Page 65 of Always Bayou

Beau felt his teeth grinding together. Yes, that would be a good scene. But that would mean this jerk got to be close to her, and have his hands wander.

“How about you just go talk to him? I’m like two minutes away.”

“Okay, sounds good. This’ll be fun.”

“Yeah.” Fun. Sure.

Beau headed for the elevators and worked on not frowning at every other person who got on. He was only going to the third floor. They wouldn’t slow him down much.

He was striding down the long hallway toward the Rosalie ballroom four minutes later.

“Beau!”

He turned at the sound of his name.

Savannah was hurrying toward him. “Hey! Glad I caught you.” She was carrying a white button-down shirt and a brown suit jacket.

“Hey.”

“Thought you might like to borrow these.”

She hadn’t mentioned the “extra” jacket. But Beau and Becca had decided to play along with everyone and their matchmaking plans. So he gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Thought the brown would go with your boots.”

They both looked down. He was still in his work boots. They were a little scuffed and clearly worn. They were, well,work boots. But they weren’t covered in mud or anything. He shook a little sawdust off of one and nodded. “Good thinking.”

“If you just want to duck into the—” She gestured at the doors to the men’s and ladies’ rooms behind him.

But Beau simply grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it off.

Savannah’s eyes went wide. “Or…that works.”

Beau held out his hand for the shirt she’d brought him. Instead, she handed him a travel-sized stick of deodorant.

He grinned. “You thought of everything.”

“Just lucky Sam and the other guys had extras.” She also handed him a travel-sized tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush. And a comb. And a bottle of cologne. “You can’t keep the cologne.”

Sure. The guys had extras of all of this just by chance. He shook his head. They had to know how obvious this all was, right? But he took everything from her, including the clothes, and said, “Wow, this is great. Thank you.”

“Tuck the cologne in the inside jacket pocket and return it tomorrow,” she said. “You can toss the rest.”

“She okay for a couple more minutes?”

“I’ll make sure,” Savannah promised.

Yeah, she could have made sure of it all night. But he was glad he was here. “I’ll be just a minute then,” he said, turning toward the men’s room after all.

He used all the products, shrugged into the “borrowed” shirt and jacket—he had to pull the sales tags from the shirt—and had to admit that Savannah and the guys had done a good job shopping. He was keeping the clothes. He liked the fit and the look of them. And—he took a sniff of the top of the cologne bottle—this stuff too. He liked it. If they were going to mess in his relationship with Becca, it was going to cost them.

Beau straightened the jacket and then headed for the ballroom.

Inside, it was a very typical wedding reception—a big room with tables and chairs scattered throughout and lots of people—so it took him a few seconds to locate Becca.

But when he did…he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be looking at anything else for the rest of the night.

Had he had a moment to stop and think, he probably would’ve expected to be punched in the gut by how amazing Becca looked. But he hadn’t given what she’d be wearing much thought.

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