BreakingBeau (8 page)

He’d had a few hours to let in marinate, but he’d been
thrown for a loop when he’d gotten out of the shower. Hell, who was he kidding?
He’d been thrown for a loop the moment he met Gigi and every second thereafter.
What he hadn’t expected was for her to walk out on him without even saying
goodbye.

Unless you counted the note. Which he didn’t. He barely held
back a snarl as he recalled the words on the hotel notepad next to the bed.

Hey, Beau,

Thanks so much for everything. It was a lot of fun!

See you back at the bus in the a.m.

Gigi

It was “fun”
.
Was she serious? Intense, raw,
gripping, hot and amazing, maybe. Fun barely scratched the surface. In fact,
he’d been so crazy wrapped up and mind-fucked by the whole thing, he’d gotten
up to take a shower to buy himself some time to clear his head. In those
fifteen minutes, all he could think was that he wanted it to happen again and
again.

By the time he’d toweled off, he’d resigned himself to idea
that he had the major hots for Gigi. He wasn’t sure what to do about it since
she was dead set against a relationship, but he couldn’t just let her walk
away.

Tricky Gigi. She’d done him one better. She’d run.

The old Beau, the player, Mr. Good Time, gave him a stiff
shake. He should be thrilled. He’d gotten laid and didn’t even have to deal
with the awkward aftermath. It was a win all the way around. For some reason,
that wasn’t flying this time. It was like sushi. No matter how much he tried to
convince himself to love it, it just didn’t sit well.

So what were his options now? Go to her, tail between his
legs, and beg her to give him a shot. Even if she was as affected by their
night together as he was—and, based on her shitty little note, she wasn’t—that
couldn’t happen. She’d been crystal clear from the start. She’d worked too hard
to get derailed by a man now. And she’d sacrificed so much to get this far, did
he even have a right to ask her to try? The only other alternative was to let
her stay off the hook she’d so carefully managed to avoid with her rabbit
routine this morning.

Despite his stupid infatuation, the right thing was as
obvious as a neon sign. He’d make it real easy on her and let her walk away. No
fuss no muss. He nodded, again resolved, despite the hollow pit in his gut.

* * * * *

Later that afternoon he found the doubts rearing up again as
he faced off with the firing squad, Quinn at the helm.

For the third time, he explained, impatience coloring his
tone, “Guys, seriously, that’s all she wrote. It was a one-time thing.”

“Well, that’s stupid,” Quinn announced, and slapped both
hands on the table.

“Quinn…” Rex said, and shook his head but she wouldn’t be
stopped.

“No, seriously. I mean, obviously she’d just scared or
whatever. I can tell you like her. You do, right?”

Beau pushed the stool away from the table and stood. “This
isn’t some group therapy session. And it isn’t a band decision. I said I’m
dropping it, and I’m dropping it.”

Quinn gave Rex the stink-eye and Rex sighed, then turned to
face Beau. “Listen, man. We just want you to be happy. If there’s a chance that
you do like her, and you don’t tell her how you feel, you might be missing out
on something, you know?”

“Got it. Thanks for the unsolicited advice. Now if this
episode of
Dr. Phil
is over, can we move along? I still have two songs
to write and sitting here getting grilled by y’all isn’t exactly getting the
job done.”

He started to leave the room then stopped as a thought hit
him. “In fact, just so things don’t get sticky, you should probably have her
stay on your bus. I’ve got shit to do and she’s a distraction I don’t need
right now.”

That last part was nothing but the truth. The only way he
was going to keep from trying to finagle a repeat performance was if she wasn’t
around. Out of sight…

“Beau, come on. I can’t do that. Where would she sleep? And
what would I tell her?” Quinn asked, her tone pleading.

“Tell her whatever you want. Tell her she’s cramping our
style. And she can sleep on the couch. It’s only ten days.”

“She isn’t cramping my style,” Tai said with a shrug.

“You don’t have any style. Even if you did, and she wasn’t
cramping it, I don’t want her underfoot and that’s that.”

“Fine. But for the record? Me and Rex think you’re being an
asshole. Right, babe?” Quinn crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her
husband.

Rex held up his hands and took a step back. “I’m not in
this.”

“Rightly so. It’s none of any of your business. Take care of
it, Quinn, for real,” Beau said, then strode into his bedroom and shut the
door.

All he had to do was avoid Gigi for the next week. Then
she’d be gone and everything would go back to normal.

He refused to examine why that thought didn’t improve his
mood in the least.

* * * * *

“Need some help?”

Gigi jerked back in surprise at the low voice directly
behind her. She looked up into the stunning, solemn face. “Damn, Tai, you’re
stealthy! Scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry. I just wanted to see if you wanted me to carry some
stuff over to the other bus for you.”

“That’s really sweet. And since I’m no martyr, absolutely.
Want to grab that box behind you?”

“Sure.”

He didn’t make a move though, and Gigi tried not to grimace.
Here came the pity party.

“Gigi—”

“Tai—”

He held up a hand. “Listen, I don’t usually say much, but
just give me a second here, and you can be on your way.”

He waited until she gave a nod. His gaze was inscrutable,
and after a long moment he looked away. “Regret is a terrible, all-encompassing
thing. It fucks with you constantly, makes you feel like if you’d only done
that one thing differently, everything just might be perfect right now. Even
when your shit is going good, it keeps it from ever being great because you
wonder if it could have been better if only…”

He’d aimed his speech at the closet door, and her heart gave
a squeeze for him. She reached out a hand and patted his shoulder.

“I appreciate your advice. I really do. But this doesn’t
apply to me and Beau. Besides, I can’t undo it and I don’t regret what
happened.”

“I don’t just mean regretting things you’ve done, or risks you’ve
taken. I mean regretting the things you haven’t done.”

“What are you suggesting, Tai? I should maybe beg Beau to
sleep with me again? Sorry, I did all the begging I’m going to do the first
time around.”

“Why does it have to be begging? Can’t you just talk to him
and find out how he feels?”

“I think that’s pretty clear already. He had me kicked off
the Man Bus.”

“After you left him that stupid note.”

“He doesn’t want a girlfriend.”

“And you didn’t want a boyfriend. Things change. All I’m
telling you is that you could be missing out on your chance at happiness.
You’ll never know if you don’t try.”

A tiny kernel of hope lodged itself into her chest. She
thought back to her night with Beau and knew one thing for sure. She was
willing to face just about anything for a real chance to do that again. Tai
wouldn’t be encouraging her if he didn’t have some sense that Beau felt the
same way.

Maybe he was right. Her pulse pounded as she nodded slowly.
“Okay. I’ll talk to him. But if this blows up in my face, you better be
available for a week of chick flicks and ice cream. I refuse to sulk alone.”

She stepped toward him and he pulled her in for a hug. “You
know, Tai, someday you’re going to have to tell me the story of the girl who
broke your heart.”

He shook his head and stepped back, his beautiful face
turning to stone. “You got it all wrong, Gigi. She didn’t break my heart. She
tore it out whole.” His bleak onyx eyes drilled into hers. “Would’ve been
better if she had broken it. Maybe she’d have left a piece behind.”

She blinked back the tears that rushed to her eyes. “I’m so
sorry, Tai,” she whispered miserably.

“Don’t be. It was a long time ago. I’m only even mentioning
it now because I had a chance to do things differently, and I chickened out. I
hate to see you make the same mistake. Go get your man, Gigi.”

He grabbed her hand and pushed her toward the door. She
stepped through it, at once elated and terrified.

He was right, it was time to get her man or at least go down
fighting.

Chapter Eight

Gigi stood outside the doors of Nino’s Gym, soaked to the
bone and shivering. Beau had left his phone on the Man Bus and was nowhere to
be found. She swallowed what was left of her pride and begged Rex for some
ideas of where he might have gone. He rattled off a list of Beau’s favorite
haunts when they were in New York as she jotted them down.

“The last two are in bad neighborhoods and I don’t want you
going alone. Save them for last and call me so I can go with you.”

She nodded and was on her way out the door when Rex’s voice
stopped her.

“Gigi. Beau was upset when you walked out without at least
talking to him. He went out of his way to make things special for you and as
weird and fucked up as it sounds coming from a guy like Beau, I think he felt
used. He’s not used to being around women who have the power to hurt him, so
I’m not sure how he’s dealing with it.”

Her stomach dropped. “What are you trying to tell me, Rex?
Just say it.”

“I know he likes you a lot, that’s why I told you where he
might be. But you should prepare yourself. You might not like what you find.”

With that warning ringing in her ears, she took a precious
two hundred dollars from her advance and hailed a cab. At every stop, her heart
leapt into her throat as she approached the entrances. McDuffy’s Tavern, Lula’s
Place, The Jam-Boree. It wasn’t until she’d gotten through all the clubs that
she felt she could breathe a little easier. It had been all too easy to imagine
herself walking in to find Beau with a gorgeous woman sprawled across his lap
as they laughed and drank the night away. In one night, he’d managed to give
her more self-confidence than she’d ever had, but she didn’t know if she could
handle a blow like that.

It was almost midnight by the time she’d gotten to the
bottom of her list. She’d just left Zee’s 24-hour Music Warehouse, and was
about to go to one of the two places Rex had told her not to go to alone. She
briefly considered calling him, but the cab driver agreed to wait for her so
she decided against it.

It had started raining an hour before and her shoes were
spongy with water. She peered into the semi-darkness of the gym before noticing
the sign on the door. Closed. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to will away
the oncoming headache creeping up the back of her neck. She could just talk to
him tomorrow. Somehow that thought didn’t make her feel any less miserable, and
if Beau felt even half as bad as she did, she needed to find him tonight. The
thought that she’d hurt him made her sick to her stomach.

With renewed determination, she gave the gym one last look
and turned away, when a sound came from inside. She looked back and pressed her
face to the wet glass. It was pretty dark, but in the far corner, a dim light
burned.

Her heart skittered as she saw him. He was working the heavy
bag over as if it had stolen his lunch money. Peering around nervously, she
jiggled the door handle and it opened. She turned and gave a wave to the cab
driver.

“You sure?” he called.

At her nod he shrugged and drove away.

She ran her hand over her dripping hair. It was plastered to
her skull like a plate of overcooked spaghetti. Too bad. There was nothing to
do about it now. She sucked in a deep breath and pushed the door open.

She stepped through and it closed with a clang, but Beau
didn’t look her way.
Headphones
, she realized as she got closer. His
back was to her, and the view made her mouth go dry. His muscled back gleamed
with sweat. Beads of it rolled down his spine then disappeared into the
waistband of his low-slung gym pants. His traps were bunched tight as he threw
punch after punch, punishing the leather bag.

The music was so loud she could hear it as she approached.
Not wanting to startle him, she walked to the other side of the bag. Her knees
shook as she watched and waited for him to notice her.

He smelled her before he saw her. Rain and honeysuckle
shampoo. Maybe his brain was fucking with him. But he turned his head and there
she was. Rain-drenched, she stared at him with huge, smoky eyes. Dark purple
smudges underneath emphasized the paleness of her skin. She was an
exhausted-looking wreck, so why did she still look so damn good to him?

He stripped off one glove and yanked the earbuds from his
ears. Shock tussled briefly with anger, but anger won out. “Did you come here
alone at this time of night?”

She just nodded.

“Bad idea. How did you know where I was?”

“Rex gave me a few ideas. The place is closed though, so I
almost left.”

“Nino is a close friend. I have a key.”

“If this is such a bad neighborhood, maybe you should’ve
used it to lock up behind you. I could’ve come in and killed you before you
even knew I was there.”

He eyed her from head to foot and shook his head. “I doubt
that.”

She gave him a quivery smile. “I’m stronger than I look.”

“Believe me, girl, I know that.” He bent to pick up his
water bottle and took a long pull before swiping his arm over his sweaty face.
“So what are you doing here, Gigi? Forget something on your note?”

Her gaze wavered but she didn’t bite. “No.”

“What then? Did you come here for another round? Sorry, but I
think I’ll pass. As much as the idea of fucking you for the next couple weeks
intrigues me, I find being treated like a piece of meat is kind of a turn-off.
Who knew?”