Beau's house was still empty, but my heart was so... fucking full.

I finally understood why the Chosen elders warned us so strenuously about the dangers of sex. Because now that I'd had it, it was all that I wanted. 

I'd woken in the late evening to find that Beau was watching me sleep. It had been gentler that time, Beau acutely aware of how sore I had to be, but I'd flipped him onto his back and showed him I was doing just fine. 

He seemed to like that.

He also liked it when he finally folded himself around me and I'd fallen asleep in his arms, but he liked it even better when he woke up with my hand around the erection that had started pressing into my lower back. That time we'd both been too exhausted for much athleticism, but we made up for it in tenderness. 

Now I was awake in this strange, empty house, rifling through the few small boxes he'd brought over in the car yesterday as if what was his was also mine. "There's gotta be a mug in here somewhere." I tried to catch my yawn before it split my face open, but Beau chose that moment to wander bare-chested into the kitchen and laugh at me.

"Tired?"

"Someone kept me up all night," I grumbled. 

He puffed up proudly. "Someone didn't seem to mind it so much while it was happening." He reached past me and pulled out the big blue mug of his that I liked the best. "I'd say we broke in the new bed pretty well. I slept like a baby."

I smiled down at the coffee he was pouring for me. He must have slipped out of bed this morning to make sure it was brewing. If I hadn't been sure about loving him before, now I was certain. "No, you didn't. I've never heard a baby snore like that before."

He froze, making me burst out laughing, but he looked terrified. "I snore?"

I reached out and touched the tip of his nose. "No. And even if you did, that'd be okay. I can sleep through anything. My house was always noisy growing up."

Beau's expression took on that one of wary eagerness. I'd noticed it whenever I made passing mention of where I grew up. It was like he desperately wanted to ask me about it but was afraid of what he'd find out. I cleared my throat. "My sister Rebecca - you met her, you remember." Beau grimaced. "She snores like crazy, but would never admit it. 'It's the walls creaking,' she'd say. Or, 'I was just going to wake you up, I can't sleep through your snoring.’" I shook my head. Rebecca was slippery that way, never letting herself get pinned down, always ducking and deflecting. I knew that was how she was, but her words were still playing in the back of my brain on repeat. “Why should I care? Because obviously you don't!"

Beau's voice brought me back to myself.  "Did you have to share a room with her?"

"Of course. There were four of us in the room and whatever baby had been born most recently."

Beau blinked, but then just nodded. "I shared a room with my brothers a lot when we were on tour. I never could figure out who the snorer was. It seemed to change every night."

I opened my mouth to tell him that sharing a hotel room was nothing like how it'd been for me but then paused. He was trying to reach out to me. Even though we'd grown up so differently, there were still so many things that were the same. 

I went up on my tiptoes and kissed his nose. "Shower?" I asked. 

That seemed to pique his interest. 

After we'd run the water cold and shivered into our clothes, Beau took me on a tour of the property. We ducked under the boughs of the conifers and blinked in the patches of sunlight that filtered down through the green. On the other side of that stand of trees rose a field of waist-high grasses with a huge granite boulder rising in the center like a stone ship in a sea of green. We lay there watching the clouds, letting the sun-warmed rock make us sleepy, then Beau heard my stomach growl and yanked me to my feet. "I had an idea."

His idea turned out to be - fishing. 

Ripples were studding the weed-choked pond at the bottom of his lawn. Mayflies and midge danced crazy circles on the surface, and every so often the buzzing silence was broken by the might splash of a fish nabbing itself dinner. Beau strode down the lawn with the swagger of someone who already looked at this place as his. I swelled with happy pride for him. 

Right up until the moment he handed me the pole with a condescending smile.  "Have you ever been fishing before?"

I stared at him incredulously. "Are you really asking that?"

He raised an eyebrow and I let out a disbelieving laugh. "Beau, the Chosen are taught from a young age how to be self-sufficient." I cast out my line with an expert flick. 

"Well okay then." He took a respectful step back. "Should I just shut up and let you do your thing?"

"Fish do like it better when it's quiet," I teased, softening my words with a smile. He grinned, running his tongue over his teeth in a way that made me excited about how much trouble I was getting myself into. 

But then my rod dipped, and the bobber disappeared with a loud gloop sound. "I've got one!" 

Beau shifted like he wanted to help me reel it in, then took another step back. "You good?"

"I'm good." The fish fought hard, but I'd landed much bigger ones. I'd helped pull newborn calves into the world. I wielded a mop and a twenty-gallon bucket whenever there was a spill at work. The fish really never had a chance. 

A rainbow trout flopped onto the grassy banks. "Oh God," I groaned. "I hate watching them flop."

"I know." Beau looked a little green. 

"Where's your knife?"

He blinked at me, stunned, but when I put my hand out, he knelt down and pulled it from the tackle box. I quickly put the fish out of its gasping misery. 

Beau gaped. "Jesus," he muttered. "Where did I find you?"

I laughed, feeling light and proud. So many of my skills didn't translate into the secular world. I barely understood my smartphone and I'd never sent an email until Everly helped me set up my account. But this was something I knew. Something I was good at. I quickly set to work gutting our lunch. 

Beau went back to the house to fire up the little charcoal grill he'd bought from the outdoor store yesterday. I hummed to myself as I filleted the fish, tossing the guts back into the pond for the other fish to feast on. When Beau came back with a plate, I deposited two beautiful fillets onto it for him. 

Beau looked down, then without warning, he yanked me to him. "I smell like fish guts!" I protested as he peppered my forehead and cheeks with adoring kisses. 

"Don't care," he mumbled, turning me around and backing me toward the house. 

The coals had gone out by the time we got to them, meaning Beau had to light the grill again. That was the only thing that went wrong on that otherwise perfect day. 

That night, after we'd showered and before he fell asleep, Beau wound his hand into my braid and used it to pull me closer for a kiss. He fell asleep with a smile on his face and his fingers in my hair.