Page 13 of Eighteen Bowties and Counting

“She’s technically moving in with me.” Beau’s chest tightened slightly, but he’d had a few days to get used to the idea of Charlotte living in his cabin. She’d been out to the ranch twice since. First to look through the cabin and accept the job. He’d given her the paperwork and all that.

Then, she’d come yesterday to pick a bedroom and take some measurements. She’d turned in her paperwork, and she’d be moving in tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Beau could barely believe it, and he’d come here expressly to tell Garth about this and see what he said.

“Who is she?” Garth asked, his voice the forced casual that said he was working through some surprise before saying too much.

“I actually know her,” Beau said. His shoulders rippled as he did a wavy shrug. “I mean, kind of. I know her brother. Mason and I were college roommates for that one year I went to school.”

Neither Garth nor Juliette said anything, and Beau looked over to them. “I met Charlotte—she’s about seven or eight years younger than Mason—when I first came to Three Rivers. He interviewed there too.”

“Before my time,” Garth said.

“Barely,” Beau said. “He met his wife, and they settled on a ranch down in the Hill Country. They’ve sold it now, and they bought the Lucas Ranch.”

“Oh, boy,” Juliette said, her eyebrows going up now. “That’s a nice place.”

Yes, it was. Beau simply nodded, though the differences between his life and Mason’s stood out like black ink on snowy white paper.

“She comes with good endorsements,” Beau said. “Used to show horses.” He didn’t say anything about the vibrating in his chest whenever he pictured her in his mind, or how his fingers tingled even now to touch her hair.

“Anyway, she’s coming tomorrow. In true Kelly Ackerman fashion, I’m catering lunch for anyone who comes to help.”

“Great,” Garth said. “Me and the boys like free lunch.”

“The boys have football camp tomorrow,” Juliette said.

“Then just me.” He grinned past his wife to Beau. “What else aren’t you sayin’?”

His first instinct was to say nothing again. But he trusted Garth explicitly, and Beau had never been one to hold his words too deeply inside. “I maybe think she’s real pretty,” he said, his mouth suddenly made of glue and sand. “If I’d met her anywhere else, I’d probably ask her out.”

“Oh, boy,” Juliette said again.

Garth simply stared at him, his grumpy foreman cowboy face etched into his skin. Beau had seen it so often over the years, he could draw it from memory. He glared, then blinked, then looked out into the yard too.

Beau followed his gaze, his lungs stuffed with too much air. He tried to blow it all out, but it wouldn’t go. Plus, he just had to breathe in more.

“Then ask her out,” Garth finally said. “You deserve to be happy too, and maybe it’ll be with her.”

“Maybe,” Beau said. He didn’t feel the need to spill about how he’d already said the word “date” to Charlotte. She’d said nothing of it when she’d brought meatball subs and sweet pea salad, and they’d eaten, gone over the contract, and then walked through the cabin.

She’d worn shiny lip gloss on her mouth, and it had followed Beau into his dreams that night—and every night since.

“I’m—she’s going to be right across the hall. If it’s going to be a thing, I’ll know soon enough.”

“Yep,” Garth said. “What time?”

“She said she and Mason would be there around nine.”

“So you have time to do your morning live.”

“Yes,” Beau said. “Did you see it this morning?”

“Beautiful sunrise,” Garth said. “And the baby goats were a nice touch.” He smiled over to Beau again, who should probably look at the comments on his livestream from that morning. He realized he’d have to tell Charlotte about it, and he took out his phone to add it to the list of things they needed to talk about.

Towels. Laundry day. Food. The air conditioner.

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