Folk Around and Find Out (Good Folk: Modern Folktales #2)(118)

Instead, still smiling, he said, “What’s the problem again?”

I huffed. “Stop being an asshole and help me with this.”

He laughed. “I’m serious. What’s the problem?”

“Fine, dummy. I’ll spell it out again.” I lowered my voice to a whisper and leaned close, not wanting Shelly to overhear when she walked in. “I’m in love with Charlotte. She may or may not be in love with me, which means I need to figure out: A) how to make her love me, or B) make sure she’s always in love with me, or C) how to walk away when the time comes without becoming a pathetic shadow of my former self.”

Irritatingly, his smile widened. “And how do you propose making sure Charlotte is always in love with you? Tell me what that looks like.”

Beau hadn’t whispered his question, so I scowled at him. “Keep your voice down.”

“Why?”

“Shelly doesn’t like me and I don’t want her to—”

“Hold up. Stop right there.” Beau held up his hands between us, now frowning. “Why would you say that? Why would you think Shelly doesn’t like you?”

“Are you serious? Why would she? What have I ever given her?”

My best friend rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to give people things in order for them to like you. You just have to be yourself and hope their kind of weird matches your kind of weird. Like us.”

I sighed, glancing at the ceiling for help. “Says the guy who is universally liked by everyone because he’s always giving people shit for free.”

Beau laughed. “You dummy. I don’t give ‘shit for free.’ That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Then what are you doing? Huh?” How our conversation had altered course so completely, I had no idea. But since we were on the subject, hashing this shit out was long overdue. “It’s exhausting, watching you people give so much of yourselves away for free. Why do you do that? You and Charlotte, you’re basically the same person. I see it now. You’re always doing nice things for people without them asking, thinking the best of folks when they don’t deserve it. Why?”

Beau’s expression was the definition of fondly amused. “Oh, Hank. Haven’t you figured it out yet? The receiving is in the giving.”

I stared at him, nonplussed. “What the fuck is that? Did you read that in a fortune cookie? What does that even mean?”

He set his hand on my shoulder, his sky-blue eyes the picture of infinite patience. “Let me ask you this: is Charlotte a good person? Does she have a history of taking advantage of folks? Or does she try to do right by people? Is she thinking about other people’s comfort as well as her own?”

I wanted to shrug off his hand. Instead, I grunted and growled, “Haven’t you been listening? She’s a fucking angel.”

“Then there you go.” He nodded, letting his hand drop.

“There I go, what?” I swore to God, if he didn’t get to the point in five seconds or less, I was going to seek out Shelly in the kitchen and ask her for advice.

“Give. Her. Everything,” he said, his voice suddenly firm. All amusement had evaporated from his features, leaving behind a trace of fondness but mostly just sincerity. “Give Charlotte all of you. Don’t hold back. You can’t hold back. You can’t keep some of yourself in reserve just in case things don’t work out. If you do, then they for sure won’t work out. The two of you won’t last. You’ve got to give it your all.”

His words made the spot under my rib flare and I pressed my hand against the ache. “Shit,” I said. That was seriously good advice. It was also scary-as-shit advice.

“Yeah. Shit.” He nodded once, his features stark but also wry. “Between two people who aren’t users and who love each other, you get out of a relationship what you put into it. Put everything you got into it.”

“Tea is ready,” Shelly called from the kitchen, and we both turned toward the doorway. The woman appeared a moment later, her eyes landing on Beau, her expression unchanging. “I also put out those cookies you like, Beau.”

“Thank you,” he said warmly. “We’ll be there in a second.”

“Okay.” Shelly’s hawkish stare moved to me. “How is the new AC?”

“Uh, great. Thanks.”

“Good.” She nodded, leaning back. “You should come over more often, Hank. It’s good to see you.”

Startled, but doing a good job of hiding it, I nodded and rasped out, “It’s good to see you too, Shelly.”

Without another word, she turned and disappeared back into the kitchen, effectively knocking my world off its axis with the short exchange.

What have I given Shelly? Nothing.

“Come on, let’s go.” Beau smacked me on the upper arm with the back of his hand. “And don’t eat all my cookies. Two is plenty.”

My movements as sluggish as my mind, I slowly followed my best friend to the kitchen, asking and wondering at the same time, “Hey, what have you gotten out of our relationship, Beau?”

“Oh, you know, some funny cat memes. Some great memories. A Rolex, a house.” Beau glanced over his shoulder at me and sent me a grin, adding, “A fishing partner, a pain in my ass, and the best friend a guy could ever ask for.”