By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(43)

Beau’s face crumpled. “I was trying to hold it together,” he said. “But you just made me picture him standing there…asking for ice cream samples…with the parrot on his shoulder. And I just…”

Izzy started giggling, then Beau did, then they were both laughing helplessly in line. She turned away from him to look in the other direction, in the hope that it would make one or both of them recover, but they both just laughed harder.

She almost leaned back against him but stopped herself. That’s not what this was.

Finally, they got to the front of the line. They decided on their ice cream flavors much more quickly than Izzy would have predicted. Caramel brownie, cookies and cream, coffee, triple chocolate, lemon and marionberry, and vanilla bean. Loaded down with ice cream, hot fudge, and raspberry sauce, they walked back to the car.

“Bye, parrot man,” Izzy said as soon as they were out of earshot. “I’ll never forget you.”

Beau laughed so hard at that he could barely start the car.

On the way back to the house Izzy googled the name of the Thai restaurant Beau told her he liked.

“I’ve probably had half their menu. The only thing I don’t like from that place is the desserts. When I put in a big order, they always send me this strange rice pudding thing, as like, a bonus or something. I’m weird about stuff like that, I hate any kind of pudding.”

Izzy turned to stare at him. “So do I!” she said. “I hate all pudding. Anything with that jiggling texture, I just can’t handle it.” Ohhh. That’s why Michaela had laughed on her first day.

“Really?” Beau laughed. “No one else ever understands this. They’re always like, ‘How do you like chocolate ice cream and not chocolate pudding, they’re the same ingredients?’ Just because they have the same ingredients doesn’t mean they’re the same thing!”

Izzy nodded. “People do that to me, too. They get all shocked that I don’t like crème brûlée—once you get through the crunchy topping, it’s just wobbly grossness in a spoon.”

When they got back to the house, Izzy turned to go up the staircase.

“I’ll put the ice cream away and order the food,” Beau said. “Just come down to the TV room whenever you’re ready.”

She nodded and ran up the stairs, but Beau stopped her when she was halfway up.

“Wait, Izzy—we didn’t decide what to order!”

She turned around. “I trust you. Order all the good stuff.” She started back up the stairs, and then turned around again. “You were right. We needed a break today. I needed a break today. It was a tough work week and, well…thanks for suggesting it. And for the surfing lesson.”

He looked up at her, a smile on his face. “You’re welcome. And thank you. I hadn’t gone surfing in…a while. It felt really good.”

They smiled at each other, and then Izzy walked very slowly up the stairs. Her legs hurt, too? Why did her legs hurt this much?

After they were settled in the TV room, in comfortable clothes, with wine in front of them and with more Thai food than Izzy had ever seen in one place in her life, Beau nudged her.

“You said it was a tough work week—do you want to talk about it? You seemed kind of stressed in the library earlier.”

Izzy took a sip of wine and thought about that. Surfing and being outside had definitely calmed her down from how upset she’d been earlier. But she was still angry.

“It’s just…There’s this guy, Gavin, who I work with,” she said. “He’s always been supportive of me, at least, I thought so. But yesterday after work, my friend Priya told me she’d overheard him talking to Marta. He said he was concerned about me being here, that I wasn’t up for working with you, that she should have me come back.”

“He WHAT?”

She turned to look at Beau, who had that rage in his face she remembered so clearly from her first week here.

“Yeah, that’s what I said.” She reached for a spring roll. “He told me that first week he thought someone with more experience should be here, and that Marta agreed, but I didn’t realize he was still lobbying to get me sent back. I’m just so mad about it.”

“Of course you’re mad,” Beau said. “I’m mad, too.”

She was unreasonably pleased at how angry he was on her behalf. It actually made her less mad, seeing how mad Beau was.

“Like, I’ve had enough problems with Marta, I don’t know why Gavin is undermining me like this. Especially when it feels like you and I are…”

“Making some progress?” he finished. “Yeah, we are. Don’t let that asshole get to you. It sounds like he’s trying to sabotage you with your boss.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m sure that’s not it. Gavin has always been…”

She thought about that. She didn’t think Gavin was trying to sabotage her, exactly. But it did feel shitty that he would try to take this away from her and go behind her back to do it. Why would he do something like that?

“I’ll email Marta,” Beau said. “I’m not ready to send her anything I’ve written yet—just the thought of sending Marta anything terrifies me—but I’ll tell her things are going well. Will that help?”