by Wesley Banks
“I know,” he said, as if reading her mind.
Her lips parted for a second as she breathed in deeply. He knew it wasn’t the right time, but the way her lips moved, the sound of her breath. All he wanted right now was to kiss her.
The door moved behind Casey and two little bare feet appeared. “Mom, what are you doing out here?”
Casey stepped to the side and Ben saw Emma for the first time. Her resemblance to Casey was uncanny. Her nose, her ears, her mouth, the shape of her face. It all matched her mother’s perfectly. All, except for one thing: her eyes. They were similar to Casey’s deep blue, but with a familiar hint of green. Almost aquamarine, Ben thought.
Casey held out her hand. “Emma, come here, I want you to meet someone.”
Emma walked over to her mom and took her hand, her head coming up just above Casey’s waist.
“This is Mr. Ben, the man I was telling you about.”
Ben knelt down and held out the other rose. “I didn’t know what your favorite flower was, but I got you this rose.”
Emma took the flower and held it up in front of her with both hands just as Casey had done. “It is very pretty, but I like blue ones the best.”
Ben smiled as he knelt there looking back at Emma. He couldn’t help but feel there was something so incredibly familiar about her. “I’ll remember that for next time,” he said.
He stood back up. “Is everyone hungry for some pizza?”
Casey looked down at Emma, who was shaking her head up and down with a big grin. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Casey said.
He looked down at Emma again. The whole thing with the reporter must have gotten to him more than he thought. Because this time he realized why the greens and blues that danced in her eyes looked so familiar. They reminded him of Grace.
Emma nodded and Ben started walking back towards his truck.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“It’s a surprise. But I need the chairs.” Casey looked completely confused when he turned back around. “Are they in the garage?”
“Is what in the garage?”
“Stay with me now, the beach chairs. You are the girl I talked to on the phone a half-hour ago right?”
“Yes…I just…the chairs are in the garage. I’ll open it and fix some drinks.”
“Okay, but one more thing.” Ben walked back up to her and kissed her quickly and without hesitation. “I’ve been wanting to do that since I saw you tonight.” Ben drew an X over his heart with his index finger as he backed down the walkway. “I won’t do that with Emma around, cross my heart.”
33
Counting Cars
April 13, 2015
A few minutes later and Casey walked through the garage carrying three glasses of water, with Emma next to her carrying a roll of paper towels and some paper plates. All she could do was laugh when she found Ben sitting in a chair in the bed of his truck.
He stepped down and grabbed the glasses from her, then hopped back up on the tailgate and sat one in each of the cup holders attached to the folding chairs. Then he turned around and held out his hand.
Casey gave him the standard you-want-us-to-have-a-picnic-in-my-driveway-in-the-back-of-your-truck look.
Ben responded with the standard guy look, which pretty much never changes.
She reached up and grabbed Ben’s hand and stepped up on the tailgate next to him. Casey turned around to grab Emma, but was surprised to see Ben already motioning to help her up. She was worried how Emma might react.
“Your turn,” Ben said to Emma. “Now reach your hands straight to the sky. You ready?”
Emma nodded holding her arms up like she was Superwoman.
Ben grabbed her by the wrists and lifted her straight up on to the tailgate. He held his hand up in the air, “Good job. Hi-five.”
She slapped his hand and he moved it down by his feet. “Down low?”
She went to slap it again, but he moved it just in time. “You’re too slow.”
“Hey,” she said. “You moved it.”
Ben laughed, and Casey smiled. Guys are so weird.
“Are you a pepperoni or cheese type of girl?” Ben asked, still kneeling in front of Emma.
“Pepperoni, please.”
“I knew it. You have that special pepperoni-girl look. Grab a seat by your mom and I’ll get you a slice.”
Emma sat down in the chair on the far end, next to Casey, who was sitting in the middle still watching the exchange. “Can I have two slices?” she said as Ben opened up the box.
“You can, but…only if you tell me a secret.”
Ben put two slices of pepperoni on a plate and turned to face Emma.
“What kind of secret?” she asked.
“That’s up to you.”
Emma tapped her index finger against her chin and looked up to the sky, as if she were mimicking someone she’d seen on television deep in thought. Then she blurted out. “I kissed a boy at school today.”
Casey literally almost fell out of her chair as Ben handed her the pizza. “You did?” Ben said, giving Casey a little squeeze on the leg to try and calm her. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
Emma pulled off a piece of pepperoni and ate it. “Mhmm.”
Casey’s mouth was still wide open in absolute shock. Ben lifted his hand off her leg and tapped the bottom of her chin playfully. She looked down at him like he was a great magician that had just performed the best trick of the century. How did he get her to say that?
“Does this boy have a name?” Ben said.
Emma shook her head yes as she took a bite of pizza.
Ben handed Casey a plate with one slice of pepperoni and one slice of cheese. Then he put three slices of cheese on his plate and sat down next to her. “Let me guess,” he said. “Was his name Rover?”
Emma shook her head again.
“Hmmm, what about Spot?”
“Those are dog names,” she said laughing.
“Okay, what about Biscuit?”
“That’s not a boy’s name either.”
“Well, I don’t know then. I’m all out of ideas.”
“It was Joe.”
“Joe Clemmons?” Casey said quickly. Her tone changed, “Emma, you know you’re too young to be kissing boys, right?”
“It was just a game.”
Ben put the half-eaten pizza down on his plate. “Speaking of games. I have a game we can all play. My uncle and I used to sit out by the road in lawn chairs around the time people got off work and watch the cars go by. I always liked to try and guess the color of the next car, so he made it into a little game. We’d each pick a color and the first person to five wins.”
“Sounds fun, doesn’t it, Emma?” Casey said.
Emma nodded, but appeared to be more concerned with licking the cheese and sauce off her fingers than anything else.
“Okay, I’ll pick red,” Casey said.
“I want blue,” Emma said.
“Perfect, I will take purple,” Ben added.
Casey smiled. Red and blue make purple, she thought.
It was just a few seconds before the first car turned down their street and drove by. “First car,” Ben said excited. “And…it’s …white. Boo.”
Two more cars drove past. One was a light blue Honda that looked like it might breakdown at any moment and the other was a blue Ranger. “Two points for Emma,” Ben said.
There was a minute of silence between all three of them as they watched patiently for the next car to drive by. Then Emma spoke. “This is weird.”
Ben leaned forward in his chair so he could look over at Emma. “But it’s fun, right?”
Emma giggled, “Yeah.”
Casey couldn’t have said it better herself. The fact that they were sitting in her driveway, in the back of a pickup truck, in beach chairs, eating pizza was a little weird. But, it was also fun and strangely peaceful. A lot of the time dinner inside is filled with so much noise that can’t escape the walls around yo
u. Out here though, the world seemed to absorb everything, until there was a stillness internally.
Casey looked over at Ben, who was mid-bite of his second piece of pizza. He stopped with the pizza half in his mouth, “Wha—?”
Casey laughed. “Are you throwing this game?”
He finished his bite. “What do you mean?”
“Purple?”
“What’s wrong with purple? I love purple.”
“Another car is coming,” Emma said.
They both turned and looked. It was red.
“Woohoo. One point for me. That’s two for Emma, one for me, and a big fat zero for Ben,” Casey said.
“Hey, it’s not over yet,” Ben defended.
“Name even one thing that’s purple.”
“Emma’s chair is purple,” he said with a big grin.
“That doesn’t count.”
“Okay, fine. Eggplants are purple, cabbage can be purple, butterflies are purple, Barney is purple, sapphires are purple. There’s purple people eaters, according to Sheb Wooley, soldiers can receive a purple heart, relish is purple, Lavender is purple, and…being a doctor and all you’ll especially like this one…mitochondria is purple.”
“That’s an odd amount of knowledge about purple, but that doesn’t change the fact that a single purple car isn’t going to drive by tonight.”
“It sounds like somebody wants to make a friendly bet.”
“It’s not betting if you know you’re going to win,” Casey said.
“Okay, okay. Then how about this.” Ben pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was 7:37 p.m. He had about twenty minutes until sunset and then maybe fifteen minutes more until it was dark. “If a purple car doesn’t drive down this street by eight, then you win.”
“And what do I win?”
Ben winked. “That’s up to you.”
Casey thought about it for a moment. “Fine. If a purple car doesn’t drive past us by eight tonight,” she said, thinking he might be trying to pull a fast one. “Then you have to clean my garage.”
Ben laughed. “Girls are so bad at this.”
“Huh? How is that bad?”
Ben leaned in and whispered in her ear. “If a purple car does drive down this street by eight tonight, then…”
Casey’s eyes opened wide when he finished the sentence. “No way.”
Two more cars passed. One black, one blue, but none of them said anything.
“So, do we have a bet?”
“No way. I can’t do that,” Casey said in a hushed tone.
“Not so confident anymore huh?”
Casey thought about the bet for a moment. It’s not that she didn’t want to do what he was suggesting if he won…it’s just, well, it wasn’t something she thought she could do. Nikki on the other hand would do something like this even without a bet. She looked at Ben, still grinning in confidence, but there is no way a purple car was driving by. “Fine,” she said.
Ben held out his hand to shake on it.
“But…not only do you have to clean my garage, but you also have to mow the front lawn, and…give me a foot massage.”
Ben bent over and looked down at her feet tucked inside a pair of brown sandals. “So let me get this straight. If I lose, I have to clean your already clean garage, mow your tiny lawn and then massage your cute feet?
“Yes?”
They shook on it. “Deal,” Ben said.
“Deal,” Casey said. She looked over at Emma who had been strangely quiet for the past few minutes. She was curled up in the chair sound asleep. Casey tapped Ben on the shoulder and he looked over at her and smiled.
They talked quietly for several minutes, watching the stars fill the dusty sky one by one. A light April breeze stirred several fallen leaves from the small Maple tree in her front yard. To the right, just past Archer Road was a line of tall pines and in between them they could see the myriad of oranges and yellows from the setting sun.
“I’m sorry you had to lose the bet,” Ben said.
Casey looked around. “Did I miss the invisible purple car that drove by?”
“No, you just didn’t see the one sitting at the park across the street when we made the bet.”
Casey immediately looked down the street and to the right a bit where there was a small community park, which was more or less a swing set, a jungle gym, and a basketball hoop. She didn’t see a car, though, let alone a purple car. She looked back at Ben, “Good one.”
“Look, here it comes now.”
Casey looked back again, but still didn’t see a purple…wait…on the sidewalk was one of Casey’s neighbors. She was wearing the same cut-off jean shorts, aqua green tank top, and cowboy hat that she wore every single day. And of course she had a glass of wine in her hand. As annoying as she was, though, that wasn’t the problem. Riding in front of her was her three-year-old daughter wearing nothing but her diaper. Again, not a problem. The problem was she was riding in a purple Power Wheels toy car. Casey didn’t take her eyes off the car. “That so does not count.”
“It so does.”
* * *
Casey walked back outside after she got Emma to brush her teeth and get ready for bed.
Ben had stacked the chairs back up in the garage and was closing the tailgate to his truck. He walked around to the front of his truck and leaned against it, looking at Casey as she walked towards him.
She walked right up to him, ran her hands over his stomach lightly tugging on his shirt, leaned up and kissed him. “She loved you,” Casey said, every part of her body smiling. “Only problem is now she wants to know when you’re coming over to play again.”
Before he could respond, Casey went on. “Seriously, though. I can’t believe she kissed a boy! And I can’t believe she told you! Where did you come up with that tell me a secret thing?”
Ben hesitated. He thought back to Claire Stewart’s words from a few hours ago. I want to tell your story. He wanted to tell Casey…but he couldn’t.
He looked straight into her eyes and his tone was dead serious. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Casey was completely caught off guard by the question, and her mind was suddenly racing. “What do you mean?”
“Last week,” he said. “Did something happen last week?”
She quickly thought back to last week. Her conversation with Candy about what to do about Ben, going to his track practice, their first date. That was it. The rest was all normal everyday stuff. “I…I don’t think so.”
“It’s okay, Casey. It’s not a big deal.”
Did he talk to Candy or Nikki maybe? Did they say something to him?
“Well,” Casey started. But as she began to speak, this huge grin rushed over his face, and she stopped.
“Oh. My. Gosh.”
Ben was laughing now.
“You just made all of that up to see if I would say something? That’s your little trick?”
“Technically I think it belongs to some guy named Forer, but yeah, that’s it.”
“I meant tell me how you got her to give up a secret. Not show me...”
“Hey, I could have kept going…”
“And you could never get a third date…” she teased.
“Speaking of that. What night are you free to fulfill our little bet.”
Casey stepped close to Ben and put her hands on his waist again. This time tucking them just slightly below the top hem of his jeans until her fingers brushed against his skin. She leaned up and kissed him slowly, teasing his lips. She moved down, leaving traces of her lips along his jaw line and neck.
His body tightened against her as both of his hands wrapped around her wrists. “How about,” she said between kisses, “we just…forget…about that.”
For a moment Ben didn’t respond. He couldn’t respond. His entire body felt warm, except for each and every place Casey’s lips touched his neck. He was trying to build his resolve, but the next kiss pushed him over the edge.
Ben moved his han
ds from her wrists to her waist and stepped closer to her until his body was pressed against hers. He pushed her against the front door and lifted her up as he kissed her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and her hands around the back of his neck.
They kissed for several seconds and then Casey leaned her head back against the door and smiled. Ben let her slide back down to her feet and she looked up at him. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
34
Focused
April 14, 2015
The next day at work Casey found it hard to stay focused. If their first kiss was amazing, then she didn’t think there were words that described how Ben had kissed her last night. Still, she was about to try.
It was just past 9 p.m. when Emma finally fell asleep. After a thirteen hour shift all Casey wanted to do was sleep, but Nikki was sitting excitedly on her couch with a bowl of popcorn and two glasses filled with Twin Springs Sweet Red Wine.
Nikki tapped on the empty couch cushion next to where she was sitting.
Casey rolled her eyes as she grabbed the glass of wine and sat down next to Nikki. She took two sips and rubbed her neck as she curled her legs up under her and leaned back against the couch.
“Okay, spill.”
Casey looked back towards Emma’s room and then over to Nikki. “Let’s go to my room.”
Nikki’s eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh. You didn’t.”
Casey picked up the bowl of popcorn and walked towards her bedroom with Nikki following close behind. “Didn’t what?”
“You slept with him on your second date,” Nikki said.
Casey shut the door to her bedroom behind them. “What! No!”
Nikki looked around confused. “Then why are we in here with the door shut?”
“Did you forget there is a five year old girl asleep in the room down the hall?”
“So, you didn’t sleep with him?”
“No!”
Nikki sat her glass on the nightstand and laid down on Casey’s bed. “Well, that’s a let down.”
Casey bit her bottom lip.