Page 21 of Silent Count
“I can stay out here on the couch if you want some privacy with Beck. I totally don’t mind. You guys are doing me a huge favor by letting me stay with y’all,” I tell her.
“No, no! You can crash with me. I probably won’t be on long with him. He’s had a long day with meetings and practice.” She waves and shakes her head.
I swallow and double down on my insistence that I stay on the couch so Charlie can have her room to herself. “Okay, but it’s fine, really. This couch is huge.” I pat the cushion behind me while looking around the room.
“I’ll hang out with you while you wait,” Bo chimes in, making me turn to look at him. His eyes are trained on mine with a furrow to his brow, like he’s been watching my every action. “Or you can stay in my room. I don’t mind.”
Charlie gasps, making me look at her. “Bo Callaway! Are you trying to get my friend in bed with you?” She laughs.
I laugh awkwardly. “That’s not what he means, Charlie.”
I turn to look at Bo. His expression is sincere, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he could read my mind. I shake my head.
“I will not take your bed. You need a good sleep, I’m sure.”
“I sleep like the dead, so it doesn’t really matter where my head lands.” He sits up, setting his elbows on his knees. His tone is casual, but those eyes—those molten eyes that are looking my way—seem serious, almost protective. “I can get my pillow and stuff now, so you can get to bed whenever you want.”
“Bo, seriously, I’m not taking your bed.” I shake my head.
“I have to get up early anyway, so it just makes more sense for me to sleep out here so we’re not all walking through here while you’re trying to sleep.”
He stands and starts to walk, but I reach out and grab his hand, making him stop.
What feels like a static shock shoots from my hand up my arm. I look up at his face to see if he could feel it too. He’s looking down at my hand holding his, and he wraps his fingers around mine and squeezes gently.
“I, um … I promise I’m good,” I practically whisper.
He pulls me up to stand. I drop my phone that was on my lap to the couch, and he tugs me to walk behind him.
“Is your bag in Charlie’s room?”
“Yeah,” I mumble. Not hating that he’s still holding my hand.
I can feel Charlie’s eyes on me, so I look over my shoulder and see that I’m right. She’s got a smirk on her face, and she wiggles her eyebrows.
Bo opens her door and releases my hand to grab my bag.
“How did you know that was my bag?” I place my hand on my hip.
“Well, it’s not pink, and I live with Charlie and know her bag because of her traveling back and forth to see Beck.” He chuckles.
“Oh, right. Ha!” I reach out to take my bag from him, but he grabs my hand again.
We walk down the hall to his room, and he releases my hand and sets my bag on his bed. I look around, and everything is perfectly neat and in its place.
There’s a dresser that has some photos of him from games, it looks like. A few pictures of what I’m guessing is his family. The older man in them looks just like Bo with grayish hair. The older woman is stunning, and the two girls in the photo are also beautiful. I see the resemblance with Bo and them.
They look like a nice, happy family on the beach. Everyone is dressed in white and blue, looking like a Ralph Lauren ad. They’re picturesque.
The only picture I have of my family, we all look like we’re annoyed, except for Torie, who has the cutest cheesy grin despite my parents’ scowling faces.
“That’s my family.” He lifts up the picture and brings it over to me. “Dad, Mom, and my two sisters, Savannah and Caroline.”
“Very … Southern.” I look up from the picture to him.
He laughs and sets the picture back on the dresser. “Yeah, my mom is from the South.”
“You have a beautiful family.” I smile at him.
