by Ivy Sinclair
Ben gave Paul a tight squeeze and then set him down. “Not today, buddy. Uncle Ben has a lot to do today.”
Paul kicked at the floor. “Because of the wedding thing.”
“That’s right,” Ben said. He made a mental note to start watching what he said around Paul. The kid was growing up too fast. A small ball of pink wrapped itself around his leg and Ben laughed as he realized that Ella was trying to make him her prisoner. “Hmm, I wonder where Ella is?”
“Here, Uncle Ben,” Ella said, smiling up at him with wide blue eyes. Based on pictures he had seen over the years, Ella was the spitting image of Maggie when she was that age. He’d have to buy a shotgun if she took after her mother too much when she reached her teenage years.
Ben untangled Ella’s small arms from his leg and swept the little girl up into his arms. “Where’s your mom?”
Ella pointed at the back of the house toward the kitchen. “Helping Granny feed Papa,” she said before she stuck her thumb into her mouth.
Ben walked toward the back of the house and heard hushed voices. He settled Ella back to the floor. “Go play with Paul. I’ll be back soon.” Ella flounced away, and Ben couldn’t help but smile. He loved Paul and Ella so much that sometimes it hurt.
He walked into the kitchen unsure of what he might be walking into, which was usually the case in his parents’ home. He could tell right away that his dad was having one of his bad days. After his stroke, he became increasingly distracted and disoriented which made it difficult for his mother to take care of him, especially once her own health took a turn for the worse. He and Maggie had no choice but to hire a nurse to come in and help their mother part-time while they were working.
Ben’s mother, Francine, was arguing with her husband about finishing the food on his plate. “George, you’ve barely eaten a thing.”
Ben’s father hit his fist on the table. “Leave me alone! You’re always nagging me. When are you ever going to stop nagging me?”
Maggie, having retrieved a cup of coffee from the counter, saw Ben’s inquiring look and shook her head with a grimace. Ben leaned over and kissed his mom on the cheek. “Hey, Mom. How’s it going, Dad?”
His father focused on Ben. “Ben! Tell your mother to stop nagging me. Don’t ever get married, son. You’ll live to regret it.”
Ben’s mother stood. “Fine. Do what you want. But I’m warning you, I’m not making you anything to eat later.”
“Fine,” George said. He got to his feet and began to wobble toward the den. “I’m going to watch The Price Is Right.”
Maggie sighed, and the three of them watched him go. “How are you, Ben? How’s your head?”
Ben had forgotten all about his concussion in light of his early morning activities. He tried to move his head away as his mother began to fuss over him, but she grabbed his chin and demanded that he sit down, so he sat.
“It’s nothing,” Ben said, trying to reassure the two women in his life that he was fine. “I took some aspirin when I got home and got a good night’s sleep. All better.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Maggie asked, smirking into her coffee cup.
“What are you talking about?” Francine asked.
Ben groaned. “Nothing, Ma.”
“He’s right. I’m not talking about something, Mom. I’m talking about someone,” Maggie said, sitting down across from him with a raised eyebrow. “The whole town is buzzing about it.”
“It’s not even noon yet,” Ben scoffed. “I doubt the whole town is talking about anything.”
“Who? What are you talking about?” Francine asked, still confused.
“Julia Bell,” Maggie said. “Julia Bell spent the night at Ben’s house last night.”
“Julia Bell?” Francine looked even more confused. “I thought Julia Bell lived in the city. I was just talking with Abigail Smith about it the other day. So sad that her sister is getting married, and she isn’t coming to the wedding.”
“She’s back for the wedding, Mom,” Maggie said.
“Why would she be staying at Ben’s house?” Francine asked. Then Ben watched in horror as a look of realization crossed his mother’s face. “Ben, I thought you were dating that nice West girl.”
“Ben’s a player,” Maggie said smugly.
“I am not a player!” Ben said. This was the last conversation he expected to be having when he decided to stop at his parents’ house first. “Mom, Julia stayed at my house to make sure I didn’t have a reaction to having a concussion. I slept. She watched. There’s nothing else to talk about.” Naturally, he omitted the best part of the night.
“You always had a thing for Julia Bell,” Maggie said.
“I’m not here to talk about Julia,” Ben said, unwilling to dredge up the past and determined to swing the topic of conversation back to where it belonged. “I came over to talk about your scum sucking ex-husband.”
“Benjamin! Language!” His mother frowned.
“Wait until I at least call the creep an asshole, Mom,” Ben said. He wasn’t buying his mother’s recent transformation into a conservative goodie two shoes. Ben had heard her call Everett much worse more than once. “Plus let’s not forget that the guy tried to knock me unconscious.”
“I had no idea he’d react like that,” Maggie said with downcast eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me that he was back in town?” Ben asked, reaching across the table. He knew the one thing his sister was most ashamed of in her life was letting Everett Malone into it. He expected anger and outrage, not the meek attitude that she was demonstrating.
“He called me a few times in the last couple of weeks saying he was coming back, but he’s done that before and never followed through on it. Why was I supposed to think this time was any different?”
Ben took his sister’s hand and shook it. “Everett is a jerk who ran out on you and the kids right when things got hard. You don’t owe him anything.”
“He’s been sending the kids letters,” Maggie confessed. “Ever since Christmas. They’ve been coming every week like clockwork.”
“You can’t be serious,” Ben said incredulously. “I can’t believe it. After all this time, he starts sending a few letters and then you’re ready to forgive him for all the shit he put you and the kids through?”
“Lower your voice, Benjamin,” his mother warned, shooting a look behind him at the door to the living room. “I know that you have your opinion about what’s right for Maggie and the kids, but at the end of the day, it’s her decision.”
Ben looked at his mother as if she had grown another head. “Are you crazy?” He glanced back at Maggie. “So what are you saying? You’re actually willing to entertain this idea he has of letting him see the kids?”
“He is their father,” Maggie said, although her voice lacked its earlier conviction. “I appreciate your concern, Ben, but Mom’s right. It is my decision, and I will do what is best for my kids. They deserve the chance to know their father.”
Ben didn’t miss the slight emphasis on the word ‘my’. “What about the fact that he broke a bar glass over my head trying to break open my skull? That sounds like the act of a stable father figure. Definitely one who should be around kids.”
“I think he was nervous,” Maggie said in a rush. “He was afraid of how I’d react to seeing him again. So he had a drink to calm his nerves. One drink led to another drink. He didn’t mean to do that.”
“You talked to him this morning, didn’t you? That’s why you had this sudden epiphany into the inner workings of Everett’s psyche.” Ben said flatly. Maggie’s hands twitched on the table, and she shifted in her chair. It was all the answer that Ben needed. He shot up out of his chair. “Don’t you dare call me when this blows up in your face. I’m tired of cleaning up your messes.”
Maggie’s mouth fell open, and he saw the shock and hurt reflected in her eyes. It was a shitty thing to say, but Ben was angry. Everything he had done to help Maggie out and his o
pinion was swept aside like day old trash did not set well with him. He couldn’t believe it. He was through letting his family take advantage of him.
He spun on his heel and was almost through the doorway when he heard his mother’s soft call. “Ben, don’t leave it like this. You’ll regret it later.”
Ben stopped only long enough to mutter, “Story of my goddamn life.”
Absorbed in a television show, the kids didn’t hear him as he made his way quietly through the living room to the door. He felt horrible for them. He thought that Maggie was making a huge mistake putting her kids in Everett’s way. Looking at their small faces and thinking of how they’d cry and wail when their daddy disappeared again, he found he wanted to hit something. Hard.
Resisting the urge to slam the door behind him, Ben stopped on the front porch and attempted to rein in his anger. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Ben pulled it out to read the text message there.
Sheriff wants to know if you’re going to press charges. It was from Mike.
Ben would’ve liked nothing better, but he knew that Maggie would get mad and his mother would lecture, and Ben wanted nothing more than to be done with his family at the moment. A bachelor party was just what he needed to cool off some steam. Either that, or chaining Julia to his bed and coercing her to be his sex slave for the weekend. That thought finally brought a small grin to Ben’s face.
Tempting, but no. He replied back.
9pm. Can’t wait.
Ben knew that Mike was fishing for details on what they would be doing that evening. Ben was deliberately keeping him in the dark. He had a feeling if he let on how tame the festivities were going to be, Mike would pitch a fit. Ben had no problem with the idea of free flowing booze and half-naked girls dancing around as a way to celebrate a guy’s exit from the single life. His problem had to do with Mike’s problem of keeping his hands to himself when he was around attractive women.
He had been reluctant in the past to call Mike out on it, especially when it wasn’t any of his business. But he caught the pensive looks on Clary’s face whenever Mike brought up the bachelor party, and he knew what she was afraid of. If he were in her shoes, he’d have the same concern. Clary never asked him to keep the party on the tame side, but he did it out of respect for her anyway. Respect for her and the baby. If there wasn’t any over-the-top temptation, Ben felt confident that he could keep Mike in check.
Ben decided not to respond to Mike’s last message. That was one conversation he intended to delay until the very last minute. Mike would probably be pissed when he figured it out, but Ben intended to have him drunk enough by that point that Mike would be beyond truly caring. He’d deal with the fallout after the honeymoon, but hopefully by then married bliss would take over and Mike would forget all about it.
That was what Ben hoped anyway.
Ben had one more thing that he had to take care of that afternoon. He dreaded it but the sooner he did it the better. He dialed Sarah’s number as he walked back to his truck.
“Hey there,” Sarah purred as soon as she answered. “I was just thinking about you. How are you feeling this morning?”
Ben didn’t want her to tell him that she had been thinking about him. He had a pretty good idea about the content of those thoughts, and it made him cringe. “I’m good. Never better. I thought we could have lunch together,” he said, shooting past the topic.
“Oh, I wish I could, but I have the bridesmaid luncheon,” Sarah said. “If I could skip it, I would.”
Ben had forgotten about that. He needed to check the weekend’s itinerary. Clary made sure that everyone in the wedding party had one.
“I can swing by the bar afterwards,” Sarah said. “I’m happy to help set everything up for tonight.”
“How about I come by your studio instead,” Ben said. “Around three?”
Sarah was the town’s only photographer, and he had to admit she was actually pretty good at it. He would have preferred to meet on neutral ground, but since that wasn’t an option he wanted to be able to beat a retreat if things got heated.
“I’ve got Mike and Clary coming in at three-thirty for their wedding weekend photo shoot,” she said.
“That’s okay. I’d just like to see you before tonight.” He felt slightly ashamed that he was letting her infer a totally different meaning to his words. He knew that Julia thought differently, but Sarah had been unfailing sweet and friendly, despite her ardent pursuit of him.
“I can’t say no to that,” Sarah said, eating it up. “I’ll see you then.”
“See you then,” he agreed before cutting off the call.
He thought about it. Between Julia, Maggie, Clary, and Sarah, he had four women driving him bonkers. He had no idea how he was still sane.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Julia was in her version of hell. She sat in a large dining room at a table of women surrounded by other tables of much older women all talking about nonsense. When Clary told her that the bridal luncheon was being held at the Benton Hill Country Club, she immediately tried to come up with an excuse to ditch it. The only one she could think of was work, but she had already told Clary that she was taking off for the wedding. She was stuck.
After surveying the contents of Julia’s suitcase, Clary insisted she buy a new outfit for the occasion. A mad dash to the store put Julia in a mood. She felt like another person in her pale lavender slacks, white beaded collar shirt, and nude pumps. When he saw her, Jack insisted that she wear her mother’s pearls. The delight on Clary’s face was the only thing that kept Julia’s temper in check.
As if the attire and the ambiance of the room weren’t bad enough, five women who looked at her as if they were examining a bug underneath a microscope surrounded her. Three of the women, Mindy, Kathy, and Brittney were in Clary’s class in high school. The fourth woman, Gretchen, worked with Clary at the bookstore. And then there was Sarah West, who acted as if she owned the whole place. Of course, if Julia dug into it she might find out that the Wests actually did own the country club.
She pasted on her fake smile, sipped her iced tea, and counted the minutes until she could escape. She wondered what Ben was doing and if he was thinking about her. She couldn’t wait to see him again. They had a lot of catching up to do.
“What’s that smile about, Jules?” Clary asked shrewdly.
“What?” Julia said, caught off-guard. The conversation flowed along well enough without her input, and so it had been easy to slip into a daydream instead of participating.
“You look like the cat that just ate the canary,” Clary said.
“That’s the stupidest saying ever,” Julia retorted. She’d have to watch herself around Clary. Her little sister was too smart for her own good. If Julia was going to manage to keep her rendezvous with Ben a secret, she’d have to remember that Clary had the uncanny knack of being able to read her like a book.
“I’m impressed you were on time,” Gretchen said. She tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder and leaned in to Julia. “I mean, I heard you had a late night last night.”
Julia was shocked that a complete stranger was plying her for information. “I don’t need a lot of sleep. I’m used to it. I’m a software consultant you know. I have insane hours.” If she focused them on her job or anything else about her life, she’d keep them away from talking about Ben.
Sarah’s pursed lips didn’t escape her attention. There was a part of her that wanted to ham it up a little to annoy the other woman, but then she caught Clary’s look of warning and recalled her promise. Then she remembered that she didn’t know the depth of Ben’s relationship and Sarah and her thoughts turned dark again.
“Speaking of insane, did I tell you how much Rosalynn Franks is trying to charge me for the flowers?” Clary interjected. Immediately she had the attention of the rest of the table. Julia appreciated Clary’s quick thinking.
As if a higher power took pity on her, the screen of her phone lit with Nate Anderson’s phone number.
Nate was her business partner, and the closest friend she had in Minneapolis. Julia took the opportunity to excuse herself from the table and made her way into the quieter lobby area. She realized that she had forgotten to check in with him after getting to town the afternoon before, and he probably thought she’d fallen off the face of the earth.
Ducking into a corner where she saw a small cushioned bench tucked against the wall. “Hey, Nate. Sorry I didn’t call.”
“I was worried. How’s your dad?” Nate asked.
“What a mess,” Julia sighed. Julia proceeded to fill Nate in on most of the details of her trip so far, deliberating omitting anything about Ben. She had told Nate about her friendship with Ben and Mike, but never told him about Ben wanting to take it to the next level.
“Wow, and I thought my family was unbalanced and strange,” Nate said. “Sounds like you’re handling it like a champ.”
“I’m doing the best I can,” Julia replied. “So it looks like I need to take some extra time off. My sister has this crazy schedule, and I need to at least try to be helpful to earn my maid of honor title.”
“Take all the time you need. I’ll hold down the fort,” Nate said. Julia hardly ever took time off, and she thought that Nate was relieved that she did have some semblance of a life that didn’t involve a computer.
After assuring him she’d be back online on Monday, Julia hung up. She leaned back against the wall and enjoyed the silence. She didn’t want to go back inside the dining room. She felt out of place among the lace, pearls, and gossip. It wasn’t her scene at all. It made her wonder why Clary had gone along with it.
The Bell family, while not wealthy, was well-respected in town. A few years after their mother died, Jack started getting more involved with the community. He was a loud voice on several issues around the city budget and education spending. He even spent a few years on the city council. Julia had always enjoyed going to the meetings and watching her dad debate with his fellow council members.
With all of that, Jack never saw the value of stretching to pay for a membership to the country club. Julia thought that if he had, it was possible he would have been elected mayor instead of Mr. West. Julia’s previous experiences at the club were limited to the times that Mike invited her to an event. It was also the site of their senior prom, and that was the last time she had been inside its walls.