Page 52 of New River Gorge(ous)
It’s that thought that stops me cold.I’d be blessed to have Brooke in my life.
Iwantto have Brooke in my life. I want to see her happy and well, and I want to see her have the things she wants. I don’t want to see her cry. I want togiveher the things that she wants.
Oh no.I’m in love.
Two slow-paced, get-to-know-you dates and several porch swing chats later, and I’m in love?
My blood pressure rises. A ringing starts in my ears. This is an emergency. I can’t be in love. I don’tdolove.
I pull out my phone and dial the only person I can talk to about this, but my thumb hovers over Brooke Bastion’s contact info before scrolling to Ben Painter.
“Hey, man. How was the double date?” Ben’s voice drawls through the phone after one ring. He might be obnoxious at times, but he’s my best friend.
“It was a baby announcement,” I say dryly.
“Uh … congrats? But people around here are going to talk if you aren’t married. You know that, right?”
I roll my eyes. “Not my baby.”
“Uh…”
“Brooke’s friends. Brooke’s very married friends. They’re the ones having a baby.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize they were married.”
“Why? Wait … was Logan thinking of making a move on Paige?”
I’m met with silence, which I take as a yes.
“Is Logan there right now?”
More silence.
“Hey, buddy,” Logan says.
“Well, since you’re there, I guess you can hear this too. I have a problem.”
“And it’s not a baby,” Ben interjects.
“No, it’s not a baby. It’s just—” I scrub a hand down my face. “I don’t know if I can talk to you two about it. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You’re in love with Brooke?” Logan asks.
I blink. The other end of the phone is silent except for the suspicious hissing of whispers and what sounds like cash exchanging hands.
“Uh … Beck? Earth to Beck? Are you still there?”
I shake my head before I can respond. “How did you know?”
Ben sighs. “Because we’ve known you for almost all of your life. And we were friends with you the…” He trails off, as if he’s thinking of how to put it delicately. “The last time you were in love.”
“I can’t be in love. I don’t do that. Not anymore, not ever.”
“Sure you don’t.” Logan snorts. “You have no desire whatsoever to have a wife and kids and to come home after a long day of saving lives to someone who actually likes you instead of an empty house.”
“I—”
“Nope. You don’t want that. You don’t want ahoneymoon.” I know him well enough to know he’s waggling his eyebrows atthat comment. “You don’t want someone to stay warm with on cold nights. Nope, you don’t want to die lonely and old, and now that you’re almost twenty-nine and have enough distance between Addie and arefeelingthings, you could not possibly be experiencing love.”
