by J. M. Miller
“No, Ben!” she yelled and grabbed my arm. “Don’t do this. I’m fine.” I kept walking. Her hands slipped down my arm, but cinched around my hand. She dug her heels into the ground and tried her hardest to slow my progress. “Ben, please. I handled it.”
Thoughts of Emily with a broken nose flashed in my mind and I couldn’t help but to smile. I stopped and turned. “You hit her back?”
She stepped closer and looped her arms around my back. “No, but she didn’t hit me either. She tripped me and I fell down the stairs. But—”
“She tripped you on the stairs?” My body shook as more adrenaline kicked in. I backed up and LJ’s arms instantly tightened in an attempt to restrain me.
“Ben, I said I handled it. You will not fight this for me!” she screamed, demanding my attention and snapping me out of the rage.
I let out a breath and relaxed my hands, though I was still far from calm. “What happened?” I asked, trying to listen over the pounding of my pulse in my ears.
When she felt my body relax, she dropped her arms. “Simone was upstairs in the office. No one else was around, but some clients walked in before I could retaliate. She bragged I couldn’t fire her yet, so I told her that there’d be stuff to look forward to since she’s so eager to stick around.” I reached up to her lips again, studying the thin cut. “I’m fine, Ben,” she assured me with a tiny smile.
I looked into her eyes and got caught there, taking in their tranquility. “Okay,” I said with a hesitant grin. “I’m sorry, about all of this. I wish…” I paused, tripping on the word, “there was a way for me to take it all away, so you can breathe,” I admitted. And it was true. I’d bear it all if it meant she wouldn’t have to.
She dipped her head for a moment and when she looked back she was blushing. “How do you always find the words to melt me completely? I’m the luckiest girl.”
I smiled and pushed my lips to hers tenderly, making sure I didn’t hurt her cut. I was glad I could make her feel that way, but I knew because of the curse, she was far from being the luckiest girl.
She deepened the kiss, pushing her tongue into my mouth and grabbing the back of my head. The urge to pick her up and carry her to my bed coursed through my fingertips as I gripped her hips, but that had to wait.
I pulled back, ending the kiss by nibbling the uninjured side of her bottom lip. “We’ll get back to that later. Simone might split us up if she catches us.”
LJ glanced over at the mound of chicken wire. “That’s already going to happen.”
“What?”
“She agreed to let me learn the business and she signed off on Co-op. I start both as soon as it’s approved through school.”
“Really? That’s… shocking, actually,” I said, picking up a mound of wire.
“I thought it was weird, too. She was almost pleasant, even after I interrupted a pretty flirtatious phone call.”
“She was flirting on the phone? That is weird. I don’t think she’s dated the entire time she’s worked here. Not that I know of, at least.”
“Yeah. She said something about keeping it quiet. So when she turned her chair around, I thought she’d yell at me for eavesdropping but she didn’t. We had a normal talk and she agreed to everything.”
“Well I’m happy for you. I am a little sad that you’ll be up in the office instead of out here with me, though. You’re going to miss all the fun winter jobs, like shoveling snow.”
She scrunched her face. “I wouldn’t say I’ll be missing that. But I will miss you,” she added with a frown.
“Thanks for trying, but there’s no way you can hide that smile.” At my words her lips tipped up, pushing her cheeks high under her sparkling eyes.
“What is this mess?” she asked, changing the subject and looking back to the wire. She pinched some between her fingers as she watched me pry more apart.
I lifted one of the bunches, propped it in front of her, and began reshaping the kinks. “They’re dresses and suits.”
LJ gasped. “It does look like a gown,” she said, splaying her hands over the wire as if it were material.
“We spray them with glow-in-the-dark paint and stake ‘em around the event house. It ends up looking like a ghost party.”
She giggled as she stared at the metal gown in front of her. “I can’t wait to see it all.”
“As soon as we get these molded back into shape, we’ll set them up then start on everything else. Most of the decorations are realistic, not gory.”
“So it’s creepy, not horror show. I like that,” she said, grabbing a few mesh pieces to separate.
“Pop and Randall will keep up with the usual work this week while you and I set up the rest of the decorations. We should have it done by Wednesday. We’ll have off for Halloween on Thursday, and Friday’s the party.”
“Long weekend?” she said, raising her brow and grabbing the suit figure where his junk would be. “That could be fun.”
I choked out a laugh. “Nice, but I can almost guarantee there’s a wedding reception Saturday night. That means we’ll work early Saturday to take all this stuff back down.”
“You’re joking?”
“Afraid not,” I said, propping another wire figure beside me. “Simone books them later, though, to give us more time.”
“Wow, how nice of her,” she said with a humorless chuckle.
“If the party ends at a decent time, I usually start that night.”
“Makes sense.” She held her suit guy up and started twirling him around. She stopped abruptly, squinting at me like she had something on her mind.
“What?”
“Are you dressing up for the party?”
“Actually, I was going to talk to you about that tonight,” I said and she tilted her head curiously. “Pop has borrowed old suits to wear for Halloween from Janine before. They’re stored in the attic. And since we’re done searching the basement, that’s the next place we should focus. There are old gowns up there too. Maybe we’ll find something to wear for the party.”
“Huh,” she said, nodding her head toward the ground.
Her impassive tone had me worried. “You aren’t giving up, are you?” After a month of dead ends, I knew she was losing hope.
“No, just being realistic.”
“I don’t think we should stop,” I admitted and reached over for her hand. She let me take it, but didn’t move her eyes from the ground. “Hey.” I tugged her hand and she finally looked up. “When we searched the house, Pop only went up there once. He said there wasn’t much paperwork, just clothes and other junk. We were focused on notes and papers then, nothing else.” She looked at me blankly. “If you do this with me, we’ll back off a bit, but we can’t give up. I know we spent a lot of time in the basement. I promise it won’t be the same.” I could understand why she’d feel burnt out having to deal with headaches and voices on top of everything else. I had to help her keep it together, though, and convince her not to give up.
“Okay,” she agreed in a whisper.
“Okay,” I repeated with a smile. I rubbed the pad of my thumb across her chin. “I think you’ll like the clothes. They were your family’s.”
Her face brightened some. “She saved their clothes?”
“With how much crap we’ve dug through, are you really surprised?”
“No, I guess not,” she said with a breathy laugh. “And we’ll take it easy, right? I don’t want to look tonight.”
“If that’s what you want.”
We spent the next few hours bending and reshaping the chicken wire figures and staking them to the ground. After we finished our shift, we split up to go eat dinner.
Pop was dumping a jar of spaghetti sauce into a pot when I walked into the kitchen. He had a brown skully covering his bald head and he still had his coveralls on.
“Smells good,” I said, turning on the sink to wash up. “Did you have any problems replacing the belt?”
“Nah,” he replied, stirring a wooden s
poon lazily. “Randall and I managed.” I chuckled and that made him turn around. “What? The old men need the kid to help them?” he scoffed. “I could rip that Kubota’s engine out and replace it faster than you can mow the property.”
“Twenty years and twenty pounds ago maybe,” I joked.
“Yeah, yeah. Keep it coming and you’ll be working with Randall while I put up decorations with LJ. She wouldn’t mind working with this old man.”
I finished drying my hands and tossed the dish towel at him. “All right,” I warned, laughing. “You don’t have to bring my girl into it.”
“Your girl, huh? I’m pretty sure she’d have something else to say about that. She seems to be smart enough not to need your sorry butt.”
“Ouch. Come on, Pop. I’ll take back the comment about your age and extra pounds, but not Randall’s. He needs to do some crunches.”
We both laughed as he dumped the sauce over the noodles.
“Grab plates,” he said, stirring it all together.
We went to the dining room to eat and didn’t speak again until my stomach grew dangerously close to the size of his. He leaned back in his chair and it squeaked its usual protest. His plump fingers reached for a toothpick and stuck it in his mouth. The edges of his white mustache twitched as he rolled the toothpick over his lips.
“How is she doing by the way? You haven’t said much about her in a while.”
“LJ?” I asked, knowing exactly who he was talking about, and the reason I hadn’t discussed her in a while. I was terrified I’d let something slip. He didn’t know that the well had already claimed her. Claimed her. Those would probably be his words if he knew. I hated lying to him, but there was no reason to stress him out. LJ and I were stressed enough.
“Mmmhmm,” he confirmed with a slow nod.
“She’s good. She actually talked to Simone today about learning the business and working the part-day Co-op program for school. Simone actually agreed to both.”
“Really? Maybe she’s finally relaxed with the idea of LJ owning the place,” he said before taking a pull from his dinner beer. He didn’t drink often. I’d expected him to crack one open tonight, though, since he did some maintenance tasks today that he hadn’t done in a while.
“Maybe. But LJ did mention that Simone was on the phone flirting with someone.” I smiled. “Maybe she’s been getting some.”
“Benjamin Franklin Shadows, there’s no need for that,” Pop said gruffly, wiggling uncomfortably in his chair.
“Hey, it’s the truth. And did you really have to pull the middle name for that? I am eighteen, you know?”
He laughed. “Reminding me how old you are only serves as a reminder of your youth.”
“Got it,” I admitted. There was no reason to go back and forth with him anyway, especially over Simone. “Well, this youngster is tired. I’ll get the dishes then I’m grabbing a shower and going to bed.”
He nodded and snatched the TV controller from the table. I took a deep breath, relieved nothing else was mentioned. My goal was to find the answers so I wouldn’t have to tell him. Unfortunately, that goal was getting harder to reach every day. I hated to admit it, but I was losing hope like LJ. I had to stay positive, though. For her.
Later, I waited until I heard Pop’s footsteps travel to his bedroom then I moved through the basement, the tunnel, and up the trapdoor. The closet was dark. I knocked lightly on the floor and LJ cracked open the door, revealing the soft light of her room. I jumped through the opening and took my shoes off before following her.
She was only wearing my green shirt again, making her legs look extra long and luscious. “We have to be really quiet tonight. My dad’s home from an earlier shift,” she said, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.
“This may be too dangerous for me,” I joked. “Did you talk to him about Co-op?” I sat beside her and placed my hand on her thigh because I couldn’t wait another second to touch her.
She smiled and turned toward me. “No. He just got home a half hour ago. I pretended to be asleep.” I quirked an interested brow. “I didn’t want to get into a long convo when I knew you’d be here soon. He’ll be off earlier tomorrow. I’ll tell him then.” She slid her body over and straddled my legs.
“I can’t argue with that,” I admitted, placing both hands on her thighs, moving them back and forth along her skin. She was so soft that my rough hands felt like vandals, marring her perfection. “Your lip looks better. How does it feel?”
“It’s fine,” she said, pushing her fingers into my hair. “Did you have a good dinner?”
“We talked about you,” I said, watching a slow, curious smile creep across her face. “We discussed how easily Simone buckled, and the possible reasons why. I told Pop she probably got laid and he used my middle name to reprimand me.”
Her face inched closer to mine. “Middle name? How come I don’t know it yet?” Her touch was torture and she knew it. She pinched my hair and pulled back, tilting my face up possessively. “Are you holding out on me?”
“No,” I replied, gripping her thighs a little tighter because my control was reaching the limit. “Franklin,” I said and she grinned. “You happy now, woman?”
“Mmm,” she hummed, resting her mouth on my jaw. “Benjamin Franklin Shadows. That’s so… geeky.” She laughed, breathy and sweet.
“Geeky, huh? Tell me if this is geeky enough for you.” I couldn’t handle it anymore. She was so damn hot. I reached up for her face and pulled her down to me, stopping her lips just shy of meeting mine. I skimmed gently over her lower lip before bringing us together. She opened to me and I swirled my tongue deliciously around hers. A soft whimper came from deep in her throat, causing every muscle in my body to clench.
She was everything I needed. We’d discovered more about each other in the last month than I ever cared to know about anyone else. The relationship seemed right from the start and neither of us questioned why. We only questioned how much more we could have.
Regrettably, ours wasn’t made from normal circumstances. The well technically brought us together, and was the problem that continued to haunt us. Conflicted about other possible effects, I didn’t want to jeopardize the search by literally getting wrapped up in her. I couldn’t let her down. But as the days passed, it got harder to tell her body no. I wanted her just as badly, if not more.
With our lips still together, I picked her up and laid her on the bed. Her legs remained around my waist while I supported myself over her. I reached back and placed my hand on her bent knee then slid it down her bare leg, stopping at the cotton panties covering the curve of her ass. Our mouths sped up and our breaths followed. Fast and anxious.
Her phone’s ringtone startled us. She broke away from our kiss and scrambled up the bed, grabbing the phone from the nightstand to silence it. I waited, adjusting my jeans as I stared at her bent over on the bed. Her white panties peeked out from under the green shirt as she traced her fingers over her phone’s screen. Even though my dick was cussing me, the interruption was probably for the best. I don’t think I could’ve stopped tonight, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
I watched her face scrunch with a scowl. The look brought back images of the text she’d received from her ex. I found myself scowling, too. “Babe?” I asked, moving up the bed to her.
She looked at me and shook her head. “It was a call… from my mom,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Yeah, I know,” she snapped, but looked at me apologetically with a sad smile. Her eyebrows knitted and her eyes glassed over. She pressed her lips together then her whole body started to tremble.
I took the phone and held her hand. “No message,” I said, staring at the screen.
“Why?” she asked. It was a question to cover all the rest she couldn’t ask. And I had no answer, for any of them.
Noises in the hallway made us both look to the door. We heard Carson’s irate whispers. “No, Rina. Christ. You called her? What the
hell is your problem? It’s nearly eleven at night here. Well, go ask your boyfriend for a watch. No, I will not wake them up. I suggest you call back at a decent hour.”
LJ leaned beside me. “You should go. He sounds really upset.”
She stood with me and walked me to the closet. I threw on my shoes then pulled her close. Her tense body gave in, going lax in my arms. The only thing still fighting was her heart, punching my chest hard and fast.
“I don’t want to leave you like this.”
She pulled back and took an excessive breath. “I’ll be fine, Ben. I don’t want to risk Dad catching you in here, especially after hearing that phone call. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
I kissed her again and crawled down the trapdoor, knowing things would only get worse if Rina wanted back into her life.
“Can you sign this?” I asked when Dad shuffled into the kitchen. I took the last bite of my bagel and slid the Co-op paper to him on the counter.
He snatched it up on his way to the coffee pot. “What is it?” he asked through a yawn.
I figured the morning was the best time to hit him up, pre-caffeine. “It’s for school,” I replied vaguely.
He held the paper while pouring a cup, blinking his eyes excessively to clear away their sleepiness. After staring at it for a minute, he asked, “Are you sure this is what you want?”
I nodded to my orange juice then tipped it back, finishing the last gulp.
Bringing the mug to his lips, he took the first sip of his coffee and eyed the paper again. “We haven’t really discussed the will much. I want to make sure you know you aren’t stuck. It isn’t just black or white, owning or selling. And you don’t need to make any decisions right away.”
“Yeah, I know, plenty of options, plenty of time. For now, this is my direction. I want to learn more about this place,” I said, sticking my plate in the dishwasher.
He set his coffee down and grabbed a pen by the fridge to sign the paper. “And Simone is okay with you working earlier?”
“Surprisingly, yes. I talked to her yesterday. As soon as I start Co-op, I’ll be working in the office with her,” I said, then wrinkled my nose to show how much I dreaded the idea.
