Ben came to a stop, forcing Thomas to look at him. “It’s whatever. I need it to be whatever, please?”
Every bone in his body urged him to fight Ben on this. It was impossible to picture Ben in a situation like that, and then not to wonder what if Kenzie or Dakota ever found themselves in an abusive relationship. He thought about what he would do if anyone ever dared to raise a hand to either of his kids…
“If that’s what you want,” he finally said, jaw clenched.
“We weren’t together long.” Ben smoothed his hands down the front of Thomas’s shirt, trying to settle him like a skittish horse. “It was just a blip.”
It had been more than a blip, he realized. Ben had been so accusatory about the cheating, and now that he looked back, Thomas could see the little ways Ben had reacted tohimthat had clearly been triggered as a result of whatever had happened with the ex. But he didn’t want to stick his finger in the wound and make things worse. If Ben wanted to move on from it, Thomas wasn’t going to stop him. Thomas was trying to do his own kind of moving on, and while Jennifer hadn’t been abusive toward him, their engagements in the marriage had been far from perfect. He appreciated the importance of being able to put space between bad relationships and good ones in order to save the latter.
“It was just a blip,” he repeated, pulling Ben close and kissing the top of his head.
Ben leaned against him, heart beating frantically, and Thomas held him until his pulse slowed and then steadied.
“Thank you,” Ben murmured. “For understanding. For just…letting me be.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He tipped Ben’s chin up and dropped a gentle kiss against the corner of his mouth. “You’ve given me space to be; you deserve the same.”
Ben closed his eyes, long brown lashes fanning out against his cheeks. He looked peaceful, but Thomas could feel the tension that still lingered just beneath his skin.
“Are you ready to get home?” he asked, dreams of gelato long forgotten.
“Yeah. Thank you.” Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys, pressing them against Thomas’s chest. “But can you drive?”
He nodded, taking Ben’s hand and walking the long way around the block back to where Ben had parked. He drove them back to Ben’s apartment in silence, walked him upstairs and offered to leave, but Ben pulled him inside and kissed that idea right out of his mind.
CHAPTER17
BEN
Seven daysafter running into Cody, Ben still wasn’t sure his heart rate had returned to normal. Thomas had been lovely in the way he handled things—perfect, even—but the fact that the encounter had left him feeling so unsettled was enough to make him realize he needed to do some work on dealing with the fallout of that relationship.
He went to the pool, thinking that a few laps would be enough to help him clear his head, but the time underwater only forced him to think longer and harder about it. Ben went to the sauna to work out the tightness in his muscles from swimming because he’d been out of the water for so long, and even though he loved the way he sweat and burned in the wet heat of the sauna, it also wasn’t enough.
So, he called Lara.
She showed up at his apartment an hour after they hung up, bearing gifts in the form of a tray of iced coffee and a bag of cupcakes slathered with so much frosting they made his teeth hurt just looking at them. His hair was still wet from the pool, and he shoved it away from his face while Lara wiggled the cups of coffee out of the cardboard carrier.
“Why did you get four coffees?” he asked, watching her reach into his cabinets and pull out all of his clean glasses.
“We’re having a tasting.” She proceeded to pop off the lids and split the four coffees between eight glasses. He didn’t even realize he had eight drinking glasses.
“I would have preferred wine or champagne if that was the case.”
“You sounded upset.”
“Exactly.”
She rolled her eyes at him and gathered as many of the glasses in her hands as she could. “Come help me. Be useful.”
Ben followed her to the dining room, returning for the cupcakes so Lara could arrange the coffee flights in whatever manner she felt best suited them. He sat down at the table and let her fuss over everything until she took the empty seat beside him.
“Our first coffee is a dark cold brew with maple cream.” She slid one of the glasses toward him and he took a small sip. It was good enough, and the maple wasn’t cloying. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”
He chuckled and set the coffee down on the table. “You’re not even going to let me get warmed up?”
“It’s not alcoholic so it doesn’t matter, but nice try.”
“You planned this,” he groaned.
