By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(70)

Well, no, she knew she wanted it to, that wasn’t in question. Not when he was kissing her, when she was kissing him, when their bodies were pressed together, when his big, strong hands held on to her and moved slowly up and down her body. It was just that everything had changed so fast. It was so good, she was so happy, that it scared her. She had no idea if she was right to trust him, to let herself fall into this with him. Which is why she didn’t want to let it go any further tonight, at least.

Late that night, after they did the dishes, Beau walked with her to the foot of the stairs. She wondered if he would expect to come up with her, but she shouldn’t have worried.

“Good night, Izzy,” he said. He leaned down and kissed her hard, and then took a step back.

“Good night, Beau,” she said.

She was halfway up the stairs when he stopped her.

“Izzy.”

She turned around and looked down at him.

“Today was the best day I’ve had in years,” he said.

She let herself smile at that as much as she wanted to.

“Same here,” she said.





Sunday morning, when Izzy walked into the kitchen, Beau was standing in front of a waffle iron with a big bowl of batter next to him.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re up,” he said. He flipped open the top of the waffle iron and poured a ladle full of batter inside. “I didn’t want to wake you up, but I also wanted waffles, so I was having a real quandary.”

Izzy poured herself coffee and sat down at the table. “You could have started without me, I wouldn’t have minded,” she said.

She hadn’t been sure what to expect this morning, after everything that happened. She’d fallen asleep so happy the night before, but this morning, she’d questioned everything, wondered if she’d imagined the way he’d looked at her, smiled at her, kissed her.

Beau shook his head. “But I would have minded.” He gave her a slow, very sweet smile.

She hadn’t imagined it.

“Plus,” he said, “I don’t know what you like with your waffles. I wouldn’t want to use up all the whipped cream and strawberries and leave none for you.”

She shook her head. “You can have them. Butter and maple syrup for me, please. And bacon.”

Normally, she would have said, “If you have those” or “I’ll take anything,” or something like that. But it had only taken her a few days in this house to know there was always literally anything she wanted inside this kitchen. There was no point in not asking for exactly what she wanted.

Beau gestured to the oven.

“Bacon is staying warm in there, butter is right here on the counter, and I’ll get the maple syrup.”

She took the bacon out of the oven, transferred it to a plate, and put it on the table for them. Beau set a bottle of maple syrup in front of her.

“Here you go, straight from Vermont, a place I’ve never been. But I’ve been told maple syrup grows on trees there.”

Izzy tried not to smile at that but failed.

He went back to the waffle iron, flipped it open again, and turned a huge golden waffle onto a plate.

“Come and get your waffle,” he said. He ladled more batter into the waffle iron.

Izzy walked over to him. “Shouldn’t we share that one? Now I’ll be starting without you,” she said.

He shook his head. “By the time you get your waffle all appropriately buttered and syruped, mine will be ready, don’t worry.” Then he slid his arm around her waist. “Mmm, wait a second. There’s something I forgot to do.”

He pulled her close, and she twisted her arms around his neck. Would she ever get tired of the way he held her like this? Had anything ever felt so good? Then he kissed her, and she stopped thinking about anything. Finally, he released her with a long sigh.

“Your waffle is getting cold,” he said.

She smiled at him. “I don’t really care.”

He shooed her toward the table. “Okay, but my waffle is going to burn. We can’t have that.”

Izzy sat down with, she was pretty sure, a smug smile on her face exactly like the one on Beau’s. She put butter and syrup on her waffle, and two slices of bacon on her plate. And sure enough, by the time she picked up her fork and knife, Beau slid across the table from her with a heap of whipped cream and strawberries on top of his waffle.

“See,” he said. “What did I tell you?”

She shook her waffle-laden fork at him. “Excuse me, but it wouldn’t have taken so long if it hadn’t been for your delay tactics.”

His smile grew even more smug. “I think you like my delay tactics a lot.”

She let her smile get bigger. “You might be right about that,” she said.

They grinned at each other for a few seconds before they dove into their food.

She was only halfway through one waffle when Beau got up to make a second one.

“Do you want another?” he asked her, before he ladled the batter into the waffle iron.

She shook her head. “Not now, maybe later,” she said.

He turned to her after he closed the waffle iron. “Speaking of later. I was thinking maybe we could get our work done early today, and then maybe this afternoon, we could go hiking, or something?”