Ben stepped into the hallway with his phone, and poor Branson followed with his head lowered like he was walking the plank.
“What about you?” Scott asked me. “Do you have to call Hunnie? Or you don’t work on Friday?”
“I only work for Hunnie part-time. Actually, I often work Fridays. I’m a barista at the Bean. Luckily, I’m off tomorrow but I’m back on Sunday, opening shift.”
“Over in Colebury? Zara and Audrey’s place?”
I nodded.
“I know the Shipleys. Griffin’s a good friend of mine,” Scott said with a smirk. “Oh, I don’t think you would know about that. He and Zara had a thing, but that’s long over.”
Defending my bosses, I said, “I don’t even think I want to know.”
“Ha.” Scott was teasing me again, and I found myself missing the warmth of Ben’s palm on my knee. Scott was obviously nice and successful, but way too much of a flirt for me. I wondered if he carried a torch for Brenna, since he kept asking about her. “Griff makes the best cider. We serve it sometimes with our platters if he has a new one he wants to share.”
I leaned forward and plucked what felt like my hundredth piece of salami from the board. “I’m sorry, but I’m so hungry.”
“That’s what it’s there for. Do you want something to drink? Water? Wine? Coffee? Cider? You’ve got me thinking about it now.”
A blush crept up my cheeks. “I’ve never had cider.”
“Well then, it’s decided. We’ll have a drink when they get back in here, since you have to spend the night.”
Ben came back into the room, leaving Branson out in the hall on the phone.
“You trust him to tell the truth?” I blurted to Ben. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. It’s just if it were me at his age, I’d lie through my teeth to my parents.”
Ben shook his head. “I trust him. He’s not going to lie. Branson wasn’t raised that way. He wants to be cool for the girls,” he said to me, then focused on Scott. “But he’s also protective of Brenna.”
“Hey, it wasn’t me who knocked her up,” Scott said quietly.
“I know that you weren’t, but you were the one who dumped her as a friend when he went off to agriculture school.”
“Man, I was eighteen. I didn’t know my ass from my elbow.”
“I get it,” Ben said. “Never mind. What’s done is done. Listen, thanks for doing this. I don’t know why I didn’t pay more attention to the weather and the road.”
“No worries. Like I said, your sister meant a lot to me back in the day, and we’re all neighbors here.”
“I was distracted by this beauty,” Ben said out of nowhere, taking my hand in his. “And Branson’s behavior,” he added, squeezing my hand. “I can’t fail him. Or you. That’s why this was a major error.”
He’d taken his seat on the couch next to me as soon as he came back into the room, which was possessive enough, but now he was pulling out the big guns. Based on my racing heart, it was working.
“Well, you’re here now,” Scott said, “and your lady here said she’s never had hard cider, so we were thinking of having a glass before dinner.”
Ben shrugged. “Why not? If we’re stuck here.”
“Come on, let’s go into the kitchen and I’ll see what I have. Tell Branson to meet us there. I have some root beer too.”
The rest of the evening passed easily with cider flowing, along with tales of Brenna over grilled steaks. Before I knew it, Scott was showing Ben and me to a guest room and setting Branson up in the basement with a movie.
25
Ben
“What should I sleep in?” Murphy slipped out from the bathroom, her cheeks ruddy from the cider.
“Nothing?” I raised an eyebrow, hoping for the best, and she frowned.
