by Maria Geraci
“She’s not?”
Ben laid down his napkin. “It was Greta’s job to take care of you, and she didn’t do that, did she?”
Rachel hung her head. “No, but… I shouldn’t have left without telling her. And…” her voice got small, “I crossed the street without holding anyone’s hand. And that’s bad.”
Jenna and Ben exchanged a tense look. “You’re right, you shouldn’t cross the street without holding someone’s hand, but tonight wasn’t your fault. Okay?” he reassured her.
“Okay.” Her forehead scrunched in thought. “If Greta is gone, then who’s going to take care of me?”
“Grandma and I are.”
Her brown eyes rounded with happiness. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“And I’m gonna get to go to the school with the balloons?”
“For a little bit, but then you’re going to school in Miami, where I live.”
“Oh.” She chewed on a pancake. “And Grandma will be there, too?”
“Yes, Grandma will be there all the time. First we’ll live in my house, but then we’ll get a bigger house. One where you can pick out which bedroom you want and everything.”
Her mouth fell open. “Really?”
Ben smiled. “Yes, really.”
“Jenna, can you come live with us, too?” Rachel asked innocently.
It was the perfect time to have her mouth full of pancake because she needed a moment to figure out how to answer. She took a sip of her water. “Honey, I live here in Whispering Bay, but maybe we can visit each other sometime.”
Rachel nodded dejectedly, like she’d already expected to be disappointed, which made Jenna feel like a first-class heel. So she did what adults had been doing since the beginning of time with little kids. She changed the subject to distract her.
“So do you want to hear what happens to Annie?”
Rachel nodded enthusiastically, which led Jenna into an entire description of the movie. Rachel seemed so fascinated by the whole thing that after dinner Ben found the original version on his smart TV. They sat on the couch with Rachel tucked between them and watched the film, eating ice cream and laughing. After the long day she’d had, Jenna expected Rachel to fall asleep, but the little girl stayed awake all the way to the closing credits.
“To-mo-rrow!” Rachel sang at the top of her lungs as she changed into her pajamas. “To-mo-rrow, I love ya, to-mo-rrow!” She brushed her teeth and slipped into bed. Ben kissed her on the forehead and tucked the covers tightly around her. “Good night, Uncle Ben! Good night, Jenna! I’ll see ya to-mo-rrow!”
Ben chuckled tenderly. “Good night, sweetheart.” He flipped off the bedroom light, taking care to leave the door ajar.
They walked down the hallway to the living room in silence. The relaxed atmosphere they’d shared for the past few hours disappeared the instant they’d put Rachel to bed. It was replaced now with a nervous kind of energy. Could he feel it, too?
“You’re terrific with kids,” he said.
Yep. He could feel it, too. She could hear it in his voice.
“Thanks, but I have two nieces so I’ve gotten in a lot of practice.”
“I wish there was some way I could properly thank you for everything you’ve done. Is there a favorite charity or cause that I can make a contribution to or—”
“A favorite charity?” Was he for real? She blew out a breath. Yes, she’d been the one to tell him that she didn’t want to get personal, but that was before. Today’s events had changed everything. “First off, no thanks needed. If you really want to show your gratitude for anything I did tonight, then tell me about Rachel.”
“It’s a long sad story, Jenna.”
She marched over to the couch and plopped herself down. “Not a problem. I’ve got all night.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down.
She could see the struggle on his face before he gave in. He sat down next to her and for a long time he didn’t say anything. “Jake and Cindy died of a drug overdose a couple of months ago. Since then, Mom and I have been taking care of Rachel.” He said it simply and without emotion, but he wasn’t a robot. Inside, he was hurting. She could see it in his eyes.
“I’m so sorry. I thought maybe it was a car accident or something. Poor baby.” She almost didn’t want to know the answer to her next question, but she had to ask. “Was Rachel there when it happened?”
“No, thank God. Jake had the decency to drop her off with my mom before he and Cindy went off on their last little drug junket.” Bitterness and guilt mixed together to make his voice harsher than she’d ever heard him.
Rachel’s fear of Ben going to jail made sense now. “She’s seen them get arrested. Hasn’t she?”
He nodded. “Rachel has spent more time with Mom than she ever did with Jake and Cindy, but she’s known a lot of instability in her life.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I’ve spent the past four years trying to get permanent custody of Rachel for my mom, but as long as her parents were still in the picture the courts would never allow it. They’d get clean just long enough to convince some judge that Rachel should be with them.”
Jenna shuddered. “Sometimes you have to wonder about our legal system and who it really protects.”
“It’s not that Jake didn’t try or that they didn’t love Rachel. But no matter how many times he and Cindy went to rehab, it never stuck. They’d be clean for a few months and everything would seem okay, and then one of them would start using again and it would all go straight to hell.”
“What about Cindy’s parents? Do they see Rachel?”
“Her mom passed away a few years ago. Cindy’s dad is a trucker. He’s a good guy, but he’s always on the road. He visits her when he can, but he agrees Mom and I are the best solution here.”
“So, what you told Rachel at dinner, about moving to Miami? That’s all settled now?”
“My mom agreed to it just this afternoon.”
“And Cruella de Vil is really gone?”
A corner of his mouth twitched up. “Greta is on a plane back to Miami as we speak, and her agency is about to get a very nasty letter from me. They’re lucky I don’t sue them after what that bitch pulled tonight.”
“Good. But I have to say, Ben, even after everything she’s been through, Rachel is just so…so—”
“Completely and totally awesome?”
She smiled at the undisguised pride in his voice. “Yep.”
“She’s been seeing a counselor and that’s helped. But, I have my mom to thank for how well-adjusted she is.”
“No doubt, but I see the way Rachel looks at you. I’d say you’re pretty high up on her Most Terrific Persons list.”
“Never heard of that list.”
“Sure you have. Everyone’s got one.”
He shifted on the couch, causing them to move closer to one another. But the move wasn’t just physical. A subtle something occurred between them as well, reminding her of the way he’d looked at her earlier this evening. Mainly because he was looking at her that way again.
Uh-oh. This was quickly escalating into a Defcon four situation.
“So who’s on your Most Terrific Persons list?” he asked.
“Right now, I’d say Rachel is definitely on there. And there’s the usual suspects. My parents, Aunt Viola, Kate…she’s my—”
“I remember who Kate is.”
“Kate’s hard to forget.”
“So are you.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Say something! But all she could do was stare into those chocolate brown eyes of his.
“The other night at the restaurant I tried to apologize for that night in Miami. Jenna, you need to know—”
“No need for any explanations. It was years ago and— Let’s not go there, okay?” She had to get out of here. “I only stayed because I wanted to know more about Rachel, and now I do. So on that note—”
“The night we slept together Jake got arrested for stealing
a car in Destin.”
Ben Harrison did not fight fair. She couldn’t leave now. Not after he’d dropped that little bomb on her.
“A couple of hours after you fell asleep, Mom called to tell me that Jake had been arrested. I wanted to wake you up, but I didn’t know what to say.”
“How about telling me you had a family emergency?” she suggested not-too-gently.
“That night, you’d told me all about Thanksgiving with your family and decorating the Christmas tree. Remember?”
As if she could forget anything about that night. “Of course I remember.”
“My family consisted of me and my mom and my little brother. Period. No sweet old grandmother with a recipe for panettone. No aunts or uncles or cousins. I never knew my father, and Jake’s dad was the worse piece of scum you could ever imagine. Mom tried hard to make things okay, but…” He shook his head. “Let’s just say I wasn’t about to wake you up and tell you my twelve-year-old brother was in a juvie jail and I needed to go home to console my heartbroken mother at the trailer park.”
He’d been ashamed. She got that. Still.
“You could have called me afterward. I was really worried, Ben. And then after that, I was just embarrassed.”
He looked surprised. “By what?”
She laughed incredulously. “I was completely and totally…” in love with… “in awe of you. I was this geeky virgin and I thought I’d done something horribly wrong that night to put you off.”
He shut his eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry. I never thought… Shit.” He shook his head. “You’re right. I am a fucking asshole.”
“No, we were just on a completely different page. That’s all. That scene in South Beach, though. Ouch.”
“After that night, it was pretty obvious you didn’t want to see me anymore. But I should have at least called to apologize to you.”
“It’s called ghosting now,” she said trying to insert some levity. There was just one piece of the puzzle that still made no sense. “So how did you end up working in a South Beach bar?”
“When I didn’t show up for my regular job that Tuesday night, the club I was working for fired me. I was lucky to get the South Beach gig fast. With my military background, they decided to make me head bouncer. I must have worked sixty hours that week. All I could think of was making enough money to send to my mom to pay the lawyer to help my little brother.”
She thought about everything he’d just told her. Of all the scenarios Jenna had played out in her head throughout the years, this hadn’t been one of them. “I hate you, you know that?” She paused for effect. “How does anyone work sixty hours during finals week and still make a freaking perfect hundred on Dr. Parrish’s calculus final?”
He snorted.
“Seriously, you’re a good son, Ben. And a terrific uncle.”
“And you were a really nice girl that got screwed over by my shitty life.”
“It was what it was. I was upset, sure, but I got over it.”
“Did you get over getting a C on the calculus final?” he teased.
“No. And I’ll never forgive you for that,” she teased back. “But the rest? It’s water under the bridge.” She leaned her head back on the couch. “Funny. I thought when I saw you at The Bistro last week that fate was playing some kind of mean joke on me, but now that I know what really happened, it’s like I’ve gotten closure to a really bad chapter in my life.”
When he didn’t say anything, she turned her head to see him staring at her.
“Is that what you think of me?” he asked quietly. “A really bad chapter in your life? Because that’s not how I think of you.”
Defcon three! her girl parts screamed. If he kissed her, it would all be over. Please kiss me.
“You want to know how I think of you, Jenna?”
“Maybe we should—”
“You don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to say it anyway. For me, you’re the one that got away.” He cupped her face with the palm of his hand and leaned in to kiss her.
But it wasn’t like the kiss at the beach. That had been hot and urgent. This kiss was sweet and slow, and like before she couldn’t help but kiss him in return. But just when she thought he was going to deepen the kiss, he pulled back.
“I need to know. Is this you being polite again?”
“No,” she whispered truthfully.
“Good.”
He kissed her again, then flipped her onto her back and pulled her arms above her head to pin her down. The position made her vulnerable, but she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she liked it. He felt hard and smelled good, and it had been a long time since she’d wanted a man this badly. Thirteen years, to be exact.
“Oh my God, we’ve definitely skipped all the way down to Defcon one,” she muttered.
“What?” Then before she could answer, he shook his head. “Never mind.”
His mouth found the sensitive area beneath her ear, her throat, and the skin above her collarbone. Her hips squirmed restlessly, urging his mouth lower, but he ignored her and instead went higher, nuzzling the side of her throat again. Which was nice, but not where she wanted his mouth.
It was time for her to take charge.
Leveraging herself on the couch, she reversed their positions. She hiked up her dress to straddle his hips, then leaned down to kiss him, nibbling along the column of his strong throat, laying kisses over his chest and working her way down to his—
“That’s enough.” He gripped her shoulders, forcing her to stop and look into his eyes. “Either we go to bed right now or we say good-night.” His hard gaze emphasized his ultimatum.
“Well, when you put it that way.”
Chapter Fourteen
A blast of sunlight hit her directly in the eyes. Jenna cracked open a lid, then blinked. The most gorgeous sunrise she’d ever seen stared back at her through a huge floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The sheets beneath her felt silky and expensive and… Where was she? She turned in the bed to find herself next to a sleeping man.
Make that a sleeping naked man.
Memories of last night came flooding back to her.
She’d had sex with Ben. Not just not once. But twice.
No, make that three times if you counted the hot tub, which yes, definitely counted.
The bedside clock illuminated the time. It was almost seven and she needed to be at work early today.
She made her way to the bathroom where her blue dress hung neatly on the closet door. She didn’t remember hanging up her dress, so Ben must have done that. Awfully considerate of him, especially under the circumstances.
After they’d made out on the living room couch, he’d given her a choice. Leave or have sex. It had been a no-brainer. Within seconds, they’d ripped off each other’s clothes. They didn’t wait for the bed that first time, and Ben hadn’t lived up to his “more than five minutes of foreplay” bragging either, but he’d made up for it the second time. And the third.
Given their history, last night had probably been inevitable.
She splashed water on her face, then quickly brushed her teeth (after everything they’d done to each other, she didn’t think he’d mind sharing his toothbrush). She slipped yesterday’s blue dress back on and gave herself a quick once over in the mirror.
Her hair was out of control, her lips were swollen and…oh no. There was a giant red blob on her neck. Blast her pasty, freckly, red-headed skin! She’d have to wear a scarf to work. Or maybe she could pass it off as a bug bite. Yes. This was Florida. She could definitely pass the blob off as a mosquito bite.
She searched the bathroom, looking for a rubber band or anything else she could use to pull her hair back, but there was nothing. Just miles of empty marble countertop. The bathroom was ginormous, something that had vaguely registered in her head last night. The whole house was like something out of one of those HGTV shows for millionaires. Gulf-side views, hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen.
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In other words, a fantasy. A vacation home. Something you rented for a week or two, then it was back to reality.
Just like last night. Eating pancakes, laughing and watching TV with Rachel, the sex, and then falling asleep in Ben’s arms. That too was just a fantasy. In a few weeks, he’d be back to his regularly scheduled life in Miami.
And she would still be here in Whispering Bay.
She scooped up her heels and tiptoed by the bed, but it wasn’t necessary. Ben was in a deep, hard sleep, completely and totally out. She turned to take one last look at him, his big naked body sprawled on top of the sheets.
Take a picture, girl, because you’ll probably never see anything this gorgeous again.
* * *
“It’s about time you called me back,” Kate grumbled. “I know you have a big job but it’s a sad day when you can’t spare a minute to at least text your best friend.”
“I know and I’m sorry,” Jenna said trying to sound humble.
“Usually when you don’t call me back it’s because you don’t want me to know what’s going on. So how did your drinks date go with Ben last week? Did you wear the white jeans like I told you to?”
“Yes, and as usual you were right. Definitely better than wearing a work suit.”
“How is he?” Kate asked. “Did you find out about the daughter?”
“Don’t get all big-headed on me, but you were right about that, too. Ben doesn’t have a daughter. Rachel is his niece.” She went on to fill Kate in on the whole story, including the events of thirteen years ago.
“So that’s why Ben ran off that night. Poor guy. Not that it excuses his behavior. He could have totally called you and explained what happened.”
“I agree.”
There was a pause. “You sound…different. Oh my God. You slept with Ben again!”
What? This was insane. How on earth did Kate know that?
“The first time I slept with Ben you thought I looked different. Now I sound different? What is he? Some kind of physically altering drug?”
“You tell me.”
“Okay, I admit it. I slept with Ben again. But if Ben Harrison is a drug, then he’s—”