Claire, Savannah, and Delilah all exchanged questioning looks. “Well, whatever Hollis wants to try, he can go for it,” Claire said. “We aren’t gonna budge.”
I smiled down at her, loving the determined look on her face. “Damn straight.”
“We should go. It’s nap time for this one,” Anna said, gesturing to Henry asleep in Joseph’s arms.
“Luke, too,” Tess said.
“We should get them together sometime for a playdate!”
Tess blinked as if Anna had just spoken in a foreign language. “Uh, yeah, sure.”
We all parted ways, the silence heavy in my truck with just Claire and me. “I can’t believe you hid that text from me,” she said under her breath. “And then you told me about it in front of all of them. What the fuck, Beau?”
I let out a heavy sigh, hanging my head. “I’m sorry. I just thought I was doin’ what’s best. I wanted to protect you.” I ran the back of my finger along her cheek. “You were already hurting so much, I didn’t want to add any more stress on you. And then there never seemed to be a good time to tell you about it after.”
She pulled her face away, glaring at me. “And after my mother’s funeral in front of all our siblings was?”
My lips pressed together in a flat line. That was fair. “No, it wasn’t. But we were already talkin’ about Golden Circle, and everyone needed to know.”
“I don’t appreciate being blindsided like that, Beau. We’re supposed to be partners.”
“I know, baby, and we are partners. I won’t hide anything like that from you again. Cross my heart.” She let me take her hand in mine and kiss her knuckles. “I’m sorry. Really. How can I make it up to you?”
She pursed her lips, giving me the side eye like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to be pissed still or not. “Groveling,” she said, looking out the window, her head held high. “Lots of it.”
I smiled against her hand, pulling out of the cemetery. I had missed that fiery, flirty spark in her that had been vacant for the last week.
“You know I love to earn your forgiveness.” My voice was low, rough. It’d been over a week since I had her last, and God, if I didn’t miss the way she felt. But I wasn’t about to push her if she wasn’t ready for it, and this was a perfect test to see if she was or not.
I watched her throat move with a swallow. “Well, I’m really mad,” she said, trying so hard to stay serious, but I saw the subtle curl of her lips. “So you’ll have to work extra hard.”
Pure need ran through me like I’d never felt before. “I don’t mind hard work.”
She let out a long hum, some of the edge gone from her voice when she said, “We’ll see about that.”
We rode in silence, her hand in mine, while she watched the fields pass by. “I’m pissed Weston wasn’t here,” I admitted, unable to hold it in anymore.
“Did he tell you why he didn’t come?”
“No.” And that pissed me off even more. It wasn’t like him to drop the ball like that.
“Funerals can be hard for some people,” she said. “Don’t hold it against him. I don’t.”
“I called him that night,” I said. “Told him to get his ass here and that Savannah needed him, and then he didn’t fucking show.” Claire was quiet, and I glanced at her, doing a double-take when I saw the horrified look on her face. “What?”
“Why the hell would you say that to him?”
“Because it's the truth. Have you not noticed the weird tension between them? Something happened with them, I know it.” And with this merger, we couldn’t afford for there to be tension between our families, not anymore, not with Hollis gunning for us.
“Of course, I have, but that doesn’t mean I go shove my nose in it! God, Beau, it’s like you’re collecting information for theWhispersor something. There’s tension there for a reason. We need to stay out of it.”
I let out a long sigh. “You’re probably right.”
“I know I’m right. Just like I’m not pressing Tess to talk about whatever the fuck is going on with her. If they want us to know, they’ll tell us. Until then, we just need to be supportive.”
“You’re so smart.”
She smirked, shifting towards me in the passenger seat. “Is this you groveling?”
