Driven to Distraction (Silhouette Desire S.)
Page 15
The minute she heard that familiar gravelly drawl she stopped breathing. “Maggie? Are you there? Hello?”
“Ben,” she exclaimed when she could finally harness her brain to her tongue. “Did you make it home all right? Well, of course you didn’t—it’s too soon. How long does it take to get there, anyway?”
She forced herself to relax and take a deep breath.
Ignoring her questions, he said, “I wanted to tell you when I’ll be back.”
“Back as in…?” Her heart knocked out an extra beat.
“Back as in North Carolina. As in a few miles from where you live.”
Some five minutes later she punched off and laid her phone aside, still dazed. He was coming back. Not only to see his grandmother, who apparently had discovered eBay and was turning into something of an art dealer, but to see her—Maggie.
Ben had said Miss Emma was making only enough profit to cover the cost of shipping and insurance, but Maggie could tell how proud he was. Not that he’d ever said much about his family, but she had a feeling his early life had been vastly different from her own. Even after her mother had left, she’d had her father, two aunts, an uncle and half a dozen cousins. All Ben had was the woman he called Miss Emma.
“And me,” she whispered. “He’s coming back, he’s coming back,” she sang, clasping her arms around herself.
Don’t get your hopes up too high, a small voice warned.
In the lounge chair across the living room, her father snored softly. Maggie wondered how he would get along if she left home and moved to Texas. Could she do it?
Too many questions, too few answers. Not even Miss Maggie could predict the future.
It was almost three weeks later when a familiar dark green pickup pulled into the driveway. Maggie was on a ladder dodging oak branches while she cleaned out the gutters. They hadn’t been cleaned since last fall. Already small oak trees were sprouting there.
There were a thousand green trucks on the highway, she told herself. A million. Nevertheless, she nearly broke her neck scrambling down the ladder.
“Wait!” Ben yelled, jogging the last few steps. “Don’t move!”
Halfway down she froze, but only for a moment. That was all the time it took for him to reach up and grab her around the waist and swing her down into his arms.
“God, I missed you,” he said fervently. “Your shoestring’s untied.”
Ben had taken time only to stop by his grandmother’s house, leave his bags and get directions to Maggie’s house. Miss Emma said she had a bridge date that night, but she’d leave a casserole in the oven in case he made it back.
Food was the last thing on his mind.
“Ah, Maggie, Maggie, you’ll never believe how much I missed you,” he growled. Wrapped around him like a honeysuckle vine, her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck, she was either laughing or sobbing, he couldn’t tell which. Didn’t much care as long as she let him hold her.
“Put me down and kiss me,” she ordered.
“The two are not mutually exclusive,” he told her, and then he proved it.
A long time later, Maggie told him he might as well stay and meet her father, who had remained downtown for a Chamber of Commerce meeting.
“You need to meet Miss Emma, too. You’ll like her. You two are a whole lot alike in some ways.”
“Are you going to be here long?” The hesitancy in her voice made him ache.
“Like I told you, I’ve finished my business in Dry Creek. I’m ready to make a move.” He’d ended up having only to give one more written deposition. Several other witnesses had been found and were ready to testify. Chief Mercer had cut a deal, so the case was pretty much in the bag.
It was a lousy ending to some good years in his life—the best years, so far. But he had a strong feeling that was about to change.
“And?” Maggie asked the leading question, sounding half-hopeful, half-fearful. He hadn’t come right out and said the words, but she had to know how he felt. Hell, he was here, wasn’t he? He’d left his truck in long-term parking at the airport in Greensboro, knowing he would be back. That was a testament to something, wasn’t it?
Nearly an hour later, lying on his back with one arm around Maggie, the other propped under his head, Ben studied the smears of green, gray and purple that had been framed and hung where it could be seen from the bed. Frowning, he said, “That looks kind of familiar. Almost like…”
“Your last masterpiece? It is. The genuine thing, too, and not just a copy. Actually, it’s kind of nice, once you stop thinking that it’s supposed to look like something.”
If Ben had been in any doubt about what love felt like, that was no longer the case. Lust would carry a man only so far. Love was what carried him the rest of the way.
“The best of both worlds,” he murmured, burying his face in her hair.
“Is that the title?”
“Yeah,” he said with a satisfied smile. “That’s the title.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8303-3
DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION
Copyright © 2004 by Dixie Browning
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*Outer Banks
†Tall, Dark and Handsome
‡The Lawless Heirs
§The Passionate Powers
**Beckett’s Fortune