Page 58 of Eighteen Bowties and Counting

She wanted to shut down, but she’d waited out here on these steps specifically to talk to him. “You’re just so good at saying what you want to say.”

“I’m not,” he said.

“But I’m not,” she continued. “And I started feeling all these things for you last week on your birthday, and it’s confusing to me.”

He let some silence pass through them, though plenty of people kept coming and going from the stable only thirty yards away. “What kinds of things are you feeling?”

“Same as you,” she said, her heartbeat pumping hard.

“Oh, I’m gonna need to hear you say it,” Beau teased.

Charlotte raised her head and looked at him. The smile dropped from his face instantly, his expression replaced with pure desire and flaming emotion. She swallowed, and said, “I’ve never told someone I love them.”

“You shouldn’t say it unless you mean it,” he said. “And I didn’t say I loved you, I said I was falling in that direction.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you saying the same thing? Because if you are, I think you should say it instead of just piggybacking on what I said.”

His mouth twitched into a smile that didn’t last long. Charlotte could dive into his eyes and stay there forever.

“I’m going to kiss you,” he whispered. They hadn’t been doing much of that this week, and the moment his lips touched hers, Charlotte realized how much she’d missed kissing him. How much she’d missed him, though he’d been living right across the hall from her.

Fireworks popped between them, and choirs of angels sang from heaven above. Charlotte had been sifting through abstract things in her bedroom the last few nights, and she still didn’t know everything.

But as she kissed Beau on the front steps of their cabin, she finally let go of…everything. She let go of her fears. She let go of her stubbornness. She let go of her reservations, and she allowed herself to freefall.

“Mm, yep.” Beau stopped kissing her, but he didn’t pull away. “Definitely falling in love with you.”

Charlotte still hadn’t said the words, and her head felt so light, with a pair of very heavy lips as she said, “I’m falling in love with you too, Beau.”

He laughed, a low chuckle that started in his chest and grew as it came out of his mouth. He turned his head away and covered his mouth as his laugh turned into a cough.

Compassion filled her, and she just wanted tonight to be easy on Beau. He’d been fighting a cold for days now.

“And there it is.” He took her face in both of his hands, his eyes searching hers. “You okay? Is your heart freaking out?”

“No,” she said. “But I’m freaking out.”

Beau smiled and said, “I’ve already kissed you, and I’m afraid you’re going to get sick now, but could we…go work on dinner? I’m beat, and I just want to lie down.”

Charlotte got to her feet, feeling like someone had poured glitter and unicorn horns into her bloodstream. “Come lie down while I work on dinner.”

“I was going to make dinner.”

“Are we going to argue over this?” Charlotte took his hand and pretended to pull him to his feet. Like she could do that. They went inside together, and Charlotte hurried ahead of him to pull boxes of cereal out of the cupboard.

“I know what you want.” She got out the milk and a carton of cream. “Just sit down and let me serve you.”

Beau sat at the bar and watched as she poured half a bowl of Only-Berries and then added another half-bowl of Corn Chex. He started to chuckle, and that made Charlotte’s heart happy and light. She pushed the bowl in front of him and got out a spoon.

“You pour your own milk and cream,” she said.

“Just the fact that you know I like cream with this tells me something.”

“Yeah? What does it tell you?”

“That you really are falling in love with me.” Then he picked up the carton of cream and proceeded to pour only cream on his mixed cereal.

Withholding her judgment, she picked up the box of Special K Red Berries and poured a whole bowl for herself. Then she sat beside him and only added cream to her cereal too.

She met his eye and lifted her spoon as if to toast him. He clinked his spoon against hers, and that made her giggle, a giddiness parading through her that she couldn’t squash no matter how she tried.

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