Jack chuckled, and for once it felt like our roles were reversed and I was the one to miss the joke. “Nope. He picked ‘em up about an hour ago.”
“Oh.”
I took the stairs up. I wanted to ask so, so badly why he’d watched them, but that suddenly felt intrusive. Which was weird after Ben and I had been all but attached at the hip.
“He asked about you,” Jack said, pushing the front door open.
I tried and failed to crush my rising hope. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “Seemed like he missed you.”
It felt like my hope lifted me clear off the ground. I floated into the living room. The dogs lay by the fire, sprawled out in exhaustion. They saw me, and with what looked like a heroic effort, they heaved themselves up and came over, tails wagging.
I crouched down and hugged them both. “Hi, you two. I missed you.”
The dogs whined and cried like we’d been apart a year instead of a week. Fred nearly knocked me over. Sam tried to crawl into my lap, whimper-howling in a way that made me want to promise that I would never leave them again.
Dogs. They’ll break your frigging heart.
Eventually I calmed them down enough to take them out and buckle them into the truck. I paused at the driver’s side door. “Thanks again for this, Jack.”
“Anytime. Hey, maybe give Ben a call before you head home.” He held his hands up. “Just a suggestion from a meddling old man.”
“I’ll think about it,” I told him.
I got into the truck and put it in reverse. What would I even say to Ben right now? Which of the seven hundred and eighty-six scenarios that I’d thought of on the drive up was the right one?
I made it to the end of the driveway, lost the battle with myself, and shifted into park and pulled out my phone. Instead of calling, I texted, because I had no idea if I could handle speaking to him without breaking down. I had a few voicemails from him saved on my phone that I’d listened to on repeat over the past few weeks, and they always made me cry.
Hi,I texted. Simple. So simple it didn’t have to mean a goddamn thing.
Hi,he immediately responded.You back yet? Jack said you were on your way.
My pulse spiked, adrenaline flaring like I was getting ready to run a race.Yeah. Just picked up the dogs.
Want to swing by?he asked.
Yes,I answered.
The butterflies in my stomach shapeshifted into a herd of stampeding wildebeests that seemed hell-bent on trying to break free. I felt like I could laugh or cry or vomit. Maybe all three at once.
That had gone so much better than anything I’d rehearsed. In all my scenarios, I was the one to broach the subject of meeting, carefully, and without strings attached. That Ben immediately invited me over gave me so much hope to cling to that if this went sideways, I’d be beyond devastated. I’d be wrecked to the point that I didn’t know if I could ever come back fro –
“No,” I told myself, shaking my head against those thoughts.
I couldn’t allow myself to think of worst-case scenario right now. I was about to see him face-to-face for the first time in over a month. I needed to focus on that, take it one step at a time.
I pulled into Ben’s driveway a few minutes later. He stood on the porch waiting for me, a big, looming shadow because the sun had just slipped over the horizon. He stepped into the floodlights, and the sightwas enough to still my heart. He wore jeans and a blue button-down. His hair fell in loose waves to his shoulders, stirred by the breeze. He tucked it behind his ears as he took the stairs down.
I got out of the vehicle and unbuckled the dogs before he reached us. They padded straight over to him.
“It’s only been an hour, you two,” he said, leaning down to pet them. The sound of his deep voice rumbled through the twilight. Hearing it felt like coming home. He straightened, and our gazes caught, a half-smile still frozen on his face. “Ella,” he said.
“Ben.”
And then I was moving forward. I didn’t even question this overwhelming need to hug him. There was some invisible force, drawing us together. The look of open longing on his face made it clear I wouldn’t be rebuffed.
What I didn’t anticipate was him hauling me completely off the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life to keep from slipping.
