However, when Henry pulled up to the new building, Kate was unprepared for what she saw. Instead of an architectural monstrosity barren of charm, as she’d described Ben’s corporate office to the planning council, there stood a charming, old-style building crafted of stone and wood, with the exception of the front corner, which was fashioned into the new Corner Cafe and faced with the same old bricks Ben had salvaged, and looking much as it had when it stood on the corner of Milstein and Giles where the new Corner Café stood. She also realized how much of Ben was in this new design. Somewhere inside she was certain she’d find at a gargoyle peeking out from some crook or cranny.
The sound of ducks quacking caught her attention. She looked to where several ducks paddled across a large pond to where two elderly ladies, sitting on a concrete bench, tossed bread into the water. The pond, which took up a sizeable portion of the block, was beautifully landscaped with duckweed and lily pads and cattails to look like a natural setting. And at the far end of the pond was a natural-looking waterfall, edged in large rocks, and another concrete bench, where a man sat hunched over a book, reading.
Anxious to see what Ben had done inside the building, Kate hopped out of the car and went in. What first caught her attention were the boisterous sounds of elderly laughter, and in a room that duplicated the inside of the Corner Cafe as it had been for over fifty years. Ben, being Ben, had salvaged, refurbished and set up the old bar, complete with a gargoyle peering down from atop. He’d also installed the embossed metal ceiling tiles, the elaborate moldings, the fine old wainscot, and the original oak flooring. Even the old tables and chairs had been reupholstered with similar covering, and were positioned as they’d been before.
Henry rested his hand on the back of Kate's neck. “Make no mistake,” he said to her, “Ben did it for you. He also pulled strings at City Hall to get tax deferrals for the people in the surrounding area so they wouldn't be burdened with high taxes.”
All at once it came to Kate, the extent to which Ben had gone to make things right, and she didn’t want to waste another minute away from him. Looking anxiously at Henry, she said, “Please take me home. I want to go see Ben, if I can find him.”
Henry smiled. “He’s probably hiding out at Cooper’s Landing. That’s where he spends most of his time. If he’s not there, just wait around and he’ll be back.”
***
Ben paced the confines of his office. He had a business to run, but all he could think of was Kate. How perfectly her body fit his when he held her. How her eyes twinkled when she’d hit him with a clever comeback. How she'd looked in her Sealskin suit, Eve in the Garden of Eden, untouched and tempting him with her presence. And like Adam, he burned to possess her body and soul. And she'd simply walked out of his life.
It had been well over a week since Rose sent the letter, enough time for it to reach France and for Kate to reply, and still nothing. Not a postcard. Not a phone call, at least not to him. She’d sent dozens of letters and postcards to Rose and Gramps over the months she'd been away.
The picturesque countryside inspired her. The quaint villages heightened her creativity. The French professor commended her work. Life was grand. Wonderful. Perfect. She could stay forever…
Maybe she would, he thought. There seemed nothing for her to come back to.
Slapping the papers he should be reviewing on his desk, he did what he usually did when Kate dominated his mind. He headed for Cooper’s Landing. Thirty minutes later he pulled up to the cooperage and was surprised to find a car parked in front, and baffled as to who would be there today. It was Sunday. No workmen were expected. Then he looked at the car more closely. And stared in disbelief. Certainly it couldn’t be. It was too soon. Still another month to go. But there was no mistaking the gray Honda with the small dent in its front fender.
“Katie,” her name slipped from his lips like a soft caress. He jumped out of his truck and rushed into the cooperage, then dashed from room to room. Finding no one there, he ran outside, raced around the building and stood on a rise, scanning the surroundings.
And then he saw her, across the meadow, sitting at her easel, with her felt hat and her paint box and her palette and brushes, nibbling absently on her bottom lip, as if she’d never left. Her hat had slipped back and was suspended by the cord across her neck, and in the ocher light from the low-lying sun, her profile was edged in gold. He started walking toward her.
She turned, and when she saw him, she slowly rose. For a few moments she just watched him closing the distance between them. Then she yanked off her hat, threw down her brushes and rushed across the glade toward him. He ran to meet her and caught her up in his arms and held her as if he were holding onto his very life. Then he realized she was his life, his love, his reason for being. Holding her tight, he whispered against the top of her head, “Do you have any idea how many times I almost went after you?”
Kate nuzzled his neck. “You wouldn’t have known where to find me," she said in a muffled tone, "Grandma promised not to tell.”
Ben tucked a finger under her chin and tipped her head back so he could look into her eyes, and said, “Honey, I could have found you, you know that.”
Kate gazed at him steadily. “Then why didn’t you come? I hated it there. I hated being away from you. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t paint. It was like my eyes were closed to the world around me. I saw nothing but you. Everywhere I looked, I saw you. Sometimes it would be a man taller than the rest, then I'd see it was just some Frenchman. Or I'd see a crowd of tourists and be certain you were the tall, dark-haired man among them, only to be disappointed."
Ben looked at her, puzzled. "Then why didn't you come home?"
Kate looked up at him, wide-eyed, and replied, "I wanted to know that you loved me enough to come after me."
As soon as she'd said the words, Ben understood. He cradled her face in his hands and said, "Honey, if this is a test about putting you before my business, all you would have had to do was pick up the phone and call me. I would've been on the next flight out. I love you, sweetheart. You are first and foremost in my life. Above anything else. Just don't make me have to prove myself for the rest of our lives. You have to have faith in me."
Kate batted her eyes several times and gave him a contrite smile. "I do, now. And that did sound selfish and self-centered of me, not to mention impractical, expecting you to leave your business and everything else and buy a ticket to France, just to prove yourself. I'm sorry, honey, but you know how emotional I am. But I'll try to do better in the future."
Ben brushed her cheek with his finger. "I fell in love with a woman with a big heart, and if being overly emotional comes with the package, that's what I want. But just for the record… What if I had come? What then? Was I supposed to drag you back to Portland and throw you across the bed I made for you, and make a dishonest woman of you to prove my love?"
A glint of playfulness came into her eyes. "That would've been a start," she said. "But I wouldn't have waited to return to Portland for you to make a dishonest woman of me. In fact I'm ready for some spice in my life right now, the kind only you can add."
Ben smiled. But before jumping her beautiful body, he said, "You said you needed time before making a lifelong commitment, so I decided to give you that time.”
Kate clasped her hands behind his neck. Looking up at him with a touch of irritation, she said, “It’s been five months, Ben. How much time did you intend to give me?”
“Honey, I feel like I’m in trouble again," Ben said. "What do I need to do?"
Kate pursed her lips. “You need to kiss me, Ben. That’s what you need to do.”
A wide grin spread across his face. "That's the first thing you've said so far that I understand." But before he could make good on that, she dragged his face down to hers and kissed him soundly. And he returned the kiss with all the love that had been smoldering in his heart for five long months. When finally their lips parted, he took her by the hand and said, “Come here, I want to
show you something.” He led her across the glade toward the river. When they started down the ramp leading to the dock, Kate’s lips parted, and she stared in shocked surprise at the new boat bobbing in the water. Across its stern were the words, My Katie.
“When did you buy it?” she asked, sliding her arm behind his waist.
Ben cuddled her against him and said, soberly, “Not long after you left for Paris.”
Kate's brows drew together in a puzzled frown. “But I don’t understand. You were that sure I’d come back to you?” She looked up at him and waited for his response.
Ben shrugged. “I was sure I wanted you to be a part of my life, even if it was only your name on my boat." He peered into her eyes. “Honey, you’ve never left me. You’ve been right here—" he placed his fist over his heart “—all the time you were gone. But what I really want to know is, what made you decide to leave Paris a month early?”
Kate looked up at him, and said, “Your letter.”
Ben stared at her. “That’s it?”
Kate nodded. “That, and the fact that I was a fool to walk away from you in the first place. Like you said, I should have had more faith in you. And I will from now on.”
“Does that mean you’ll marry me?”
Kate curved her arms around his neck. “Of course," she said. "The sooner the better. A courthouse wedding next week if you’d like."
Ben kissed her soundly, and replied, "Yes, I'd like. But why such a rush—not that I'm complaining; I'm all for it. I was just curious."
Kate returned his kiss. "Because I don't want any other woman claiming my bed.”
Ben laughed heartily. "There's not much chance of that," he said. "I carved our names on the headboard. It could be a turn off for any other woman."
"You did that?" She stared at him, eyes sparkling with happiness.
"Katie, my love, our names are all over my place. On one of the ceiling joists, on a couple of gargoyles, along the top rail of the futon. Actually, I inscribed a little message there one night when I was especially lonely."
"Which says?" She looked at him a waited for his response.
"Ben Stassen's life began with Katie."
"Oh, that's so sweet," Kate said. "I can hardly wait to see it." She kissed his chin and made her way down his neck, then stopped long enough to add, “By the way, I love your new building. You’re totally and completely forgiven.”
Ben blinked several times, trying to stay on track. “I am?”
Kate nuzzled his neck. “Of course."
Her lips against the hollow of his throat fogged his mind to everything around him but the myriad of sensations coursing through his body and converging on one particular part of him, which was on full alert. Her fingers went to the top button of his shirt. "And now that you're finished building your corporate office, what about my subdivision?" she asked, releasing the top few buttons. She shoved the shirt aside and placed a trail of kisses down his chest. "How long until you put it in?”
Trying to bring her words into focus, he said, "I can umm… put it in whenever you're ready." He looked at her, baffled. "But maybe not out here in the open."
She chuckled. "Never mind, honey. I can see the subdivision's not on your mind." She raised mischievous eyes to meet his and said, “Is the water in the cask hot?”
Ben's mouth spread in a wide grin. "Do you have something special in mind?”
“Absolutely," Kate said. "I want to discuss my new subdivision there.”
Ben chucked her under the chin and winked. “Did you bring your Sealskin?”
Kate grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “Of course not.”
"Good," Ben said. "I've got some ideas I want to run past you."
Kate smiled seductively. "And I have a few ideas of my own, Mr. Spider, if you'll come with me to my parlor…" she took his hand and led him toward the cooperage.
EPILOG
9 months later
Kate looked anxiously at the clock over the kitchen sink as she maneuvered her unwieldy body around and between the collection of eclectic items that Ben had dragged in from several condemned buildings around the area: a church pew, an old copper weather vane, several oversized balusters. She had no idea how Ben planned to incorporate them into their house, but she entrusted the task to his ingenuity. As for the old caboose he'd had hauled in the week before, he planned to connect it to the house with a covered walkway and fix it up as an art studio for her, and she had complete faith in his ability to do so.
Ben looked at his watch. “You’d better get on over here, honey,” he said. “It should be coming on any minute now. I hope Ernie and Linda get back I time. One of these days I'll have to mark the trails so they don't keep getting lost on their woods walks.”
"Little wooden signs would be nice," Kate said, as she waddled into the living room and over to where Ben sat on the futon. She lifted the gray cat off his lap. “Sorry, Chloe, but he was mine before he was yours,” she said, sending Chloe on her way. She settled onto Ben’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and cuddled up to him. She caught her breath as a sharp pain reminded her that time might be running out. She’d mention it to Ben later, if it kept up.
Ben bent over her prominent belly. "Sorry you won't be able to see Mommy and Daddy on TV, Rosie," he said to his unborn daughter, "but you can listen."
Kate glanced over Ben's head at the inscription on the top rail of the futon. To his original message, Ben Stassen's life began with Katie, he'd added, and Rosie Stassen's life began in a hot tub. "And speaking of Rosie," she said, "some day when she can read, you're the one who's going to have to explain to her that all babies aren't delivered by the stork, that some are fished out of a hot tub. Do you really think she'll buy that?"
Ben chuckled. "Sure. But by then who knows where her brothers and sisters might have come from. I hope at least one of them comes from a tangle of roots. I've been itching to write something on the big root that curves along the top of our headboard, but everything I come up with is X-rated. But we're still not absolutely sure Rosie started in the hot tub. It could have happened on the My Katie. You got a bit… uh… carried away there after our hot tub session that afternoon, if you recall."
Kate threaded her fingers through his hair. It was so thick and wavy, and just long enough to slip through her fingers. "Yes, I recall," she said, twisting a lock of hair around her forefinger. "But unless memory fails me, you were the one who suggested we streak from the hot tub to the boat. I only finished the job you started."
"I started! You chased me, buck naked, from the cooperage to the boat! I have to admit though, I didn't give you much of a fight when you finally caught me."
"Give me much of a fight!? Hah! You were like an octopus with eight hands. They were everywhere, not that I'm complaining. I just want to set the record straight."
Ben chuckled. "Yeah, well, you had a lot of places that needed serious attention. I was just trying to be accommodating. You were also the one who suggested we streak back to the hot tub afterwards. I'd say we were about evenly matched as to who was the most eager that time. All I know is, we never finished our discussion about your subdivision."
"I know," Kate said dreamily. "But you made up for it in other ways. Like you said, you get your best ideas while sitting in that hot tub, and what you came up with that third time around was pure ecstasy. You were magnificent. And accommodating. Splendid really. And very thorough. You were so, umm, enthusiastic, those little sperm didn't have far to go to find their soul mates. I'd say Rosie's life definitely began in the hot tub."
"Anytime you want, we can do it that way again," Ben whispered into her ear. "Right after the show if you want. The water in the tank is hot."
Kate giggled. "That sounds glorious," she said. Just thinking about the large wooden tank he'd fixed up outside as a hot tub made her blush. She'd lost track of how many times they'd raced out there in the raw, under cover of darkness, for a quickie, chancing not being caught in the headlights by an unexpected vi
sitor. But she adored making love to Ben in their weightless watery world under a canopy of stars, to the accompaniment of owls and tree frogs.
"We might want to wait until Ernie and Linda have left though," Ben said.
"Good idea." Feeling another pain, Kate gave a little groan and placed her hands firmly over Ben’s, which were resting on her tummy.
“I felt that!" Ben said. "Now you cool it, Rosie, and let Mommy enjoy the show.”
The front door swept open and Linda rushed through, followed close behind by Ernie. "We got turned around in the woods," Linda said. "I hope we didn't miss it." She sat on the futon beside Kate, and Ernie lowered himself into a chair adjacent to the futon.
"You're in time by about fifteen seconds." Ben checked his watch again, and using his finger as a ticker, said, “Five... four... three... two... one... here we go...”
On the TV a scene unfolded: a man and a woman swam together from opposite ends of the pool, while a voice-over said, “It all started with two pairs of Stassen DolFins..." The man and woman circled like a pair of dolphins and came together, then the man turned the woman so her back was to his chest, and they started gliding through the water in a series of elongated figure eights. They dipped below the surface, and the scene continued underwater where, in one fluid movement, the woman turned and curved her arms around the man and he pressed his lips to hers as they moved together through the water, twisting and twirling until they spiraled to the surface, their lips still clinging... then came the moment when they stared in wonder at each other...
The camera panned to Kate and Ben, who were sitting by the pool. Ben took Kate's hand in his, looked into the camera, and said, “I'm Ben Stassen, owner of Stassen Sports Gear…"
Kate picked up from there… "And I'm Kate Stassen, and we invite you to strap on your DolFins and take the plunge. Who knows where they might take you...” The camera moved in slowly as Kate lifted her left hand with its sparkling diamond on her ring finger, smiled knowingly at the camera, and winked…
Adversaries and Lovers Page 17