by Mj Fields
He stands up and squeezes Ben’s shoulder. “I’ll give you two a minute to catch up.”
When he leaves the room, Ben bends down to kiss me, and I whisper, “He’s suspicious.”
“No shit. I’m surprised there isn’t a metal detector at the door.”
I pop a kiss to his lips then tell him, “No, my dad said your dad isn’t coming, and he was all—”
“You better give me a proper kiss, little Ross; it’s been weeks.”
“But we have a situation.”
He lifts my chin. “No situation should ever come before a kiss.”
I look down at Harper, whose eyes are now open. “See? What did I tell you?”
“Hey, mini Kendall, I’m gonna kiss your aunt, who looks even more beautiful than the last time I saw her. Now close your eyes for just a minute.”
And she freaking does!
Ben looks at me smugly, and I give him what he wants. Let’s be honest here; it’s what I want as well. I just forgot for a moment.
“Cherry?” he asks, then licks his lips.
“Huh?”
He smiles. “Cherry Chapstick.”
“Yeah.”
He steps back and looks at me. And I mean, really looks me over.
“What?”
“I’m going to put so many babies inside you.”
I hear Mom clear her throat from behind him and bury my face in Harper’s neck.
“After marriage, of course.” He winks at me.
“The crew should be pulling in here within the hour. John’s going to make a run to the house to grab some crockpots. Ben, would you like to help him?”
I look past Ben. “He’d love to, Mom, but could you give us a minute?”
She nods. “Uh-huh.”
As soon as she leaves, he chuckles. “She’s standing guard at the gates of heaven and doesn’t even realize I am now St. Benjamin, the keeper of all of Kendall’s V—”
I interrupt with a whispered, “He knows something’s going on with your father. I didn’t say anything, but—”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“What do you mean I’ll take care of it? Your dad doesn’t want anyone to know. You can’t just—”
“Sweets, I got this. You just sit there, holding that baby and soaking up all the truly good things in life.”
“We’re in this together,” I remind him.
“No one else I’d rather be in”—he winks—“anything with.”
“Ben, this is serious.”
“I know, Kendall.” He kisses the top of my head. “But I’m not gonna lie to your father. He’s my dad’s best friend.”
“Is he getting—”
“He just did a round of chemo and has to be isolated for a while.”
I gasp. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Just found out myself.”
“Oh, Ben, I’m sorry.”
“Sweets, it’s a good thing.”
I nod. “As long as you’re okay.”
“They taught me a long time ago that it was okay to have secrets, but I should never lie.” He rolls his eyes. “Worked out well for me back then.”
I stand up, holding Harper. “Are you okay?”
“Is my person okay?”
I’m confused, which makes him laugh.
“You, Kendall Ross, you’re my person. If you’re okay, then so am I.”
I can’t help smiling. “As long as my person is okay, then so am I.”
“Then we’re good, sweets. So fucking good.
Ben and Dad are gone for way too long, and all of the out-of-towners are trickling in. A few of Frank’s and Dad’s old college buddies ask Mom where the two of them are, and Mom tells them that Frank has a touch of the flu.
I’m still holding Harper like a security blanket and catch Collin looking at me often.
When Phoebe walks in with Liam, my newest nephew, I walk over and kiss her cheek. Then I turn Harper around to face him. “You two are going to be best friends.”
“They are.” Phoebe’s eyes fill with tears.
“Are you okay?”
“She’s a bit emotional,” Alex answers, and I look behind her. He has a huge box.
“What the heck is that?”
“We had shirts made for the clinic, and Phoebe decided you girls needed shirts, too.”
Her mood changes immediately. “Oh my goodness, you have to see them!” She sets Liam’s carrier on the ground and motions for Alex to set the box down.
I squat down with Harper. “Hey, Liam.”
He stares above me, at the ceiling lights.
“Can I take him out?”
I look up when I hear Ben’s voice.
“Just make sure you support his head,” Alex instructs.
He squats down and pops a kiss to my cheek. “Hey.”
“You okay?” I whisper as he unbuckles Liam.
“We.” He winks. “We’re just fine.”
“Oh my fucking—”
“Tessa,” Collin sighs loudly.
She laughs. “Look at these shirts, Abrahams. They deserve all that and then some.”
I stand up and see Tessa holding one of Phoebe’s shirts against her. It’s gray with white lettering that says Doe Camp. There’s a glass of wine representing the O in doe, and tiny doe heads inside the A and P.
Phoebe grins and claps. “Turn it around.”
Ross Farms is on the back.
“It’s amazing.” I laugh.
“Well, I’m glad you like it because I have one for all of us hunting widows.” Phoebe looks at Alex. Clearly, she’s a bit annoyed with him; and clearly, he finds it amusing.
She huffs and looks away. “Tonight, we drink.”
“Aren’t you breastfeeding?” I ask.
“Pump and dump,” Tessa and Phoebe say together then laugh.
Ben and I have unofficially become the baby keepers for the night. He has Liam, and I have Harper.
“They’re going to be best friends,” he says.
“I think so, too.”
He leans in and kisses my cheek then whispers, “Your dad knows.”
“How?”
“I told him. He’s not going to say anything, but he—”
“He shouldn’t have pried.”
“Kendall, they’ve been best friends for longer than we’ve been alive. And Dad going to b losing his hair, so it’ll be obvious when he starts feeling better. And by the way”—he smiles—“they think he’s going to kick this. And as much as I trust his team of doctors, I trust the big guy more, and every prayer helps, right?”
“Yeah, Ben, they sure do.”
The place is now packed. Jade, Ryan, their son, Luke, their daughter, Riley, and their newest addition, Jackson, are amongst us. Even Lucas and Ashley showed up with their new baby, Ava, who I swear to God above is already bright-eyed and flirtatious.
“Which one is she going to end up with?” Ben whispers. “I’m gonna go with both.”
“Jackson and Liam?”
“Nah, she’s into older men. She’s been sizing up little Luke.”
“Well, their fathers were best friends, so it would be kind of sweet.”
He nods toward Harper. “And this one’s gonna have to travel across oceans to find one who’s not related to her.”
“Or maybe just a few towns away.”
He nods. “Like us.”
“Like us.” I smile down at her.
When Alex and Collin take the babies from us to feed them from a bottle, and some of the hunting crew has left, Ben stands up. “How about some music?”
“There’s music playing, Benji,” Lucas Links states.
Ben points to him. “You missed me, didn’t you?”
Lucas scowls, and Dad chuckles as he pats Lucas’s shoulder as he walks by him.
When Ben walks to the corner of the room and grabs his guitar, I try to contain the excitement building inside of me.
I glance over at Harper, hoping she remembers what I told
her when she gets older, secretly hoping she avoids the hurt her mother endured but finds the one she will feel like she waited her entire life for but unlike me. I say a little prayer that she doesn’t guard her heart like I did.
When Ben begins to play his guitar and looks at me, the entire room fades and all I see is him.
“Love, I get so lost sometimes …”
His voice is smooth like silk. His emotions, unfiltered. His expressions, knowing. I’m lost in him, in us, in a more profound way than I believe could ever be surpassed by any physical act.
It’s sublime.
When he finishes the song, I begin to see the others, and the moment, our near-spiritual moment is passing. I wish it wouldn’t. God, how I wish it wouldn’t.
“Sing me another song, Ben Sawyer,” I say without caring who hears me.
He stands up and sets the guitar on the seat that he had just vacated.
I pout out my bottom lip, hoping to get my way, and he smiles with his eyes only as he reaches out his hand. I take it, and he pulls me up.
Before I can ask him what he’s doing, he reaches into his pocket and gets on one knee.
“Oh my God,” Phoebe gasps.
“I know we have rules, timelines, and promises that we will never break, but this thing, this once in a lifetime, firsthand love needs to be uninterrupted from now until my last breath, Kendall Ross.” He opens the box, and a beautiful, solitaire diamond is staring at me, nearly blinding me. “So, what do you say, Kendall? Will you let me put this ring on you as a token of our love? Something you look at when we’re apart to remind you there never really was, and there never will be, another girl for me.”
I nod, and he smiles.
“Just so we’re clear, this is me, on one knee, in front of the people you love, the people I will love as your husband, asking you to marry me.”
“I do.” I laugh at my choice of words. “I mean, yes. Yes, I will marry you.”
“Did she say I do?” Phoebe laughs as Ben lifts me up, spins me around, and kisses me as we laugh against each other’s lips.
When he sets me down, I still feel like I’m floating. Then he walks over and grabs something else off the chair. I look closer. It’s his phone.
Holding it to his ear, he walks over to me and laughs into it. “She said yes.” He leans in so I can hear, too.
“Well, we have a lot of work to do then, don’t we?” It’s Frank.
Tears burn my eyes as I look at my fiancé and fall deeper, knowing the man I will marry, the one I will spend the rest of my life with, no matter what hardships we endure, will no doubt love me like he does his family.
“Haven’t sprung that idea on her yet, Dad.” Ben laughs.
“Well, you better. Your mom hasn’t talked about anything else all week. She’s counting on this, son. And I should remind you that that new daughter of mine has a mean streak a mile long when it comes to my Huck, so you disappoint her, your future kids will think you’re the antichrist.”
Laughing and, yes, crying, I ask, “What’s this idea?”
“You and my boy will be tying the knot here at Sawyer Hills.”
“Dad, my Huck and I need to discuss—”
“I think that sounds perfect.”
“Of course it’s perfect. It’s going to be your home after all,” Frank states.
“It already feels like it, Frank.”
Ben looks at me and mouths, “I fucking love you.”
35
Take My Breath Away
Ben
The camp is empty. It’s just her and me and the CD I have of my newest pain-in-the-ass musician slaughtering my words in the background.
“I can’t believe I’m dancing with my future wife to this shit.”
“I can’t believe my future husband wrote a song called ‘Secondhand Heartbreak.’”
“Every song on that album will contain something about the way we fell. He just better get on board and listen to me, or I will pull the rights and find someone else to do it the way it needs to be done.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because I have no desire to sing for anyone but you anymore. Because you showed me I could have my music and home, too. Because I don’t need the spotlight to draw attention to myself. I have my person.”
“I just want to make sure that, if it’s something you even feel that you may need in the future—”
“You, Kendall Ross, soon-to-be Sawyer,” I cut her off, “are the only audience I’ll ever need.”
“Then sing me a song, Ben Sawyer.”
“I’ll sing you songs for the rest of my life, but I need to tell you something that’s coming up.” I fucking hate this shit.
“Okay.” She narrows her eyes a bit.
I take a step back, take her hand, and walk to the couch.
“Ben, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, but … well, yeah.”
“Sawyer, spill it.”
So I do. “You know I’m done with the Murphey Brothers?”
She nods and looks away.
“Well, they’ve been invited to the American Music Awards.”
She nods.
“I wouldn’t even go, but apparently, one of my songs is up for song of the year and—”
“Oh my God!” She lunges at me and hugs me. “Oh my God, Ben, congratulations!”
“I mean, it’s cool, but …” When she pulls back and looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, I can’t help laughing. “It’s really fucking cool, but it means I may not be home for Thanksgiving.”
“So?” She laughs. “We’ll have turkey when you get back.”
“Sweets, I’ve been dreaming of Thanksgiving.”
“Oh … Oh! Um, yeah, um …”
“I’m not going.”
She sits back and looks up at the ceiling. “Yes, you are, Ben. Don’t be silly.”
“I’d rather be face-first between your legs—”
She sits up and looks at me sternly. “And you can be … anytime. This is a once in a lifetime …” She stops when I reach over and pop the buttons on her jeans.
“You said anytime, and I’m fucking starving.” I run my fingers across her waist while leaning in. She leans back, and I push her shirt up to kiss her trim belly. Running my nose along her skin, I inhale and tell her, “You smell delicious.”
She sits up and pushes me back. “I’m gonna need a minute.”
Shocked, I ask, “For what?”
She doesn’t answer me. She simply stands up and marches to the bathroom.
She’s been in there for fifteen minutes, and I am pretty damn certain she’s somehow managed to sneak out the window. That is, until the door opens and she’s standing in one of Phoebe’s Doe Camp t-shirt that just hides just her panties.
“You okay?”
She nods once then narrows her eyes. “Let’s do this.”
I bite the corner of my lower lip, and she rolls her eyes as she walks back to the new addition.
I hurry toward her and grab her around the waist, pulling her back against me and kissing the top of her head while silently chuckling.
She elbows me. Hard, too.
“I’m sorry, but you came out here looking hot as fuck, and then you say let’s do this like you’re leaving a sideline huddle, going out on the field to play ball, sweets.”
“Well, it’s kind of like that, now isn’t it?”
“Sure as hell doesn’t have to be.” I laugh, and she elbows me again.
I spin her around to face me. “I’m gonna need you to take a deep breath and trust that I know what I’m doing.”
“And I’m gonna need you to not say stuff like that to me.”
“Like what?”
“Like, oh, I’m Ben Sawyer who’s been literally around the world and you’re—”
“Fucking treasured.”
She flops her head back and lets out an exaggerated sigh.
“If you don’t want to do this …”
“I wanted to b
e a little bit prepared, okay?”
“Don’t you overthink this. As a matter of fact, don’t think about it at all, just lie there and feel, sweets.”
She pulls her head forward and looks at me. “I showered more than twelve hours ago. I wanted to, I don’t know, spruce things up.”
I scrub my hand up and down my face, trying to hide my amusement.
“See? That right there is going to make me the opposite of relaxed, Ben.”
“Well, don’t make it sound like you went in there and hung a fucking air freshener over your pussy.”
“Oh my God, you did not just say that to me.”
“Yeah, I did. And for future reference, when I want to taste you, I wanna taste you. If we’re camping and haven’t showered in two days and I want to bury my face between your sexy as fuck thighs, we’re not gonna take a Summer’s Eve commercial break.”
“You’re such a dick,” she says, trying not to laugh.
“I don’t need you waxed and polished. I want to know that, while I was singing to you, your little cotton panties got wet and the thought of me made you a bit messy, and I get to lick you clean.”
“Well, I’m shaved and washed, so if that’s not going to work for you, I could go find a mud puddle to sit in.”
I laugh out loud, and she shoves me lightly.
“How about we do this another time?”
“You just want to go to bed?” I ask, knowing damn well that’s not going to happen but hoping she’ll feel less pressure.
She nods, and I take her hand.
“Sounds good.”
She climbs in bed, and her shirt pulls up. I can see she’s not wearing any underwear.
“Wanna get the light?” she asks, slowly turning and sitting on the bed.
I nod and pull my shirt over my head, tossing it on the chair.
I love the way she looks me over without hiding the fact that it’s precisely what she’s doing.
I unbutton and drop my pants, my dick growing harder every second inside my black boxer briefs. Then I turn around and look over my shoulder, watching her eye-fuck my ass and curl her toes into the sheets on the full-sized bed.
I turn off the light then turn; thankful the moon is partially lighting up the room but barely. I walk to the edge of the bed and climb up, pulling her feet apart while doing so, and she’s not fighting it.
