across the street from the hotel that I'd heard a lot about, and as much as I really didn't want to be around people, a good cup of coffee could cure a lot of things.

Plus, I didn't have anything else to do today, and I wasn't exactly the wallowing type. I couldn't change a damn thing about what had happened last night or this morning. No use obsessing over it.

The cafe was tiny; they only had a small collection of tables near the front windows, but they were mostly empty. So after getting my latte, I sat down at one of them and picked up a newspaper from the abandoned table next to me.

Warm vanilla spread over my taste buds as I took a sip from my mug, and I took a second to appreciate it. Yep, that was a damn good drink.

The combination of the soothing atmosphere and the cup of coffee did wonders to my mood as I sat there for God knows how long, flipping through pages of the newspaper. Absolutely destroyed the crossword, too. Nothing like a little brain exercise to distract my heart and its emotions.

When I drained my cup of the last drop, I folded up the newspaper and began to stand, only to plop back down in my seat again as the door chimed, opening.

Collins walked into the cafe, and those goddamn emotions took over again.

Fuck.

"Beau?"

—

"Baby girl," I hissed. "Wake up!"

Collins rolled over in my bed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes grumpily. "Why? It's the weekend." After a half-second pause, she bolted up in bed with wide eyes. "It is the weekend, right?"

I laughed despite feeling bad for causing panic. "Yes, sweetheart. It's the weekend."

Collins collapsed back into bed with a sigh of relief, turning over onto her side.

"Not so fast," I said, flipping the cover down and giving her a little smack on her ass to get her going. She made an involuntary noise that got my blood pumping, but a glare over her shoulder tamed it again. I beamed at her despite the dirty look. "I gotta show you something before you roll back over and go to sleep."

She groaned. "Why are you acting like a kid on Christmas morning?"

Some people got excited to open presents, but my giddiness always came from watching friends and family open gifts. Specifically gifts from me. There was a rush about it, a swelling feeling that came from making another person happy.

"You'll see," I said, bouncing onto my toes.

Excitement coursed in my veins, but so did nervousness.

This was Collins. This girl had told me more times than I could count that she didn't like charity. That she didn't need my boots or my plane or the bottles of coffee creamer I replaced every other week.

And she didn't—we both knew she didn't need those things.

But she wore the boots, and she got onto the plane, and she drank the coffee. And in the end, every one of those things had made her smile at some point.

It wasn't about the things, though. It was obvious to me that Collins secretly like that feeling of being taken care of. She caved to letting me dote on her because of the thoughtfulness, because of how that made her feel. And lately, I could buy her dinner and books, and even clothes without hearing a single complaint. It had nothing to do with what I was buying, though, and everything to do with why.

There was a very big why to my gift today. But it was also a hell of a lot...more than dinner or books or clothes.

That stormy night in her car had cemented a lot of things for me. If there was something I could do to remove pain from Collins' life, I was going to do it. She'd given me the wheel that night, and I would do whatever I could to drive her in the right direction.

I knew I should start by telling her about my conversation with Santa Fe, but I'd been putting it off in hopes that I would hear back from him first. That way, I could admit what I'd done and then explain how it was all over.

But my phone and email inboxes had been silent. Penguin sightings: zero.

Collins regretfully rolled out of bed, looking like she wanted to bite my head off. All I could do was smile, though. It was ten o'clock on a Saturday morning, and she had slept for ten hours last night without even waking up when I ran my errand this morning. I couldn't even remember the last time she'd gotten up at seven-thirty to get her coffee. Baby girl was a sleeping machine these days. Almost as if she was making up for years of lost z's.

"Woah, hold up," I said, springing into action when I realized she was almost to the door and still wearing those tiny shorts that made my skin feel too tight. Grabbing her around the waist, I curled her back into me and tried to keep my shit together when her ass came into contact with my groin.

Not the time to get excited down there. Got it?

"Beau," Collins groaned. "You told me to hurry up, and now I'm going too fast? What's going on?"

I chuckled into her hair. "I just need you to be wearing more clothes than that."

"To go into the kitchen?" She tipped her head back with a sigh, giving me what I wanted: access to kiss her neck. "Nessa isn't even home."

I was more than aware that Nessa wasn't home. If Nessa was home, we definitely wouldn't have done all the things we did last night. My headboard met the wall between my room and Nessa's on a pretty consistent basis from the hours of eleven to twelve. Should probably check that there wasn't any damage, actually.

"We're going outside, though," I said, pulling my thoughts back in the right direction.

"Outside?" Collins slipped out of my arms, giving me a questioning glance. "Why are we going outside? It's cold out there."

"Nonsense." I chuckled, snatching up a pair of my sweatpants and tossing them at her. "It's a beautiful spring day."

Collins rolled her eyes but started pulling on the pants over her shorts anyways. "Pretty sure it's like fifty degrees and drizzling."

I threw her an OSU snow team sweatshirt. "Exactly."

"What did you do?" she asked with an exasperated sigh. But when all I did was smile giddily at her, she added, "On a scale of coffee creamer to private jet, what did you do?"

I threw my head back and laughed at how well she knew me. "Definitely somewhere in the middle."

That awarded me a curious look, which was likely Collins' motivation to finish changing and head outside with me. Luckily, the California skies were holding back the rain at the moment, though it sure looked like it wouldn't be long before the clouds began leaking.

Collins stopped on the porch, scanning our front yard.

"Beau, what am I looking at?" she said, squinting as she tried to figure it out.

All I could do was bite down on my lip and hope to God this went well.

"Wait." Collins froze. "Where's my car?"

That was my cue. Right fucking there.

"That's your car." I pointed to the black 2022 Mazda CX-5 in front of our duplex.

The previous morning, I'd tried to ask Collins nondescript questions about her car preferences, which hadn't gotten very far because she'd eventually thrown her hands in the air and said, "Beau, a car is a car."

Honestly, it was better for me that way. If she didn't care, it made it easier to pick out the perfect one. The Mazda had great safety features and ratings and was a quality mid-sized SUV without being over-the-top expensive, which I knew she wouldn't have liked.

"No," she breathed, slowly covering her hand over her mouth. "I should have known."

"Yes." I pushed my hands into my pocket because I didn't know what else to do with them. "Yes, you probably should have."

"You did not buy me a car," she emphasized. Though she continued to stare at the car that I definitely did buy for her. "And for absolutely no reason."

"No reason?" I echoed, nerves ricocheting against the walls of my stomach like a bouncy ball. Still, I flashed a slight smirk. "It's our one-month anniversary, baby girl."

"Oh my God. You—" Her eyes bugged out as she stared at me. "Beau, I can't...."

"Yes, you can."

Her head began to shake, curls furiously bouncing. "I don't—"

"Listen, Collins." I grabbed either side of her head to get her to look at me and apply a little pressure in hopes it would calm her. Brown eyes stared back at me, and I waited, letting her take a deep breath. "Just listen, sweetheart," I whispered.

And finally, she did. She could.

"I'm listening, Beau," she said, her voice as wispy as mine.

"This isn't just because I wanted to get you something shiny and new, Collins." I lowered one of my hands to slip it into hers. "This is because I want you to be safe and to feel safe. You shouldn't have to drive around in something that reminds you of one of the worst nights of your life."

"Beau."

My name was just a small plea on her lips. Her face crumpled, tears springing to the rim of her eyes. And I knew at that moment that she was going to accept it. She was going to accept it because I was right. She didn't want to relive that night over and over again. And she shouldn't have to.

"You didn't need to do this." She stared back at the car, wiping a tear from her cheek. "It's too much. It's way too much."

"Nah, baby." It was my turn to make my head. "I did. I did need to do this. I didn't have to, but I needed to."

Collins was silent for a long moment, chewing on her lip as her eyes stayed on the road. "I want to help with the payments," she said finally, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Did I want her money? Of course not. But at least she wasn't demanding I return the car.

"We'll work something out," I promised, deciding not to tell her right now that I had paid for the car in cash and there wouldn't be any payments. We'd figure out a way to make her feel like she still had some ownership. Maybe the insurance or the warranty or some other monthly expense.

"Yeah?" Collins looked over at me, entering another stage of disbelief.

"Yeah," I said with a chuckle, leaning in to kiss her. Collins surprised me by throwing her arms around my neck with a squeal, and I took that as permission to pick her up and change the soft kiss I'd intended into a hearty make-out session on the front lawn.

Collins didn't seem to mind. She mumbled thank you about a million times and then kissed me with that Christmas morning energy she'd been making fun of me for. There were good moments to be a hypocrite, though, and this was one of them. I eagerly carried her toward the car with her lips pressed against mine.

Hopefully, our neighbors minded their business this morning, or else they might get a little bit of a show.

Everyone on North Adams Street...go back to bed, will ya?!

Pressing Collins against the side of the SUV, I broke our kiss to offer up something very important. "We can go break in the backseat if you want," I said with a wink.

She laughed. A full, bright laugh. That—that right there was why I loved giving gifts. "I thought you had standards about where you got it on," she said.

"Your car definitely fits the standards. Trust me, I made sure it was plenty clean." Pressing my hand into her lower back, I urged her toward the rear car doors. "Go on. Check it out."

She squealed again, and at that moment, I was the happiest motherfucker in the entire world.

✨

sorry for the delay!

I've just been kinda busy and sick this past week.

hope you're all well and hope you enjoyed the chapter

thanks for reading, as always

xoxo amelie