Page 58 of Broken Ice
“Yes,” Beau lied. He’d planned his siblings’ birthdays a few times. That kind of counted.
Pavel rolled his eyes. “You do it, then.”
“Fine, I will,” he stated imperiously. “I’m telling Emilio to demote your friend status by the way.”
“I wonder who you’ll suggest to be his new best friend,” Pavel retorted sarcastically, stroking his chin.
Beau ignored him. He had absolutely no idea what that little dig meant. “Do you have his sister’s number?”
“Uh…I don’t think so.”
“Urgh, you’re useless. Forget demotion, I’m firing you.”
“Good luck with that.”
Pavel having proved himself absolutely useless as a friend, captain, and human being, Beau set himself to plan the best birthday ever experienced.
He ended up finding out Emilio’s sister’s number from Sammy of all people. When Beau hung up, Noah was complaining about why Sammy evenhadthat number.
His brother was downbad. Some people could be so oblivious.
Dumbly, Beau was a little nervous about talking to Emilio’s sister, Anna. He didn’t want to make a bad impression.
She answered the phone in English, luckily, and Beau introduced himself hesitantly.
“I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time,” he said. He’d made sure to call when it was early evening in Sweden—after work, but not so late for it to be rude.
Anna gasped rather dramatically. “Beau Lavoie?TheBeau?”
“Uh…yes?”
“Oh, my God. I’ve been begging my brother to introduce us, he willnotshut up about you. Wait, is everything okay?”
Beau managed to process that little tidbit of information quickly enough to respond. “Yeah, everything is fine. I was just calling ’cause, well, it’s Emilio’s birthday next week—obviously you know that. I wanna plan something for him and thought maybe I could get some recipes from you? Or like, dishes he loves? And maybe you can tell me what his favourite birthdaywas when he was a kid? I’d ask him, but I want it to be a surprise.”
There was a moment of silence. “Beau, we’re gonna be great friends,” Anna said.
Beau grinned. He liked the sound of that.
Anna ended up giving him a load of Portuguese—and some Swedish—dishes Emilio loved. As well as the amazing information that Emilio used to be obsessed with the ocean.
“The ocean? Like…all of it?” Beau asked. “Like the water and stuff?”
A pause. “You’re adorable. It was mostly sharks. He wanted to go into one of those cages that go underwater, you know? And a great white shark or something comes up to you.”
“That’s insane. How old was he when he wanted to do that?”
“Oh, like twelve.”
Beau grimaced. Were there great white sharks in Florida? “Maybe I can do one of those with him,” he mused.
“Oh, he’d rather die than put you in one of those cages, Beau. Maybe take him to an aquarium or something?”
“Oh, yeah. That seems like a better idea.”
“Are you throwing him a party or are you doing something just the two of you?”
“I was gonna do both. We have training in the morning and then I can take him to the aquarium, and then I’ll get the guys to set up a party at his. I’ll force them to each make one of those dishes,” Beau said, ideas coming to him as he said them.
