And if she did take him up on the dinner invitation, what exactly did that mean?
A heavy arm settled across her waist as Ben shifted and she looked at the sleeping man. He was simply perfect, from his face, to his body, to his mind. He kept secrets from her, and in his job as a SEAL, she could accept that. However, he’d hinted enough about his childhood that she knew he had some deeply buried skeletons there.
His arm tightened and he pulled her close. “You awake?” His gravelly tone awakened every cell in her body.
She slid down next to him. “Hey, sailor,” she said with a grin she hoped was saucy. “On leave in town?”
He chuckled and rolled her under him. “I’ve got a few hours free, and I know how I want to spend them.”
“Lucky me,” she said as he stroked her with his fingers, tongue, and lips.
That evening, she wore his shirt while she fixed dinner. The aroma from the browning beef couldn’t compete with the scent wafting from the shirt, a combination of testosterone, pheromones, bath soap, and something that was all Ben.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pressed his naked chest against her back. He nuzzled her neck with his lips. “I remember there was one of Bethany’s bachelorette parties on her schedule while I gone. How’d that go?”
“Fun. Went to a new bar she’d heard about. Turns out it was a gay bar.”
He laughed, his chest vibrating against her back. “And how did that work out for you?”
“We had a blast.”
“How did you get home? One of your brothers?”
“Um, yeah. Lawrence, Patrick, and Seth were out that night. Some type of guys night out, so they picked us up about eleven.”
“Seth Garrett? The guy from the engagement party? Are your brothers back to trying to fix you up with him?”
Thank goodness her back was to him. It was so much easier to lie when she didn’t have to look someone in the eye.
She scoffed. “They aren’t trying to fix us up. He just happened to be with them.”
“Then which of your brothers brought you home that night?” He stepped to the side and leaned on the edge of the counter.
“Lawrence and Seth were in Seth’s car so they picked up Bethany and me.”
“So, Seth brought you home.”
She nudged his hip with hers. “No, silly. Not just Seth. Seth and Lawrence.”
“Hmm.”
She flipped the burgers and lowered the heat.
“What other trouble have you gotten into the last couple of weeks?”
Her first thought was all the talks and visits with Seth, but she wasn’t sure what his reaction would be. Heck, she wanted to tell him, but what if he shrugged it off, didn’t care, and wasn’t disturbed at all by her spending time with another man? Would a nonchalant reaction break her heart?
On the other hand, Seth being with Lawrence bringing her home had appeared to tweak him just a tad.
Rather than risk producing a reaction she didn’t want—not that she was completely sure what reaction she wanted—she leaned over and kissed him. “I’ve been teaching Katie to surf.”
“No kidding. That’s awesome. How’s she doing with it?”
“She’s a natural. Took to the board like she’d been riding all her life.”
“I’d love to see her ride. Maybe next time I have some time off, we can hit the North Shore and catch some waves.” He nibbled on the area behind her ear. Goose bumps popped up on her arms and she shivered. He knew that was one of her sensitive areas. “I’ve never seen you ride either.”
“I’ve seen you,” she said.
“You have?”
“Coronado Beach when I was on duty.”
“But I’ve hardly had my board out this year.”
She smiled. “Never said it was this year.”
He caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned her face toward him. “You’d seen me before this year?”
Heat rushed to her face and she turned back to the burgers she was cooking, watching him from the corner of her eye.
“Once or twice.”
“Oh, yeah?” He smirked. “You’ve been watching me, huh? Wantin’ a piece of this?” he asked, waving his hand down his extremely fine body.
“I never said that.”
“Deny it then.”
She looked at him. “There is this one area of your body I always wanted to drag my tongue down. You know, that dip in the front of your hip that makes women lose their minds?”
He flipped off the stove and pulled her toward her bedroom. “I think you need to show me.”
* * *
Somewhere after midnight, the Imperial March from Star Wars rang from his phone. She knew what that meant. The base was calling.
“Blackwell.” He paused. “Yes, sir. I’ll be there as quickly as possible.”
“Sorry,” he said as he glanced her way.
“I know. You’ve got to go.”
He wrapped tightly in his embrace. “I wish I could stay.”
“But you can’t.”
“I can’t. I’m glad we had today.”
“Me, too.”
He wrinkled his nose. “We’re in the middle of something. That’s all I can say.”
“I got it. I do.” She pushed him away. “Go. What you do is important. Just promise to take care of yourself.”
“Always.”
With a final kiss—one that was long and deep—he stood and began to dress. She threw on a robe and followed him to the front door.
“Call me when you can,” she said.
“I will.”
Instead of leaving, he stood there staring at her.
“What? Do I have something on my face?” she asked, rubbing her fingers over her skin.
“You’re a wonderful person,” he said. “A great mom. A fabulous lover. You deserve to have everything out of life. You shouldn’t do without anything.”
She smiled, but at the same time, her brow wrinkled into a frown. “What are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “Take care.” After a swift kiss, he hurried to his truck and roared down the street.
Pressing her fingers against her mouth, she thought about his words. What had he been talking about… her doing without? If she didn’t know better, she’d think those words were the beginning of a goodbye speech.
* * *
Seth continued to telephone to talk. Ben did not. He’d send a text to let her know he was thinking of her. She always responded, but he didn’t write back.
In early August, she and Katie met Seth and his two girls at a family restaurant that had crayons and puzzles to keep his young daughters occupied. The girls insisted on sitting on either side of Katie, which seemed to thrilled her daughter. She helped them color pages and played games while Seth and Holly talked about single parenting.
“I’m glad you and Katie could finally make it out to dinner,” he said. “My girls adore her.”
“She thinks they’re wonderful, too.”
“Maybe she could babysit some night and you and I could have an adult dinner somewhere, you know, with tablecloths and china.”
Holly smiled. “Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t know that I’m ready to let her babysit alone just yet. She’s only twelve.”
Katie must have overheard because, without looking up, she said, “I’ll be thirteen in two weeks.”
“Really?” Seth said. “Thirteen.” He looked at Holly. “Ah, the teenage years.”
She chuckled. “Don’t remind me. I don’t know how she grew up so fast. Seems like only yesterday we were pulling baby teeth.”
“Mom,” Katie moaned. “Don’t tell baby teeth stories.”
Seth smiled. He had a nice smile. A kind smile. A dad-kind of smile.
She tried to picture him leering at her the way Ben did when they were in bed, or giving her a smirk like Ben could when he knew he was being snide or funny. But no.
“I bet you were cute with no fro
nt teeth,” Seth teased Katie.
“It was awesome. I could slurp spaghetti through the opening.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “I’m such a great mom; I let my child slurp spaghetti.”
Seth laughed. Like his smile, it was a pleasant laugh. Not too loud. No braying like a mule. Just polite…unlike Ben, who would throw his head back and laugh like he wanted the whole world to know he’d heard something hysterical. He didn’t care what anyone around him thought about his laugh. Ben never brayed, but he would sometimes snort at things and those snorts would make Katie and Holly laugh.
After dinner, Holly and Katie helped Seth get the two girls into their car seats. Then Katie climbed into Holly’s car and shut the door.
“Thanks for dinner, Seth. You didn’t have to, but we enjoyed it.”
“I’d like to take you to dinner, Holly. Just us. A real date.”
“Seth.” She smiled. “Thank you. I’m flattered. I really am, but you know I’m seeing someone.”
“Seems more like you’re dating a ghost. He’s not here. He can’t be here for you when you can’t be first in his life.”
God, she hated that Seth was right. Ben would always be a SEAL first and a private citizen second.
“What Ben and I have is none of your business.” Her reply came out a little sharper than she’d intended. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
He smiled and touched her arm. “I like you, Holly. I like your daughter. My girls are crazy about Katie, too. I think we could be good together.”
Her heart ached. She dropped her gaze to the asphalt to steady herself before looking up at him again. “Good-night, Seth. Thank you again for dinner.”
As she opened the driver’s door, he said, “Think about it, okay?”
She nodded because words failed her. He was a nice guy. So considerate. Wonderful with his girls and hers. He was here and she knew he would make an ideal husband for someone. Was that someone her?
“That’s all I ask,” he said. “Think about us.”
* * *
That weekend, Katie went over to a friend’s house for the night. Holly called Diana and Bethany and invited them over for a ladies’ night in. She had the blender going with margaritas when the ladies arrived.
“Margaritas,” Bethany said. “Yay. Tell me we have chip and dip to go with them.”
“Of course,” Holly said. “Diana, margarita or wine?”
Her sister-in-law scoffed. “Margarita. Extra-large please.”
Holly chuckled. “Extra-large? What did the boys do now?”
“They were wrestling, nothing new there, but Harvey jumped off the couch onto Hank like they’ve seen professional wrestlers do and broke Hank’s arm.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Holly exclaimed. “When did this happen?”
“Last night. So, when you called today, I tossed all childrearing responsibilities to your brother and ran. Besides, he was sitting right there in the room when it happened. He should have stopped them, but no. He was watching the Padres on television.”
Bethany handed a large margarita to Diana. “Here you go, honey. You get the first one.”
“Thank you.” Diana took a long sip and said, “More tequila next time.”
Holly chuckled.
The ladies gathered around the table with the dip and chips and drinks.
“You called this meeting,” Bethany said. “What’s going on?”
“Does something have to be going on for me to call my favorite sister-in-law and almost sister-in-law over for drinks?”
Diana and Bethany exchanged glances.
“Um, yeah,” Diana said. “I can count on one hand how many times we’ve had a girls’ night in at your place.”
“Maybe I just wanted some company,” Holly said, wrinkling her nose while refusing to look at the ladies.
“Okay,” Bethany said. “We’ll play your game and pretend nothing is on your mind. Another batch of strong margaritas, and you’ll spill everything. So, I’ll start. You’re not going to believe what my mother wants to do at the reception.”
The conversation led off into wedding plans and Bethany’s hysterically uptight mother. They ventured into honeymoons, with both Diana and Holly telling stories from theirs, not that either of them had traveled far. They’d both married right out of high school and money had been tight, to say the least.
When Holly set the third pitcher of margaritas on the table, she retook her seat with a long sigh.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“That’s what sisters-in -law are for,” Bethany said. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s a long story.”
Diana refilled her glass, dragged a chip through the dip, and sat back. “Okay. I’m ready. Let her rip.”
She started at the beginning, back in May when she’d told the blatant lie at the dinner table about dating Ben, how she’d seen him that day and on the beach many times, and he’d jumped into her head over dinner.
Diana and Bethany howled at the retelling of accidentally running into him during their first bachelorette party at Bridgman’s bar, both swearing they’d had no idea she hadn’t known him that night.
Holly spilled everything, much as had been predicted earlier in the evening, including the hot, hot sex she and Ben had.
“Sorry, honey,” Bethany said. “I’m not seeing a problem. You had a meet cute that turned into hot and steamy sex with a man who has a body that is totally lickable. You like him. Great. Keep screwing him and having fun.”
“But I’m thinking there’s more to the story,” Diana said. She wiggled her fingers. “Keep going.”
“Katie and I have gone over to Seth Garrett’s house a couple of times to help him with the girls. A couple of days ago, he took both families out to dinner.”
“And you like him,” Bethany said.
“I don’t not like him.”
“Huh?” Diana said. “I’m drinking. You need to speak English.”
Holly shrugged and took a long gulp of her drink for courage. “He’s nice. He’s great with his daughters. Great with Katie. He’s never inappropriate. He chews with his mouth shut. Loves his parents. Treats his in-laws with respect. He wants us to go out on a real date.”
“Wow. He sounds boring as shit,” Bethany said.
Diana frowned. “No, he doesn’t. He sounds like a stable guy who’d make a great husband.”
Holly held up her hands. “Wait, wait. I never said anything about marrying him.”
“But isn’t that the problem?” Diana asked. “You and Benjamin have this stupid, fake dating arrangement to prevent your well-meaning family from setting you up on dates, including one with Seth. You went into this thing with Benjamin with no intention of anything, but a way to shut us all up, right?”
Holly pulled her shoulders up to her ears. “You make it sound worse than it was.”
“Still,” Diana said. “That was plan. Then you and this stud of a man rolled around in the sack for a few weeks and you started thinking…hmm, maybe he’ll stay around longer. Instead, his work, which is his priority, interfered and you’ve been home alone for a while. How am I doing?”
“I don’t know about Holly, but I’m following you completely,” Bethany said, nodding while she swirled her drink around in the glass.
Diana leaned closer to the table. “Now this completely acceptable, marriage-material man enters your life. He doesn’t set your world on fire, but he’s there when the plumbing stops up or the cable goes out, and where’s the stud? Off doing what is important to him, which isn’t you.”
Holly held her head in her hands.
Bethany looked at Diana. “Are you saying that Benjamin is the guy you have wild and crazy sex with, but don’t marry? You play, let go, really let your hair down with him. He’s the fun one. But when it comes time for the long haul, you need a man who’s there for you, a guy who puts the family first, a guy you know you can call when you need him and he’ll drop everything and come
running to be at your side…?”
“Yes,” Diana said. “That’s what I’m saying. Don’t get me wrong. I understand wanting to get naked with Benjamin because, wow, he’s delicious. But then over here is a perfectly nice guy, who’s attractive, interested in Holly, and here.”
“That’s bullshit,” Bethany said, frowning. “Lead with your heart.”
“I’m probably getting ahead of myself,” Holly said. “Especially with Seth. He only asked to date, not get married.”
“Well, your brother would probably kill me since I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but Seth has been asking about you since Bethany’s party.” Diana took a long drink. “He’s interested all right. Very. So, yeah. If you give the man an opening, he’s going to take it. So, what do you want? Fun now, or someone to spend your life with?”
“Why can’t she have fun for the rest of her life?” Bethany said, her chin lifting. “You don’t need a damned man to fix your plumbing for you. That’s what YouTube videos are for. Do you want hot sex or running water?”
* * *
The month of August was hot. Holly’s only relief from the heat was riding waves with Katie. She and Katie had spent a lot of time together this summer and she never regretted her decision to quit the beach lifeguarding job.
She continued to take Seth’s calls and help him with childrearing advice, but they never went on that one-on-one date he’d wanted. She wasn’t sure if by going she would be leading him on or if by going she’d be acknowledging to herself that Ben had been a fling and nothing more.
On August fifteenth, Katie turned thirteen, complete with a boy-girl party held at Holly’s house. Her daughter was growing up, maturing, and it was both exciting and depressing. Time was flying by. It was hard to believe Steve had been gone eleven years now. He would’ve been so proud of how Katie was turning out. Smart as whip and as pretty as peach, as her grandmother would’ve said.
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