Page 5 of Once Upon An Ever After
“Sure thing.” Dawson nodded, his gaze sweeping back to Beau, “Are we… um… still on for dinner tonight?”
“Uh… yeah?” Beau offered a tentative smile but Dawson was already looking back down at the phone in his hand.
“Okay. Good. I’ll swing by your place and pick you up around seven.” Dawson frowned at the phone, “I really have to go. Call or text if you two need anything.” He glanced back up, giving Felix a smile, “Roman said Gibson was at his place too. I’ll send my brother back to help you as soon as I can.”
“Thank you.” Felix smiled. “That would be much appreciated.”
Dawson turned and left the room. The sound of his footsteps on the hardwood floor was loud as he headed for the front door. Beau tried to convince himself that there was no way Dawson could have snuck back into the house and eavesdropped on the conversation he and Felix were having without them hearing him. He turned back to his friend but neither of them spoke, not until they heard the front door slam and silence filled the big house, clearly letting them know they were alone again.
“You don’t think he…” Beau swallowed hard.
“Yeah.” Felix’s face twisted with regret, “Yeah, I think he might have heard us. I’m sorry, Beau.”
“Shit.” He threw himself back on the sofa and covered his face with his hands, “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
This was bad. So bad. He had been carefully toeing the line for months. Hell, for the entire year that they’d known one another.
Now, three days before Dawson’s brother, Gibson, married Felix, in a backyard wedding ceremony, everything was going to change
Dawson knew how he felt. Maybe. But if Felix was right, maybe he always had.
“What do I do?” He groaned, covering his eyes and muffling a scream of frustration.
“Well, I can tell you what you’re not going to do.” Felix gave him a pointed look when he opened his eyes again. “You are not going to have this confrontation before my wedding because against my better judgment I let you and Dawson plan this thing and if you two fall apart before I said I do, I’m going to lose it.”
Beau managed a chuckle but nodded in agreement, “You’re right. Of course you’re right. Dawson certainly isn’t going to bring up what he heard, not after a full year of ignoring what’s between us. I won’t say anything about it to him until after the wedding.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. I know I’m asking a lot.”
“Not really. You’re just asking me to delay the inevitable, me telling Dawson I’m in love with him and him never speaking to me again. I don’t mind putting that off for a few more days.”
Beau rubbed his forehead again, feeling the beginnings of a headache. Hell, he would put it off forever if it meant keeping Dawson in his life. He would take him as a friend and continue ignoring his broken heart rather than go without him for a single day.
Chapter Three
Dawson jogged up the stairs to Beau’s apartment on the fourth floor of the 400 Block Apartments. He was upset. He was frustrated and annoyed and at least a half dozen other emotions that he couldn’t put a name to. All because Beau had text him earlier and canceled their dinner with nothing more than a quick, see you tomorrow. He hadn’t said he was sick. He hadn’t said he was busy. He’d just said he couldn’t make it and Dawson knew what that text message meant deep down in the dark place inside him that worried he would lose everyone he loved just like he had lost his parents.
Beau was pulling away from him. He could feel it. Beau knew that he had accidentally heard part of that conversation with Felix earlier in the day and now, embarrassed or worried about Dawson’s reaction, he was avoiding him. But Dawson couldn’t let that happen.
He couldn’t let Beau go. The very idea of his best friend pulling back from him made him sick to his stomach. And he could barely think about Beau blowing him off because he might have some hot date with some new guy that Felix apparently wanted him to start seeing.
Damn his soon to be brother-in-law and damn his own complicated, mixed-up feelings that he’d hidden for far too long.
He wasn’t going to lose Beau. Whatever it took. Beau was his best friend and he wouldn’t let him just silently slip away.
That was why, after spending hours pacing his loft he had jumped in his car and headed across town. They needed to talk. And, hopefully, Beau would see reason and go to dinner with him as originally planned once they had.
He couldn’t think about what he would do if Beau refused.
A dark-haired girl passed him on the stairs, her eyes doing a full up-down of his body and a smile curling at her lips when she spoke in a sexy, throaty voice, “Hey stranger.”
“Hi Star.” Dawson grinned back at the girl he’d met a dozen or so times in passing over the last year.
She was a student at the local college and lived on the third floor with her boyfriend. At least she had the last time Dawson had run into her while he was hanging out with Beau. She’d flirted with him even then so he had no idea if her status had changed. What he did know was that even though she was easily one of the most beautiful women he’d ever had the pleasure of being near, his body didn’t react to her at all. The girl could have been a supermodel with her tall, thin body, dark eyes and hair and pouty lips. Still, even in her crop top and micro mini skirt that put her long legs on full display, Dawson wasn’t the least bit interested in seeing more of her.
“Been a while.” She licked the corner of her lips seductively but her next words convinced him that she wasn’t even aware of the come-on she presented. “You and your boyfriend taking a break or something?”
“What? No.” He shook his head, “He’s not my boyfriend. We’re friends.”
