Bring Me Back

by Jessie Gussman

  He pulled on the swing chain, flexing his biceps and working some of the frustration out. Eve and Eden had turned out okay—great, really—in spite of his faults and failures. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

  “An apology really isn’t sufficient when we’re talking about grandparents.” Eden crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I can’t change it. I did what I thought needed to be done in order to protect you.”

  “How is keeping our grandmother away from us ‘protecting’ us?” Eve used one hand to do air quotes around “protecting.”

  “Our dad...” He hated to speak ill of the dead.

  “Wait.” Eve still sat on the chair, her tea held, forgotten, in her hands. “We have brothers? Like, Dad had—”

  “He had another wife, another whole family, in Pennsylvania.”

  “That’s illegal!” Eden practically shouted.

  “Yeah.” It was wrong on so many levels, but it was illegal as well. “Dad was not a good guy. He lied and cheated. He was a drunkard with a nasty temper. He couldn’t hold a steady job. I don’t want to go on, but yeah, this was one of the things he did that I didn’t see the point in telling you about.”

  “But they’re our family!”

  “I don’t know anything about them.” He didn’t think he wanted to mention that one of them was in prison. It would help his argument, but it seemed like overkill. “They could be just like Dad, and my job was to raise you. I couldn’t deal with whatever drama the rest of the family produced.”

  The girls were quiet. Ben closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the chain. “I’m sorry. Maybe I should have told you. But I did the best I could.”

  A few seconds ticked by that felt like an eternity. Finally, Eve said, “It’s okay, Ben. If you hadn’t been here for us, I don’t know what would have happened.”

  “Yeah.” Eden’s voice was small. “I’m sorry I was upset. I guess I was thinking how much I wanted to have a grandmother like my friends had, and cousins and family, but I guess I really don’t know what they’re like.”

  “And they’re so far away, we wouldn’t have seen them much anyway,” Ben pointed out.

  Eve popped up. Liquid splashed on the floor. “We’ve got to go see her.”

  “Does she know about us?” Eden asked softly.

  Ben swallowed, hating to admit the truth but already having to deal with the aftereffects of one lie. Which was one too many. “I’ve talked to her off and on, maybe once a month, for the last few years. She really wants to see you, and I’ve just made excuses.”

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us this.” Eden crossed her arms over her chest. Her voice was shot through with irritation.

  “I can’t believe we haven’t gone to see her.” Eve walked over and stood beside her twin. When they did that, it always felt like it was two against one. Always before, he’d stood firm because he knew he was right. This time, he’d been wrong and he knew it.

  And now the worst part. His chest tightened, and his neck crawled. “I told her I had a wife and my wife couldn’t travel because of her job.”

  The girls gasped. Eve actually took a step back, her arms falling. “You what?”

  “You heard me.”

  “I did. I just can’t believe it. You lied.” Eve put both fists on her hips.

  “Not only did he lie, he lied to our grandmother.” Eden’s arms dropped to her sides. “We have a grandmother.” She turned to her twin and threw her arms around her. They danced around in a circle, tea splashing on the floor.

  Ben smiled a little to see their enthusiasm, but his head drooped down.

  Eventually they remembered him.

  Eve pointed her finger at him. “You are going to have to go right down there and admit to your grandmother that you lied.” Her tone perfectly imitated his the time she’d been in seventh grade and he’d found out she cheated on a test. He’d marched her right into her algebra teacher’s classroom and forced her to admit that she’d lied and cheated. It had worked, since she’d never done it again.

  Unfortunately, he was afraid he was about to get a taste of his own medicine.

  “No, he’s not.” Eden turned and faced him. “Grandmother is in...” She paused. “What do we call her? Grandmother?”

  “Gram,” he said without looking up.

  Eden narrowed her eyes, like she was going to give it to him again, but just nodded and continued. “Gram is in the hospital. If we get there before she dies, we don’t want her last thought of Ben to be that he lied to her all these years.”

  Eve tapped a finger on her chin. “I can see your point. He hasn’t seen his brothers for years, either. It really wouldn’t look good to have him show up and be thought a liar first thing.” She glared at Ben. “It’s not like he normally lies.”

  “I can’t remember him ever lying to us. Not even about Santa Claus.”

  Ben gave a little laugh at that. It was true. He’d never lied to the girls. About anything. He was happy about that now. They’d cover for him when he showed up at the hospital without a wife; he could just say she was at home and couldn’t get off work. The twins would understand. He’d have to practice because lying wasn’t natural to him, but he could do it.

  “So we have to find him a wife.”

  “And fast.”

  “Whoa.” Ben’s head jerked up. “Wait. No. We don’t just ‘find wives’ in a few hours. I’ve lived thirty-four years and haven’t found anyone I want to be shackled to for the rest of my life.” Because it really would be for the rest of his life. He’d lived through divorce and adultery and betrayal. It hurt. He wasn’t putting his own kids through that. Not for anything.

  He wasn’t going through it again, either.

  “You should have thought of that when you decided it was a good idea to lie in the first place,” Eve said in her Imitation Ben Parenting tone.

  Ben stood. “Okay, you guys are funny. Ha ha. I’ll figure out something. In the meantime...”

  “Just wait,” Eden said with such authority that he actually stopped and waited. She glanced at her sister who gave a small nod. “If you want our cooperation, you’ll need to find a wife.”

  “Maybe you didn’t understand. Gram is in the hospital. She’s critical. I don’t have time to go wife shopping, even if there were a place where such a thing were for sale.”

  “Ben.” Eden laid a hand on his arm. “You’re smart.” She paused. “For a man.” He rolled his eyes. Why was it always boys against girls? “You can figure this out.”

  His mind went completely blank. Figure this out? What in the world?

  He blinked at them, feeling like he’d stepped into a different degree of reality. Not an uncommon feeling since he’d stepped into the parenting role when their mother died. He ran a hand through his hair. “I guess you give me too much credit. I have no idea what you two are talking about.” Women. They did this to him all the time. Most of the time, he knew he was right and ignored them. This time, since he’d been the one to lie to begin with, he wasn’t sure where the line was.

  Eve laughed. She put her hand on his other arm. “Think about it, Ben. We know a woman who wants something from you so bad, she’d pretend to be your wife in order to get it.”

  Ben shook his head. He didn’t know any woman who wanted...

  Her image popped into his head. Riley. His heart slammed against his ribs like an unsecured load at a stop sign.

  He closed his eyes. The knot in his stomach that had burned since he’d gotten Cassidy’s call loosened. His lips actually turned up.

  “Oh, he’s liking the idea.”

  He couldn’t argue with them, but he didn’t want them to see him capitulate too easily. They might suspect the truth that lay buried in his soul.

  He threw out the first thing that came to mind. “That means I would have to move to Pennsylvania.” He’d have to take the job. There really wasn’t any part of him that was disappointed about that. It didn’t matter how badly she’
d humiliated him. Didn’t matter that she’d paraded her “daddy-approved” boyfriend down the walk in front of him. Didn’t matter that she’d said he’d never be good enough. There would only ever be one woman his soul burned for.

  “We’ll move with you.”

  He narrowed his eyes at them, not totally ignorant of their tricks. “You two have been talking about this.”

  Eve grinned. “We have. We actually didn’t have any friends with us tonight.”

  “It was just us two having a powwow about how to get you to accept Riley’s offer.”

  “You want to move to Pennsylvania?” he asked. The thought had never entered his mind.

  They eyed each other and looked down. “Not exactly.”

  “Spit it,” he said, wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders. It hadn’t been easy raising them, but it was easy loving them.

  “We wanted you to give Riley a chance.”

  His smile slipped. They didn’t know the history between him and Riley. It wasn’t really about him giving her a chance. She’d been clear what she wanted, and she’d never indicated her feelings had changed. How could they? She’d been his boss.

  Wicked thoughts flew through his mind. A chance. Right. He hid his evil grin.

  This would be a way to get back at her. Not that he’d ever been into revenge, but hey... She had thought she was so much better than he was. It would serve her right to have to marry him in order to turn her daddy’s shop around and get her corner office promotion.

  Could he do that? Could he really stand in front of her and insist that she’d have to marry him to get his help?

  Riley could turn him down flat. Marriage was a huge step. She might agree to pretend to be married...but that wouldn’t satisfy him. No. It would be too easy for her to walk away. If they didn’t have the history between them, he might be okay with a flat exchange—a pretend marriage that was mutually beneficial. But he had an ax to grind, and if he were going to help her, she needed to double pay to cover for what she’d done.

  Yeah. A real marriage—one that could be annulled when he moved away from Pennsylvania to start his own business—or no deal. That way she’d be tied to him, humbled. She’d said he wasn’t good enough, and her dad had been standing right beside her. It would be sweet revenge to see her dad’s face when he found out that his precious daughter had lowered herself to marry him.

  He didn’t exactly like the idea that marrying him was a punishment, but he did enjoy the irony of the whole situation.

  And he had the twins’ support. It was hard to resist his evil nature.

  The biggest drawback was that the reason he’d lied in the first place was because he didn’t want to be like his dad, going from woman to woman to woman. He wanted to be seen as steady and dependable. Moral. This would shoot that in the foot.

  But he didn’t know what his family was like. If they were decent people, he’d just have to find the courage to tell them he’d lied. And if they weren’t, he wouldn’t even need to tell them. He’d just disappear again. They would never need to know that the whole thing had been a sham.

  He narrowed his eyes at the twins. He’d never lied to them. They’d never seen him be dishonest. He didn’t like the idea that they would see it now, but he knew they knew his character. Plus, for some reason, they were stuck on Riley. So, in a way, he could even give them what they wanted. The only thing he’d probably end up lying about would be how long Riley and he’d been married.

  “I’ll think about it,” he finally said to them. “In the meantime, plan on going to class in the morning and making whatever arrangements you can to be away for a few days. You need to go see your gram. I want to be on the way to Pennsylvania sometime after noon tomorrow.” Married to Riley or not.

  Chapter 8

  Riley dropped into her chair behind her small desk at 7:30 the next morning. She put her head down on the smooth surface. Normally she came into the office rejuvenated and ready to face the new day. Ready for the problems, because there were always problems. She loved the challenge of figuring out solutions, saving money, making people happy—because happy people worked better than unhappy people. Plus, it was just nice to be around happy people.

  But this problem...

  She reached down, without lifting her head, to dig her laptop out of her bag. In between packing up her apartment, trying to find a replacement for herself here in Maine, getting a jump on the issues in Pennsylvania, and spending more than a little time trying to figure out how to get Ben to change his mind, she’d gone over the files Audrey had given her, setting up interviews for next Monday. She couldn’t trust this all-important hire to the normal channels.

  There were more than fifty files, and they all looked like good prospects. But a person could look great on paper. It wasn’t that hard to fill up a good resume.

  Ben, he wouldn’t look half as good as some of these guys on an application, but the things that made Ben good at what he did were things that an application couldn’t show.

  How could she know if any of the applicants could relate to a working man’s problems? That they’d know how far and hard to push and when to back off and give a helping hand? That they’d go the extra mile, showing up early, staying late, inspiring devotion and loyalty as Ben did?

  It wasn’t even something that would show up in an interview. She’d just have to wait and see after they were hired. But she didn’t have time to go through a bunch of employees that weren’t exemplary. She needed someone like Ben, and she needed them today.

  She groaned. Maybe Audrey was right and she tried too hard to please her dad. She’d stop. Right after she got this promotion. If she got this promotion.

  A rap on her door startled her, and she jerked up, her hand automatically going to smooth her hair down.

  She cleared her throat and schooled her features. She had no idea who’d be coming to her office this early in the morning. It definitely wasn’t Audrey, who knocked with a gentle tap-tap.

  She opened her laptop, thinking to give the impression that she’d been working. “Come in,” she called.

  Her heart jumped into her throat when Ben walked in the door, his ball cap in his hand. He’d never come to her office without being summoned. Ever.

  She tamped down a rise of excitement. Maybe he’d decided to take her offer. It had to be the money. Triple his current salary was a lot of money to a man like Ben.

  It hadn’t been very often that she’d seen him without his hat on in the past few years. Some guys’ hats hid a bald head. Ben’s hair was full and just long enough to show a tendency to wave. His features were dark, those brown eyes unreadable. The short stubble gave him a slightly dangerous look, which should not do anything for her but caused her heart to knock against her ribs.

  His face gave nothing away.

  “You can sit down,” she said, surprised that her voice sounded almost normal.

  He stepped toward her desk. “No thanks. I’ll stand.”

  She inclined her head. “Okay.”

  He studied her, and she met his gaze, refusing to back down or be the first to speak. He’d sought her out. He could talk when he was ready. Maybe he was worried about her replacement, that they wouldn’t give him the freedom that he’d had under her. Whatever. She wasn’t going to make small talk just to put him at ease.

  The seconds ticked by, and the underlying current she always felt when Ben was anywhere near her intensified. She struggled not to squirm in her chair.

  “I’ll go to Pennsylvania.”

  Her eyes widened. She stood, her hands on her desk, leaning forward. “Really?” she squeaked. She had been expecting it, but it still shocked her, somehow. He didn’t look like a man who was giving in.

  “Yeah. It shouldn’t take more than six months to get that shop headed in the right direction.” He jerked his head slightly, and for the first time, she noticed his knuckles were white as he gripped his hat. “But I have one condition.”

  “What’s that?�
�� she asked. He could tell her he wanted her to pack six moose and a rhinoceros and take them down with her, and she’d do it.

  “While I’m there, you’ll be my wife.”

  Chapter 9

  Riley blinked.

  Her body stiffened like a hunk of meat in the freezer.

  Ben looked completely serious. He wasn’t smiling, and there didn’t seem to be a punchline.

  She’d dated.

  Not a ton, since her heart and life were her work and she hadn’t found a man who convinced her there was anything better.

  Except Ben. When they’d been together, she’d felt like she would have given up everything to be with him. But in the end, she’d given him up instead.

  But married?

  She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, picking up her pencil so her fingers had something to do. He seemed actually quite serious. “You want to marry me?”

  “Not really,” he said casually, and it felt like an insult. “But my gram is in the hospital, and my family thinks I’m married. The Coleman shop in Pennsylvania is right outside the town my family lives in. I’m not showing up down there without a wife.”

  So many questions bubbled around in her head. Why did his family think he was married? Why not tell them that he wasn’t? Was he actually married? That one seemed important to her befuddled brain.

  “You’re not married to anyone else?”

  His jaw muscles clenched, and a vein bulged in his neck. “Even an idiot like myself knows that’s illegal.”

  She hadn’t meant to insult him. Obviously he was sensitive about it, and she couldn’t blame him. Not with their history. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t understand why your family thinks you’re married.”

  He shrugged it off. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “You want to get married for real?”

  “I’m not going to tell them you’re my wife when you really aren’t.”

  His jaw set in a stubborn line, like he expected her to challenge him. Silence descended.

  She took a breath. “We could pretend...”

  His eyes settled on her once again. “Married for real. That’s my offer. Take it or leave it.” There was a beat of silence, but before she could say anything, he added, “If you leave it, that’s fine. Consider this my two-week notice.”