by Taylor Hart
He spun her again and grinned. “Well, we will now.”
Chapter 7
After Beau pretty much exhausted both of them with another country song, the music turned slow and Sara found herself still dancing with him.
Beau hummed with the music. “I like this song.”
It felt strange, to be dancing with this man, a man she hardly knew, but it felt like she sort of knew. “I just need to point out how interesting it is that you seem to remember our conversations from almost a year ago with such clarity?”
Spinning her out—he took her with his other hand, slipping her behind his back. “Hmm.”
Sara sighed. “You’ve already used the ‘hmm’ comeback.”
He twirled her again, then pulled her back into him, shifting into a two step. “I didn’t know there was a limit on hmms. But, I will remember that the next time I talk with you. I suspect you dance a lot with Carey at these things.”
Sara noted the distaste in his tone and didn’t like the fact she felt like she had to defend herself to him. “Carey’s a good friend. He’s fun to dance with, that’s all.”
Beau shrugged. “I don’t care but does Jonathon know about him?”
Sara squinted at him. “I don’t have to explain anything to you?”
Beau ignored her comment. “Hmm.”
Her heart rate sped up and she found this man simultaneously annoying and … fun to be with.
“So, have you dated enough guys yet?”
She felt her cheeks flushing. “I’m working on it.”
He let out a chuckle. “You better hurry.” He tsked his tongue. “You only have one month until your five-year plan gets another check mark.”
Sara nodded, annoyance pulsing through her. “Again, so interesting you seem to remember everything about our conversation.”
He rolled his eyes. “But, you know Jonathon’s the best, right?”
Was he mocking her? She gave him another rude face. “He was always the best. Better than someone like you.”
Beau stopped dancing but stayed right next to her. “Sweetheart, don’t mistake sympathy for interest. I was helping you out in the airport garage a year ago, and I’m just trying to help you out now.”
Sara stared at him for a second, wondering how the conversation had turned out like this. “Well, it doesn’t feel like help.”
Beau scoffed. “You’re right. It must be true love. I mean, you knew him for a long time, right?”
She put her hands on her hips, getting more upset. “I don’t have to explain to you.”
“No, you don’t.” Beau looked around, then shook his head and closed his eyes for a second. “You don’t.” He flashed them open. “I mean, you’re in love with the idea of him. The thing you’ve built up in your mind.”
The fears she’d been carefully building a wall against, Beau shoved out into the open. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looked for Genova. She needed to get away from this guy. “I need to go.”
“Fine.” He cringed. “I don’t know why I…” he broke off and ran a hand through his hair. “Ya know, I’m happy for you.”
“Are you?” She jerked to face him. “Really?”
“I mean, you love him, right?”
“Right.”
Beau shrugged, still staring at her. “Pfft. Right. You know Jonathon about as well as you know me.”
She held his gaze. “No, I love Jonathon.”
Beau was calm. “Yeah, you’ve said that.” He glanced around. “Is this the only pool you’ve been looking in the last year? Cause I have to tell ya, it’s not that impressive.” He spread his hands. “You might widen your pool.”
She folded her arms, now utterly enraged. “Jonathon could swim circles around everyone in this room. Including you.”
Beau paused for a minute and then looked behind her, shaking his head and turning away. “Looks like you better get back to swimming, the safe one is coming for you.”
Sara watched him walk out of the gym doors. She wondered how, in one dance, he could disrupt the certainty she’d held so tightly around her for the year.
“Hey,” Carey said, coming to her side.
“Hey.” She still stared after Beau.
“Did you know that guy?”
She turned to face Carey, taking his hand and dancing. “Nope.”
The next day, Sara pushed her way into a classroom in the business building.
“Apparently, this class is a big deal,” her friend, Linda said to her.
Students crowded the front of the class, waiting in line to talk to the instructor.
Sara filed through the people, taking a seat next to Linda after she plunked down in two available seats.
Linda exhaled loudly. “This is crazy. Why do all of these people care about this guy so much?”
Sara shrugged. “I guess the guy has made millions or something, so the college is excited to have him teach this semester.”
Linda pushed her perfectly lined lips together. “Are you good at this type of stuff?” Linda’s eyes were glued to the paper syllabus.
Sara pulled out her laptop, unwinding her cords and looking for a plug in. “It can’t be that hard, right? Start a business and stuff. I help run the books at the ranch sometimes.”
Linda inhaled and then scanned the room. “I guess I better look for a guy that might be willing to help me.”
Sara snorted.
Linda often would prance around at the Intervarsity center like snow white and all the guys seemed to run to her side with a tissue if she sneezed. Sara liked her but wondered how in the world she’d made it through their first two years of college.
Linda twirled her long, black hair and looked like she already knew she would be dropping the class. “Formulating a business plan sounds hard.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Sara picked up the sheet of paper in front of her, zeroing in on the major class projects that she’d be required to do with a partner. There was only one, and a partner was optional. She felt relieved. She liked to have control over the whole project she was working on and usually ended up shouldering most of the burden of a team thing anyway.
“Wow,” Linda said, her jaw dropping, “now he’s a good looking professor.”
Sara glanced up, and her jaw dropped. “No.”
Beau walked into the classroom, shiny boots and all, with the Dean at his heels. He put his things on the table in front of him.
Sara’s heart raced and she half crouched down behind her laptop.
Linda turned to her in confusion. “What’s wrong with you?”
She angled her head and whispered to Linda, “What do you think the chances are that I can walk out of the class and not be noticed by the teacher?”
Linda frowned. “None. That door back there has an alarm on it. You’re stuck until the end of class.”
Sara put her head up.
Beau had a smile plastered on his face as he shook hands with several students.
“I have to get out of here,” she whispered, unplugging her laptop. It was so annoying that this man was here.
That he was her professor! No. No. No. She couldn’t be in this class. Everything he’d said last night had troubled her. So much so that she’d had a dream where Jonathon had come off the plane and ran past her, to another woman.
Pfft. She would not stay in this class
“What are you doing?” Linda asked.
“Good Morning.” Beau tapped the microphone. “Could everyone get settled?”
Sara froze.
“I want to meet each of you personally, but we have to get started. Please find a seat.”
Sara reluctantly unpacked her computer stuff, again and stared at Beau. The man’s smile was appealing when it wasn’t used to mock her.
He waited for people to get settled and then spoke into the microphone. “This is Entreprenuership 340. I’m Beau Hennings.”
There was a rumble that went through the classroom. A student
yelled out from the corner. “Like we don’t know who you are.”
Linda looked at Sara with panic in her eyes. “Should we know who he is?”
Sara shrugged, feeling semi-panicked herself.
Beau smiled and put up his hand to quiet them down again. It was like watching an infomercial with the main guy and the audience in on some secret. “Okay. Well, I’m so happy to be with you all. I’m excited for the opportunity this class presents to really help you learn the basics of starting a business—and,” he said, flashing a brilliant smile, “the opportunity to make money.” The class actually started clapping.
Sara looked around and felt as if she had entered the twilight zone.
“So we’re going to start right off with the first rule of business: building relationships of trust. I want you to turn to the person closest to you and get to know them. Find out where they’re from, what they like to do, and try to decipher what values you might have in common. This is how you begin the process of selling something—you find out what they want and what they need. So, go on, get to know each other for the next fifteen minutes.”
Fine. Sara could do this. She could. Plus, she needed this class.
She turned to Linda, who was already engaged in a flirtation with the guy sitting on the other side of her. She turned to the other side, and noticed a grunge-looking guy with headphones in one ear and the other one hanging out.
He nodded at her while still banging his head, intent on the music he was listening to. “Sup,” he said, half-smiling and air drumming on the side of her.
Sara gave him a forced smile. “Hey.”
She pulled up the description of the class on the website. How had she not realized Beau was teaching the class? His picture was next to his bio sheet. Well, she hadn’t checked, that’s how.
The bio sheet on Beau was lengthy. She read about his journey from small town boy to dot com millionaire. How he’d worked at a pizza joint and on his uncle’s ranch until he was eighteen, when he purchased his first two townhomes in Laramie. Then he had leveraged and bought more real estate in Laramie and different parts of Denver. Then, he went on to develop some web-based business called Smokin Deals dot com. He helped college students find the best rates for their paper books and also owned several ebook sites for electronic books for students to lease. He also had many ‘joint ventures’ in web design and real-estate.
Sara’s head was going to explode. What the crap? This guy was kind of a big deal. She had to leave. She would have to work this class into her schedule next semester. Wait, unless he would be teaching it again. Ack. She hated this. She stared at Beau. He was talking with the Dean.
“So what’s your name?” Grunge boy popped the other earphone out of his ear and swiveled his chair to her.
Sara reluctantly swiveled to face him. “Um, Sara. Sara Fairbanks.”
“You got it bad for him, huh?” He scooted closer to her and nodded to Beau.
“What?”
“The way you were just staring at our professor. Pfft. It’s all over your face.” He pushed a school newspaper toward her. “You should check out what Beatrice has to say about how to make a move on a man. She has great advice.”
Sara couldn’t even focus on the unknowing compliment about Beatrice. “What’s all over my face?”
Grunge boy looked her up and down appraisingly. “Seriously, you should read the article. Beatrice knows what she’s talking about.”
She felt herself blushing and hated it. “I don’t think her advice is that good—plus, I don’t even know him.”
Grunge boy’s eyes lit up. “Okay, you’re clearly deflecting. Whatever, let’s focus elsewhere. Do you want to come see my band play Saturday night?”
Sara couldn’t stop herself from smiling at him. “What was your name?”
“Right. First things first. My name is Rob Joyman. Although, I don’t think it’s going to be my stage name. But I haven’t changed it yet. What do you think of Duke? Is it a good stage name? I thought about Ty, but I think it might be overused, too close to Tom, you know Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks . . .”
It made her happy that this guy was interesting. She played along. “I think Duke has more potential for sure. And, it sounds more … royal.” She smiled, thinking that this whole day was starting off like some insane dream.
Rob smiled, like they were speaking the same language. “Exactly.”
Sara laughed at the absurdity of this conversation, feeling lighter.
“I can see things are going well here.”
She jolted, then put her hand to her chest. “Ohmygosh."
Beau was standing behind them in the row.
“Dude, you scared me.” Rob shook his head and laughed.
Beau laughed, too. “Sorry about that.” He put his hand out to Rob. “And what is your name?”
“That’s totally funny, we were just talking about names.” Rob pointed between them. “My name’s Rob, but I’m thinking about Duke for a stage name.” He nodded, giving Sara a questioning glance.
Sara nodded conspiratorially. “Definitely.”
Beau looked slightly confused at Rob then turned to her. “And your name?”
Sara hadn’t expected him to pretend not to know her. It kind of ticked her off. She glanced at him sharply, then put out her hand and took his, acting like she was some kind of groupie meeting a rock star. “Oh my gosh. My name is Sara Fairbanks. Like, wow, you’re Beau Hennings. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Beau’s grin stiffened. Carefully, he extracted his hand out of hers. “Glad to have you in the class, Ms. Fairbanks.”
Beau fixed the polite smile in place as he turned to greet another student.
Jerk.
Rob popped his headphones back into his ears. “Dude, this thing you guys got going on is way worse than I thought it was.”
Chapter 8
Later, as she hitched a ride with Genova’s boyfriend to go meet some other Christian singles for a hike, she thought about how good Beau had been as an instructor. The way he interacted with all of the students and explained the course requirements and allowed all of the students to ask questions felt so personal. If she had never met him, she would think he was a brilliant professor. Of course, she couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d spurned her by not admitting they knew each other. Jerk. She hated him, she decided instantly.
“Are you okay, Sara?” Kevin was looking at her through his rearview mirror. Genova had insisted that Sara come to this gathering tonight. They were meeting at Vedauwoo, a rock formation about twenty minutes outside of Laramie. She’d been trying to carry on a conversation with Kevin and Genova, but her thoughts kept going back to Beau.
Sara quickly put on a smile, realizing her face must have been betraying her thoughts. “Fine, thanks. Just thinking of an annoying professor I have this year.”
They pulled up to the gathering site. Sara loved hiking at Vedauwoo. The large boulders stacked against one another made her feel a certain reverence for the land. And she loved to hike, that had been the primary reason she’d agreed to go with them, instead of working on the crazy amount of homework she was already accumulating. Many of the Christian singles were already talking amongst themselves.
Genova put an arm around her as they got out of the car. “Are you really okay?”
Kevin tromped in front of them. “I’ll let you have a girl chat.”
The genuineness of her voice opened Sara up to the vulnerability she was feeling. Tears came to her eyes and she tried to think of something else. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She closed her eyes tightly. “Do you think it’s going to work with me and Jonathon?”
Genova stopped walking and pulled away from her. “What do you mean?”
Until this moment Sara hadn’t realized how much she’d been stuffing these feelings down. “I mean, you know the whole story. It was fast between us. Really fast. But he’s such an amazing person and, I mean, you’ve read our emails and you’ve met him on skype.
We’re meant to be together—right? He’s the one for me?”
Genova shook her head up and down. She pushed the hair out of Sara’s face. “What’s this all about?”
Then Sara noticed him.
Beau.
He was actually talking with Linda over by the check-in point. Wiping her eyes, she put her sunglasses back into place. “I can’t even…” she broke off. “This is unbelievable.”
Genova followed her gaze. “That’s the guy from the dance?”
She snorted. “He’s my new professor.”
Genova stifled a laugh. “You can’t be serious. He’s a professor?”
Sara nodded again. “Well, I don’t think he’s actually a professor, but he’s teaching my Entrepreneurship class this semester.”
They moved to Kevin’s side.
Genova looped her arm with hers. “Just stay next to us.”
Kevin smiled at them and grabbed for Genova’s hand. “Where have you been all my life?”
Genova laughed.
Sara liked Kevin, she really did. But she didn’t want to be the third wheel.
“Okay.” Margie Kramer, one of the organizers of the activity, stood up on a log. “We’re going to do the hike. Please stay with a buddy and be careful. It’s not a race, so take your time. And remember, cell phone reception is nonexistent up here, so don’t get lost or fall behind.”
Everyone started moving toward the trailhead.
Sara noticed Beau wasn’t moving ahead, distracted by another girl, Michelle—the one she and Genova affectionately called ‘lycra girl’ because she wore as much lycra as humanely possible.
She did not want to get stuck by Beau. She searched up ahead for someone else she could hang out with.
Carey emerged beside her, decked out in running clothes. “Need a buddy?”
Even though she was weary of Carey after everything Beau had teased about him not being safe, they’d been running buddies last semester. She knew he could keep pace with her. “Maybe.”
Carey looked repentant. “I won’t be weird tonight, I promise.”
