Healing Beau (The Brothers of Beauford Bend Book 6) by Alicia Hunter Pace

through it. The glue needs to dry overnight. Then I’ve got to do a little touch up staining. We had to mix three different stains five times to get it just right, but I swear you won’t be able to tell it was ever broken.”
    “And that’s where you’ve been all this time? Fixing my desk?” The thought of that turned her heart upside down.
    “It took longer than I expected, but it was fun. I was pretty good at it.” Then he looked startled. “Sorry. I guess you don’t want to hear how I had fun fixing it, when it upset you so much that it was broken.”
    Better than having fun with Taylor Swift.
    She smiled. “You want me to break something else? So you can fix it?”
    “Would you?” He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
    “I’ll think about it.”
    He opened his mouth, closed it again, and looked at the floor like he always did when he had something to say, but wasn’t sure he wanted to.
    “Tell me, Beau.”
    He nodded and met her eyes. “The last few weeks have been pretty bad. I know it sounds stupid, but when I was working on that desk, that’s all I thought about—not how everything had changed in a split second, and not about what I’m going to do next. It felt good to be setting something right for someone I care about.”
    She had to swallow tears. “Then I’m glad I broke it. I wish I’d broken it worse. I’ll take an axe to the rocking chair in library first thing tomorrow.”
    “Thank you for not being mad that I lied to you,”
    Interesting. “Why
did
you lie about that, Beau?”
    He looked startled, like he hadn’t been expecting that. “Well.” He swallowed, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. “You were so upset, and I wanted to make it all right for you.”
    He wanted it make it all right for her.
Her upside-down heart melted like a marshmallow on top of hot chocolate.
    “You did that. Thank you.”
    He squeezed her hand. “You’re welcome. The patient can come home tomorrow.”
    “Warn her she’ll be cold.” She wanted to squeeze his hand back but couldn’t bring herself to.
    He released her hand. “Hey. Do you want to watch a movie?”
    “Sure. Anything you like.”
Anything at all. Everything. Always.
    “Anything?” He grinned. They both knew what that meant.
Talladega Nights
.
    “Sure. We don’t even have to get it On Demand. I have the Blu-ray.” Of course she did.
    “I know I’ve seen it a hundred times, but I laugh every time.”
    When the movie was on and they’d settled in, he leaned into her and covered them both with the throw from the back of the sofa—just like he’d always done.
    And just like always, it meant nothing to him and everything to her.
    But it was good to be near him and good to hear him laugh. Right now, nothing else mattered.

Chapter Six
    “Beau, you need to wake up.” The words accompanied rapping on the door.
    He turned over with a groan and reached for his phone. 6:00 a.m. Christmas started early at Beauford Bend. He and Christian were expected at the breakfast table at seven, which was why he’d asked her to wake him. His phone alarm wasn’t much good against a pain pill-induced sleep.
    She knocked harder. “Beau! You said to wake you.”
    He sat up. “I’m up. Come in.”
    He expected a robe-clad-messy-haired Christian, but she was dressed in white wool pants and a fuzzy, soft pink sweater. Her only jewelry was a pair of pearl earrings surrounded by small diamonds. He knew those earrings because his mother had borrowed them from Christian’s mother once to wear to a party. They were always doing that—swapping jewelry, purses, and coats. It was a curse to have a memory like his. What six-year-old boy took note of the earrings his mother wore and remembered it twenty-two years later? Even if he had circled the pearls with this finger when she cuddled him on her lap before leaving?
    Anyway, the earrings were probably Christian’s nod to festivity. She wasn’t one for a lot of flash and