by Holly Rayner
“Maia!” Caroline exclaimed. “Just what have you two been up to? You’ve really seen him in the buff?”
“No.” Maia giggled. “Just shirtless, after his morning workouts. It’s absolutely incredible.” She sighed. “The best part of my day. Okay… one of them. The evenings are pretty special, too. Oh wow—I am getting way too used to living there with him. It’s going to be hard to leave.”
“So tell him how you feel,” Caroline said. “Just put it out there. Believe me, he’s going to be thrilled. Based on what I’m hearing about all this late-night canoodling that you two are doing, he’s just as infatuated with you as you are with him.”
Maia opened her mouth to protest, but Caroline cut her off. “Don’t even try to tell me that ‘infatuated’ is the wrong word. You’ve got that glow, Maia. I can tell you’re head-over-heels for this guy. It’s written all over your face.”
Maia looked down at her tea. Was it that obvious? If Caroline could read her true feelings for Ben so well, did that mean he was picking up on them, too?
A server approached the table with a plate of scones. “Sorry these took so long,” she said, as she placed the fragrant baked goods down amid the china teacups. “They’re fresh out of the oven, though, so they should be nice and tasty. I gave you a few extra to make up for the wait.”
She bustled off, and Maia used a dainty silver knife to smear butter over a scone’s fluffy, steaming interior. Then she placed the knife down and said. “I can’t tell him how I feel, Caroline. This is all just temporary. In a week, Joy and I will leave, and things between me and Ben will probably just go back to normal.”
“I doubt that,” Caroline said. “Relationships usually don’t work like that. Once you get close to someone—you know, intimate, like you and Ben are getting—how could you go back to being distant?”
Maia didn’t have an answer for that.
Colby and Joy, attracted by the smell of the scones, clamored back up onto their chairs.
While Maia pulled apart scones for the children, Caroline said, “Maia, if you let this opportunity pass, you’re going to regret it. Maybe he’s waiting for you to make a move.”
“I’m not going to make the first move,” Maia said, shaking her head. “No way. Because what then? It would only make things more confusing than they already are.”
“We movin’?” Joy asked. She reached out for a piece of scone, but Maia slid the plate back. “We have to let it cool,” she told her daughter. Then she said, “No, sweetie, no one is moving.”
“You said move!” Joy insisted.
“I know,” Maia said. “Caroline and I were talking about some big-girl stuff. I was just telling Caroline that you and I are going to be back at the apartment next week. Won’t that be fun?”
Joy frowned. “I like Mr. Bry.”
Caroline grinned. “So does your mommy,” she said.
Maia shot Caroline a please-be-quiet look. Then she turned her focus back to Joy. “Do you want butter on your scone? And how about you, Colby?”
After settling the kids in with snacks, Maia turned back to Caroline, who was pouring herself a second cup of tea from the floral-printed teapot. “Enough about me,” Maia said. “How about you? How is work at the dentist’s office going? And how about things with Chad?”
As she’d hoped, Caroline launched into a long explanation of her current work and love-life situations.
Maia was happy to have the spotlight off of her feelings for Ben. After all, like she’d just told Caroline, the whole situation was confusing.
Well, at least in another week, Joy and I will return home and everything will go back to normal.
She’d hoped that thought would be comforting, but it was not.
Chapter 10
Maia
Afternoon sunshine warmed Maia’s cheeks as she pulled Ben’s SUV over to the curb in front of his townhouse. With a press of a button, the window at her side slid upward.
It had been a treat to borrow the car for the day, so she could take the kids out for tea with Caroline and then to the park afterward. It had been the warmest day that they’d seen in the city since the fall, and Colby and Joy had delighted in running around the park without jackets, hats, or mittens.
“Feels like summertime, Mommy,” Joy noted, as Maia unclipped the seat belt attached to her car seat.
Colby kicked his legs in his seat next to Joy’s. “Gotta get out!” he said. “Gotta go see Uncle Benny!”
“Actually, Colby honey, your uncle isn’t home,” Maia said. Joy scrambled out of her seat, and Maia reached over to unclip the belt around Colby.
Colby lowered himself from the car seat. Maia had to hoist him up into her arms to help him out of the SUV and onto the sidewalk, where Joy was already standing.
“Yes, he is,” Colby insisted. He pointed toward the townhouse, but Maia did not look to where he was pointing. Instead, she busied herself with closing the SUV’s back door and then pressing the key fob to lock up the vehicle’s doors. A loud beep sounded, and Joy covered her ears.
“No, honey, he’s not,” Maia said. “He’s at a work conference today, remember? That’s why he let me take the car.”
“Uncle Benny is home!” Colby said happily. He pointed toward the townhouse again.
He must be tired, she thought. He and Joy have been playing all day. No wonder he’s not listening to me.
She shrugged off his insistence and decided to move on. “Are you guys ready for some quiet time before dinner?” she said. She held out her hands.
“Yes, Mommy!” Joy said, slipping her hand into her mother’s.
Maia wiggled the fingers of her other hand, and finally Colby caught on and grasped her hand. Together, the three of them walked up toward the house’s front door.
“What did you think of the tea party, Colby?” Maia asked.
“Fun, fun, fun!” Colby said. “I’ll tell Uncle Benny about it.”
“He might not be home until late,” Maia said. They reached the front steps.
“Nope,” Colby said.
Maia went on. “Remember, he had to go to the work conference in New Jersey and will be back very, very late, because—” She stopped short when she saw movement through a window by the door.
No. It couldn’t be. He was home? She saw Ben through the window, looking out to the front stoop, smiling and waving.
Colby broke free from Maia’s grip and ran to the stairs, hustling up them with Maia and Joy in tow. When he reached the front door, it opened.
Ben stood in the doorway.
“You’re home?” Maia said, surprised. She felt a nervous, bubbly feeling fill her body. Talking with Caroline earlier had forced her recent interactions with Ben to the front of her mind.
What’s going on between us? she wondered as she saw him. Is a relationship blossoming? Does he feel it, too?
She stayed still on the second to last step of the front stoop while Joy broke away, too, and hurried up to Ben. Joy wrapped her arms around one of his legs, while Colby hugged the other. Ben chuckled as the two kids bombarded him with news of the day.
“We saw a red bird at the park!” Colby announced.
Joy said, “Caroline and Mommy and Colby and me had a tea party!”
“Sounds like a good day,” Ben said. He looked up from the kids and met Maia’s eye. “How did everything go? Did the car drive okay?”
Maia nodded. “Ben… I thought you were supposed to be in New Jersey?”
The last time she’d seen him, early that morning, he’d been heading out of the house just as the sun was coming up over the city. He’d been wearing work clothes, and his computer bag was over his shoulder as if he was prepared for a long day of business. She’d known of the all-day conference for months. After all, she was the one in charge of his schedule.
“I decided not to go to the conference,” Ben said. “I had the driver turn around before we even made it to the turnpike. He dropped me off back here just after you all left for tea.�
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“Why?” Maia asked. As far as she knew, it was an event that Ben always attended.
Ben stepped aside, and the children ran past him into the house. “I didn’t want to miss out on an evening with…” He hesitated and met Maia’s eye. “With… Colby,” he said finally.
Maia had a strange feeling that there was more he wanted to say, but he was holding back. And with me? she wondered.
“He’s only going to be here for another week,” Ben said. “I guess I just wanted to be home.”
“I get it,” Maia said with a gentle grin. She was extremely pleased to hear that Ben wanted to be home for the evening. At the same time, she kept running over the things that Caroline had said earlier that day.
“He’s into you.”
Is he? she wondered.
She stole a look over her shoulder at Ben as she stepped into the entryway. He was closing the front door, but his eyes were on her. When she caught him looking, he quickly looked away and cleared his throat. “So, the park was good? It’s warm out today, isn’t it?”
“Very,” Maia said. There were so many things she wanted to talk about with Ben besides the weather, but she didn’t know where to start.
What’s going on between us, Ben? she wondered, for the hundredth time.
She’d been humble when conversing with Caroline. The truth was, even though she’d not dated in years, she knew that there was chemistry between her and the man before her.
But where would it lead?
She bit her lip, trying to gather her thoughts. Whenever Ben was in the room, a palpable warmth coursed through her body, and her mind had a way of wandering. As usual, she couldn’t help but let her eyes explore his handsome features. His eyes smoldered with all that was unsaid between them.
Tell me how you really feel, she pleaded silently. I don’t know if I’m going to be brave enough to be honest with you first. You have to begin.
Her breath entered and exited her lungs in shallow bursts as Ben walked toward her.
“Seventies, I heard,” he said in a low voice.
“Really? That hot?” she responded breathlessly.
He nodded. “Hey, I was thinking… about tonight…”
The breath squeezed out of Maia’s lungs. What? she thought internally. What are you thinking about tonight?
She wished that she wasn’t going to sleep in a separate room—in a separate bed—from the man who now stood so close to her. His gorgeous body and breath-taking features made her feel like she could melt into a puddle, right there in the entryway.
“Why don’t we get takeout?” Ben said.
“Hm?” She could barely focus.
He grinned at her. “Thai food… something like that. Do you like a little spice?”
“Um… spice? Sure… I’d like that.”
“And I’ll order something simple for the kids. Plus, I have plenty of ketchup for Colby to drown his food in.”
“Good… that’s good,” she said, her knees weak.
Finally, as he moved past her and toward the room beyond, where the children were playing, she felt like she could breathe again.
This can’t go on, she thought. I’m a hot mess, and I have a whole week of this to go.
I have to get it together.
She followed Ben into the great room and lowered herself onto the couch. Immediately, Joy climbed up onto her lap with a book in her hands. It was one of the many Pete the Penguin books that her Nana had sent over the years.
Joy flipped it open to a random page. “Pete is in the show to say hi to the kids,” she said, pointing to the page. “We saw it on the train, right, Mommy?”
“Train” was what Joy called the subway. Maia had to think back in her mind to figure out what Joy was referring to. Then she remembered.
“That’s right, honey, there is a Pete the Penguin show in the city. You’re so smart!”
Joy nodded. “A girl in my daycare, Savannah, is going to meet Pete tomorrow.”
Colby climbed up onto the couch and nestled in on Maia’s other side, so he could see the pages of the book, too.
Maia felt Ben’s eyes on them, from his position across the room. She wondered what he was thinking about.
Reaching her hand out, she stroked the top of Joy’s head, enjoying the feel of her silky, soft hair. “That’s really nice for Savannah, isn’t it?” she said.
A twinge of guilt tickled her stomach. Nice for Savannah’s parents, too, she thought. They can afford high-priced tickets to a show their daughter will never forget.
Joy looked up at Maia with big green eyes. “But I can’t go see Pete the Penguin, can I, Mommy?” She looked sad about this.
Maia opened her mouth to speak. She was used to having to tell her daughter no, so it felt natural to begin to craft a gentle way to break the bad news. She was about to say something like, “No, but we can read about Pete the Penguin and that’s just as fun, isn’t it?” but before she could get the statement out, Ben spoke up.
“Actually, Joy, I think I know a way that you could get to see Pete the Penguin in his show.”
“Really?” Joy said, swiveling her head to look at Ben. Her eyes lit up.
“How?” Colby asked, turning to look at his uncle too.
“Yes, how?” Maia asked. She also looked up at Ben.
His gorgeous lips broke into a smile as he tucked his hand into the pocket of his jeans. “I happened to overhear mention of this Pete the Penguin show… and I thought it sounded like a nice thing for all of us to do tomorrow.” He pulled his hand from his pocket and held up several slips of paper. As he fanned them out, Maia saw that they were four separate tickets.
Maia pinched her lips together, and tears unexpectedly filled her eyes. Luckily, as the kids bounced up off of the couch and ran over to Ben to hug him, she had a chance to wipe the tears away before anyone noticed. She didn’t want to have to explain to the children—or Ben—why she was crying.
She didn’t even know why she was crying. The tears just filled her eyes so quickly at the sight of the tickets.
Joy squealed with excitement, and Colby jumped up and down at his uncle’s feet. “Are we really going to see Pete the Penguin, for real?” he cried out happily.
“And see his big yellow feet, and hear him talk?” Joy said, with happy disbelief.
“And will he sing songs?” Colby asked.
“Yes, yes, and yes,” Ben said, with a mock-serious nod to the toddlers who were looking up at him with awe. He then looked to Maia. “That is, if Maia says it’s okay. Maybe I should have checked in to see what her plans were for tomorrow.”
“Can we go?” Joy asked, running over to Maia.
“Can we? Can we?” Colby echoed.
Maia nodded and felt more tears fill her eyes as Joy leaped onto her lap. It was so good to see pure joy on her daughter’s face.
This is what she deserves, Maia thought. Happy moments just like this.
She looked away and wiped her eyes quickly again. “Yes,” she said aloud, trying desperately to keep the deep emotions she was feeling from her voice. She didn’t want Joy to worry. “Yes, of course, we can go.” She looked between Joy and Colby as she said, “But only if you two are really good for the rest of the night, okay?”
“Okay, Mommy!” Joy said. She jumped up, eager to begin showing off her good behavior. “Colby, let’s go read. Mommy said quiet time.”
“Yes,” Maia said, relieved that her tactic was working. “A little bit of quiet time before dinner.”
Joy reached for Colby’s hand and guided the boy down to the floor, where a stack of books sat. Since she’d first learned to string words into somewhat-clunky sentences, Joy had enjoyed pretending to read from her picture books. With some of the books, she knew the story so well that when she did her pretend reading, it almost sounded as though she was deciphering the text on the page.
“Which one first?” Joy asked Colby.
Satisfied that the children would be occupied for a moment,
Maia stood up from the couch. She needed to process the emotions she was feeling. She could barely meet Ben’s eye as she escaped to a small bar area off to one side of the room.
I just need a moment to gather myself, she thought. With her back turned to the room, she reached for a glass and began filling it with filtered water from the sleek, Italian-crafted faucet.
When she heard his voice, just behind her, it was deep and gentle. “You okay?” he asked.
She quickly wiped her eyes to make sure no more tears had slipped out, before turning to face him.
“Yes,” she said, trying her best to sound normal. “Just… I don’t know, surprised, I guess.”
“About the tickets?”
Maia nodded. “I’m just not used to—I mean, it’s been a while since—” She stopped abruptly and took a breath. A knot had formed in her throat, and she felt it hard to speak. She took a breath and tried again. “It was just really nice of you, that’s all. I guess I’ve gotten used to fending for myself, and a gesture like that… it caught me off guard. Joy has never been to a show in the city. I can’t usually afford extras like that. She’s going to have an incredible time.”
“I hope so,” Ben said.
Maia bit her lip, trying desperately to keep her emotions in check. Despite her best efforts, her cheeks burned hot and she was sure that her eyes were glassy with unshed tears.
“It’s been a few years… you know? Of me, just trying my best with her. But sometimes being a single parent is hard. There have been so many times that I wanted to give her these experiences and memories, but I just couldn’t. And I’m sometimes afraid that she’s missing out.” That darn knot was back. Maia forced it down by swallowing. “You know—on the things that other families get to do. Families with two parents.”
Ben nodded. His tone was filled with understanding as he said, “Joy is a very lucky girl.”
A wet warmth alerted Maia to the fact that a tear had overflowed onto her cheek, but she was too overcome by emotion to bother with it. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, thinking of all the things she longed to give to Joy but could not. “I do my best, but—”
