The Line Between(87)

I was half way across the student parking lot when a familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Well ain’t you a sight for sore eyes.”

That drawl.

I knew that drawl.

The last time I heard it, I was saying goodbye to the man who helped me piece myself together after Charlie’s death.

I spun around so fast my bag fell onto the asphalt, and found him leaning against his old red Chevy pick-up truck.

“Beau?”

“Hey darlin’.”

His face broke out into that panty-melting smile, and my body responded the only way it knew how with Beau.

I ran.

His arms opened for me, and I flung myself at him knowing he’d catch me.

“Nice to see you too,” he said, crushing me to his chest with a deep chuckle. He was more muscular than I remembered, a little taller too, and his brown hair was lighter due to hours working in the sun.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. My arms stayed locked behind his neck, just so that I knew he was really here.

“Grams sent me,” he replied.

He placed me on my feet, and I craned my neck to get a good look at him. He still had those boyish lines on his face, but he looked older, and maybe even a little sexier, more rugged.

“She didn’t tell me you were coming when I spoke to her two days ago,” I said, a little perplexed as to why my grandmother would send their only farmhand on a fifteen hour drive to come and see me.

“She didn’t want you to know.” Beau shrugged, and had the decency to look a little contrite.

“I didn’t realize you were one of her evil little helpers,” I giggled. My grandmother was known to meddle, and always had someone to help her.

He took off his cowboy hat, and brushed his fingers through his hair. “She was worried about you, sweetheart. So I offered to come check on you, and make sure you’re as okay as you’re pretending to be over the phone.”

I looked down, and nibbled on my lip. I shouldn’t have. It was ‘a tell’ of mine, and Beau had come to recognize it pretty early on in our friendship.

“That’s what I thought,” he sighed. “Is there somewhere we can go talk?”

“That depends,” I replied, looking up to meet his concerned gaze. “Are you going to repeat everything to Grams?”

“I’ll tell her what you want to me to and the rest will stay between us. You know that.”

That I did. He’d proven to me many times that I could trust him. He’d risked his job for me once, and after that I’d never questioned him.

I nodded, and went to retrieve my bag. “I know where we can go.”

We bought some coffee, and Beau drove us to my dorm. He parked his Chevy in the lot, and we hopped onto his tailgate. It wasn’t the most isolated place I could’ve taken him to, but it was quiet, and mostly empty, which was good enough.

“So you want to fill me in or am I going to have to wait it out?” He asked

“There’s not a whole lot I can tell you,” I replied, looking into my cup.

“Your Grams didn’t send me out here because you don’t have a lot to tell me, sweetheart. You know her better than that. C’mon now, this is me you’re talking to. What’s going on?”

His voice was so soothing, and had the ability to make me want to spill my guts until it littered the asphalt below our feet.

“There’s a guy,” I started. “But it’s pretty complicated. We have a history, and most of it has to do with our families.”

“You love him?”

Our eyes met, and they seemed so familiar, so safe, that being dishonest wasn’t an option. I took a deep breath before I answered, “I do.”

It was the first time I’d admitted it out loud, and it stirred the sadness, and sense of loss I’d spent the past week avoiding.

“Start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”

We spent the next hour talking about Dane and me. I thought it would have been awkward to tell Beau all the dirty details, but he just sat there and listened while I split my heart open and bled all over the place. Most girls wouldn’t be talking to an ex-flame the way I was talking to him, especially when he was the one who I lost my virginity to, but it was effortless. Once upon a time I’d crushed on this handsome man, even if he was still boyish back then, and when I had sex for the first time I knew he was the right person to experience it with. It was the moment he put me back together, and I realized it was true what they said – a girl never forgets her first. What I loved most was that Beau had made sure I’d remember it for the right reasons.

When I was done, Beau wiped my cheeks, and kissed my forehead. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and hugged me to his side.