Healing Beau (The Brothers of Beauford Bend Book 6) Read Free

tell her that, either.
    He smiled the smile that had gotten him what he wanted more than once, the one that had earned him his Ranger nickname, Charmer.
    “I just need to get away from the coddling and the big plans, Christian. Did you know they have it all mapped out that I’m supposed to be part of this rough stock business Rafe is starting up? Like I know anything about breeding bulls for the rodeo. Or—get this—Jackson says it’s not too late for me to go back to school and on to law school. Hell, if it would undo the fact that I ran off, I think he’d have me be the oldest living fraternity boy.”
    “What are you going to do?” Christian asked.
    She was the first person who had asked him that question. Everyone else had been intent on telling him what he should do.
    “I don’t know yet, Christian. Two weeks ago, I thought I was going to go on serving my country doing the only thing I know how to do. I just need some space and some time to figure things out.”
    “For what it’s worth, I think that’s smart.”
    “It’s worth a lot. More than you know. Now, are you going to rent me that room?”
    Without hesitating, Christian shook her head. “I can’t.”
What?
Never in the history of the world had Christian told him no.
    “I don’t have a room to rent you. There’s no room at the inn. But you can have one of the guest rooms in my apartment on the third floor.”
Apartment
was not really an apt description. When they’d turned Firefly Hall into a B&B, Christian and her mom had turned the whole third floor into a private living space for themselves. It was more like a magical little cottage hung in the air.
    Relief flooded through him. Sanctuary. Privacy. Safety. And a magical cottage couldn’t hurt.
    But as he watched Christian’s bottom sway when she preceded him up the stairs, he questioned the safety.

Chapter Two
    “Are you sure you have to be closed when we come back through?” Mrs. Ozbolt held out her coffee cup for Christian to refill. Though she had a cook and wait staff, Christian always made it her business to bustle around, pour coffee, and chat with her guests at breakfast. They liked that. It had been mentioned more than once in TripAdvisor reviews. “We love it here so much.”
    “I appreciate that,” Christian said. “But I really do have to close on the twenty-third. I’ll reopen on December twenty-seventh.” Technically, she didn’t have to close. Her original plans had been to fly up and meet her mother in Virginia, where they would spend Christmas with cousins. But when she’d gotten the news that Beau was hurt and coming home, her first inclination had been to cancel her travel plans, so that’s what she’d done. She felt sorry for the Ozbolts, who were traveling for the holidays because their only son and his family were with the in-laws this year, but not sorry enough to give up her much-wanted break. Besides, she’d already given the staff the time off, and she wouldn’t take that back.
    And if Beau really was determined to stay here indefinitely, she wanted him to have some peace and quiet for at least a few days. She would move him into Moon Glow, the best room on the first floor. It was a large, with a big, comfortable rice bed, and she wanted to spare him the stairs. More than that, she wanted to spare herself from trying to sleep with only a wall separating the two of them.
    Last night hadn’t been her best night.
    She moved down the length of the long dining table. “How’s your Bloody Mary, Mr. Cranston?”
    “Perfect.” He took a sip. “And so is my ham sandwich. That’s one reason I keep coming back here. I don’t like regular breakfast food, and you never try to make me eat it.”
    Christian smiled at him. “We want you to feel at home here.”
    “But it’s your loss.” Mrs. Cranston raised her fork. “These cheese grits are divine.”
    Christian moved to end of the table where newlyweds Weston and Julie Evans from Connecticut sat. They