CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Bristol woke early. It was still dark, her body still blissfully used and sore from another night with Beau. They’d waved Violet off with Nolan and Lissa on their annual road trip to Lissa’s family in Monterey. And Beau had given her an extra hard hug when she’d cried.
But he’d taken her home, taken her straight to bed where they’d napped for two hours. And when they woke, there was no more napping.
Physically their bodies were so in tune. He knew everything she wanted from him without her ever voicing it. And it wasn’t just in the bed—or on the floor or the kitchen island.
He’d been a rock for her entire family yesterday, supporting them with humor and sweetness and, in the end, some impressive bartending skills. Even Nana had approved. She’d given Bristol a good hard look on her way out the door and nodded in Beau’s direction.
“He’s a good man. You let him marry you,” she’d insisted.
Bristol smiled at the memory. He was a good man, and she’d had more than a few not-so-fleeting wishes that he’d stay in the past twenty-four hours. Even longer, if she was being completely honest.
She let herself daydream for just a second. Beau in Hope Falls, Beau coaching Violet’s hockey team, Beau in her kitchen, her bedroom… their kitchen, their bedroom.
She rolled over, reaching for him, but found his side of the bed empty. A glance at the clock told her she still had fifteen minutes before she had to get up for the anarchy of Black Friday at Early Bird. It wasn’t that it was a big shopping day in Hope Falls, Bristol thought as she pulled on Beau’s discarded t-shirt. It was that everyone had just spent the last twenty-four hours cooking, cleaning, and entertaining family. It was time to get out of the house.
She padded out to the kitchen and found it dark. She felt the tickle of worry in her belly when she walked to the front window. It was snowing steadily. Beau’s SUV had been parked in front of her car. It was gone.
She hurried back to the kitchen, desperate for caffeine to help her make sense of it all. Had she dreamed it? Had he told her he wasn’t staying the night?
She flicked on the lights over the island and was reaching for the coffee maker when a piece of paper caught her eye. It was propped up against the vase holding the slightly squished roses he’d given her.
Gorgeous,
I owe you an explanation for why I came and why I left, but I can’t. Not yet. These last few days have changed everything for me. You’ve changed everything for me. Well, you, Violet, your family, hell, even the rest of this crazy town. I’ll be back. I promise, and I’ll explain everything. I hope you can forgive me for lying.
Love,
Beau
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The snow didn’t scare anyone off of breakfast. Not in a town that was walkable end to end in twenty minutes. Early Bird was at full capacity by seven-thirty. The coffee was strong and the windows were steaming up as plates of eggs and sausage and pancakes rotated with the crowd.
But gone was Bristol’s post-sex buzz. Gone were her daydreams of Beau in Hope Falls. And gone was her heart.
He’d lied to her, slept with her, and left her. And he was going to pay.
“Take a break.”
Her sister’s voice snapped Bristol out of her revenge fantasy.
“What are you doing here?” Bristol frowned.
She saw her sister skate a look at Margo who whistled innocently as she turned around and slunk back to the kitchen.
“I see.”
“Grab a mug and take five and tell me why you don’t have orgasmic bliss written all over your face. And I want an egg white omelet with turkey bacon and coffee.”
Bristol glared at her sister while she rang in the order and snatched two mugs off the wall.
Savannah snagged a table as it was abandoned by Mr. King and aging hippie Art Gardine. “So talk.”
“Beau’s gone.”
“What the hell do you mean he’s gone? He was slobbering over you yesterday. Lissa used the ‘L’ word,” Savannah argued.
“What? Lust?” Bristol snorted. “Loser?” She was so mad she couldn’t come up with any other ‘L’ words.
“What happened when you went home yesterday?” Savannah asked, determined to get to the bottom of it.
“We took a nap.”
“Is that a euphemism?” Savannah frowned.
“No! We fell asleep all snuggled up together like an idiot and a liar and then when we woke up we… did other things that occur in beds. We ate the leftovers Mom packed up for us and then went back to bed for more…”
“Occurrences,” Savannah provided.
“And when I woke up at four, he was gone, and this was in the kitchen.”
She yanked the note out of her pocket and slapped it on the table.
Savannah snatched it up, read it. “What the fuck is this?”
“I would really like to know!”
“You changed everything, but he can’t explain why he was lying or leaving?” Savannah reiterated. “We’re getting to the bottom of this, and then we’re driving to Chicago—if that is where he’s from— and setting his house on fire.”
“Thanks for having my back.”
“No one messes with my sister. Not even someone who looks like Beau French.”
“If that’s his real name.”
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Savannah and Bristol agreed to meet at Bristol’s that afternoon for some cyber stalking, but first, there was one thing Bristol needed to do.
She drove out to Mountain Meadow B&B in the still falling snow. She already knew Beau wouldn’t be there, but maybe Shelby or Levi could shed some light on the man’s mysterious disappearance.
“Hey, Bristol! How’d you fare in the snow?” Shelby asked with a warm grin. She was on a ladder decorating the B&B’s Christmas tree.
“Uh, good. Everything was fine. You?”
“Levi had the paths and sidewalks cleared in no time. We ended up with a good crowd at JT’s last night despite the snow. Everyone hiked in on snowshoes,” Shelby laughed. Shelby was a San Diego native and was still adjusting to the culture shock of Hope Falls. “So what can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if Beau French was still here?”
Shelby frowned down at her. “You mean Beau Evanko?”
Bristol shook her head. “French. He was here for the yoga retreat,” Bristol tried again.
“We had a Beau Evanko, and I believe he was the very attractive man who went to Thanksgiving lunch with you. He made the green bean casserole here.”
Bristol felt a sick feeling of dread slide through her stomach.
Shelby climbed down the ladder. “What’s wrong? You look like you’re going to be sick.”
Bristol reached into her bag and dug for her phone. “Is this Beau Evanko?” she asked, pulling up a picture on her phone.
Shelby leaned in to look. “Yep, that’s him.” She pulled back to study Bristol. “He left his room key at the desk overnight. I found it this morning.”
With a heavy heart, Bristol shoved her phone back in her bag.
“There’s no way that guy is a yoga instructor. He told me he was here to visit a family connection. Come to think of it, he was super vague about it, but I never was able to weasel out of him who it was.”
“He worked out at Lucky’s once or twice,” Bristol tried again. “Do you think Lucky or Levi know anything about him?”
“If Levi knows anything about Beau and didn’t tell me, he’s going to be sleeping on the couch tonight,” Shelby threatened. “He really told you his name was French and that he was a yoga instructor?”
Bristol nodded already feeling like a prize idiot.
“He seemed really nice, sweet even. He was so nervous about Thanksgiving with your family. Why would he do that to you?”
Bristol took a deep breath. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
“If he shows his face here again, you can bet I’ll be dialing you while Levi beats the hell out of him,” Shelby said, angry now.
“Thanks, Shelby. I appreciate it.”
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“He’s a professional hockey player?” Bristol screeched.
“Was,” Savannah corrected her, squinting at her laptop screen. “This says he retired suddenly about a year ago.”
“Why? Was he caught embezzling from the NHL? Did he sleep with the team captain and then disappear off the face of the earth?” Bristol snapped.
Savannah shook her head. “He was the team captain. The official statement says ‘personal reasons.’ Lots of speculation, but he never went public with his reason for leaving the sport.” She wiggled her empty wine glass at Bristol. “Need more stalking fuel.”
Bristol took the glass into the kitchen and opened a new bottle of wine while Savannah clicked and scrolled some more. Today had been the single biggest day in Early Bird’s history. She should be celebrating. Instead, she was pacing her apartment trying to unmask the man who had brought her back to life and then discarded her like the unwanted bottom of a muffin.
“Holy effing shit.”
“What?” Bristol asked, practically climbing over her sister’s shoulder to see the screen. “Is he under investigation for murder? Oh, my God,” she gasped. “Is he married?”
Savannah swiveled around to look at her. “Why would married get a bigger reaction out of you than murdering?”
“I don’t know!” Bristol said as she paced back and forth behind her chair. “I just—shut up and tell me if he has a criminal record, okay?”
“News today out of Chicago says that Beau Evanko just put his swanky downtown penthouse on the market for a cool $2.5 million.”
Bristol handed Savannah the full glass and took a sip of her own.
“We’re missing something here. Why would a professional hockey player fly out here, pretend to be a yoga instructor, seduce me, and then vanish again?”
Savannah rolled her shoulders. “We’ve got to be missing something. Some connection. Maybe he’s looking for something to do with his millions, and he wants to franchise Early Bird?”
“Maybe he’s an asshole who gets off on seducing single moms and then disappearing on them.” Bristol flopped down in one of the dining chairs. “I really liked him. Like really liked him.”
Savannah covered her hand. “B, we all did. That couldn’t have been an act, not all of it. He’s a hockey player, not a member of the Screen Actors Guild.”
Bristol dropped her forehead to the table. “I feel like such an idiot. I trusted him. I let him be around Violet!” She thunked her head once. “The other team parents are going kill me! How could I have let a stranger coach those kids?”
“No one in Hope Falls has ever been strung up for falling in love.”
“Love? This isn’t love!” Bristol sat upright. “Even if I was feeling something similar to love, it was not real love because real love is based on honesty, not lies some really hot asshole tells to get laid.”
“Something is not adding up here,” Savannah said, not even pretending to listen to Bristol’s tirade. “He’s totally hot. He wouldn’t have to lie to get anyone in bed. There has to be a reason why Beau Evanko came to Hope Falls.”
It flashed into her mind, Beau’s words two nights ago before…
“Wait, gorgeous. There’s something I have to tell you.”
In the heat of the moment, he’d tried to tell her something. He’d tried to stop her, and she’d told him it wasn’t important. It could wait.
“What? What’s wrong?” Savannah demanded. “You look like you smell something bad.”
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The days passed swiftly thanks to Violet coming home with stories to tell of Monterey and the last minute wedding preparations. But always in the back of her mind was Beau Evanko. At night, when Violet was in bed, Bristol dug deeper into the man she’d thought she’d known. She’d seen every highlight of his career thanks to an Evanko Fans channel on YouTube. Even with her limited knowledge of the sport, she could tell he’d been an incredible player. He was an MVP god on skates.
There were hundreds of pictures of Beau handing out signed jerseys to kids at games or signing autographs. He’d visited children’s hospitals in full uniform. He’d donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to several worthwhile charities. There was even a freaking Beau Evanko doll with matching kid-sized jersey from which all proceeds went to a children’s charity.
So he was generous, Bristol had mused cynically. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a generous asshole.
She’d also spent hours tracking down every single picture of every woman Beau had escorted anywhere. In the past several years, it had been the same five blondes recycled for public appearances. Interestingly enough, each blonde was labeled the sister or cousin of a different Blackhawks player. She couldn’t imagine the scenario where a guy wouldn’t mind his little sis being one of five girlfriends.
Speaking of little sisters, there were a handful of pictures of Beau with his sister, Alli. Alli traveling with the team, Alli accompanying Beau to a movie premiere. Alli, her face painted, at a Blackhawks playoff game. There were fewer pictures of her as she got older, though there was one disturbing website she found that featured younger siblings of famous people and countdowns to “being legal.” She couldn’t find any social media accounts for Alli, and Beau’s had been run by his sports management company and hadn’t been updated in forever.
She’d pored over articles about his retirement announcement. Announced in the middle of the last season and effective immediately, it had been a surprise to the hockey community. He’d given a press conference where he’d read a prepared statement, and as Beau had talked about his teammates being family, he’d choked up. The expression on his face had been the same one she’d seen when he sat with her grieving family at their Thanksgiving table.
But her digging failed to uncover one important thing. Bristol couldn’t find any connection between Beau the Blackhawks hockey player with Beau the Hope Falls stranger.
In a fit of embarrassment and rage, she’d ripped the sheets off her bed intending to burn them. But they’d stayed in a ball at the bottom of her closet, and she was ashamed to admit that she’d buried her face in them more than once to catch his lingering scent on them.
How could she have been so wrong about him? As a mother, she was supposed to have first-rate instincts about impending danger. How had he made it past her? How had he convinced her that he was a good, kind man?
If she were completely honest, nothing in her digging had made him seem like anything but that. The only anomaly was his disappearance.
It looked as though once again she was left with questions and a hole in her heart. But this time she was anything but numb.