Page 91 of Always Bayou

“Meaning we don’t tell anyone? We’re not officially dating?”

“Yeah, I think that’s best.”

“Does that mean we date other people?”

He immediately scowled. “Fuck, no.”

“Well, that sounds like a boyfriend then.”

“Do you want to date other people? Who? “

She shook her head. “I don’t. That’s part of the problem. I’ve never really wanted to date anyone else. Not since you.”

That hit him directly in the chest. He felt the same way. He wished like hell he could feel this way about someone else.

“I can’t stay away from you,” he admitted. “But I also won’t propose. I’m not going to move you into my house or knock you up. I am not going to tie you down in Autre. Not until you are absolutely a thousand percent sure.”

She looked at him for a long moment. Then she swallowed. “Well, actually there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Just then her phone rang. She frowned. It was a Friday night, around seven. Everyone who knew them knew where they were. And all of them were thrilled they were together, stranded hours from home.

She reached into her purse and pulled the phone out. Then her eyes widened as she looked at the screen. “I should probably take this,” she said.

Beau nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Hello, this is Becca.” She paused. “Yes, hello.” Another pause. “That’s no problem at all.” She listened for longer this time. She seemed surprised. Then she smiled. “I understand. Yes, I’d be interested.”

She was quiet for several seconds. “Yes, I can make that work,” she answered. She finally looked up at Beau, but she nodded. “That will be great. Thank you.”

She listened again. Then she smiled. “Okay, great. Thanks for calling. I’ll see you on Monday.”

She disconnected and took a deep breath.

“Everything okay?” Beau asked. But it seemed obvious that it was. She seemed very pleased with the phone call.

She nodded. “Yeah. Actually, this is what I was going to talk to you about.”

“What’s going on?”

“I was talking to a friend of mine. Sarah. We went to college together. She’s a teacher too. I wanted to talk about everything that’s happening in Autre. I needed another teacher’s perspective and I’m used to talking to Toby about everything. But obviously that’s a little awkward right now.”

Beau nodded.

“Anyway, as we were talking, Sarah mentioned that there might be an opening at her school. Soon.” She paused. “In kindergarten.”

Beau felt his heart leap into his throat. He swallowed hard. “Oh.”

Becca leaned in. “It’s in Houma. So just an hour away. But a much bigger school district. There aremultipleelementary schools serving that area.”

Beau just nodded. It was definitely a bigger area than Autre. It was an old city with a lot of history and a strong Cajun culture.

“One of the current kindergarten teachers in the school where Sarah teaches first grade just had a baby and she’s decided coming back was too hard and she wants to stay home instead. She plans to finish the semester and then not return after Christmas.”

Beau felt his stomach knot as Becca took a breath.

She held up her phone. “That was the principal. He wants to talk to me on Monday.”

Beau stared at her. “You might leave Autre in December?”

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