“If you were really my girlfriend, I would want to take you on dates every day,” Benson adds.
“Same.” I smirk when her eyes go wide. “What, scared you’ll like our company?”
“Well, I’m willing to spend some time with you here at the farm. And we can talk about appropriate date frequency. Obviously I’ll need to be seen with you out in public, but daily seems a little excessive,” she mumbles.
“How can something be a little excessive? Either it’s excessive, or it’s not,” Benson points out, lifting a brow, and she rolls her eyes at him.
“Fine, daily dates would be excessive,” she says flatly, but my brother shrugs.
“Maybe, but that's one of my hard rules.” He leans in, taking her hand in his. “I don’t want people to think I don’t know how to take care of my omega.” He tilts his head as he watches her response to his words. “I’m not saying you have to spend all day every day with me. It can be little visits. Like meeting the two of us for coffee before work or grabbing a quick lunch. Small things, just so people see the three of us together.”
It all sounds reasonable, like he’s trying to protect his reputation while still helping her out, but I know it’s more than that.
We need to see her as often as possible for any of this to work. Not to fool everyone into thinking this is real, but because the only way to get Plum to be comfortable with us is for us to always be near her. She’ll never see it as more than surface level otherwise.
“Okay, I guess that’s more reasonable than I was imagining.”
“Perfect.”
“About Sable and Stella,” she says, switching tracks. “We need to tell them, but maybe we can wait until we’re more comfortable with each other, in case they start grilling us? Obviously, I can’t tell either of them this is fake, but...” She shrugs as her words trail off.
“This is our little secret, then.” Benson lifts his hand, pinkie out for Plum. I lift mine as well, holding it out to her.
“Our little secret,” she agrees, linking her pinkies with both of ours, hands trembling slightly. I can tell she’s about to run, so I’m not surprised by her next words. “Okay, not to ditch you after that, but I have so much work to do. Benson showed me the wall, and it’s huge, so I need every spare minute to make enough ornaments for your shop, plus the charity event on the twenty-third.”
“Sounds good,” Benson says, and I nod my agreement. We’ll give her time to adjust, and when the moment is right, we’ll act.
“Great! Oh, and I’ll give you two jars of jam for this!” Plum adds, practically vibrating on her feet. She bounces up, pressing a delicate kiss to my cheek before doing the same with Benson. “So, I’ll see you both tomorrow, right? Just making sure.”
There’s that self-doubt. In almost all other ways, Plum is the most confident woman I know. She doesn’t take shit from anyone, defends her friends fiercely, and knows her worth. Except when it comes to matters of her heart and facing rejection.
“Right.” Benson nods, and we both watch her as she bites her lip and then slips out of the dining room without another word.
“So, about Kai,” I say slowly when she should be far enough not to overhear us. I turn to my brother, arms crossed over my chest. “Do we need to dig a twelve-foot hole, or…?”
“Or.” He sighs heavily, staring at the empty doorway like he’s waiting for Plum to walk back in. “For now.” His gaze darkens, and he turns to face me. “He wants her back, and she still loves him. It’s obvious; she wouldn’t be going through with all this otherwise.” He gestures between us, and I tilt my head, thinking about his words.
“So, we wait until she decides what she wants once and for all, and if she truly never wants him back, then we step in,” I say, and my brother agrees.
“Honestly, I don’t think him suddenly giving her the cold shoulder would help her, and so far he hasn’t done anything harmful. We’ll do what you said. We wait. Make her happy until then.”
“Alright.” I drop my hands to my sides and head for the door, but he stops me.
“You’re all in too, right?”
“You doubted that?” I ask, and he shrugs, smirking.
“I don’t anymore.”
Chapter Eight
“If I really was your girlfriend, I would be a horrible one.” I huff into my phone, annoyed with myself, but Benson just chuckles.
“Nah. It’s been a busy two and a half weeks, Sugarplum. We’re all doing our best. Nick and I have been just as busy since the Christmas Village opened. It ran for six hours total last weekend, and we’ve spent the last six days getting ready for tonight.”
“I didn’t think my ornaments would sell as well as they did,” I admit. Last Saturday Nick arrived bright and early in the morning on opening night of the Christmas Village to help me set up my ornaments in their farm shop, and that night, out of the seventy-five I managed to bring, I only had thirty left by the end of Sunday night.
I sold over half my supply in two nights. Which was amazing and wonderful, but also a bit distressing. I need twenty for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving charity event, as well as enough stocked for not only this weekend in the farm shop but also the following four weekends. Once wedding festivities start, I’ll have some time between wedding events and Christmas activities to make more, but not much. Not enough.
