Once they were home, Holly said. “It’s late. I’m going to shower and go to bed. You should do the same.”
Katie scoffed. “I’m not a baby, Mom. I know how to put myself in bed.”
“Right. What are your plans tomorrow while I’m at work?”
Her daughter shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You want to go to work with me?”
“By myself? No.” Her daughter sneered.
“You can bring a friend.”
She answered with a shrug and went to her room.
Holly rolled her eyes and went to her own room. Her cell phone had pinged with a text while she’d been driving and it was only now that she could read it.
Thanks for the lift home.
Very welcome.
You know you have to teach her to surf, right?
[Laughing emoji] I know.
Talk tomorrow?
I have to work. Nine to three.,
Dinner?
Maybe. I’ll see how the day goes.
Night
When she walked back into her room after her shower, she found her daughter sitting on her bed.
“Hey,” Holly said. “What’s up?”
“Is Ben your boyfriend?”
Wow. Way to cut to the chase.
Holly sat on her bed and scooted her back up against the headboard and crisscrossed her legs.
“So, is he?” Katie asked when Holly didn’t answer fast enough.
“Ben and I are friends.”
“But you’re dating him, right?”
“I like him and enjoy his company. We have fun doing things together. That’s it. Where’s this coming from?”
Her daughter’s gaze fell away. “I don’t remember Daddy.”
“Oh, honey.” Holly leaned forward and hugged her daughter, which surprisingly, Katie allowed. “Of course, you don’t. You were just a baby when he died.”
“Was he like Ben?”
Holly sat back. “No, not really. He had dark hair and green eyes. He laughed all the time. He loved practical jokes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
“Would I have liked him?’
“You would have loved him. He loved you so much. You always were daddy’s girl. He’d come home from work, and you would go immediately into his arms. If you cried, no one but your daddy could rock you to sleep.”
Her daughter sat there, a sad expression on her face. “Hillary says having a dad is sometimes great, but sometimes, she gets really mad at him.”
Holly smiled. “Sometimes Patrick can be a pain.” The smile dropped from her face. “Do you not think we’re doing okay? Just the two of us?”
“You’re just gone all the time. I mean, like learning to surf. I want to do that. I want to go to Disneyland. I want to learn to drive. Who’s going to do all that if you’re not here?”
Holly tamped down a pang of guilt, wondering how to address her daughter’s blue funk. “First, you’re too young to drive.”
Katie rolled her eyes.
“But seriously, honey, we can do anything you want. You have to tell me these things. I had no idea.”
“You don’t listen to me.”
Holly wasn’t sure how this conversation had moved from Ben to her not listening. She didn’t remember wanting to talk to her mother about anything, but today’s kids weren’t like her growing up.
“You can talk to me about anything, I promise, and I’ll listen. Anything.”
“Are you going to marry Ben?”
“What? No, no. We aren’t like that. We’re friends. Men and women can be friends without having to get married.”
“If you decide to get married, you’ll tell me…?”
Holly hugged her daughter. “I’ll tell you first. I promise.”
“I’m going to bed,” Katie announced and stood.
She’d made it to door before Holly said, “Katie.”
She stopped and turned around.
“You can talk to me about anything, anytime. Okay?”
Katie nodded and left.
Holly sagged against the headboard. That’d come out of left field, but she wasn’t sure why she was surprised. Ben had been to dinner a number of times at her parents’ house, and Katie knew they’d been out to dinner, too.
Still, she and Ben had tried to keep any public displays of affection, like his arm over her shoulder, out of her daughter’s sight. She’d wanted to fool her family, but hadn’t given any thought to the effect on her daughter.
She turned off her light and slid under the covers. She’d been thinking this would be her last year as summer lifeguard help. The thought of quitting had been in the back of her mind for a while. After tonight’s chat, maybe that thought needed to be moved to the front burner for serious consideration.
Chapter Nine
Katie had decided to come to the beach with Brittany, another of her school friends. Brittany’s mom had dropped the girls on the beach near Holly’s posted location. As usual, the girls pretended they had no idea who Holly was, which was fine by her and a little funny.
At close to noon, Holly saw three boys approach Katie and Brittany. Her mom radar went on alert. Like all good moms, she swung her binoculars in their direction to make sure everything was okay. She recognized Craig Butler and the rest of the boys as being from Katie’s class. They were shoving each other around and trying to impress the girls with handstands in the sand and other ridiculous feats of bravery.
And then Craig borrowed a surfboard from a group of older teens.
Holly focused on that group. She recognized Craig’s older brother as the one who’d loaned him the board.
As Craig headed toward the water, her daughter sat up and watched him with rapt fascination.
Holly watched with him with lifeguard eyes. She didn’t know if the kid knew the first thing about surfing, or if she was watching a complete Barney on his first ride. His paddling looked efficient, no wasted strokes or fumbling. Still, paddling didn’t equal riding a wave.
A quick glance at the girls told her Katie wasn’t taking her gaze off Craig.
Yeah, maybe she should’ve thought sooner about teaching Katie to surf. Heck, she should’ve started at least seven years ago. She sighed. She and Steve had surfed a lot, and for a long time, just looking at her board saddened her. A couple of years after Steve had died, she’d moved both of their boards to the attic and locked them and the memories away.
Luckily for Craig, he was paddling in an approved area for surfing at this time of the year. He got out past the rolling waves and sat up on his board. He waved to the group watching. Holly swung her glasses around in time to see Katie stand and jump up and down, waving her arms in the air.
Her baby girl definitely had her first boy crush.
Holly quickly scanned the beach and water for activity. For some odd reason, the beach wasn’t as crowded as usual, but it was still early. Seeing that everything was calm, she refocused on Craig as he waited for the right wave.
She saw a fairly benign wave building behind him. He did, too. Lying flat, he began paddling in an attempt to catch it. As the water lifted his board, he rose to his feet like a pro and rode the wave to the shore.
Not his first time. To her left, she could hear the girls clapping while the guys whistled.
Getting Katie on a board climbed high on her list.
So did resigning her job.
Last night’s conversation had kept her awake late into the night. Her daughter was maturing and Holly needed to be there for Katie. She didn’t want to look back and regret missing the teen years.
On the other hand, argh. The teen years. She personally wouldn’t relive that time for a million dollars. Well, maybe a million dollars, but she’d have to think about that.
Later, just before her shift ended, her cell phone pinged with a text. The name Ben Blackwell popped up and she smiled.
What’s on your agenda tonight?
Nothing that I know of. Just getting off work.
/>
Want to catch a movie? Maybe pizza before, then movie?
I’ll need to check with Katie and see if she has plans. I hate to leave her alone.
Especially after their conversation last night.
Invite her along.
[Laughing emoji] Last time I invited her to go to a movie with me, she said it was a gross idea. What movie?
Does it matter?
No blood and gore.
Wimp.
Yep and proud of it.
New Avatar movie. 3-D
Ohh. I loved the first one. I’ll get with the kiddo and back to you.
Later.
Katie and her friend had headed for home a couple of hours before Holly’s shift ended. Since her daughter wasn’t waiting on her, Holly took a few extra minutes to stop by the office and turn in her resignation notice. She’d been nervous that she might be leaving the lifeguard staff short, but her supervisor had taken the news with a calm acceptance and assured Holly that her position could be easily filled from the applications on file. While she was relieved the entire conversation went better than expected, she was a little nonplussed at how replaceable she was.
“You home?” Holly called from the kitchen as she entered the house. “Katie? You here?”
“Yeah. I’m in my room.”
Holly walked to her daughter’s room. “Ben asked if we wanted to go to get pizza and see a movie.”
Katie looked up from her computer and scoffed. “That is so—”
“Gross. I know. But I thought maybe you’d want to invite a friend.”
“Mom.” The girl dragged out the word for a good five seconds.
Holly held up her hands in surrender. “You don’t have to, but we’re going to see Avatar II and I know you’ve been wanting to go.”
Her eyes lit up with excitement. “Really? Avatar?”
“Yep.”
“Well, if I can get someone to go with me.”
“Let me know.”
About ten minutes later, Holly’s phone rang. Diana Long flashed onto the screen.
“Hey,” Holly said as a way of answering the phone.
“Hillary tells me that you and Ben are taking Katie and her out for pizza and a movie tonight. Is this right?”
“Well, I owe you for all the times you’ve let Katie stay at your house. In fact, let Hillary stay over. Dump the boys on mom and dad and you and Patrick can have a nice, quiet, kid-free night.”
“Hell, no. I want pizza and movie.”
Holly laughed.
“I get enough alone time with your brother,” Diana said. “I want to go out.”
“Dump the boys on mom and dad, and you and Patrick meet us for pizza and movie. What do you think?”
“I think I’ll get online as soon as we hang up and buy the tickets.”
“Be sure to reserve the girls’ seats somewhere other than by us.”
“No kidding.”
“Giovani’s for pizza?”
“Of course. What time?”
“I’ll touch base with Ben and let you know.”
The only showing with available tickets was for eight-fifteen, which worked out great since it gave them time for pizza first.
Ben was cool with meeting her brother and sister-in-law and them coming along for the movies. At Giovani’s, the girls got their own table as far away from the adults as possible. Of course, their bill arrived at the adult table. Patrick tried to pay the pizza tab, but since they’d bought all the movie tickets, Ben picked up the tab for the dinner.
At the theater, the girls’ seats were fourth row center. Diana had found four seats together for the adults on row twelve center. From where they sat, they had excellent views of the screen and their girls.
Unbelievably, Katie and Hillary shared a large popcorn and soft drinks. Holly had actually moaned at the thought of putting more food into her stomach, but Ben had handed the girls a twenty—against Holly and Diana’s insistence that he shouldn’t pay for the girls—and told them to get whatever they wanted.
“Great seats,” Ben said, leaning over Holly to speak with Patrick and Diana.
“All Diana’s doing.” Patrick said.
“Thanks, Diana.”
“No problem. Thanks for letting us horn in on your date,”
Holly opened her mouth to say it wasn’t really date, but realized that wouldn’t play into their fake-relationship-to-fool-the-family deal.
The previews for upcoming movies started. Ben draped his arm on the back of Holly’s seat.
“It’s really dark,” he whispered into her ear. “I might get scared.”
Holly snorted.
“You wanna make-out like we’re in high school?” he whispered.
This time, she giggled and elbowed him. “Don’t remind me that my baby is getting close to high school age. That makes me panic.”
“Just remember, torture her first date, and it’ll scare all the rest of the boys from asking her out.”
“If you two are gonna talk all through the movie, can you let me know now and I’ll move?” Diana said, her tone dry.
“Sorry,” Holly whispered. “We’ll be good.”
“Baby, I’m the best you’ll ever have,” Ben whispered so quietly into her ear that no one else could have heard it.
Holly was thankful for the darkness. She was sure her face flashed guilt. He was definitely good.
She rested her hand on his thigh and kept it there through the rest of the film, which was wonderful…the movie and the feel of his hard thigh under her fingers. He set his hand on top of hers and laced their fingers. Holly saw Diana look over and see them holding hands. Better for their ruse, she supposed, but damn him. He was making it hard to not like him so much.
As the credits rolled and the lights came up, she pulled her hand off his leg. However, he wouldn’t release her fingers and kept their hands interlaced.
“That was so good,” Diana said.
“I know. What special effects,” Holly answered.
“We never get to the movies,” Diana said. “Patrick and I really appreciate your letting us cut in tonight.”
“Hey, loved having you along,” Ben said. “The more, the merrier.”
The girls were standing at the exit waiting on them.
“What’d you think?” Ben asked.
“Tight,” Hillary said. “Really tight.”
“I agree. Totally sick,” Katie replied.
Ben looked at Patrick. “Do you speak teen?”
Patrick laughed. “They liked it.”
Ben chuckled. “I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be glad we brought them, or demand our money back.”
“Katie, you want to come home with us tonight?” Diana asked. “I’ll run you home in the morning.”
“Naw. I was at the beach all day and I’m tired, aren’t you, Mom? You had to work all day.”
“I am,” Holly agreed. “Thanks for the offer, Diana. Maybe next week sometime.”
“Well, Katie knows she’s welcome to our house any time. Come on, Hillary. Let’s get going.”
“Okay. Later,” Hillary said with a wave.
“Night,” Patrick said. “Let’s do this again.”
“You know it,” Ben said, shaking Patrick’s hand.
Katie climbed into the back seat of Ben’s truck. She fell asleep about ten minutes into the drive home.
“Thanks for tonight,” Holly whispered so as to not wake her daughter. “Good food. Good Movie. Great company.”
Ben looked over at her with a smile. “Especially the company.” His gaze shifted into the rear-view mirror, and then he reached over to take her hand. “I’m glad we got together tonight. There’s something I wanted to tell you and I didn’t want to send it in a text.”
Holly’s heart jumped into her throat. Had he decided to not go through with this ruse? Had he met someone else?
He squeezed her hand. “My team’s been called up. We’re headed out of country. I’m not sure how long we’ll be go
ne. Could be a week. Could be a month. We never know.”
She nodded. “That’s okay. I knew that might happen.”
“I can’t say where we’re going.”
“That’s fine. I understand. Really.”
“I’ll try to check in when I can.”
“Okay, but you don’t have to. I mean, I’d love to hear from you, but you’re under no obligations. You know that.”
After another glance to check the backseat, he pulled her fingers to his lips and kissed them.
“I know what’s obligation and what’s not. And speaking of obligations, there’s a good chance I won’t be back for Bethany and Lawrence’s couple event later this month.”
“That’s not a problem. I’m fine going alone.”
“Have any of your brothers said anymore about fixing you up on dates?”
She chuckled quietly. “Not a peep. Thank you.”
“Good.”
He pulled into their drive and stopped. Holly reached around the seat and shook Katie awake.
“We’re home, honey,” she said.
“What?” Katie said sleepily.
“Home. Let’s get you to bed.”
Ben jumped out of the truck and hurried around to open Holly’s door. “Need any help?”
“I’m sure we’re fine. Come on, Katie. Wake up.”
Ben opened Katie’s door and let her scramble to the ground.
“Night, Ben,” she said with a yawn. “Thanks for the pizza and movie.”
Katie walked to the front door and stopped, waiting for her mom to unlock it.
“Hang on a minute. I want to talk to you about something,” Ben said.
Holly held up one finger, pulled out her house keys and tossed them to Katie. “Let yourself in. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Whatever. Adults kissing is so gross.” Katie opened the door and went inside.
“Now, you were saying…” Holly waited to hear what he wanted to talk about.
What if he was falling for her? What if that’s what he wanted to tell her? What should she say? She liked him, but she still wasn’t looking for a husband.
Or what if he thought she was getting too involved? She did like him…maybe too much. What if he was sorry he’d ever started this and was concerned she was getting too involved? What would she say?
“Think Bethany will forgive me if I miss her and Lawrence’s party?”
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