California Schemin' - Kate George [68]
Beau dropped his hand onto my shoulder and rubbed my upper arm. He dropped his face into the crook of my neck.
“How long do you think we have?” His breath was warm on my neck, sending tingles down my spine.
“Don’t know. Did you have something in mind?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. I’ve missed you.” He nuzzled my neck, turning my bones to liquid for about three seconds.
“Wait. You left Vermont before I did, but you didn’t call and tell me where you were? So for all you knew I’ve been worrying about you for the last week?”
“I left a message on your machine. If you listened to your messages, you would know I was going to be away for a while.”
“You didn’t call my cell.” It hit me hard that he hadn’t wanted to talk to me personally. “You just left a message?”
“I didn’t feel like arguing with you. I knew you wouldn’t want me to come back here.”
“You knew I’d worry?”
“Yeah, I knew you’d worry, but jeez, MacGowan, I was bored out of my mind, sitting around the house with nothing to do. I needed to get out of there, and I didn’t want to fight about it. I guess this means you aren’t in the mood?” He sounded hopeful.
“No, Beau, I’m not in the mood.”
I was dozing when the knock came. I looked to see if anyone was coming through the door, and when no one did, I shook Beau’s shoulder.
“Come on,” I said, “it’s time.”
“They knocked?”
“Yes. Come on.” I took his arm and dragged him up off the couch. He grabbed his backpack and roll of blueprints. I picked up his small valise, and we hurried to the bookcase. It swung open easily, and I pulled the key and locked the wall in place behind us. I was so excited I practically ran to the window. The limos were in the drive. They looked a little banged up, but I thought they were probably still drivable. Too bad we didn’t have time to disable them.
I turned to Beau to suggest it. He was leaning on a table, obviously in pain. I moved to him and took the backpack.
“Your leg?”
He nodded.
“I’m not supposed to be walking on it. The doctor gave me a walking cast so I could get around better, take a shower, you know, do stuff. But he told me to stay off it. All this moving around hurts like hell. I don’t even know where my crutches are at this point.”
“I think you dropped them when you got in the limo with me.” I looked out the window to see if I could see them on the ground outside, but the cars blocked much of the drive from my view.
“Don’t worry about it, Bree. I’ll get another pair when we get out of here.”
I stood at the window and waited. I started to get nervous as the minutes ticked by. I looked back at the wall. What if someone came looking for us before the girls came for us? I looked at the key in my hand. Should I open the wall so we could pretend not to be escaping if we heard someone on the stairs? I took a step toward the hidden doorway.
“Give them some time.” Beau was watching me.
“You reading my mind now?”
“I’ve always been able to read your mind. You just didn’t know it. Wait.”
“When did you ever read my mind?”
“Remember in high school, when David Shorts beat up your brother?”
I nodded. That was a day I wasn’t likely ever to forget.
“You were about to say something to him and changed your mind.”
“Yeah. So?”
“What you wanted to say was that he was only picking on your brother because David was gay and didn’t want anyone to know. Isn’t that what you were thinking?”
“Why in the world would you remember that?”
“Because that’s when I first decided I was in love with you. You could have hurt David, got back at him, but you didn’t because you knew that he was scared. You took care of business, and you let Davey be. That’s when lust turned to love.”
“You fell in love with me for doing the right thing? How ironic.”
“Why ironic?”
I lifted my shoulders and let them drop. No point in trying to protect myself now.
“I usually do the wrong thing,” I said.
“When?”
“Huh?” I was looking out the window again. Where are they?