

Izzy was down at the car in the prescribed ten minutes, after scrambling into a sundress, throwing her braids up into a big topknot, and grabbing the flip-flops she’d bought this week—she couldn’t keep going everywhere in her ballet flats.

Beau shook his head at her as he unlocked the car. “I still can’t believe you haven’t been to the beach since you’ve been here,” he said. “You’ve taken the car a few times, where have you gone?”

Izzy put her seat belt on. She hadn’t realized Beau had paid such close attention to her comings and goings.

“Oh, just shopping. To the stationery store, to buy the notebooks and pens. And then also…when I packed to come to California a few weeks ago, I thought I was going to be here for four days for a work conference, not…”

“Not move in with a recluse for weeks on end and teach him how to write a book?” Beau grinned at her as he pulled out into the street.

Izzy laughed. “That’s not exactly how I would have put it, but yes, as you can imagine, I needed to buy a few things.” She couldn’t believe she’d been here for so long already. She couldn’t believe she only had two weeks left.

Once they were on the way down the hill, she turned to Beau. She’d been holding this in since they left the library.

“That thing you started writing was actually fun to write, huh?”

He sighed, but she could see the smile in his eyes. “I was hoping you hadn’t heard me say that. Now you’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

She elbowed him. “That’s not true! I’m just…glad. That’s all.”

He looked over at her for a second and then back to the road in front of him. “I’m glad, too,” he said.

They got to the beach less than ten minutes later. She hadn’t realized how close it was; a beach seemed like something you had to travel to get to, not like a trip to the grocery store.

They pulled into a parking space, and she started to follow Beau. But instead of walking down toward the beach, he turned and went in the other direction.

“Where are we going?”

He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “You’ll see.”

Beau walked into one of the shops, just off the beach.

“Hi, guys,” he said to the people working there. “I need to rent a wet suit that will work for her.” He pointed at Izzy. “And a surfboard for her, too.”

Izzy took a step back and stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

He suddenly had a very wide grin on his face. “Now it’s my turn to teach you something. Surprise: You’re getting surfing lessons today, Izzy.”