But during her little celebration, he had closed his eyes and began to breathe rhythmically. Less than a minute later, he opened them again, centered and calm. He shrugged and pulled out his k****e. "I'm fine."
Damnit! He was too f*****g stoic. Well, Bea wasn't going to pass up an invitation anyway. She snuggled into his dense, shirtless shoulder and read alongside him. He was on chapter 2 of a new book, but he patiently flipped back to chapter 1 so she could get caught up. Why did that make her want to squee happily?
They hung out like that for most of the day, burning through that book entirely. When one of them needed to pee, the book was set aside. At one point, Ben set it aside and asked, "Tacos?" And Brea realized she was indeed pretty hungry. So he made tacos.
She noticed that, a
