Her insides turned warm and melty. “That’s really sweet. And, in my mom’s eyes, you are officially the favorite of all my boyfriends. Although it’s not like the competition was steep. Not being a public nose picker put you in the lead.”
He laughed as was her intent, but then his voice turned serious. “Good, because I plan to hang around for a good long time.”
They reached the old wooden dock and sat at the end. She took his hand in both of hers. New calluses and tendons had to be mapped into her memory. “I was afraid you’d decide it was all a mistake.”
“Mistake? What are you talking about?”
“Me. You. Mistake. We only had a week together. Am I how you remember me?”
He wrapped the hand she didn’t have a death clutch on around her nape and brought their foreheads together. “You’re better. Prettier. Funnier. Sweeter. Don’t you know?”
She didn’t, but she wanted to believe him. Words beyond her, she shook her head.
“The boys on base say I’m whipped, and all I can do is grin and agree. I don’t care that we’re young and on opposite sides of the country. All I know is that I’m falling for you.”
She’d needed him to say it first, but once he had, she surrendered to her own feelings. “Me too.”
She tilted her face to brush her lips against his. It might be cold out, but his arms were warm around her as the kiss deepened and took on a meaning far beyond simple pleasure. It felt like a promise. A promise she intended to keep forever.
Chapter 13
Present Day
Harper stared out the front window, squinting to try to extend her gaze.
“This man has sure got you stirred up.”
Harper startled. Her mom stood not two feet behind her, holding two martini glasses. Harper hadn’t even heard her walk up. She accepted the one with double olives and took a too-big gulp. Warmth spread fast and furious.
“I’m not stirred up because of Bennett Caldwell.” Harper faced the window before her mother caught sight of the half-lie. “This business will be a big undertaking. The work, the risk—it will change our lives, Mom, and I’m not sure for the better.”
Her mom planted her butt on the window sash and stirred the olive around the bottom of her glass. “This is the first time I’ve seen you this nervous and excited about anything since Noah died. Whatever sacrifices we need to make, we will.”
“What about Ben?”
“Better for him to see you working hard and passionate about your job than mopey and sad.”
“I’m not mopey.”
“Not anymore. Not since you had an idea for a business.” Her mom’s voice dropped to suggestive levels. “And not since Bennett Caldwell strolled into the picture.”
Deciding to ignore her mom’s teasing, Harper leaned against the sash, hip to hip with her. “I hate to burden you with more babysitting time. It might cut into your painting.” She nudged her mother with her shoulder.
“My foray into nude portraiture can wait.” Taking a more serious tone, she said, “I love spending time with Ben. You know that. And I love seeing my daughter reaching for a dream.”
“I might fail. Spectacularly.”
He mother shrugged and popped an olive in her mouth. “People fail all the time. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth trying.”
To cover her watery eyes, Harper killed the rest of her martini. If she couldn’t locate the real thing, she’d take courage of the liquid variety.
A knock on the front door made her jump up and slide her empty glass on the coffee table. Before she made it to the hallway, Ben’s voice echoed in the two-story foyer. “Wow! That’s the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. Will he eat me?”
Bennett’s rusty-sounding laugh echoed, and she stopped in the doorway of the den to surreptitiously watch her son and his namesake. “He won’t eat you. His name is Jack London, and he’s a perfect gentleman.”
“He named his dog Jack London? I like him already,” her mom whispered in Harper’s ear.
Stepping forward before her mom could embarrass her, Harper put her hand on Ben’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Ben, this is Mr. Caldwell. He and your daddy served together.”
“You knew my daddy?” Ben’s face tipped up with an awestruck grin.
Bennett was leaning toward Jack, his hand clasped in the dog’s fur, as if he sought support. “I sure did. He was my best friend.” Emotions too complicated for Ben to pick up on roughed Bennett’s voice. But Harper understood. No doubt, Bennett could see the best pieces of Noah in her son.
Bennett’s gaze rose slowly to meet hers. “You sure you don’t mind if Jack comes in?”
“I told you earlier, I don’t mind a bit. I have a feeling Ben is going to love Jack and we’ll be fending off requests for a dog this Christmas.”
“Will he follow me?” Ben asked.
“Sure. Just ask him.” With visible effort, Bennett let go of his dog.
Ben backed into the hall and patted his legs. “Come on, boy. Do you want to see my house?”
Bennett ruffled the dog’s ear and said softly, “Go on, Jack. It’s all right.”
The dog trotted after Ben, who laughed and skipped into the den. Her mom hovered in the doorway but retreated after giving Harper a pointed look.
“Hi.” Their texting over the last two weeks didn’t make their face-to-face meeting any less awkward. The opposite in fact. Most of their communication had been about ideas for the coffee shop and Darren’s condition, but occasionally they’d veered toward more personal topics.
Like Bennett’s funny story about the man who wandered into his shop with a waist-long beard and overalls looking for supplies to live off the grid. Or her telling him about Whit, the insurance salesman who called her once a week asking her for a date—to discuss her policies.
She asked him what he cooked himself for dinner, and he confessed to ordering Chinese takeout and pizzas too often. He’d texted her one night at almost eleven to see what she was doing. The answer had been reading a thriller sure to keep her up until she finished.
“I see Noah in Ben, but mostly you.”
“He’s got Noah’s smile and good nature.”
“You’re not good natured?”
“No, I’m stubborn as all get-out, remember?”
A slow smile spread over his face and an answering warmth that had nothing to do with the martini spread through her body until she was tingly.
“Something smells amazing.” He lifted his nose and sniffed like a hunting dog.
“My mom’s famous lasagna. Come on in and meet her.”
“That’s something a woman’s never said to me.”
She stopped short. “You’ve never been serious enough with a woman to meet her family?”
“I guess I haven’t.” He gave a one-shouldered shrug.
Nonplussed, she didn’t know what to say, so she bypassed the landmine. “Come on then. You can meet the real Gail Frazier, retired librarian, nude painter, and martini maker extraordinaire.”
She took his hand and tugged him toward the den. Her mom was on all fours on the floor with Ben and Jack London. Turning and sitting cross-legged, she eyed Harper and Bennett with a sharpness that made her drop Bennett’s hand like a hot potato. Needing some space for her own sanity as well as to squash the weird vibes her mom was putting out, Harper went to give Jack a rub on the head.
Her mom rose like a woman who did yoga three times a week and offered a hand to Bennett. “I’m Gail. And let me apologize for the deception a couple of weeks ago. I tried to talk Harper out of any trickery, but by now, you know what she’s like.”
“Mom, I’m standing right here.” Harper’s interjection didn’t faze either one of them.
“She’s something else, that’s for sure,” Bennett said.
Her mom patted the back of Bennett’s hand with her free one. “Everything seems to have worked out fine.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Frazier.”
“Gail, please. Or I w
on’t offer you a drink. What’s your poison? I make a mean martini, but I have a few beers rattling around the fridge if that’s more your speed.”
“A beer would be great, Ms.—” At her mom’s tsking, he said on a slight laugh, “Gail.”
“Another martini, dear?” Her mom raised her brows toward Harper.
“Yes, please.”
“Can I have a Coke, Yaya?” Ben piped up from the floor.
“No, but you can have some lemonade. Can you help me, Harper?”
Help? Ha. Her mom sashayed off before Harper could come up with an excuse.
“I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.” She barely kept herself from flouncing off like a teenager getting ready to receive a lecture.
With the efficiency of a bartender, her mom poured beer and lemonade into two frosty mugs, then added the martini ingredients to the drink shaker. “You didn’t tell me Mr. Caldwell is a certified hotty-pants.”
“Do they give certifications out for that? Is there an international governing body?”
The sound of crashing ice as her mom shook the martinis put a pause on their conversation.
As she poured, her mom said, “I’m not an innocent or an idiot. Something is going on between the two of you.”
“He’s helping me formulate a solid business plan.”
“And that’s all?”
“Pretty much.” Harper folded and unfolded the hem of her shirt.
Her mom put a hand on top to stop her fiddling, and Harper looked up. Her mom wore a sad little smile. “It’s okay if you like him. And I mean, like like him.”
“I don’t—Okay, even if I am sort of, kind of attracted to him, nothing can happen between us.”
“Why not?”
“He was Noah’s best friend. He was there when Noah was killed.”
“So, it’s complicated. Are you worried that your subconscious is substituting Bennett for Noah?”
She ran her hand through her hair, fisting the back. The two men were so different the thought hadn’t even been lurking in the shadows of her subconscious. “Well, I wasn’t, but now I am. Do you think I’m substituting?”
Her mother’s gesture was noncommittal. “He’s a very serious sort of man, isn’t he?”
“I suppose. He’s been through tough times.” Was her mom taking a dig at him? “But he can be funny, too. It’s just a dry sort of humor.”
“It wasn’t a criticism, dear.” Her mom peered over her glasses at Harper. “You can be rather serious yourself.”
Ben’s laughter peeled through the layers of confusion and uncertainty. Harper was on the cusp of huge changes, both terrifying and exciting. Part of her wanted to stay locked away in her safe gray house. It was comfortable. But was that fair to Ben? And to herself?
She picked up her martini and the beer and made her way back to the den. She stutter-stepped to a stop in the doorway. Bennett had a deck of cards and was performing a trick. Ben stood between his long legs, his hands on Bennett’s knees, their heads close.
Bennett fanned the cards out in his hand with a graceful dexterity that surprised her. The sight of them together hammered her heart. Underneath the pleasure of seeing the easy camaraderie between them was a morass of sadness. It should have been Noah mesmerizing Ben with card tricks.
“Is this the one?” Bennett pulled a card out of the middle and held it up for Ben to see.
“Yes!” More belly laughs from Ben followed. He ran over and grabbed the edge of her shirt to tug her over to Bennett. “He’s magic, Mama. Do her, Mr. Caldwell, do her.”
Naughty amusement twinkled in Bennet’s eyes, and she had to muffle laughter at Ben’s enthusiastic plea. The shared moment lowered her nerves from a boil to a simmer. She set the beer and martini down on the coffee table and fell to her knees next to Ben to put an arm around him. Bennett shuffled the cards like he was a professional Vegas dealer.
He fanned them out. “Pick one.”
Ben inched forward, pulling her with him until she was kneeling between Bennett’s long legs. She pulled a card out of his hands and hoped he didn’t notice the tremble of her fingers. The queen of hearts. Was the universe trying to give her a nudge?
“Memorize it and slip it back in.”
She returned it to a different spot. Ben’s attention wandered to Jack and he lay down next to the dog to rub his belly.
Bennett shuffled, his hands blunt instruments of beauty, and he shifted his knees closer as if caging her in. Her body buzzed with a different kind of high than alcohol.
“Is this your card?” He held up the queen of hearts. The intensity of his expression didn’t match what should have been a lighthearted card trick.
She nodded, took the card from him, and held it in both hands to keep herself from touching him. What if she inched forward and pulled him down to her? Confusion held her in place. Noah had been the first and only man she’d seriously dated, and despite having been married with a child, she felt her inexperience keenly.
Ben popped up next to her and plucked the card out of her hand. “Did he pick your card, Mama?”
The moment shattered and she rocked back on her heels, shoving the card toward Bennett. “He did. He is magic.”
She moved to sit on the opposite end of the couch from Bennett with her drink. Her mom had come in at some point and lounged in the armchair, sipping her martini. How much had she seen?
Not that there was anything to see. It was her imagination that was out of control. Thank goodness, her mom didn’t have access to that. Except her “cat that ate the canary” smile insinuated she could make a pretty good guess as to its direction.
Ben bounced onto the couch, choosing to sit close to Bennett. Ben chattered about his preschool and friends, all the while touching Bennett on the arm or leg. Was Ben starved for a male role model and attention? Did he miss Noah in an abstract but no less potent way than she did?
And what happened if Ben became too attached to Bennett? Danger clutched her stomach. Protecting Ben from hurt was her job, and she fought the urge to snatch Ben to her side.
“Harper tells me you two are working up a business plan for this coffee business.” Her mom’s calm voice was a welcome balm.
“That’s right. It’s a viable start-up with a built-in customer base. In a military town, people support their own. So, at the least, the shop should get lots of military traffic.” Bennett stroked his beard. “If we can find a good location.”
Nerves fizzed through her body. She was worried about finding an available space for a reasonable rent. But that’s not why she was nervous. She and Bennett would be alone for a good part of the weekend. The two of them had been in the middle of the woods for two days, but this was different even if she couldn’t pinpoint how.
“You’re going to stay with Allison?”
“That’s the plan.” Harper exchanged a glance with Bennett. Allison had invited them to spend the night, and Harper prayed they would find Darren improved. She wasn’t optimistic.
“Dinner will be ready as soon as I toast the bread. I hope you’re hungry, Bennett.” Her mom rose and retreated to the kitchen.
“I’m starving,” Ben said, and scampered after her. Jack followed close on his heels.
Harper waited until she was sure Ben wasn’t coming back. “Ben seems taken with you.”
“I’ve never been comfortable around kids. Guess because I never really felt like one. But Ben makes it easy.” He leaned forward and braced his arms on his legs, his hands dangling.
She grabbed at words to try to put her fears into coherence. “I don’t have a brother, my dad’s not around, and I’ve never brought a boyfriend over. Not that you’re my boyfriend or anything.” She cleared her throat to put the brakes on her tongue. “He’s never been around anyone like you.”
He swiveled his head toward her. “Like me?”
“You know, honorable. Strong. It’s good—healthy even—for him to have someone like you to look up to. But I want to protect him f
rom every little hurt in the world, even though I know it’s impossible.”
“You’re worried I’ll hurt him?”
“Not on purpose. I’m worried he might get too attached to you, is all.”
“It’s one night. He won’t have a chance to get attached.”
His words sent a shot of cold reality through her body. “Of course not, what was I thinking? This is…” She waved a hand between them not even sure what to say. They weren’t dating. They weren’t involved. Were they even friends? “It’s business, right?”
She popped up, but before she could take a step toward escape he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down to the couch. He’d scooched closer and she landed next to him, their legs pressed together.
“Is that all it is?” His breath tickled her ear.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” Part of her wanted to stalk off in a huff, but an even bigger part wanted to lean into him and close her eyes. She compromised by twisting her hand out of his but staying flush against him.
“By the way, I’m an idiot sometimes. Especially when it comes to women like you.”
“Like me?” She parroted his question.
“Complex.”
She gave in and relaxed into his chest.
“Beautiful too.” His voice dropped to a whisper and he covered her hand with his own, their fingers sliding over and through one another like a dance.
“Dinner’s ready.” Ben popped back into the room.
Harper snatched her hand away and straightened, but Ben didn’t seem fazed. “Come on.” He grabbed Bennett’s arm and pulled.
They filed into the kitchen and found her usual place usurped by Ben so he could sit next to Bennett. Her mom kept the conversation easy and superficial, and Bennett earned her favor by asking for seconds.
“I was never a good cook. The boys used to say I could burn an MRE, even though it was impossible.” Another forkful disappeared.
“Will you tell me a story about my daddy?” Ben asked.
Tension ballooned over the table like a mushroom cloud. Harper’s fork clanged against her plate, loud and discordant. Only Ben was unaffected. Wide-eyed and smiling, he stared at Bennett expectantly.
The Military Wife Page 15
