8

"Oh no," Chiles groaned around her straw as the crowd clapped.

"What's wrong with you?" He wrapped his arm around her slender shoulders. It had been the most blissful week of his life. All the love songs made sense now, every gaudy, soppy word.

"I'd completely forgotten about Rick." His spine stiffened. Perhaps he spoke too soon. "He's going to be so disappointed now that we're together." To be perfectly honest, the doctor had hardly crossed Beau's mind. Patti, the girl whom Chiles had dubbed as "the perfect girl," turned out to be perfectly gracious about the way he acted. But now, his rival was on stage and Chiles was pouting those strawberry lips of hers and he couldn't help but worry.

"What, are you ready to run off into the sunset with the doc?" He joked, his eyes moving between the floor to his beer.

"What are you talking about? He'd rather run off with you." The bartender did not appreciate Beau spitting his beer onto his shirt, but let it slide due to the crowd he attracted on Saturday nights. "I thought you knew that Rick was a... well, you know." She lowered her voice. "I just never wanted to spread it in case he wasn't out yet."

Beau laughed off his surprise. "Well, you can tell him he has as much of a chance now as he did before you became my girlfriend."

She smiled, the wide eyed, dimple showing smile of hers. "Say it again."

"Well, my girlfriend must be deaf because-"

Her lips never let him finish his sentence.

No, nothing could be better than this.

"So you never told me how being the new Carrie Underwood was like."

Her hands stilled on the plate she was drying. She seemed to shake herself out of it before replying quietly, "it's not what I thought it would be." Her hair fell in her face as she remained concentrated on the dishes.

"I told you you were better than all that." He handed her the last pot and turned to lean his hip on the counter. He watched her scrub at the metal furiously and continue to avoid his gaze so he ducked down for a moment and softly said, "Hey..."

His voice seemed to shock her back to reality and she realized what she had been doing. "Well, the important thing is that I'm here now, right?" She gave him a quick peck on the lips and disappeared into the bathroom.

Beau was never a genius, but it didn't take one to realize there was something wrong. The only question was whether or not he should keep poking at the sleeping bear.