Page 30 of Dirty Ginger

9

Back at the house, sitting around the large picnic table they always used for big family meals, Amelia felt… different. Everything felt different now. When she’d decided to move away to college, she secretly hoped that Beckett would reach out for her and that she’d get him back, but it never happened. Part of her felt sad for all he’d gone through, but the other part of her realized that if her leaving meant it helped him get healthy, it was worth it.

As she looked around, her chest felt open and so full of love… It had been years since she’d been this comfortable at one of their family dinners. She knew why—Luka wasn’t there. The biggest truth that hit her was she realized, that while embarrassed over being dumped by Luka at the altar, that emotion was nothing in comparison to the pain she felt when Beckett had pushed her away. That was love. What she had with Luka wasn’t the same. She pushed around the baked beans on her plate, wondering why it had taken her so long to see that something was wrong between them. It made her wonder, after Beckett shared his truth, if she’d been hiding from hers. All she and Luka had done was fought, and if she were honest, she had her doubts about him for a long time. In the broken parts of her heart, she knew she’d been so desperate to make it work with Luka, because she didn’t want to fail at love twice. She’d put up with the fighting, always having a way to explain it away. She overlooked the way he never took any interest in her life, and how he turned his nose down at her small town life.

Someone kicking her foot had her lifting her head. Beckett’s brows were knotted. “You okay?” he mouthed.

She nodded and gave him a smile to reassure him.

It didn’t work. His brows tightened further.

She stared into his strong, solid eyes, losing herself in all they offered her. With all the honesty bubbling up, she began to realize that this was what she had truly wanted. The ease Beckett brought. He’d grown up with her sisters. They were all close, Clara’s protective nature of Beckett proving that. But she knew now, surrounded by her family, both blood and chosen, that Luka had been a fill in. Luka was the guy she thought she wanted because the one she craved had been unattainable. But Beckett was no longer pushing her away. He wasn’t cold. He wasn’t distant. And her heart knew the man locked onto her like she was the only thing he could see at the table, passion, desire and sweet things pooling in his eyes.

At whatever showed on her face, emotion filled Beckett’s expression. The world faded away as he reached across the table, taking her one hand in the both of his. In the space between them, a connection bloomed that seemed tangible in the warm air.

“Um, well, this got weird,” Maisie said.

Amelia blinked, startled, as she suddenly remembered they weren’t alone. Every set of eyes were locked onto her and Beckett. She tried to pull her hand away, but Beckett held on tight. When she met his gaze again, she read his expression, knowing it from the years they had together. I got this, those steady eyes told her.

Beckett threw Maisie a sly smile. “Weird is my walking in on you buck naked dancing around Hayes’ kitchen.”

Maisie blushed up to her eyeballs, and Hayes barked a laugh. “Ha! I’ll never forget that.” He slapped the table. “The look on both your faces. Classic.”

At the end of the table, sitting next to Clara, Mason burst out laughing. “Auntie Maisie was buck naked.”

“That isn’t funny,” Clara chided her son, but she looked to be fighting her laughter.

Maisie sighed, leaning over to Mason and said, “It is a little funny, but that’s not a story you tell your friends. I have enough embarrassment from that day.”

While everyone joined in the conversation and the laughter, Amelia couldn’t look away from Beckett as he lifted her hand to his lips, and looking right at her, kissed her palm. She’d felt this with him before. Happiness, not jaded by any hurts. She forgot how nice this felt. How real and honest and true, and how Beckett knew her heart, understood what she needed when she needed it. How had she forgotten that?

When he finally released her hand, he gave her a little smile that stole the air from her lungs. A smile that was all for her, only for her, as Clara blessedly changed the topic. “How are the new beer flavors coming?” she asked.

Amelia gently pulled her hand away, still feeling his kiss on her palm. She spotted the glimmer in Clara’s eyes. She obviously didn’t hate what happened between her and Beckett. Amelia began to wonder if both her sisters knew what Amelia had just realized a second ago. “Actually, today I had a little bit of a breakthrough when Beckett and I went out for our ride and he was talking about sitting around our dinner table.” When silence greeted her, she laughed. “Do you want to hear my ideas?”

Next to Clara, Sullivan wiped his mouth with his napkin and nodded. “Who better to run your new beers ideas than your number one fans?”

“Well, funny you should say that,” she said. “Because you’re all inspiration for the flavors.”

Maisie set down her BBQ rib onto her plate, scrunching her nose. “What do you mean?”

“Honestly, I was drawing a blank coming up with fresh ideas, and today it just hit me. Foxy Diva was all Pops, so I drew inspiration from all of your personalities for the new samples.” To Maisie, she said, “Take you for example, your beer is a dark ale. It’ll taste like white peaches mixed with bananas and summer fields.”

Maisie rubbed her tummy. “Sounds delicious.”

“I think so too,” Amelia said with a laugh. To Hayes, she said, “For you, we’ve got an amber ale, with flavors like second cut grass, sour crust dough and a hint of banana to sweeten things up.”

Hayes grinned, about to bite into his rib. “Now that’s a beer I can get behind.”

She smiled at him before turning to Sullivan. “You’re a Pilsner full of soft grain, a hint of orange, gentle spice and hay.”

“We all know that beer will hit it right out of the park,” Sullivan beamed.

Hayes snorted. “Terrible pun. Just God awful.”

Everyone around the table laughed, as Amelia said to Clara, “Yours will be fresh Indian pale ale, with white wine, gooseberry, papaya with lime.”

“Ooh,” Clara said. “A perfect beer for a summer’s day.”

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