What It Takes: A Kowalski Reunion Novel

by Shannon Stacey

  “Hey.” Ben tipped her chin up so she was looking into his eyes. “New plan. You told me you’ve been thinking about this. Just show me what you saw when you closed your eyes and imagined us together.”

  It was easier to close her eyes now, and she ran her hands over his shoulders. Down his arms. Then she touched his chest, skimming her fingers through the dusting of hair across his skin. Her thumbs brushed over his nipples and he sucked in a sharp breath, so she opened her eyes. She wanted to see his face.

  His skin was slightly flushed, like the tips of his ears, and he looked like a man who was fighting for self-control. It emboldened her and she slid her hands down his abs until her fingers felt the crinkle of hair again. Then she ran her palms over his hips and around to cup his butt.

  Ben was trembling slightly, but he only watched her as she explored his body. His back muscles twitched under her touch, and she loved the way he sucked in his breath any time her hands slid below his waist.

  “You feel amazing,” she whispered. “And I thought about you touching me, too.”

  With a groan, he dropped his mouth to hers as he cupped her breast in one hand. He kissed her, his tongue dipping between her lips as she opened her mouth to him. Then he explored her body as thoroughly as she’d explored his, touching her everywhere and finding the spots that made her tremble. Behind her knees. The small of her back.

  But like her, he deliberately avoided the one spot that ached for him.

  When she couldn’t take it anymore, she reached down and closed her hand around his erection. Ben’s breath left him in a long, shuddering sigh as he went totally still. She stroked the hard length of him and watched his jaw clenching and unclenching.

  “Maybe we should talk about the groceries some more or this is going to be over soon,” he said, his voice tight.

  She’d never been with a man who had a sense of humor during sex, and it just made her want him more. And because he made her feel sexy, she wasn’t shy about telling him so. “I want you now, Ben. Please.”

  When he moved away for a moment, she felt a pang of doubt, until she realized he was getting a condom from his nightstand. She watched him put it on before realizing that might make him feel self-conscious, but he gave her a sizzling look before covering her body with his own.

  She opened her thighs, raising her hips as he guided himself into her. Slowly, almost gently at first, until the delicious sensation of being filled wrung a sigh that was almost a moan from her. His mouth stifled the startled cry of pleasure when he pushed fully into her, and she buried her fingers in his hair to hold him close.

  He kissed her as he moved his hips, slowly at first, but with increasing urgency. Then he lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “I wanted to take my time with you. I wanted to touch you more. Taste you. But I can’t...you feel so good, Laney.”

  She didn’t want to think about a next time—she wasn’t even sure there would be a next time—so she wrapped her legs around his hips and urged him to move faster.

  When he obliged, thrusting into her hard enough to make the bed rock, she felt the orgasm building and she put her hands on his shoulders. Her fingers pressed into the firm muscles and she moaned as she surrendered to the waves of pleasure.

  Ben’s hips moved faster and then his body shuddered under her touch as his orgasm hit. He groaned and kissed her hard on the mouth before slowly lowering himself on top of her.

  Laney trailed her fingertips lightly over his back, and he twitched before making a satisfied moaning sound against her chest. She wasn’t sure how long they lay there, but slowly their breathing returned to normal and she felt the relaxation that came from being utterly satisfied seeping in.

  He rolled to his side, probably to dispose of the condom, and then he wrapped his body around hers, kissing her shoulder. “I could stay here all day.”

  “Me, too.” But she couldn’t and she felt anxious suddenly, unsure of how to go about the leaving part. “But I really should go.”

  “Mmm.” He nuzzled her neck. “Five more minutes.”

  “I have groceries in the back of the truck. I have Rosie’s groceries in the back of the truck, which is even worse.”

  “Yeah, we should probably get dressed.”

  It felt awkward, putting her clothes back on in front of him in the light of the afternoon, even though it hadn’t felt weird at all taking them off.

  It wasn’t until they were climbing into Andy’s truck that she realized the house next to the garage belonged to his parents. And there was a car in the driveway. Her cheeks felt hot and Ben must have figured out why because he chuckled.

  “They’re not home right now. They were driving into the city to visit some friends of theirs.”

  It was silly, since they were both adults, but she was relieved. She knew that Rosie knew Ben’s parents—which wasn’t a surprise in Whitford—and the last she needed was his mom calling the lodge to gossip about her.

  It wasn’t long before she was pulling up to the fire station. By some miracle, there were three empty spaces in a row, so she just pulled the truck in and put it in Park.

  Ben hesitated before getting out. “I feel like I should have asked this a long time ago, but can I have your number?”

  “Wow, my number? Next thing you know, you’ll be asking me out on a date.”

  “Hey, I went grocery shopping with you. It’s not an awesome date, but...”

  “It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a food store, so I guess it counts.” When he handed her his phone, open to a new contact page, she typed in her cell phone number.

  “Thanks,” he said. “There are times I can’t show up for things when I say I will, if I show up at all, so being able to call you or just shoot you a quick text message would be nice. And I’ll text you my number in a bit, so you’ll have it.”

  “Sounds good.” It was tempting to kiss him again, but she was afraid if she did, it would lead to making out in the cab of Andy’s truck. One, it was Andy’s truck and, two, they were in public. And she wasn’t sure how long ice lasted in a cooler in the back of a pickup in July. “I’ll see you soon.”

  “I hope so.”

  After he got out and walked around the front of the truck, she gave him a wave and then put the truck in gear. It wasn’t until she’d gotten through town and was on the road back to the lodge that she allowed herself to really think about what she’d done.

  She didn’t regret the sex. It had been amazing and she wasn’t going to let herself be sorry it happened. But the cell phone number exchange. The hope to see her soon. That was going to cost her some sleep.

  Ben wanted more than she could give him. He’d made it sound otherwise—that he’d only give her what she wanted—but she knew he wanted a family. A wife. Laney had wanted to surrender to some pleasure with the man she couldn’t stop thinking about. But the last thing she wanted right now was a husband. Or to hurt him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sean

  Sean happened to be sitting in a rocker on the front porch of the lodge late Friday afternoon, talking to Andy about old tractors, when a car with New Hampshire plates pulled up the driveway.

  “That’ll be the kids,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. Andy stood, too, and they walked down to where the car rolled to a stop. They hadn’t even reached the edge of the drive when a car with Massachusetts plates pulled up behind it.

  Nick, Lauren’s son and Sean’s step-nephew—not that they added that step as a rule—got out of the second car. “Hey, how’s that for timing?”

  Sean laughed. “There’s no way you left from Mass and these guys from New Hampshire and got here at the same time.”

  “I was at my dad’s and they sent me a text when they were almost to town. That would have been cool, though. We could have used the GPS apps to try to time i
t exactly.”

  “Maybe next time.” Sean leaned down to look in the passenger window of the first car. Stephanie, Terry and Evan’s daughter, was riding shotgun. Joey, Mike and Lisa’s oldest was driving and his brother, Danny, was in the backseat. “How was the trip?”

  “Good,” Stephanie said. “We solved a bunch of Danny’s plot problems for him.”

  Danny was working on his novel while attending college, since he was destined to be a writer like his uncle Joe. Sean peered into the backseat. “Maybe you should go on road trips more often.”

  Danny rolled his eyes. “Aliens kidnapping my protagonist and giving him an anal probe didn’t really solve any of my plot problems.”

  “Oh, you write science fiction?”

  “No.”

  Joey and Stephanie were laughing, so Sean just chuckled and slapped the side of the car door. “You can drive out back to unload your stuff, but not very far. And don’t run over any of the kids. Then you’ll have to bring your cars back out here and park them on the lawn somewhere.”

  They waved to Andy and then Joey put the car in gear and drove toward the camping area. Nick got back in his car and followed. His dad, stepmother and younger siblings lived in Whitford, though he’d moved to Brookline with his mom and Ryan. He spent a lot of time driving back and forth between the states, plus he made a few trips to New Hampshire each summer to visit that half of the family since he’d developed friendships with those kids. And he’d chosen to camp out at the lodge instead of making the short drive back to his dad’s each night.

  “I’ll go let Rosie know they’re here,” Andy said. “She was rocking Jackson last I knew, trying to get him to nap for a little while. Last time she did that, she fell asleep and Jackson sat quietly on her lap and unraveled the entire scarf she’d been knitting. I swear, that woman has the patience of a saint. She just wound it all back into a ball and started over.”

  “She had a lot of practice being patient with brats,” Sean said, chuckling. “I’m going to go out back and watch them try to put up their tents. Should be funny.”

  By the time he reached the camping area, the kids were done running the gauntlet of hello hugs and kisses and were emptying the contents of their trunks onto the area of grass Rosie had saved for the tents.

  “Wouldn’t it make more sense to put the tents up first and then unload from the cars into the tents?” Sean asked. “That way you’re only moving the stuff once?”

  “We put the tents in first, so they’re on the bottom,” Joey said, and judging by the look he gave his brother, Danny had been the one who packed the trunk.

  “Steph!”

  Sean turned to see his son running as fast as he could toward his cousin. Johnny loved Stephanie and the feeling was mutual. Even when Sean and Emma weren’t paying her to babysit, she’d drive out to their place just to hang out with him. Her visits were a little more scarce now that she was working and going to college, which just made the times Johnny did get to spend with her all the more special.

  Steph caught him when he launched himself at her, and then grimaced. He was getting heavy. “Hey, squirt. Did you save me any s’mores?”

  “Nope.” He held out his hands. “We ate them all!”

  Sean laughed at Steph’s expression. “We did save you some marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham crackers, kid.”

  “Okay, let’s do this,” Nick said, looking at the three tent packages on the ground. They still had the tags on them.

  “Do any of you even know how to set up a tent?”

  “I watched some YouTube videos,” Steph said. “The ones they had didn’t look exactly like these, but it’s just poles and...whatever tents are made of.”

  “I hope the directions explain why we have two roofs,” Danny said, scowling at the picture on the packaging of one of them.

  Sean didn’t bother to tell him what the fly was for. He’d figure it out. The two brothers had a bigger, slightly fancier tent, while Nick and Stephanie had each opted for the basic pop-up dome tent. The rest of their supplies seemed to consist mainly of blankets, pillows and extension cords.

  “Hey, new arrivals.”

  Sean turned at the sound of Laney’s voice and found her looking at the piles of belongings. “Hey, Laney. This is Joey, Danny, Stephanie and Nick. Guys, this is Laney and she’s the boss.”

  He pointed to each of them as he named them, and she gave them a group wave. “I’m more like an underboss. Everybody answers to Rosie.”

  “Do you know how to put up tents?” Danny asked her.

  Sean shook his head and she must have caught it out of the corner of her eye, because she shrugged. “Nope. Sorry. I bet you’ll figure it out, though.”

  When she moved over to where he was standing, Sean leaned close so he could keep his voice low. “Watching them put up tents is going to be the best entertainment we’ve had all week. We might have to make some popcorn.”

  “What do you think the chances are they’ll give up and beg rooms from Rosie?”

  “I think if they end up in rooms, it’ll be because they’re uncomfortable in the tents. But they’re all stubborn enough so they’ll get them up. Especially if we’re heckling them.”

  “It’s good that they were all able to get the long weekend off and come over.”

  Sean laughed. “What Mary and Rosie want to happen usually happens. But, yeah, they all work for good people. They can’t have the entire two weeks off, but one weekend with everybody together is good enough.”

  “Tomorrow will be crazy,” she said.

  “That it will.” Tomorrow they’d be having the big barbecue with not only the entire family, but there had been an open invitation to friends. Once it was dark, they’d be having a small fireworks show for the kids, and then it would be campfire time.

  “You are not even going to believe how much food will be cooked tomorrow,” he added. When she smiled, but didn’t say anything, he realized that no matter how often they dragged Laney over to eat with them, she wasn’t the kind of person to assume she was always invited. “You know you’re joining us, right?”

  She laughed. “I am?”

  “You don’t have to, of course, but I think you already know what’ll happen if Rosie or Aunt Mary finds out you’re not eating with us.”

  “I spent some time with Rosie and Mary making lists and figuring out who was making or bringing what. Rosie might have mentioned that I’ll be joining in on the food and fun, not just helping out.”

  Sean spotted Emma walking toward them and he lifted his arm so she could slide up next to him and loop her arm around his waist. He squeezed her shoulders. “Did you come to watch the tent debacle?”

  “Don’t you think you should distract Johnny so he’ll leave Steph alone for two minutes?”

  “Nope.” He laughed. “It’s more fun watching him help her.”

  When Johnny took the instruction pamphlet for Steph’s tent and ran off toward the campers, Sean laughed. But Steph was getting frazzled, so he took pity on his young cousin and went after his son.

  “Run faster,” Emma called after him. “He likes to flush papers down toilets.”

  * * *

  Laney wasn’t sure they could fit any more people on the Northern Star property if they had to. It seemed as if everybody in town was there, including a lot of people she hadn’t met. When Rosie had told her it would be a big barbecue, she hadn’t been exaggerating.

  But there were enough people she did know so that there was always somebody nearby to talk to, including Nola, who was wandering around somewhere. The only people notably missing were Ben, Drew and Matt. She’d seen Matt’s wife, Hailey, with their daughter and Bear, and obviously Liz and Jackson were there. The paramedic, police chief, and game warden all being gone meant there was a problem somewhere.

  “
You look worried,” Josh said, and Laney turned. She hadn’t even known he was standing there.

  “Not worried. I was just noticing the three people I expected to be here and aren’t are people who respond to emergencies.”

  “Yeah, they are. A woman rolled her four-wheeler on a rocky hill and they think her hip is broken. And she couldn’t have been any further from a decent extraction point if she’d tried on purpose. It’s a slow, painful ride out in the basket for her. Last I knew, they were bringing an ambulance in as close as they could get, which is about four or five miles, and then the ambulance would get her to a helicopter.”

  “I...” She stopped, not sure what she could say. “That sounds awful.”

  “It is. Accidents happen, unfortunately. But she was wearing a helmet, so at least they can fix her up. And because we have Ben, she doesn’t have to make that trip out without something to help with the worst of the pain.” She must not have looked convinced because after a short pause, he kept talking. “Everything we do in life has risks. Driving a car. You can go sledding in the backyard and run into a tree. With four-wheelers and snowmobiles, you need to be taught well, wear safety gear and know your limits. I think because you and Ben are friends or whatever, you’re focused more on the few accidents and not the thousands of people safely enjoying the sport.”

  Friends or whatever. “Maybe you’re right. I’ve gotten to know your family pretty well, and I know they wouldn’t take their kids out on them if they weren’t pretty sure they’d be safe.”

  “As sure as it’s possible to be.” He handed her a brownie, which she took even though she’d just eaten more deviled eggs than she cared to think about. “That has walnuts in it, so if you have a nut allergy, don’t eat it. Dave and Ben are both out in the woods somewhere.”

  She laughed. “No allergies. And thanks.”

  “No problem. I need to get this one to Katie. She’s having a chocolate craving.”