21 The Chandler
Dash/Beau
Dash
The soothing warmth of the shower worked wonders for my hangover. I positioned myself strategically to allow the water to beat along my upper back and neck, even with the hydration specialist’s imminent arrival. Nevertheless, I stayed under the spray until the hot water turned cooler, my muscles loosening up. I’d brought one of Beau’s Powerades into the shower with me, taking a decent swig every so often.
My stomach roiled, but the contents stayed down. I called that a win.
Why I had chosen last night to completely overdo was beyond me. I’d been steadily drinking more and more since Beau was gone. I hated the idea of going to bed alone. But apparently last night had been my breaking point. Perhaps it was because he wasn’t arriving home for another day. Beau had stayed away longer to teach me a lesson, and boy, had it.
What I desperately wanted to convey to Beau was how often I lay awake at night, watching him sleep. His presence constantly reminded me of my worth and that reinforced my belief that I could achieve the goals I’d set for myself. I was dumbfounded by the reality that my guy didn’t seem to realize that he was the glue in every situation of my life. Beau kept my world together.
The problems we had were all on me.
I should’ve put my pride aside and called him, not have waited for him to call me to make amends.
The doorbell rang, sending my phone chirping like crazy. I quickly left the shower and reached for a dry towel I had placed by my phone. With a quick swipe of my thumb, I responded to the ring. “Hello. Give me a minute. I’ll buzz you in. You can set up in the room to the left of the door.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied, which always made me feel wiser than my actual age. I pushed the option to open the door and continued rubbing the towel over my body. I took my hairbrush, quickly raking my damp hair off my face. I usually preferred to dry it properly, but I had a lot to do before Beau arrived home. My appearance was the last thing on my mind.
I grabbed my robe hanging by the bathroom door and put it on as I went through the bedroom. I loved this gorgeous home. I loved that my almost mother-in-law married a generous, loving man who’d offer this place to Beau and me for such an extraordinarily low price.
As I trotted down the staircase, the technician was already set up. He was gloved up with an IV bag ready to go. “Mr. Richmond?” the guy asked.
“Call me Dash. Mr. Richmond is my father. Should I sit here?” I asked about the comfortable side chair he had pulled into the center of the room.
“Yes, sir,” he replied. The entire process lasted no longer than twenty minutes. I had undergone similar procedures before. I found the whole experience relaxing. Something about my body receiving the nutrients and hydration it craved made everything right as rain. A yawn slipped free, and my eyelids drooped. Perhaps I should reconsider my options. Maybe I should rest until Beau arrived home then wake and plead for forgiveness.
With a series of long yawns, I let the attendant out and started for our bedroom when I spotted Beau’s commitment ring on the entry table. Even in my exhausted state, warning bells rattled in my head. Then I saw the note, written in Beau’s unique penmanship. Time slowed as I held both, reading Beau’s words.
My heart sank as I read the note. What had Chandler done? The ink looked bolder on Chandler’s name, as if he’d pressed harder, penning it with malice and jealousy. No. No. What had Beau seen?
Beau had already come home?
How? With both the ring and note gripped tightly in my hand, I took off in search of my cell phone. Was there any chance I’d missed him this morning? Panic and anxiety gripped me. Every muscle in my body tensed. All my arrogance of the last two weeks, my convictions of not being the first to reach out, mocked me as I slipped easily back into my old self—a person I hadn’t been in so long.
Before I tanked, I found my phone on our bed and quickly dialed Beau’s number. It started ringing before I ever had the receiver to my ear. My gaze flitted around the bedroom, landing on the open closet door. With a singular focus, I moved toward the closet as Beau’s voicemail activated.
“Babe, what’s happened? I got your note and have your ring. It needs to be back on your finger. Please call me.” I didn’t hang up as my foot knocked against the door, very afraid of what I might find as the overhead light automatically lit the small space. Beau’s clothes were scattered everywhere. An open suitcase lay cockeyed on the floor. He’d never intentionally leave such a mess. I pressed the call button again, but it went to voicemail. Beau was ignoring my calls.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Dread coiled in my gut. Every choice I’d made since our happier days felt like a misstep. All leading us to this heartbreaking moment. My heart ached. My thoughts turned desperate. If only I could find where he’d gone, I’d rush there and bring him back home. Penny . I’ll called her. She regularly worked miracles. If anyone could find him, it was her. I took a deep centering breath and dialed her before my panic turned into hysteria.
Beau
Indecision had finally taken hold of me. My heart fucking hurt. The pain made me frantic. The grounded man I always aimed to be was becoming erratic. Exhausted, I’d pulled into a motel in Oklahoma City. That was three hours ago, and I hadn’t slept a wink since I’d arrived. Instead, I passed time by staring at the ceiling, wishing for anything to take this pain away. Raw emotions simmered just beneath the surface, with an enormous pain and just that same amount of fear.
Why had I chosen to leave? At the time, I’d thought making the first move meant I was in control, but I wasn’t at all. A clear voice inside me insisted that Dash hadn’t betrayed me. That I hadn’t witnessed what I thought I had. Yet, I countered that thought with the idea that the eyes never deceived.
Chandler was aware of his actions and had easily led Dash away from me. Their embrace wreaked havoc on my soul. Chandler spent all day and probably most nights with Dash. They fit together in a way we did not. From my position on the bed, my legs hung over the mattress. I kicked my feet to help lift myself to sit on the side of the bed. I might have accepted Dash randomly fooling around with anyone but Chandler. Dash had to know that I’d never go for Chandler being the other guy.
I hadn’t been the one to break us up, Dash had orchestrated our split. He was fully aware of my return date. It appeared on our shared calendar.
I rolled back on the mattress again, bringing my palm to my chest and gently rubbing the dull ache that lingered there. My hand felt naked without my ring. The rattle of my cell phone connected to the charger by my nightstand caught my attention. It could only be one of two people, either Scott or Dash, my mom was occupied with Carter. With more strength than I realized I possessed, I let the call go to voicemail.
The phone rang again. I was more content when the damn thing had died about halfway between Chicago and Oklahoma City. I suspected Dash was relieved that I’d gone. He might want reassurance that I wouldn’t try to have Carter find a new attorney. Maybe I should consider asking for a cut in the revenue obtained from Carter. A devious smile pulled at the corners of my lips.
I understood I wasn’t particularly likable. That was an undeniable fact. But, Dash had liked me once. Where had it all gone wrong? I knew the answer, deep down, I was a country boy through and through. A guy who was caught in the middle of two worlds. I struggled to navigate the world of sophistication and wealth, and rednecks wouldn’t like me for being gay. I was basic, and Dash was all the things I wasn’t. We were as opposite as two people could possibly be.
My phone rang again. I ignored it…again. Instead, I focused on the memories of the great sex he and I had shared. Dash took it as rough as I could give it. I was sure going to miss driving into my guy’s ass. Hell, I already missed it. It’d been so long since we were together in the same headspace. Years, in fact. I heard my phone rattling again, but I’d been awake well over twenty-four hours.
My thoughts turned blissfully numb as my eyelids grew heavy. A giant yawn escaped. I reached for a pillow and bent my legs. In the recesses of my mind, I heard my cell ring again, but I was finally slipping into sleep. I’d deal with it later.
Dash
From the elevator, I reached my assistant’s desk in five long strides, even though it usually took seven. I started speaking as soon as the elevator doors opened to our floor. “What do you have on Beau?” I asked.
Her fingers flew over the keyboard at a rapid speed, and her back faced me.
“I have access to his credit cards. The login’s auto filled. If you haven’t found anything, search those.”
“Got it,” she said, not sparing me a glance. I maintained my urgent pace, heading into my office to figure out what Chandler had searched for.
“Chandler’s not responding. It seems his phone is turned off,” she called.
My suspicions about Chandler were confirmed when I rounded my desk to the private drawer I kept locked at all times, but he’d had access to my keys last night. The drawer opened without having the key to release the locks. Immediately, I saw Carter’s file was missing.
A smile split my lips, he’d fallen for it. I had duplicated the files, inflating the estimates on all of Carter’s bids for the next year. Whoever Chandler gave that file to—and I was pretty sure that was my father—wouldn’t win a project for however long it took them to realize they’d been played. I gave a mental fist pump at the win.
Beau’s handsome face came to my thoughts. He’d be happy. We’d celebrate the success. I picked up my landline and dialed Beau again. The worry that lay just below the surface had me ducking my head and closing my eyes. Four rings then voicemail. “Beau, call me when you get this.” I couldn’t keep the begging quality from my voice. “Please, baby, call me.”
The phone was barely in the cradle when Penny came into the room. Normally, she knocked, but we were too far into this shitty day to abide by such manners. “I discovered a charge for a motel in Oklahoma City. Various gas station fill-ups lead me to suspect the charge is valid. I printed the statement and pinpointed the locations.” As she spoke, she laid each piece of evidence in front of me.
“He’s already made it to Oklahoma City? How is that possible?” I wondered aloud, picking up the sheet with the map on it. Was he on his way to Dallas? Without too much real thought, I lifted the phone again, dialing Amelia.
“Dash? Are you okay?” Amelia answered in the same caring way she always had. This time, I forewent my normal playful tease about her being overprotective.
“I believe Beau’s heading to Dallas. If he shows up there, will you call me?” I asked.
“Why don’t you know?” she asked, her tone edging toward worried.
“I can’t get into it right now. If he does arrive, I need you to talk up what a good guy I am. I’ll fly home on the first flight out.”
“Dasham, what did you do?” she asked sternly. “Beau’s a good man.”
“I know, but now’s not a good time to explain. Call me if he arrives,” I said, letting that be enough for now, and hung up the phone.
Absently, I thumbed through the files of other construction companies I represented. Those files were filled with blank copy paper. Although my only real worry was Beau, I had to confront Chandler. Make a big deal about the theft and inflate the importance of the files containing sensitive information not meant to be seen by anyone else. If one man represented the epitome of a bottom dweller, it had to be Chandler.
“Can you continue to follow Beau’s card?” I asked. “At least that’ll give me a direction.”
“Dash, I love Beau. I do,” Penny started. “But are you certain you should go after him?”
My head jerked up as I rose from my seat. “What’s that mean?” What a ridiculous thought.
She lifted her hands in some sort of gesture of peace. “You both have changed. You’re devoted to your work, spending well over a hundred hours a week here. I’ve been in this for too long. People like you have a hard time maintaining any sort of relationship. You’re married to your job.”
I gazed at her in disbelief. Why was this the first time I let that philosophy sink into my thick skull? Because I’d discounted it. My arrogance pushed me to believe I could handle my personal and career growth. How dumb was I?
I didn’t show Penny my cards. I rarely did until I had time to consider it all. “I understand your perspective.” That reply would have to suffice. As I rounded the desk to leave the office, I added, “I’m going to find Chandler.”
“You know, this is the first time I’ve seen you like this. I like the hair falling down on your forehead. It makes you look younger,” she said, propping her shoulder against the doorframe. I almost rolled my eyes. She’d nailed the exact reason I kept it swept up all of the time.
I lifted my hand to my head, realizing I hadn’t even dried my hair today. I never left the house with my hair in disarray.
“I don’t think you heard me,” she called.
“I heard you.” As the elevator door slid open, I stepped inside in full find-Beau-beast-mode. He’d gotten my attention. Decision made, I couldn’t live a proper life without him. Maybe I hadn’t done right by him, but I always knew he was my anchor. Fuck this job.