At the mention of his name, Joel’s dog lifted his head from where he was sleeping in the corner to look over at them.
“I don’t even think I can get a cloud out of mine.” Joel lifted his canvas and turned it for them all to see. Robyn burst out laughing at the mess of colors and the dark blob that was supposed to be a bird.
“Maybe you could have an asteroid falling to the ground in yours.” Ben laughed as he tried to help Joel come up with ideas to salvage his art.
Joel turned it back around and looked at it with his head sideways. “I like that idea. Mine will be more space related than bird.” With a nod of satisfaction, he placed his canvas back on the easel and went to work.
By the end of the evening, Robyn’s sides were sore from laughing. Everyone had been having so much fun, and Ben had been a good sport, even though his picture looked more like something she would have painted when she was five. But the fact that he’d tried and brought her here knowing full well it wasn’t something he was good at, not to mention the fact it had been an evening spent with her brother, sister, and Quinn cousins, had definitely won him some points.
He’d done it for her.
As everyone mingled and enjoyed coffee and snacks after, she reached out and took his hand, pulling him away from Joel as they stood talking next to the food table.
“Let’s go for a walk. I want to introduce you to Stanley’s girlfriend.”
“She’s not his girlfriend! He’s a dog!”
She ignored Joel as he called out behind them, while they walked away. Ben quickly set down the small plate of food he’d been holding, onto one of the tables before she dragged him outside.
“What’s the hurry, Robyn? I was getting into all the art talk back there.” Ben grinned down at her as he held her hand tight in his. They started walking toward the building on the property that housed the rescue animals Joel had staying there.
“I just wanted to be alone for a bit. We’ve had people around us all evening, so I thought a little fresh air by ourselves would be nice. We don’t seem to have much time alone anymore, even when we’re at the house. The guys from your crew are always around.”
“Well, I’m paying them to be there, so I’d prefer they actually are around and working.”
“You know what I mean. Since the night of the picnic we just haven’t had much time alone.” How could she come right out and say she desperately wanted him to kiss her again? And that all she’d been able to think about was how much she was falling for him, and even though it terrified her, she couldn’t imagine herself marrying anyone else but him?
“We didn’t have to come to this paint night. It was Haylee’s idea, remember? I would have been more than happy to sit under our tree in the front yard again.”
He’d called it their tree. She wondered if he even noticed how he’d worded it. Something about how he’d said it warmed her heart. It was their tree and had been since the day they’d buried that time capsule. They’d had no idea back then just how much of what they were doing would affect their future.
“I’m glad we came to this because it was fun, and for a good cause. Plus I got to see how well you follow instructions for when I ask you to do a wood panel feature in the dining room before we paint.”
He stopped walking and scowled. “What wood panel feature are you talking about? I thought we were just painting in there.”
“Well, I saw it on Pinterest, and it looks really simple. We just put the boards on to trim it out and paint the paneled part white. It will be such a nice feature!”
“Every time you say something will be simple, you seem to forget that it’s me who will be doing the actual figuring out of how to do it. I shiplapped your bathroom walls for you, I’ve been making your cabinets for you, and now you want some kind of panel wall feature?” His eyebrow was raised, but she could tell he wasn’t upset with her. She almost felt bad knowing that he was willing to do anything he could to make her happy. If he wanted to act annoyed and irritated with her for a few minutes, she’d let him.
She started walking again and pulled him with her until they were outside the pen where Stanley’s girlfriend lived. “This is Winnie, the love of Stanley’s life.”
She laughed out loud at the look on Ben’s face as he stared in at the miniature donkey on the other side of the fence. Winnie came over and stuck her nose out for them to pet her. The donkey had been in such bad shape when she’d arrived from years of neglect, but you’d never know it looking at her now. She was healthy and happy, especially when Stanley was around.
Almost as if he knew they were out here and he needed to come and check in on Winnie himself, Stanley came tearing down the path toward them. He ducked under the fence and went over to sniff Winnie and make sure she was okay.
“You’re kidding. He’s in love with a donkey?”
Ben’s mouth hung open as he watched the two animals start to play around in the pen, chasing each other and jumping around in excitement.
“I guess it’s true you can’t help who you fall in love with.” As soon as she said the words, it was as though the world around her stopped for a moment. She hoped Ben wouldn’t notice. She didn’t know if she was ready to tell him just yet how she felt.
But she knew she was in love with him. She knew it was crazy how fast it happened, but then she also had come to the realization that she’d likely always been in love with him. This was just a different kind of love than she’d recognized all those years ago.
He turned and took both of her hands in his. “So, if a dog can get a donkey to spend his life with, surely by now you’ve had time to consider marrying me. I have more to offer than a donkey.”
She laughed softly as she glanced over at the happy couple playing in the pen as the sky around them darkened. “I don’t know. I think those two balance each other out pretty well.”
“I think we do too. You’re the one who makes me do things that normally I wouldn’t even try. And I’m the one who makes you think things through a little more before you do something you might regret.” His thumb was moving on her hand, sending ripples of heat up through her chest. “But in this case, I’m the one who wants to take the risk. I don’t want you overthinking things when it comes to us. We’ve had our two dates, like we agreed. So, what do we do now? I’m leaving it in your hands, Robyn.”
She swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. Her eyes were held in his gaze, unable to look away. This was Ben. The one person she’d always known she could count on. The one who’d always been truthful and loyal, and even though they’d been apart for years, it felt like he’d never left.
“I say we finish the house, and if you still want to marry me when you have no other reason to stay, then I say yes.”
The smile that spread across his face told her she’d made the right decision. And when he brought his lips down to hers, he took away any remaining doubt.
Chapter Sixteen
“I can’t believe everything we’ve been able to accomplish in just a couple of weeks here. Mind you, a lot of the work has just been cosmetic. There really wasn’t anything structural we had to fix, so that definitely helped move things along faster. Not to mention the fact you and Robyn had all the demo already done.”
Ben walked along beside his foreman as they went over the plans for the remaining work. He wasn’t sure they were going to finish before Robyn needed to move in, but the majority of it would be done. But now that he had full intentions of staying and living in the house with her as her husband, they needed to sit down and discuss the future.
He wasn’t sure he wanted her sister Vicki to be living with them as newlyweds, or that she would even want to. He didn’t know if Robyn had spoken to her about it or not, but he felt bad knowing that they’d already given their notice and had to be out of their apartment within the next week.
As he thought about Robyn and marrying her, his chest tightened. When he’d arrived just three weeks ago, he’d never imagined that he’
d be deciding to ask a woman to marry him and be planning to stay in Quinn Valley. But now he couldn’t imagine anything else.
“So, you know how we’d been discussing the possibility of you buying into my business as a partner? I think now would be the perfect time to consider it. You could continue working out of Lewiston and be in charge of operations there, while I expand the business to cover Quinn Valley and surrounding areas.” He looked at Bill and waited for his reply. Bill had been with him since he’d started his business and they’d been through a lot together. He was the only one Ben would trust to have leading the business in Lewiston.
“You’re serious about marrying and staying here? It seems a bit fast, doesn’t it?”
Ben leaned back against the almost finished cabinets he’d been working on. “It is. But I’ve known Robyn all my life. We just lost touch for a bit, and now I’ve seen her again, I know I don’t ever want that to happen again.”
“Couldn’t you just date for a while without needing to get married?”
Ben laughed and shrugged. “We could. But why wait when I already know? We’re both going to be thirty in a couple of years, I’d say we’re old enough to know what we want. And besides, I’m a man of my word. I promised her I’d marry her when we were twenty-five if we were both single. I’m already late in following through with that promise, so I need to make it up to her.”
Bill shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You’re even crazier than I’ve always known. A promise made when you were thirteen wouldn’t exactly hold up in court.”
Ben knew Bill was right, but he couldn’t explain it. He’d been dead serious when he’d asked Robyn to marry him, and even he was having trouble understanding why his heart had been so adamant that he must convince Robyn to spend her life with him. And not just because of the note found in the time capsule.
“Probably not, but I don’t want to take any chances.” Ben wasn’t going to try explaining it to anyone. He knew it felt right, and obviously Robyn felt the same way. Now he just needed to get this house finished so he could marry her before she changed her mind. She’d never told him she loved him, but he hoped in time, that would come.
He knew he was already hopelessly in love with her, and he planned to tell her whenever the time seemed right. He didn’t want to scare her away, but Robyn was the perfect woman for him. Being around her made him feel alive, and he knew it had always been that way with her. She was the other half of his heart.
“Well, I hope you’re making the right decision. I’m not the one to question you, but I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing. You’ve worked hard to build your business up in Lewiston. Are you really prepared to walk away from all of that because of a woman?”
“I’m not walking away from anything. That’s why I’m asking you to take over that part of the business. The work we do can be done anywhere, and I’ve already had people contacting me from around here for jobs they need done. Robyn’s older sister and her fiancé have just bought a house too that needs a bit of work done on it, so we can get started on that right away. Trust me, I’ve thought things through. And Quinn Valley is where I need to stay. With Robyn.”
Bill stood watching him carefully, with his arms crossed in front of him. “I just don’t want to see you going through anything like you did with Lisa. I know how hard that was for you.”
Ben’s stomach clenched at the mention of the other woman’s name. “This is nothing like it was with Lisa.”
“Have you told Robyn about her? About what happened?”
“I didn’t think that was anything we needed to discuss. Lisa was a mistake I learned from and has nothing to do with Robyn.”
“Well, the fact is, it was only a few months ago she broke off your engagement. I just want to make sure you aren’t doing a rebound from the pain of that by jumping into marriage with someone else.”
Ben had to swallow hard to control his anger. “Bill, you know I’ve always appreciated your honesty and your friendship. But you don’t have any right to question my decisions regarding what I do with my personal life. I’ve had plenty of time to get over what I went through with Lisa, and I know what I’m doing. Being with Robyn is the only thing I’m absolutely sure is right. And the fact that I was engaged to Lisa has no bearing whatsoever on anything I’m doing now.”
He pushed himself away from the cabinets to walk outside and cool off a bit. He knew Bill was just concerned about him because the truth was, he’d had a rough time after Lisa broke off their engagement. But over the months that followed, he’d come to realize how glad he was that she had left him. He’d found out things about her that made him see she would never have been the kind of woman who could make him happy for the rest of his life.
Like Robyn could.
As he turned toward the doorway, he stopped dead when his gaze fell on Robyn standing there completely still with her fists clenched tightly at her sides.
“You were engaged before you came here?” The words were barely above a whisper and he could hear the pain behind every syllable.
He slowly walked over to her, reaching out to take her hand but she pulled away and started stepping backward. Her skin was completely white; and he realized she’d been standing there for long enough to hear that he’d been engaged. If not for the fact that Lisa had broken it off, he’d probably already be married by now.
The thought of that gave him chills. It would have been a mistake that he would have paid for in the future, he had no doubt about that.
“I’m just a rebound. I’m your backup plan.”
Her cheeks were starting to redden with anger as she glared at him.
“Robyn, listen. You’re not a rebound. And you’re not any kind of backup plan. Just let me explain.”
She shook her head, still walking slowly backward away from him. “No, you don’t need to explain anything. I’ve heard enough. Obviously, you thought since you couldn’t marry the woman you really loved, I’d be the next best thing. And since you know Robyn is the crazy girl who sometimes doesn’t think things through, what better person to ask. You made me believe you really had feelings for me. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”
She turned and stormed toward the front door. He raced after her, taking her arm and pulling her around to face him.
“Robyn, please. Just give me a chance to explain everything. Honestly, Lisa was never the one I was meant to be with. And I’m glad I found that out before I made a mistake. Yes, she broke off our engagement, but I know now that she was not the woman who would have made me happy. I was pulled back to Quinn Valley for a reason, and that reason is you, Robyn.”
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she fought to hold onto the tough exterior she presented to the world. “No, you got caught up in a moment of excitement from our past and decided it would be a good way to get over the hurt. I was just the pawn you used to cover up the heartbreak you were feeling.” She pulled away from him and opened the door, then turned back to look at him one last time. “I want you to finish up any of the small jobs you have left here, then leave by the end of the week. Send me your invoice in the mail.”
With those words, she walked out, slamming the door hard behind her. He watched her run back to her car parked in the driveway, taking his heart with him.
He didn’t know what else he could say to make her believe him. As she pulled away, he remembered the look in her eyes when she’d looked at him last.
There was nothing else he could say that would ever make her stay.
Chapter Seventeen
“Okay, Robyn, you know I’ve always got your back and if you ever need anything, I’m here for you. But are you sure about what you’re doing? I mean, I admit I’m pretty much the last person on earth who has any idea about love, but even I can tell that Ben definitely has feelings for you. That wasn’t an act.”
Robyn ignored Travis as he turned his car into the driveway. Her chest lurched when she saw Ben’s truck sitting up near her house an
d the other truck already hooked to the trailer. Bill was throwing tools into the back as they pulled up.
“I can just go in and talk to him if you want. I’ll get the keys and instructions from him about anything else that needs to be done after he’s gone.”
Robyn shook her head and took a deep breath. “No, I’m not going to hide. We’re adults, so hopefully he can act like one just this last time. After this, I’ll never have to see him again anyway.”
She was trying to put on a brave face, even as she’d insisted on having her little brother come along as backup. But the thought of coming here alone had scared her, so she’d asked Travis to take her. Hopefully, with him beside her, Ben wouldn’t try making her talk to him any more than necessary.
He’d called her at least a hundred times and texted more than that since she’d walked out the other day. She didn’t want to hear his excuses, so she was avoiding him. The text he’d sent last night had simply said he had done what he could at the house. So, he’d be leaving today if she wanted to come by, get the keys, and find out what still needed to be done.
With that text, she hoped he’d realized there was nothing more he could say to her and he wouldn’t make things too awkward today.
Travis sighed as he opened his own door, muttering under his breath as he stepped out, “I don’t know how I always end up getting dragged into these messes. I need to learn to say no to people.”
Robyn glanced over at Travis and gave him her most annoyed look. “Travis, you’re supposed to be here for moral support. Not to whine about it. And besides, I know you’d never be able to say no to me.”
“Well, I’m not promising to be civil to Ben if he tries anything funny. While I do think maybe there’s a good explanation for everything, I also don’t agree with the fact that he didn’t think you finding out about this would hurt you. He should have told you right from the start.”
Remembering Romance: Quinn Valley Ranch Book 17 Page 7