Chapter 26
Goodbyes Of Both Kinds
I tried to act normal.
And it so wasn't working.
By the next morning, half of those who had been there left. Emmy's parents were back to New York, my parents were back to Atlanta with Anna and Tate, the Misra's were back to India, and the Knights Council members to Pallandino. Everyone else was sticking around for a few more days.
It helped that Beau, Gage, Ash, and Savannah were still there, too, and would be for at least another week. We hadn't decided just when it was safe enough for them to head back home, but we were going to have someone keeping an eye on them whenever they did.
The day they'd been there without me, they did a little bit of exploring of the manor. Mostly, they'd spent their time in the library with everyone else, worrying over when Drake and I were going to get there. So the following day, I took them around the manor, showing them every nook and cranny I knew about. They were more than impressed as I went on and on about the place as we went through every room, since I did know the history of it and the surrounding lands.
By the end of our tour that lasted several hours, we'd ended up in the training room. John, Ryan, Jason, Ren, and Nathan were play fighting with Sterling, Aiden, and Grant. Emmy, Elena, Stella, Jamie, Tory, and Audrey were sitting on the sidelines, talking and grinning when the little boys would make a good hit. Avery was seated in Elena's lap and Jamie and Audrey had the twins, who were wide awake and watching the excitement.
When John offered to show them a few things, Gage was the first - and only - one to take him up on the offer. Of course, he didn't want to fight the guys, though.
"Get over here, Hattie," he grinned at me as he tugged me with him. "You said you'd teach me a few things."
"I'm not in the mood, Gage," I shook my head. "John's better than I am, so..."
"Can John do all those ninja moves?"
"Hell no," John laughed as he sat down by Emmy and Sterling sat in his lap. "And I'd probably pull something if I tried."
"You sound like an old man," Emmy laughed, brushing his hair back from his sweaty forehead. "You're not even thirty."
"That's still old," Sterling grinned, poking his big brother on the cheek, which made John laugh as he started tickling him.
"So," Gage started again, stepping in front of me. "How fast can you take a person down?"
I had opened my mouth to answer, but another voice cut in.
"Less than ten seconds," Drake said, leaning against the door with his arms crossed over his chest. "First time we really had a conversation was when she was telling me she could beat my ass in less than ten seconds. She did it, too."
Cruz came up behind him, but didn't stop like Drake had, and headed inside to take a seat beside Jason.
"I promised I'd never piss her off after I saw that go down," Jason grinned. "You sure you want the wrath of Hattie?"
He said he did...but I quickly changed his mind when I did the same move on him I had on Drake all those years ago. The look on his face when he landed on his back made everyone laugh, even me. When I helped him up, I'd looked toward the doorway, only to find Drake gone. I hadn't been the only one expecting him to still be there. It was Beau's eyes I'd met next just before he gave me a slight smile.
Gage refused to say he was hurting later that day, but even the slightest movement made him wince. What was even funnier was when Beau slapped him on the back, which nearly sent him to the ground.
We spent the next three days outside, swimming, riding horses, and exploring the ruins of Seward house since they all wanted to see them. Sterling, Aiden, and Grant came with us. Even little Avery tagged along.
Both Grant and Avery had really taking a liking to Beau. It was the cutest thing, seeing them jumping off the side of the pool into his arms after Nathan had gotten out or taking turns riding on his shoulders as we walked through the ruins.
We even made a two day trip to London, flying there in the helicopter instead of driving, and went to John's dad's house and Elena and Nathan's. We had to do as much in those two days as we could, playing tourist as we went to the British Museum, took a city tour on a double-decker bus, and visited Buckingham Palace. I even took them to the Antecedent Industries headquarters, giving them the full tour of the place.
For the week that my friends were in England, Drake had all but disappeared, speaking mostly through Cruz, who always had his excuses ready for anyone who asked about him. I only saw him in passing as I headed to my room, to John's office, or at night when we were all to the dining room for dinner. Even then, he ate quickly without saying much before disappearing again.
He wasn't the only one who went missing for extending periods of time, though. I noticed Beau would always slip away after dinner before showing up to say goodnight a few hours later. No one knew where he'd gone and the only answer I could think of was highly unlikely.
And after another two days at Paddon Manor, John had decided that it was safe enough for them to go home.
"We've had people watching your houses," John told them as we crowded into his office. "There's been no activity since you guys were in Paris, which is good. But even after you get back, we'll still have someone keeping an eye out."
"You're not coming back with us, are you?" Savannah had asked, looking over at me.
I shook my head. "No, I've got to stay here. I'll still be back before school starts again, though."
She smiled, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. "It's going to be one heck of a boring summer now after all this."
***
Later that night, after spending some time with Savannah and Ash before they fell asleep, I was walking through the darkened hallway toward the kitchen when someone rounded the corner. Just as his arms wrapped around me, I immediately knew who it was.
"Hey," Beau whispered, even though everyone was upstairs in the rooms, asleep. "What are you doin' up this late?"
"It's only midnight," I smiled, stepping back from him. "I could ask you the same thing, though, seeing as you have to be up early."
"Not tired," he shrugged, though it seemed like it was something else. "Everythin' okay?"
"Yeah," I said as we started for the kitchen together. "I guess I'm just going to miss you guys being around. It's nice being able to share all this with you."
"The secret life of Hattie Devereaux is definitely different from anythin' I could have dreamed up," he laughed, taking my hand. "But it's been amazin'."
When we got to the kitchen, I opened the fridge, grabbing the milk, before getting two glasses from the cabinet and a box of cookies from the pantry. Beau raised an eyebrow as I pour him a glass.
"What are we, five?"
"Don't be hatin' on the chocolate chip cookies. You know you want some."
Beau chuckled, reaching forward to snatch the box from my hands as I sat down beside him. He was smiling, watching me in the dim kitchen light from above the stove.
"So, have you talked to your parents?"
He nodded. "Yeah, this afternoon. I called to tell them we were coming back tomorrow. Momma asked about you and how you were doing. I told her things were good, but you weren't comin' home with us." He smiled sheepishly. "She's still mad at me for what happened."
"She shouldn't be," I said, shaking my head. "Besides, we're past it."
"But she's not. I'll probably get hit once I'm back home."
I laughed, shaking my head. "So besides getting hit by your momma, what are you doing for the rest of the summer?"
"What I do every summer since I was fourteen - workin'. No doubt Gage and the girls will want to hang out on the weekends like always when you're not there to keep them entertained. You unintentionally hand over that responsibility to me. What are you doing?"
"Working," I grinned. My working was definitely going to be different from his, though.
"So you guys are really gonna figure out what that book leads to, huh? That first page was really somethin'."
"Right? None of us knew about it. And that's something, seeing as we're used to knowing pretty much everything."
"Do you know what all you'll be doin'?"
I shook my head. "Other than knowing we have to go down those tunnels that are under Seward house, no. And we probably won't until we get the next journal."
"Sounds like you'll have an adventurous summer, huh?"
"When you don't know where you'll be at a given time...definitely."
He went quiet as he ate a few cookies, keeping his eyes on me. It was almost like he was trying to figure something out, but just didn't want to ask me whatever it was. But I had questions of my own, something that had been in the back of my mind for a few days now.
"What have you really been doing?" I asked then before munching on my cookie. "You disappeared after dinner... and have been for the past few nights."
He shrugged without saying a word before drinking, purposely giving himself a milk mustache, making me laugh. Grinning, he gave me a wink.
"I've been hangin' out with someone. And I might even say I've grown to like him...but don't tell him that, though."
"Who...?" But I already knew the name he said next, though it still came as a shock.
Beau smiled again, shaking his head. "Drake, Hattie. I've been hangin' out with Drake."
I sputtered, choking on my words. "What...how?"
"Don't act so surprised, Hattie," he laughed, though he seemed a little uncomfortable. "We started talkin' the night you two got here. Just random stuff, really. He's showed me a lot of the stuff he's been workin' on the past few years and even some of those fightin' moves Gage got you to teach him. I might not have liked him before, but he's not that bad of a guy."
Drake and Beau...becoming almost...friends? I still couldn't find the words to describe how strange it was.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
He was watching me again, trying to figure out what was going through my mind. All that was were images of Drake and Beau talking and acting like two normal guys...before that turned a complete one-eighty and they were going at each other's throats.
But Beau's expression changed then, turning thoughtful.
"I like us like this, you know?" he said, keeping his eyes on me.
"This...meaning what, exactly?"
He pointed back and forth between the two of us. "This...like it was before we got together. This...when you were my best friend, not my girlfriend."
I swallowed hard. "You'll always be one of my best friends, Beau, not matter what happens. With this whole break thing..."
He leaned forward in his chair, reaching forward to grab my hands and hold them between us. "You know I love you, right, Hattie?"
I nodded as a lump formed in my throat. "I love you, too."
"I know you do...but it's not the same as it was before," he said softly. "And right now, I've got a confession to make. The night you and Drake got back...after I talked to him...well, I might have heard what you and Emmy were talkin' about in your room."
Oh, gosh...so he heard everything - my confession to Emmy about still being in love with Drake and how much his rejection hurt me.
Beau took my silence as me being upset about him eavesdropping. "I'm sorry. I wasn't sneakin'. I was gonna talk to you, but I heard you cryin' and I...I couldn't bring myself to knock on the door. I heard everythin' you said."
I wanted him to stop before it went any further. Because, for all I knew, something like what happened before could happen again, turning this into a fight. Then where would we be with our relationship, girlfriend/boyfriend or not?
He cut me off before I could say anything.
"You don't have to explain, darlin'," he smiled slightly, using his usual term of endearment for the first time in what seemed like forever. "I didn't have to overhear to know what was goin' on. I knew I was losin' you the moment Drake showed up at the benefit a few weeks ago."
"Beau, please, let me explain..."
He shook his head. "No, Hattie. You don't have to explain anythin'. I've got eyes, you know, and I'm not as stupid as some people may think with me bein' a country boy and workin' as a mechanic."
"I'm sorry," I whispered, not knowing anything else to say. "It's just..."
"Do you know how much that guy talks about you?" Beau asked then. "A hell of a lot. Even for me, it gets annoyin'. He talks about everythin' that happened when he first met you and how you used to talk about us all the time. He likes tellin' the story of when you first beat him up and the dozens of times after that. He even told me about how he's been keepin' an eye on you these past four years 'cause of that Vince guy." He smirked. "I gave him shit for that one, tellin' him how much of a creeper move that was."
I let out a broken laugh as tears welled in my eyes.
Beau reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear, smiling slightly. "I know you still love him, Hattie, and you love him more than you would ever be able to love me."
Forget the broken laugh. What came out then was a broken sob.
"So now, I'm gonna tell you what I told him. I'm steppin' down as gracefully as a guy can so his best friend can be with the person she really wants to be with. He's gonna try his damn hardest to not do anythin' about it, sayin' it's not the right time and all that shit, but I don't care. I told him so, too. Told him he needed to uncomplicated things."
He stood then, keeping hold of my hands as he dragged me with him and into his arms. Holding me tightly, he pressed his cheek against the top of my head as I buried my face into his chest.
"I want you to be happy, Hattie...and Drake makes you happy."
"We fight a lot," I mumbled.
"Love hard, fight hard."
"I want to strangle him more than once on a daily basis."
"I wouldn't be opposed to that. He can definitely be an idiot."
I laughed. "He's more than just an idiot, though. He's an ass."
Beau pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "An ass who loves you, too, though he's tryin' his damn best not to admit it."
***
I stood outside Savannah and Ash's bedroom door the next morning, trying to get myself to knock. I could hear their voices inside, so I knew they were up, rustling around as they got their things packed up. It wasn't until the door swung open that I knew I couldn't back down.
"What are you doing, Hattie?" Savannah laughed when she saw my raised hand, preparing to knock. "Are you planning on knocking me out?"
"No," I told her, shaking my head as I rolled my eyes. "I just wanted to see how things were going."
"They're going," Ash replied, setting her bag down on the floor by the door.
"But I don't want to go," Savannah went on, grinning. "I'm trying to think up excuses for us to stay a little while longer."
I smiled slightly as I walked over to the bed, stretching out at the bottom as the two of them sat down side by side, staring down at me.
"What's going on?" Savannah asked then. "You look tired."
I shrugged, draping my arm over my eyes. "I am tired. I didn't get much sleep last night."
"Everything okay?" Ash asked.
Sighing, I slowly sat up, crossing my legs under me as I picked at the covers. They would find out sooner or later.
"Beau and I broke up last night."
Both girls looked over at the other, raising both eyebrows.
"That's what we thought was going to happen before the end of this trip," Ash sighed.
"You did?" I asked. "You certainly didn't make it seem that way."
"Please," Savannah said, rolling her eyes. "You and Beau have been best friends since we were little. Just as long as we have. And that's how you guys have been acting with each other since you've been on your break. It's more natural for you two to just be friends, but we've never mentioned that to you before. Because you seemed happy...up until a month ago when Drake came back into your life."
Ash continued without missing a beat. "When you two aren't fighting, you and Drake are perfect. You think no one saw that? The way you two are with each other is totally different from the way you are with Beau. Even Beau saw that."
"I knew it was probably going to happen sometime soon. It was inevitable," I said, pulling my knees to my chest. "But did you know Beau and Drake have actually been hanging out?"
Both of them looked confused.
"Really?" Savannah questioned.
"Weird," Ash nodded.
I laughed slightly, nodding. "Right? And they're apparently starting to like each other, which is more than weird."
"Drake really hasn't been around much since you two got here....and you never really went into detail about what happened before that."
"We didn't have a fight or anything...just an understanding."
Savannah raised an eyebrow. "You were upset."
"And it really shouldn't have made me upset, because I understood where he was coming from. But he...I don't know"
Ash sighed again, though this time, she was smiling. "That guy's more important to you than you're leading on, Hattie. We all know it and you know it, too."
***
After breakfast, it was time for goodbyes. Everyone gave Beau, Gage, Ash, and Savannah handshakes and hugs as we stood out back. The helicopter was waiting to take them to the airport in London, where they would be met by three Knights who would be escorting them back home.
I was one of the last for goodbyes, giving them all long hugs. Beau was last and held me tightly, smiling before he kissed the top of my head.
"Be careful, all right?" he told me. "All those adventures you'll more than likely to go on...well, don't get yourself into too much trouble."
I laughed, shaking my head. "No matter what, I probably will at some point."
"I know," he grinned. He looked over the top of my head before back down at me. "You'll call and keep in touch, though, right?"
I nodded, leaning up to kiss his cheek. "Of course."
When we pulled away from each other, Beau was looking over my head again at one person who appeared that hadn't been there before.
Drake was smiling as he reached forward and shook Beau's hand, giving him a nod. "Later, man. Have a safe flight back."
Even though I'd heard about it, Beau and Drake being civil toward each other, smiling and shaking hands...well, it was weirder seeing it in person. I wasn't the only one watching their exchange. Everyone was...and looking back and forth between the two guys like they were waiting for the testosterone to take over and for them to start throwing punches.
"Same to you," Beau grinned back, glancing over at me. "And you remember what I said before."
Drake barked out a laugh. "Threatened, you mean?"
"Exactly," he nodded. "But seriously...take care of her."
By 'her,' everyone knew who they were talking about. With everyone's eyes flicking over to me, my cheeks flamed in embarrassment, heart pounding in my chest and my ears. It wasn't until I looked up and met Drake's eyes as he smiled slightly, nodding at Beau's request.
"You know I will," he promised. "But it's up to her if she'll let me."
***I can't tell you guys how much I loved this chapter. Sure, it was a break up, but Beau's just...goodness, he's just a sweetie! And even though they're gone now...well, they'll be back.
As for the next chapter...well, get ready, guys. ;D
Only one more final tomorrow! Then you'll have uploads pretty much every other day.
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