A Family Affair: Fall

by Mary Campisi

  “You’re the beautiful one,” she whispered.

  He groaned, pushed her hands away, and yanked off his jeans and boxers, seconds before he pinned her to the door and entered her, hard, fast, completely. And then he proceeded to show her exactly how beautiful he thought she was.

  After, they worked their way to the bed and made love again, this time as needy and desperate as the last. Who would have thought when Ben walked into Lina’s Café a year ago, filled with arrogance and the need to protect his cousin, that Gina would end up in his bed, naked, satisfied, covered with his scent? And who would have thought she’d enjoy it?

  “Gina, you awake?”

  She lay with her head on his chest, his arm slung around her waist, holding her against his side. “Uh-huh.”

  “Tell me about the guy.”

  His words snuffed the oxygen from the room, circled her brain, made her dizzy. “Ben.” She could not talk about the betrayal that almost ruined her life.

  “Whatever he did to you, he was a jerk.” He stroked her back, his voice soft, soothing.

  She couldn’t tell him. Could she?

  “And you shouldn’t have to carry that around with you for the next forty years.” He paused, his words filled with force and conviction. “You should let me carry it for you because I’ll toss that sucker to the ground and smash it until there’s nothing left.”

  Ben wanted to help her. All she had to do was trust him with the worst secret of her life. Trust. It didn’t come easily. “You have no idea…”

  “No, I don’t, but I want to. Tell me; let me help you.”

  She breathed in his scent, touched the springy hairs by his right nipple, and began to speak. “I never had a boyfriend until my sophomore year. His name was Jason; he was a pre-med student, so you can imagine some of our conversations. We talked about genetics, anatomy, physiology…” She paused, cleared her throat. “…and getting married. We planned to get engaged when he started med school and marry during his residency. I’d be finished with school and getting a job would be easy.”

  “Sounds like the perfect match,” Ben said, his voice tight.

  “We were.” Long pause. “And then my cousin came to visit. Natalie didn’t go to college but that didn’t stop her from wanting what she called the college experience, which meant she wanted to hang out with guys, get drunk, and hook up. She kept bugging me to let her visit for a weekend. I didn’t want to do it. We didn’t even get along, but my parents insisted and finally, I gave in. It was late October and Jason and I had both been studying for exams. The fridge was empty, and we needed food. Jason suggested a pizza, but I’d been trying so hard to eat healthier, so I offered to make a food run. I often wonder what might have happened if I’d just eaten the darn pizza. When I got back to the dorm, I opened the door and found them…” She pushed back memories of Natalie’s tanned legs gripping Jason’s naked back, their moans filling the air, oblivious to anything but their own pleasure.

  Ben cursed, pulled her closer. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Jason was, too. Begged me to forgive him, said he didn’t know what came over him, claimed it was the result of exhaustion from studying so much. The thing is, Natalie had no idea he was my boyfriend, still doesn’t know. I guess she figured when she was in the room, no guy could possibly want anybody else.”

  “Yeah, well, from what I’ve heard about her, she’s a nice toy, but not one you’d want to keep.”

  “Actually, that’s pretty accurate.”

  “And Jason? What happened to him?”

  “I heard he’s an anesthesiologist in California. Married, one child. I found a write-up about him in a medical journal. Imagine that.”

  Ben stroked her back, kissed the top of her head. “Guess you don’t believe in second chances, huh?”

  “With a guy who cheats?”

  “With a guy who realizes he’s made a mistake,” he corrected.

  Why such an edge in his voice? Gina lifted her head so she could see his face. “A mistake that involves hooking up with my cousin?”

  “What he did was worse than wrong, no doubt about it. Still, people make mistakes and sometimes they hurt the people they love the most.”

  “People have choices. Jason had his and he made it, and whether or not he regretted that choice is really not the point. I knew I couldn’t live my life with a man I didn’t trust. If he came home ten minutes late, I’d wonder where he’d been and who he’d been with, and aside from zapping him like Pavlov’s dogs when he veered in the wrong direction, I would never take a fresh breath again.”

  Those blue eyes turned opaque. “That’s a pretty brutal statement.”

  “It’s how I feel, and why I have such a trust issue. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.” When he didn’t respond, she prodded, “Haven’t you ever been hurt by someone you trusted?”

  “You mean like the mother who left me when I was a kid?”

  He tried to hide the pain but she saw it in the tightness of his jaw, the flat line of his lips. “Or someone else.”

  He shrugged. “I never let anyone get close enough to do that.” Pause. “Not even my ex-wife.”

  Gina stared at him, trying to comprehend what he’d just said. “You…had a wife?”

  “I did.”

  “What happened?” A woman had shared his bed every night, not just at random hours, in strange beds. And she’d shared his name.

  “It didn’t work out.”

  Tell me more, she wanted to say. Tell me all of it. What was her name? Did you love her more than your own breath? Where is she now? Do you ever think of her? And the thought that made her queasy. Do you ever think of her when you’re with me? Of course she would never ask those questions. All she could slip through her mouth was a simple, “I see.”

  “Gina, let it go.”

  She nodded, laid her head on his chest and tried to forget how much she didn’t know about Ben Reed. He had an ex-wife, a past that didn’t include her, and most likely secrets he didn’t want to divulge. She’d opened up to him and confessed her darkest betrayal and while he’d comforted her, he’d shared nothing.

  ***

  The pounding woke Ben seconds before Brody Kinkaid’s voice boomed from the other side of the door. “Open this door right now, you bastard, or I swear I’ll break it down.”

  “Hold on.” Ben turned to Gina and whispered, “Go, wait in the bathroom until I get rid of him.” For once she didn’t argue, but scooted out of bed, snatched up her clothes, and disappeared into the bathroom.

  “You’ve got exactly three seconds before I come in.”

  “Then you can explain the broken door to Mimi. Give me a second, I’m getting dressed.” Ben pulled on his jeans and T-shirt and padded to the door. He flung it open and there stood the angry Giant Kinkaid, fists clenched, face red, neck bulging.

  “Is she inside?”

  “Who?”

  “My wife.”

  Ben sighed. “Are you still jagging on about that? I have no idea where your wife is, but she’s not here.” And then, because he was tired of the way the big oaf tried to intimidate everybody, added, “If you don’t know your wife’s whereabouts, I’d say that’s a sign of marital discord.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Right; he should have known the idiot didn’t know what discord meant. “Problems,” he corrected. “Marital problems.”

  Brody Kinkaid’s eyes narrowed on him like a bull preparing to charge. “Step aside. I want to see for myself.”

  “Hey, get out of here. Now.” Ben might end up with a broken bone or two, but he wasn’t going without a few punches of his own. Gina was in here and he had to protect her.

  “Whose bra is that? Is that my wife’s?”

  Damn. Ben followed the man’s gaze and spotted the black lace bra on the hardwood floor near the bed. “Of course not.” He picked up the bra, held it behind his back.

  “And those panties?” Brody Kinkaid roared. “You gonna tell me they aren
’t Bree’s?” He charged Ben, knocked him on the bed, lifted a fist to pummel his jaw.

  “Stop! Stop!”

  Brody paused with his fist half-cocked, turned to his right. “Gina? What are you doing here?”

  “Please don’t hurt him, Brody. Please.” She moved toward him, smiled. “Those are my things.”

  “Yours?” He stared at her, then at Ben. “You and this asshole? Why?”

  “Brody, leave him be. Come on. Tell me why you’re here.” She took his hand and he heaved himself off the bed and Ben’s chest.

  “She’s gone.” His voice cracked and wobbled, “Took the kids, too.”

  Ben advanced on him. “And you thought I was hiding your whole family here? Where? Under the bed?” Now he was pissed. Bad enough the guy accused him of cheating with Bree, but he’d dragged Gina into it, and for what? Jealous stupidity?

  “Ben,” Gina shook her head at him, “Brody’s upset. We’re going to help him find Bree and the kids.”

  “Oh, for the love of—”

  “You will?”

  The guy had gone from Mr. Fierce to Mr. Wimp. “Sure. Why not?” Ben glanced at his watch. “It’s only 1:45 a.m. We don’t have anything better to do than to help you because you’re such a great guy.” Actually, he and Gina had a lot to talk about. He’d recognized the look on her face when he refused to talk about Melissa. Pure hurt. Hell, she deserved better; she deserved somebody who could open up and share, but damn it, he just didn’t know if he could do it.

  Gina shot him a look. “Ben. Enough.”

  “Okay. One more question. When did you discover your wife and kids had gone missing? It’s late, so where were you?”

  The guy’s face burst with red. “Me and the guys had a few at O’Reilly’s.”

  “Huh.” Ben shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the foot of the bed.

  “Sit over here,” Gina said, pointing to a chair near the dresser. “Did you call your mother and Bree’s parents?”

  Brody rubbed a sausage-sized hand over his face. “I didn’t call, but I drove by and didn’t see her SUV at either place. I couldn’t say I didn’t know where my wife and kids were at 1:00 a.m. How would that look? And you know Bree’s dad; he’d have half the town looking for her and then he’d skin me for worrying him.”

  “Where else could you look?” She touched Brody on the shoulder and said in a soft voice, “Why would you think she’s left? Did you have a fight?”

  He shook his head. “It hasn’t been the same since…”

  “Since she lost the baby?” Gina squeezed his shoulder. “Is that what you mean?”

  Ben watched her comfort the big oaf with ease and not a care that she wasn’t wearing panties or a bra. Of course, she might be too involved with the current drama to remember, and when she did…He hid a smile. That would be interesting.

  “Yeah, since then,” Brody said, hanging his head.

  “Well, maybe that’s because she’s still sad and grieving.”

  “What?” He looked up, confused. “Doc gave her the okay to try again.” His gaze shifted to Ben. “But some people filled her head and made her think she wasn’t happy and needed pills.”

  “That’s enough.” Ben pushed away from the bed, crossed his arms over his chest, and confronted Brody. “I’m going to tell you the way it is. Your wife is depressed, got it? She lost a baby and she’s not ready for another one, not even a boy.” He stepped closer, fixed him with a stare. “And here’s another bit of information; she might never be ready. Understand? So deal with it and be happy with the ones you have before it’s too late.”

  “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, but I do. You keep ignoring the signs; don’t go to counseling, don’t listen to what she’s trying to tell you—” he slashed a hand in the air, slapped his thigh “—and one day, it’ll be too late. She’ll leave you and you can go to fifty counseling sessions and promise her anything, but it won’t matter because she’s gone and she’s not coming back.”

  Brody Kinkaid’s eyes grew large, his expression grim. “I can’t lose her,” he said, his voice a mix of misery and pain. “She’s my world.”

  “Then let’s find her, and you need to start fixing things before it doesn’t matter.”

  “Okay.” He stood, held out his hand. “Thank you. I’m sorry I was such a hard-ass, but I can’t think straight when things are off between me and Bree.”

  “I know.” Ben shook his hand, slid a glance at Gina who watched him, lips pulled into a thin line, brows pinched, like she was analyzing what he’d said, trying to dig around the meaning inside of them.

  “Bet you do.” Brody grinned. “I had no idea you and Gina were together. Huh, who would have guessed Gina has a boyfriend.”

  “Well, actually—”

  Brody’s laugh cut off the rest of her sentence, taking with it the words Ben would have paid a hundred bucks to hear. “Does anybody else know?”

  “No.” Gina said, a bit too quickly.

  “I see. Top Secret. Don’t worry, I won’t say a word.”

  Now that Brody Kinkaid considered Ben his new best buddy, the guy was a real talker, going on and on about everything from the year he scored twenty-one touchdowns in high school to the night Bree’s water broke when she was sitting on his lap. Wet all over the place, like a leaky faucet. You would not believe it. That was way too much information.

  They’d dropped off Brody’s truck and checked the outskirts of Magdalena twice. How many times were they going to cover the same area? If this kept up, Ben would have just enough time to get back to the Heart Sent, shower, and head to work—and while Gina might have spent the night with him, she’d not spent it in his bed, a thought that annoyed the crap out of him, probably more than it should.

  “I think we should check Bree’s parents’ house again,” Gina said. “Maybe she parked the SUV in the garage. You know Kathleen won’t let Rex put his truck inside, but she’d let Bree, and if I were trying to hide from my husband, that’s what I’d do.”

  “Dang, if that’s the case, then Bree’s parents will know we’ve been having problems.”

  Gina sighed. “Brody, really? One look at Bree’s long face and anybody can tell something’s wrong.”

  “Guess you’re right, but I’m going to fix it. Damn right I will. You wait and see. Tomorrow’s a new start.”

  Ben thought about telling the guy he’d have to do a helluva lot more than just say the words. He’d have to do things that were against his nature and uncomfortable if he wanted a shot at saving the relationship. Not that anybody had ever stepped up and told him that, but how could they when they hadn’t even known there was a problem? And by the time they did, too much time and and too many bad intentions had passed. The marriage was over, even if Ben couldn’t accept it. Hell, he’d refused to accept that he and Melissa were done despite the divorce, her pregnancy, and engagement to Assistant DA Jerk. But none of that mattered anymore, hadn’t mattered since the night Gina cried in his arms when he told her he’d met her parents. She’d opened up, shared that pain, and it had erased the wall between them, brought them closer, before the kiss that led to one of the most explosive nights of lovemaking he’d ever known. He supposed he owed Brody an opportunity to set things straight, even though it would take more time away from getting Gina back in his bed. “Don’t forget the counseling; you’ll both need that. She might even want to go alone for a while. And no blame games. And help her with the kids. And make her feel special. You know, like you used to before you had kids.”

  Brody scratched his stubbled jaw, pondered Ben’s words. “We had Ella Blue nine months after the wedding.” He slid Ben a smile and flexed an arm. “Honeymoon baby. So, we’ve had kids forever, but that don’t make no difference. I’ll treat my Honeybee special; buy her a sexy nightie like she used to wear and some of those fancy cherry cordials. She likes those, don’t she, Gina?”

  “Sure, Brody.”

  B
en didn’t miss the fizzle of disappointment in Gina’s words. “Sounds like you’ve got a plan.” And it’s headed in the toilet. As his Grandma Naomi used to say about someone you couldn’t help no matter how much you pointed them in the right direction, “This dog don’t hunt.”

  “And maybe, just saying maybe, down the road, three or four months, we can try for that boy.”

  Ben and Gina didn’t say much after that. It was Brody who babbled on and on, especially when Gina’s hunch proved correct, and she looked through the Kinkaids’ garage door window and spotted Bree’s silver SUV there, right next to her mother’s Cadillac. They took Brody home then, gave him instructions to visit his wife first thing in the morning with an apology and a bouquet of daisies, her favorites, a request to begin counseling, and a gag order on the mention of babies or boys.

  “Do you think they have a chance?” Gina asked as they headed back to the Heart Sent.

  Ben didn’t even hesitate. “Nope. It’s already too late.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because he thinks flowers and a counseling session or two are going to save them.” He didn’t tell her the flowers would be a one-time thing, two tops, and the sessions would fade even faster, if they happened at all.

  “How can you be so certain?”

  There was a question inside the question and that’s what she really wanted to know. He’d seen it when he told Brody if he didn’t get his act together, he’d miss out and then Bree wouldn’t care anymore. That’s what had happened with Melissa, and that’s what Gina wanted to know about. “I know because that’s what happened to me.”

  Chapter 13

  Naomi Reed always said that disasters happen in the night and by morning they’ve turned into a full-blown catastrophe. Ben never bothered to ask his grandmother to qualify the difference between the two because he got her point. Bad stuff happens when you’re not paying attention and by the time you realize it, it’s too late.

  Four mornings after Brody Kinkaid stormed into the Heart Sent looking to smear Ben’s face against the hardwood floor, Jeremy plopped down in the chair across from Ben’s desk and placed a lunch bag in front of him. “Portobello mushroom wrap with red peppers, onions, and asparagus. I put a side of marinara in there, too. Gives it a nice pop.”