The middle console with the folding table was back in the upright position, my butt having taken its place. Had I fallen asleep like this, orhad my unconscious body inchwormed its way over here and draped itself on top of Ben sometime during the night? I was pretty sure I’d remember this level of snuggling, but for the life of me, I couldn’t. I must have done it while sleeping.
My subconscious was a lustful, traitorous bitch.
“Good morning,” Ben said, voice low and gravelly.
I scooted away from him. “I just punched you. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure I deserved it.”
“We fell asleep.”
All hail Ella. Queen of the Obvious.
He grinned. “You first.”
“Was there…snoring?”
His grin gained a mocking edge. “Oh yeah. You woke the dogs up with it. I think they thought a bear was trying to break into the house. You quieted down once you decided I made a better pillow than the headrest, though.”
I leapt from the couch. My hamstring muscle cramped on landing and I almost toppled over sideways.
Ben sat up. “Are you okay?”
“The dogs! They have to go pee-poop.”
I snapped my mouth closed, horrified that I’d let slip the stupid sing-song expression I used when I let them out –You guys have to go pee-poop? –and shambled my way toward the front door like an overripe zombie with rotleg.
“Ella Jones,” Ben said from behind me. “Are youembarrassed?”
“No!” I called over my shoulder as I fled.
His laughter followed me outside.
The dogs raced into the darkness. I shut the door behind me and walked from the spill of porchlight into the shadows at the edge of the deck. My palms hit the railing, and I recoiled. It was freezing out, socold that it felt like the wood had seared my skin. An image of Flick’s tongue stuck to that pole flashed through my mind.
I wrapped my arms around myself and stepped side to side in my thick woolen socks to minimize the danger of frostbite. I couldn’t go back in for my boots. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I’d seen a lot of car heist movies. Maybe I could hotwire the truck and peel out of there without ever having to see Ben again.
To answer his question: yes, I was embarrassed. I had been transmogrified from a human woman into a being made of humiliation and regret. So much for keeping my distance. So much for letting him decide things. He invited me over and I moved myself right in. Right on top of him, even.
The front door opened. I did my best to disappear into the darkness.
I am night. You cannot see me, mortal.
Ben walked right up to me, deflecting my Jedi mind powers with an ease that made me fear he was a Sith Lord in disguise. He held out a heavy coat. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took it and pulled it on. It was one of his, and it absolutely swamped me. God, did it smell good. Like vetiver and sandalwood and frankincense.
“Ella, where are your boots?”
Who had night vision this good? What was he, a werewolf? “Uh…I must have left them inside.”
He went back in and grabbed them, and I quickly pulled them on.
“I’m sorry, Ella” he said.
I wanted to shout at him to stop saying my name. Hearing it on his lips made me want to rise up and steal it off of them with my own.
His tone was full of regret when he spoke again. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
He was too nice. I couldn’t do this. I was going to succumb beneath the weight of this crush. My gravestone would read: Beware! Kindness reallydoeskill.
