By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(65)

He took the phone from her. “Okay.” He looked down at his phone. She could tell he was stalling—they were a few minutes early.

“If you get stressed,” she said, “just think about watching This Provincial Life later tonight.”

That made him smile. “I’ll also think about what snacks we’re going to eat during This Provincial Life.”

Izzy took off her seat belt. “Michaela restocked the cabinet, did you notice? We have lots of options.”

His eyes brightened. He took off his seat belt and reached for the door handle.

They both got out of the car. Izzy came around to the driver side to take the keys from him. Beau looked at her, then at the house. She could see his shoulders tense up.

“Do you want a hug?” she asked him, without thinking about it, then immediately wished she hadn’t. That last hug had been way too dangerous.

But then he took a step toward her.

“I absolutely do,” he said. He wrapped his arms around her, and she pulled him in close. Her head was nestled into his chest, his arms were hard against her back, and he bent his head so it rested on top of hers. They stayed like that for a while, holding on tight, not saying anything. Finally, he took a step back.

“Thanks. I really needed that.”

She backed up, too. “Glad I could help.”

They looked at each other for a few more seconds, and then he turned to the house again.

“Okay. I guess I’d better…”

She nodded, and opened the car door. “Just text me. I’ll be close by.”

She watched him walk up to the house and waited until he was at the front door before she drove away.

Izzy found Off to the Cupboard relatively easily, though she had to pay an arm and a leg for parking. She saw the boxes of Michaela’s tea and got her four boxes with the money Beau had given her. They cost more than she’d ever expected tea to cost, but then, she’d always been more of a coffee person. There was an empty table by the window, so she ordered herself some tea and a slice of chocolate cake, and sat down.

Then she stared at her laptop. All week, she’d been trying to make herself open the file for her old novel again, read it, and try to decide, now that she’d had time and space away, if she wanted to keep working on it. After this month with Beau, she no longer believed that Gavin was right about her talent and potential. Now she knew that she wanted this enough to work hard, to fight through setbacks, and to conquer the Gavins of the world.

But she was still scared to open this manuscript.

She set her jaw. If Beau could text his mom, could drive back to LA to see her, could walk into her house to apologize to her, despite how hard all of that was for him, she could at least open this damn document.

She had to search for the file. She’d hidden it away from herself, so she wouldn’t have to see it every time she opened her laptop and wouldn’t be tempted to delete it. Huh, maybe she and Beau had more in common than she’d thought. She finally found it, tucked away in a folder called Misc, in another folder called Taxes, and another folder called Spreadsheets. Izzy took a sip of tea and a bite of cake. And then she opened it.

She spent the next hour reading, skimming, then reading again. She found a lot she wanted to fix: paragraphs, whole pages that dragged, characters that she needed to tweak, plot points that didn’t make sense. But sometimes, she stopped thinking about what she had to fix, or cut, or add, and just got swept away in the story. Her story.

Finally, she sat back in her chair and gulped the last of her now cold tea. Her book wasn’t perfect, and she had a lot of work to do. But she knew it was good. She knew it, to her core. She knew it, the same way she knew that it meant something, something that she wasn’t quite ready to interrogate, that she could still feel the imprint of Beau’s hands on her back from their hug, hear the way he’d breathed her in, smell that scent of salt water and fresh air that always lingered around him.

She shook that off. She flipped to the beginning of the manuscript again, opened her notebook to a page in the back, and started to make notes of all the things she wanted to fix, chapter by chapter.

She was through the first half of the book when her phone buzzed.

You can come whenever you’re ready



She’d lost track of time, but now she realized that Beau had been with his mom for almost three hours. But the curtness of his text made her worried.

She texted him back right away.

Fifteen minutes



His response came quickly.

Ok. Let me know when you’re outside



And then, a few seconds later.

I’m glad I came





When Beau came out of the house to meet Izzy, he wasn’t alone. A tall, elegant Black woman was with him. Beau looked a lot like his mom, Izzy realized.

They both walked toward the car. As they got closer, Izzy could see from Beau’s facial expression, from his body language, that it had gone well. He looked calmer, more at peace. Happy.

Izzy got out of the car as they approached, and Beau smiled at her.

“Izzy, I’d like to introduce you to my mom, Nina Russell. Mom, this is Isabelle Marlowe.”

Izzy held out her hand, and Beau’s mom took it in both of hers.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Isabelle,” she said. “Beau has told me so much about you. Thank you, for everything you’ve done for him.”