Read Online Healing Beau (The Brothers of Beauford Bend Book 6) by Alicia Hunter Pace - Free Book Online Page B

didn’t know what to buy a man who had no interests and nothing left to lose.
    Christian jumped to her feet, leaving a void beside him.
    Where are you going? Come back. Just be my anchor for a little while longer.
    She retrieved a shopping bag from under the tree and made her way back to him, distributing packages as she went.
    “This is for you.” She held out a package that wasn’t nearly as appealing as her smile—but what was inside left him speechless. It was a set of woodcarving chisels and knives. Even with his limited knowledge, Beau could tell they were very fine and would be a pleasure to hold and use.
    “I don’t know,” she stammered. “It just seemed like you liked working with wood. The guy in Nashville said these were nice.”
    She’d driven to Nashville for these—probably yesterday, in Christmas Eve traffic.
    “Thank you.” He squeezed her hand. “They’re great.”
    Then shame overtook him for what he’d gotten her. It wasn’t that the music box wasn’t nice. It was. But much like he’d bought all the men Fenix PD35 LED flashlights, he’d bought his sisters-in-law, Gwen, and Christian the same thing, though it seemed the salesclerk said something about them playing different tunes. Damn it all to hell. He was living in Christian’s house, eating her food, and now she’d bought him these tools that were exactly what he’d wanted, though he hadn’t known it. He should have bought her something better, something just for her. But it was too late for that now. His gifts were the only ones that hadn’t been given out.
    His wrapped packages didn’t even have gift tags. He handed the big ones to the kids, the small ones to the men, and the medium ones to the women. Before returning to his seat, Beau put Dirk and his family’s gifts under the tree with the growing pile that they would open after lunch.
    “Hell, yeah!” Gabe turned on his flashlight. “Somebody turn the lights off!” Really that was an appropriate response. The Fenix PD35 LED was the finest flashlight made, and a man couldn’t have too many flashlights.
    “Stop shining that in my eyes,” Neyland said. “And you aren’t turning the lights off. We have gifts from Beau to open, too.”
    “You better hope you got flashlights, too,” Jackson said. “This is sweet. Why haven’t I ever bought one of these?”
    “Because you didn’t know about them.” Rafe danced his beam across the ceiling. “Almost a light saber.”
    Pretty soon, the women were cooing over their music boxes, and a cacophony of tinkling music assaulted Beau from all over the room.
    He was afraid to look at Christian, afraid of seeing the disappointment when she realized she’d gotten the same gift as the others. In previous years, he hadn’t put any more thought into her gifts, but at least he hadn’t bought them in bulk, because there had been no one to buy in bulk for.
    But when he finally stole a glace, she looked enchanted. The box was open, playing its little tune, and she was lovingly staring at the works like it was a kitten.
    “Oh, Beau! I can’t believe you even remembered this.” Good Lord. She was tearing up. He knew how to deal with bad tears—find the problem and fix it—but there was no dealing with happy tears when there was no reason for the happiness. He didn’t remember a damned thing. How could that be? He remembered everything.
    Emory flew across the room. “Beau, these are beautiful.” Yeah, they were—thanks to the girl at the gift store. Emory turned to Christian. “Mine plays ‘Lara’s Theme.’ What does yours play?”
    “‘All I Ask of You’ from
The Phantom of the Opera
. It’s my favorite.”
    Oh, that. A few years ago, the traveling Broadway production had come to Nashville. He’d been home and Christian had roped him into going. He hadn’t even known what the music boxes played, and it was pure blind luck that Christian had gotten this one.
    Neyland and Abby came over to gush and give him hugs he