Agitated, he ran his hand through his hair, and I took all of him in. It was unsettling how gorgeous he was, how smart and extremely wise. My mind rambled.It’s crazy how he sees through my excuses.
“Whatever,” I said with a shrug. “I’m here and I’m trying, okay? I’m not mocking anyone, and I happen to like it here. This place is speaking to my soul. Think of this as a rebirth.”
Ben scowled at me. “You’re joking.”
Pulling my hand out of my pocket, I mentally chastised myself for nervously wringing my hands. “I. Am. Not. Joking. I’m here to buy some things for my apartment,” I said, defending my right to be at the farmers’ market. Which was absurd.
Ben’s stiff posture seemed to relax. “If so, did you hit up my family’s booth? Get your syrup fix yet?”
I shook my head. “No, I just got here. I was talking to Hunnie, taking care of that first.”
“Come on. I came to see if my mom was here. I need to drop off a prescription from a colleague for her migraines.” He took my hand again, this time less roughly but still firmly. This Ben—adult Ben—was in charge.
All of a sudden, I wanted to cut and run. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m wearing white shorts, and Hunnie says that’s a bad thing around here.” I scanned around us, desperately looking for someone else daring to wear white.
“Who is Hunnie, the fashion police? Last time I checked, she ran a hippie-dippie honey-infusion bullshit business and wants to do goat yoga on the side, taking my dad along for the ride.” Ben spoke while taking two or three big strides and then stopped to look at me again. His gaze burned through me, searching for the truth.
“Goat yoga? She didn’t mention that, but it would make for amazing publicity.” A million images spun through my head, mostly of Hunnie in her braids, leaning over and kissing a goat.
“It doesn’t matter what Hunnie mentioned,” Ben said. “I know how her head works. She’ll jump from one crazy thing to another. She’s another one who’s never happy with the status quo and has to constantly be trying out something new. Not that it’s bad, but my family has a good thing going on here, and it doesn’t need to change.”
“Do you have a thing with her?” I asked. “Is that why you’re making fun of her? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk so poorly about someone, Ben Rooney. Other than me.” My mouth snapped shut as soon as I heard the words spilling out of me.
“Hunnie?” Ben gave me a confused look. “Uh, no. We grew up together. You know, like splashing in the kiddie pool naked kind of way. I most definitely do not have a thing for her, and I wasn’t being mean. I was just saying she’s not the fashion authority, telling you what you can and can’t wear to the farmers’ market. And no, I won’t support her petting zoo with my dad. He has enough on his hands. I help when I can, and I’m not shoveling goat shit.”
Ben ignored the comment about me, obviously refusing to admit to liking me back in the day. Of course, I was too stuck up to realize it then.
“Speaking of, shouldn’t you be at work?” I asked.
My attitude seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to Ben. Gone were my manners, and I was left with only snark and sass. Embarrassed and needing something to do, I shoved a strand of hair behind my ear and caught my fingernail on my hoop earring like a clumsy idiot.
“Ouch,” I muttered, trying to get my finger loose without tearing my earlobe.
“Here.” Ben reached over with his gentle surgeon hands and freed my nail. “There you go,” he said, his voice the perfect combination of softness and gruff. Happy-go-lucky Ben was back.
“Now, let’s go see my mom.” Grabbing my elbow, he started walking again, giving me no choice in the matter.
“By the way, what kind of doctor are you?” I asked, trying to keep up with his pace.
“Orthopedic surgeon. All the skiing is good business for me up here. Knees, hips, broken legs. Summer is a windfall of biking incidents. Kind of funny, all things I don’t have much time to do myself.”
“Oh.” I had to stop sayingoh.My mom’s voice rang in my head, chastising me for one-word answers. She’d told me a million times that one-word answers didn’t make me sound interesting. “I’m sure it’s more than that. It always was with you. Nothing was as it seemed on the surface. You always tried too hard to come off as on the surface, but you were way deeper.”
Glancing at me, he grumbled, “Something like that, for sure.”
5
Ben
What am I doing, taking Murphy to meet my mom?
“Speaking of deep,” I said, searching for the words. “Murphy isn’t an everyday name like Sarah or Rebecca.”
“So? It’s my name and I can’t change it. Being here is change enough. I’m doing the best I can.” Murphy stopped short, planting her feet, her green eyes blazing. If possible, they were even greener in the sunlight than her blouse.
“Roll with me here. My mom is smart—she’s going to put two and two together when I introduce you. She’s going to remember we went to prom. She’s going to ask about where you’ve been all these years, and while I don’t like to use Google, my mom is a sleuth without it.”
This got Murphy’s attention, and not in a good way, judging by her squinty eyes and the crease in her brow.
