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Then she looked at my face and understood. “Beau—”
“You should get back to town.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“Maybe not.” I stepped away from her. “But it’s what you said.”
I wasn’t about to ask her to stay when she didn’t see me as a reason to.
CHAPTER 10
CAROLINE
On Sunday morning I accepted the job. Lauren sent the revised contract while I was standing behind the information tent eating half a breakfast sandwich and answering a question about vendor parking. I opened it on my phone and signed before I let myself think about the look on Beau’s face last night. Then I sent it back and went to finish the festival.
That worked for almost an hour.
Sunday brought a bigger crowd than Saturday. By ten thirty, the food truck lines stretched halfway across their assigned spaces, the kids’ area needed more volunteers, and Orville had somehow acquired a second microphone.
I solved all three problems in a few minutes. That was what I got paid to do.
A family parked a horse trailer where the afternoon demonstration needed to stage, and I had them moved before Beau arrived with Hank and Gus.
When his truck pulled through the gate, my stomach tightened.
He unloaded the horses and got to work without looking for me.
Yesterday, when he asked if I wanted the contract, I’d told him I should. He’d known that wasn’t an answer. Apparently I’d decided signing my name would turn it into one. It hadn’t.
I kept moving.
By noon, I had almost convinced myself I could get through the day without talking to him. Then Beau walked into the information tent while I was checking the afternoon schedule.
“You got a minute?”
I closed the tablet. “Yeah.”
He looked tired, and not from the work.
“I took the job,” I said.
His expression didn’t even change. “Okay.”
I hated how much that one word hurt. “I signed this morning.”
He nodded.
I waited for more, but Beau had never been a man who filled silence because somebody else was uncomfortable.
“You could say something.”
His eyes met mine. “What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s been the problem.”
I folded my arms. “What does that mean?”
