by M. Malone
Katie could definitely agree with that. Don had always looked down on her for her limited education but the man could barely balance a checkbook and had often overdrawn his checking account until she took over handling the money.
“I’m mainly worried about my boys. I guess I always thought Don would be around to teach them the things I can't.”
“There will be others who can do that. You’re a great mom. I’ve seen that.”
“Well, thank you. Coming from someone who was raised by Julia Alexander that actually means a lot.”
Suddenly, Katie realized what was happening. Bennett was talking to her, easily and naturally, without any prompting. When she’d given him conversation topics, he’d faltered but when she asked about his educational background, he’d been fine. Could that be the key?
Communicate in the way he's comfortable with.
She started asking about his research and Bennett immediately launched into a detailed explanation of his latest batch of testing. She observed him while he talked, noticing that all the nervous tics he displayed when talking about anything other than science disappeared. He was completely comfortable talking about his work. He was in familiar territory.
Maybe that's all he needs, Katie thought. If he got some familiarity with popular culture then he should be able to talk about it just as easily as science.
“Bennett,” she interrupted, “have you noticed anything interesting about the past ten minutes?”
He looked around, alarmed. “No, what’s happened?”
She smothered a laugh at the suspicious look on his face. For such a smart man, he had very little faith in the world around him.
“You’ve been talking to me. We’ve had a very nice conversation.”
Bennett just blinked at her and then slowly, a smile spread across his face. “Yes, we have. I didn’t even realize.”
“That’s the way it should be. Making conversation isn’t supposed to be hard. In fact, this has given me a totally new approach on how to help you.”
He pushed up his glasses nervously. “It has? More practice drills?”
She shook her head. “Nope. No more drills. What you need is fun.”
“Fun,” he repeated blankly.
“Yes, fun. Maybe you’ve heard of it? This whole time I noticed how easy it is for you to talk about science but not anything else and I couldn’t help but wonder: do you do anything else? You know, like, hobbies or something?”
By his stricken look, Katie could only assume the answer was no. Before he could say anything, she picked up the tablet. If she was going to help him, she needed to go in a completely different direction and she knew exactly where to start.
“We’re done for the day, right?”
Bennett nodded absently. “Yes, I don’t need anything else. Are we finished already?” He sounded relieved.
That wouldn’t last long. Katie had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like her new direction any better than the last one.
“For now. But I’m not done working. Once I’m at home, I’m going to come up with a list of ways to teach you to have fun. Then I’ll send you homework assignments to complete.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad. At least homework is something I’m familiar with.”
Katie didn’t correct him but she had a feeling this homework was going to be a challenge. For the first time, Bennett Alexander was going to learn to do frivolous things.
CHAPTER SEVEN
♥
By the time Katie left work an hour later, she had a list of ideas to try to get Bennett out of his shell. It wasn’t going to be easy. The man was naturally suspicious of anything that didn’t seem logical or productive. She smiled, remembering his reaction to her question about hobbies. The poor man was probably going to need a drink to handle some of the things on her list.
The kids were a little more subdued than usual when they got off the bus. She’d noticed that Hunter in particular was very quiet. Katie gave them their snack and supervised their homework before she decided to call Ridley. Playing with the Alexander boys would definitely cheer the kids up and it would give her a chance to confer with Ridley about her “teaching Bennett to have fun plan.” This kind of thing was Ridley’s specialty.
Her friend didn’t answer when she called so she hung up and decided to wait an hour. Knowing Ri, she was in the middle of whipping up some amazing creation for dinner. Katie opened her own refrigerator and sighed. Leftover spaghetti and meatballs would have to do. The boys were always starving within an hour of getting home which didn’t leave much time for creating culinary masterpieces.
Her phone rang while she was heating up the leftover pasta. When she saw Ridley’s name on the screen, she snatched it up. To her surprise, it wasn’t Ri’s voice she heard.
“Hi, Katie? It’s Mara.”
“Oh, hi! This is a surprise. Didn’t expect to hear your voice.”
Mara was an old friend of the Alexanders but had moved to New York with her husband Trent the prior year. Before that, she’d been a constant presence in Ri’s house and Katie considered her a friend. Actually, Mara was one of the first people she’d confided in about her divorce. She was very easy to talk to and just a vibrant, fun-loving type of person in general. She’d always made their Girls’ Nights more fun.
“Yeah, Ri asked me to call you back for her. Penny is here with me and she’s giving Ridley a pregnancy massage. Can you come over? I’d love to see you while we’re in town.”
“That’s actually why I was calling. I need Ri’s advice about something but you’re probably going to be a big help, too. I’m working as an assistant to Bennett now and he’s asked me to help him with a … special project. It’s kind of hard to explain.”
Mara hummed. “Now you have me intrigued. Hurry up and get here!”
Katie laughed and promised she’d be there within the hour. She packed the spaghetti in a box and called out to the kids. She could feed them at Ridley’s house. They’d done that plenty of times before. Once she told them where they were going, the boys got their shoes and jackets on in record time. Twenty minutes later, they were happily eating spaghetti along with Ri’s two boys.
Mara pulled her by the arm into the living room where Ri was lying on a table while Penny massaged her shoulders.
“Hey! Sorry I didn’t get up. But I feel like jelly,” Ri mumbled. “This pregnancy massage table is amazing.”
Upon closer inspection Katie could see that the table had special cutouts to allow room for a pregnancy belly and to avoid putting pressure on the delicate chest area. Penny smiled and waved before turning to get more massage oil.
“Cool, right? Trent finally convinced Penny to come up with a design for a modular massage table that can adapt for a variety of conditions. This thing is fantastic. I’m so proud of her.”
Penny shrugged but didn’t speak. Katie figured she was probably trying to remain quiet so she wouldn’t jar Ridley out of the dreamlike state her friend was in. Katie and Mara got comfortable on the couch and talked quietly until Penny finished. A few minutes later, Ridley sat up looking completely relaxed.
“That was great, Penny. I didn’t know how much I needed that!” Ridley climbed down from the table carefully before fixing her gaze on Katie. “Sorry I couldn’t greet you when you came in. I was in another world.”
Katie chuckled. “I could see that. It looked like you were on the verge of falling asleep.”
“She actually did fall asleep for a little while there. Which is the ultimate compliment, by the way,” Penny interjected before going back to packing up her supplies.
“So what’s going on with you?” Mara finally asked. “You definitely sparked my interest on the phone. What kind of special project are you working on?”
Ridley took a seat on the other side of Katie on the couch. “Special project? What does Bennett have you working on? Nothing crazy I hope? He mixes all those chemicals in his lab and thinks that’s totally normal so I don’t think
he perceives danger the same way we do.”
Katie smiled thinking of all the random mishaps she’d already had in the lab. She’d been extra careful handling things since then. It would be just her luck to drop the wrong thing and end up blowing up the whole lab or something.
“Well, this is a project that I’m working on to help Bennett. It’s a personal project.”
Ridley smiled. “Personal, huh?”
“It’s not like that. He’s trying to be more social and asked for help. So I’ve been coming up with ideas to help him learn to talk to people.”
Mara clapped her hands in excitement. “This is so cool. Kind of like My Fair Lady but you get to be Dr. Doolittle.”
“I guess so. Although it’s weird trying to teach Bennett anything when he’s pretty much a savant with everything else.”
Ridley observed her with slightly narrowed eyes. She stared so long that Katie started to fidget under her gaze. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore.
“What? Just say it, Ri. You think this is weird, right?”
Katie couldn’t explain it but even though she wanted their help, she also didn’t want anyone making fun of Bennett. She thought it was really brave that he was willing to put himself out there, even in spite of possible ridicule, to learn something new.
“No! I actually think it’s sweet that he asked you for help. He has so many people he could have asked and yet, he chose you. You guys must be getting along really well.”
Oh boy. Now Katie understood why Ridley was staring at her. Her friend thought every situation was a possible love connection. Then she thought about the picture she’d seen of Bennett smiling. Just remembering it was enough to send a flush of heat to her face. Well, just because she was attracted to him didn’t mean anything. He was handsome. Hell, the man was an Alexander so it would have been stranger if he wasn’t good-looking. The whole family had been blessed with golden genetics. But that didn’t mean anything was going to happen between them.
Ri finally gave her a break and reached over to the side table. “Maybe I can help. This should loosen him up.”
Katie accepted the book her friend held out. When Mara saw the cover, she laughed so hard she almost snorted up a strand of her hair. Even Penny tried to cover her mouth to hide her smile.
“What? Why are you guys laughing?” Katie examined the book cover. It looked innocuous enough, kind of boring actually. It was all black with the words Silent Surrender on the front. The author name wasn’t familiar.
“Oh nothing. It’s just the latest book craze.” Ri blinked at her innocently.
With no small amount of fear, Katie cracked the book open and started reading. The beginning seemed pretty tame, just some guy in a meeting ordering everyone around. Then a girl came in and spilled coffee on him and …
Katie’s mouth fell open as she kept reading. The main character’s thoughts about what he wanted to do to the girl were … explicit. And sexy as hell.
“What is this?” Katie clutched the book to her chest when Mara tried to take it from her. “You want me to give this to Bennett?”
The others finally lost it, exploding into laughter. Ridley wiped tears from her cheek before she could catch her breath long enough to talk.
“Could you imagine? The poor guy would probably have a heart attack!”
Katie bit her lip imagining Bennett reading something like this. Would he be offended or would he like it? She blushed again and tried to put that thought out of her mind. There was no way she was suggesting to her boss to read a sexy book.
“Actually you guys just gave me an idea.”
Mara’s eyebrows flew up into her hair. “You’re not actually going to give him that, are you?”
“Oh no. I would die instantly if I even tried. I mean, well, whatever. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recommend something else for him to read. There’s a really great fantasy series that I just finished that he might like. It has a lot of suspense and was a fast-paced read. Maybe I’ll suggest that.”
Ridley nodded. “It’s great that you’re helping him. Bennett is such a sweetheart. He needs to learn to have fun. Jackson worries about him a lot, I can tell.”
Katie could understand that. She envied how close the Alexander siblings were. Whenever she saw them together, it made her miss her own family.
They spent the next hour talking and laughing while the kids played upstairs and by the time she was ready to go home, Katie felt a lot better about her plan to help Bennett. The girls had given her some other great suggestions of places she could take Bennett to help him relax, everything from going to the movies to see the newest comedy in theaters to taking him to the beach for the day. But Katie was pretty sure that starting off simply was best. Reading a book after work was a great way to ease him into the idea of relaxing more.
On the way out, Ridley finally noticed that she was still carrying the racy book from earlier.
“Oh, I thought you weren’t going to give that to Bennett?”
Katie lowered her voice so the kids wouldn’t hear and ask any questions. “I’m not. That’s for me!”
♥
Bennett looked up at the sound of his cell phone ringing. Usually at this time in the evening he was working out, reading his case notes from the day’s work or catching up on world events. But when Katie had left that day, she’d warned him to keep his phone close because she’d be calling with his first homework assignment.
Quite surprisingly, he’d been looking forward to it all afternoon.
“Hello?”
“Hey! Are you ready to have some fun?”
Bennett smiled. He hadn’t expected her to be so into this project but her enthusiasm was definitely infectious. He usually only felt like this when he was working on a new project or reading about a new scientific breakthrough.
“I’m not sure. But you sound excited.”
Katie laughed softly, the warm sound making him feel like he was part of an inside joke. When she laughed, it never felt like it was at his expense which was a nice change.
“I am excited. I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for you today. But you have to remember that you promised to keep an open mind.”
Bennett squelched the first twinge of worry. In the past whenever people said that, it usually meant they were going to do something he wouldn’t like but he’d resolved to trust Katie and give this a chance. Plus, it wasn’t that hard to trust her. Working with her the past few days, he’d discovered that she was truly as kind as he’d thought. For the first time in a long time, he was comfortable trusting in someone else. He didn’t think she’d ever do anything to intentionally hurt or embarrass him.
“I’m being open-minded. What’s the assignment?”
Katie took a deep breath. “It’s a book assignment.”
Bennett cheered immediately. He’d always been light-years above his peers’ reading level in school. If this was the assignment, then he would definitely ace it. He relaxed slightly. This wouldn’t be difficult at all.
“Okay. That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Were you worried?”
“Yes.”
Katie laughed. “Your honesty is refreshing. But don’t thank me yet. Part of the assignment is not to read the description of the book online. Just buy it and start reading. Can you do that?”
That seemed a little odd but certainly not out of the question. “I can do that. So am I supposed to do a book report or something?”
Katie was quiet for a moment. “Um, yes. But I think an oral book report will be fine. Your assignment is to read two chapters each night for the next week at least. If you don’t like it at that point, then you can tell me why and we’ll try another book. Okay?”
“Okay. That sounds easy enough.” Bennett wasn’t sure what to think. So far it didn’t feel much like homework at all. Two chapters? Considering how fast he read, he could probably do that in fifteen minutes. And no written report? This was the easiest book assignment ever.
“So I’m going to text you the link to the book. Remember, don’t read anything about it, just buy it and start reading.”
“No problem.”
“Oh yeah and Bennett? The point of this is to have fun. Try it, okay? It won’t kill you.”
After they hung up, his phone dinged immediately with a text. Bennett clicked the link she’d sent and it pulled up the product page for the book. He clicked the button to buy it, deliberately not enlarging the screen on his phone to read the description. He couldn’t help noticing that the cover was a deep maroon with gold lettering and some kind of design embossed on the cover.
“Don’t look, remember.” Determined to follow the rules, Bennett walked into his bedroom to find his personal tablet. He opened the app he used to read and the book was at the top of the page. The title was The Secret Life of Senator Drake.
“A political tale? Interesting choice.” Bennett wouldn’t have thought Katie would choose anything political for him to read but maybe she thought it would appeal to his intellect.
He settled on his bed and propped a pillow behind his head. As he read, he wondered what made Katie choose this book. Then he flipped the page and had to read a few of the sentences more than once to be sure he was getting the meaning. One of the characters had just shed his skin and turned into a dragon.
“Huh?”
Bennett kept reading. Perhaps Senator Drake actually had a problem with illicit drugs or alcohol and this was simply a hallucination. It was a problem that plagued quite a few in positions of power.
But that didn’t appear to be the case. The main character had continued on with his day as if nothing had happened. No longer able to keep his word, Bennett went back to the book’s product page and read the description. The character wasn’t having a hallucination. The book was a fantasy novel about a society of sentient dragons.
Bennett laughed aloud. No wonder Katie had told him he wasn’t allowed to read the description. The entire thing sounded ridiculous. He went back to the book. His assignment was to read two chapters. How hard could it be?