45 pages • 1-hour read
Hopeless
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Chapters 10-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, mental illness, and sexual harassment.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Beau”
After Bailey mysteriously gets four flat tires, Beau heads to the Jansens’. He finds Bailey sitting outside her trailer “holding a stuffed horse” (108), her belongings scattered all over the grass. A furious Beau insists on moving the trailer to his property when she reveals her brothers did this and that they make her pay rent to live here. Beau also believes that they’re behind her slashed tires. At Beau’s, the two set up the trailer and make plans to visit Wishing Well Ranch for a family dinner with the Eatons.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Bailey”
At the ranch, Beau reassures Bailey about meeting his family. Bailey is loosely acquainted with Rhett, Summer, Cade, Willa, Jasper, Sloane, Theo, and Winter, but she still feels nervous. Over dinner, Beau announces that he and Bailey are together. Jasper looks confused, but Summer congratulates them. Bailey wonders if she knows the truth.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Beau”
Everyone congratulates the couple, but Beau worries that he didn’t prepare Bailey enough and that Jasper is on to him. Afterward, he tells her she did a great job meeting everyone and playing her part.
That night, Beau gets up at 2:11 and finds Bailey sitting outside of her trailer. He joins her, and the two share an intimate moment where Beau shows Bailey his scarred feet. Then, Beau invites her to stay in his air-conditioned house for the night.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Bailey”
The next morning, Bailey reports to The Railspur early to do some cleaning. While working, she thinks about Beau, frustrated with herself for being so attracted to him. Cade shows up looking for Beau, as he didn’t report to work again. After Cade leaves, Beau arrives, admitting he cut work again because he hates the ranch.
Bailey and Beau head out to buy Beau some new shoes, agreeing they need a fun activity.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Beau”
Beau and Bailey go to a shoe store to find Beau more comfortable shoes. The sales representative knows Bailey and is shocked to see her with Beau. A protective Beau rushes to Bailey’s defense. In the car afterward, Bailey scolds Beau for playing into the townspeople’s judgment and cruelty.
Later, Beau and Jasper talk on the phone. Jasper questions Beau and Bailey’s relationship; Beau admits it’s fake, which worries Jasper because he can see that Beau likes Bailey.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Bailey”
Bailey spends another afternoon at the ranch with Beau and his family. They have developed a routine together, and now, Bailey wonders when Beau will kiss her. After the dinner, the two chat about the family and their relationship. Beau reminds Bailey she can sleep in the house anytime she likes. Confused about her feelings for Beau, Bailey is reluctant to accept the offer for free air-conditioning.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Bailey”
Unable to sleep in the trailer, Bailey sits outside trying to decide if she should accept Beau’s offer. Finally, she sneaks into the house and lies on the couch in the AC. Beau walks through the house naked, and Bailey is shocked but tries to feign nonchalance. An amused Beau urges her to sleep in the guest room.
At 2:11, Bailey wakes up to the sound of Beau shouting. She discovers him sweating and hysterical in his room. She comforts him until he calms down from his dream.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Beau”
Beau holds and kisses Bailey. He feels guilty at first, but she kisses him back. The encounter grows increasingly intimate, and Beau ends up helping Bailey climax. Immediately afterward, Beau regrets going too far.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Bailey”
Two days later, Bailey works a shift at The Railspur while Beau sits at the bar, watching her. They still haven’t talked about what happened between them. Nervous, Bailey cuts her hand while slicing a lime; Beau tends to the wound, confusing Bailey even more.
That night, Bailey wakes up at 2 am. Eager to help Beau, she decides she will reinvent 2:11 for him. She knocks on his door before he has the nightmare and invites him to go skinny dipping with her in the river.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Beau”
While skinny dipping together, Beau opens up to Bailey about 2:11—the exact time when he “walked out of that bunker with Micah draped over [his] shoulders” (187). He successfully saved Micah but still can’t stave off fears of what could have happened. He reflects on the experience and his PTSD. He still isn’t sure what to do with his life since returning to Chestnut Springs. Bailey can’t tell him what to do but promises to stay by his side while he figures it out.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Bailey”
Bailey and Beau start swimming together every night at 2 am. Each night, they share intimate conversations. One night, they talk about Beau’s feet, having sex, and their fake engagement. Beau reminds Bailey that the arrangement isn’t a bet, and he suggested it because he wants to help her. He doesn’t want to have sex with her while they’re fake engaged because he doesn’t want to take her virginity. An angry Bailey reminds him she can choose what she wants to do with her own body and storms off.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Beau”
Beau rolls up on a new motorcycle he bought himself and invites Bailey to the local fair. Bailey is still upset after their conversation the other night and ribs Beau for being impulsive. Finally, Beau insists she accept his offer, proposing a dinner outing first. Bailey gives in.
At a restaurant in town, Bailey is uncomfortable with how everyone watches and whispers about her and Beau. Beau tries to reassure her by kissing her in plain sight. He considers going further but doesn’t want to upset Bailey by being impulsive. Instead, he uses his arm to guide her out of the restaurant and toward the fair.
Chapters 10-21 Analysis
In this second excerpt of the novel, Beau and Bailey’s accelerating relationship introduces the theme of the Transformative Power of Love. What begins as a fake dating arrangement quickly advances into something deeper for both of the main characters. Every decision Beau and Bailey make in the context of each other is inspired by their mutual attraction and care. For Beau, love manifests in the form of protectiveness and acts of service. Any time he learns that Bailey is in trouble, suffering, or upset, he “want[s] to smash something. The rage that’s always in [him] simmers too close to the surface for comfort” (107). While this anger was once channeled into combat, Beau now applies his intensity to keeping Bailey safe. “She deserves so much better than this,” Beau thinks when he arrives at the Jansens’ to rescue Bailey from her brothers, “[s]he shouldn’t have to hide in the fucking riverbank from her own flesh and blood or worry about the people she should trust most in the world stealing from her” (107). Beau’s rigid sense of justice dictates his relationship with Bailey. He knows that he and Bailey aren’t really together, and yet he cannot quash his authentic desire to give her a better life and to show her love. Early signs of his love for her thus begin to remake Bailey’s life.
Bailey similarly shows affection for Beau by investing in his personal life. Throughout the novel thus far, repeated references to 2:11 am act as symbolic representations of Beau’s trauma. Beau has left the front but continues to relive his harrowing experiences in his dreams every night. When Bailey witnesses the intensity of his psychological and emotional turmoil firsthand, she resolves to “rewrite 2:11 into something different” for him and for herself by proxy (181). She instates the nightly skinny-dipping ritual to offer Beau a reprieve from his night terrors. In the same way, Beau has “become hyperfixated on taking care of [Bailey],” Bailey attempts to “tak[e] care of him” (182).
The recurring skinny-dipping scenes act as an extended metaphor for intimacy and emotional exposure. Each time Beau and Bailey convene at the river together, they are naked. Their physical nudity symbolizes their willingness to be authentic and open with each other. When Bailey undresses, Beau is “not even strong enough to look away” (184); and when Beau undresses, Bailey “watches with rapt fascination, a blatant level of interest” (185). The characters are learning to share space with one another despite the strict parameters of their fake engagement; meanwhile, they begin to open up emotionally, too. Swimming naked in the dark, they are operating outside of typical social bounds. They do not have to perform their identities and do not have to impress one another. During these repeated encounters, they start to talk about their trauma, dreams, disappointments, fears, and hopes. Each swim brings them closer together while helping them to confront their pasts, supporting their Journey Toward Self-Discovery and Autonomy. The water imagery is an archetypal symbol of cleansing and purity, which subtextually implies that these swims are spiritually renewing the characters. The lovers are gradually changing as a result of their connection.
Despite its transformative effects, Beau and Bailey’s burgeoning love for each other remains limited by their insular life in Chestnut Springs. The trouble they encounter with other residents furthers the novel’s theme of Combating Reputational Stigma in a Small-Town Community. Bailey is terrified that the Eatons will disapprove of her and Beau’s relationship because she is accustomed to being looked down upon. When they go out shoe-shopping or have dinner together in town, Bailey feels similarly mortified by how people regard and whisper about her. Her response to this stigma is to cower, while Beau’s response is to lash out. Tension arises between the characters as a result. Bailey appreciates Beau’s support but also fears that he sees her as a charity case, saying, “You knew I was a lost cause. It’s looking like you were right” (197). Bailey knows she is not the person the town believes her to be, but she struggles to escape the self-consciousness she has felt all her life. The more the town looks down upon her, the more she looks down upon and disparages herself. Beau is trying to deliver her from this stigma but gets frustrated when his presence and protectiveness don’t immediately liberate Bailey or remake her self-regard. These dynamics show how the characters’ community is complicating their senses of self and their love life.
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