Chapter 26

• Beau didn’t go home that night. Didn’t slam the bakery door when she turned her back. Didn’t spit out the words chewing holes through his chest. He just watched her — soft hair swinging over one shoulder, apron tied neat around her hips, the hush of flour and sugar sticking to the warm floor between them like a secret she wouldn’t give him easy.
• She told him prove it — so that’s what he’d do.
• He started small. Quiet. The way her mama would’ve called gentle country courtin’ if she’d still been around to see it.