They said goodbye and Liam was left staring at his phone in bemusement. Yeah, he knew where Ben’s old room was. He knew the room far too well. It was where he and Ben had spent so much time, through somany stages of their young lives. Innocent childhood games, Seth often included, and different kinds of games later, ones Seth was definitelynotpart of.
Ben and Liam had snuck in and out of that room through the door, down the hallway right past Calvin’s room; or through the window, hanging and dropping or clambering up the wall using the window sills as roosting points. None of it had beennecessary—Calvin hadn’t been the curfew type and had been more likely to make fun of misbehavior rather than punishing for it, but sneaking had been part of the fun.
Part of it. But being with Ben had been the main draw. And Liam had thrown it all away.
Now he was going back to wallow in it all.
No, he was going back to help build a damn house for a family struggling with poverty.
It madealmost less sense, really, but it was what he’d agreed to. Well, what he’d failed tonotagree to, at least.
Stupid decision. Absolutely the wrong time for it, from Liam’s perspective. And from Ben’s? Because, of course, that was what this was really all about. It would have been easy to say “no” to Calvin if this had just been one of the old guy’s crazy projects. But it was a crazy projectwith the likelihood of Ben time, so weak, stupid Liam had been powerless to resist. Now that he was off the phone, though, now that the first burst of excitement had started to fade, he remembered Ben’s distinct lack of enthusiasm at Liam’s last visit. There was absolutely no reason to think Ben was looking for a repeat performance.
But Ben hadn’t been the one to invite him. Ben might not evenbeat the project. Just because he was Ben the Kind, Ben the Generous, Ben the People Person, Ben who probablystartedthe damn Community Circle? None of that meant Ben would be at this particular event. Calvin hadn’t mentioned him, Liam hadn’t mentioned him, and it wasn’t like North Falls wasn’t Liam’s hometown at least as much as it was Ben’s.
Liam was really looking forward to helping out andgiving back. He was excited about little—he took a quick peek at the online article—little Julia Bindermans’s new home. Nothing to do with Ben. Just being a good guy and helping out.
Liam clicked his laptop lid down and pushed away from the table where he’d been working. He needed to get some sleep, needed to make sure he was well rested. He had a big day ahead of him, and a big weekend afterthat.
He headed for the bathroom to clean up, then to bed, and he thought about North Falls all the way. The project, and who he might see there, and no, of course, no expectations, but, still, if they were spending time together….
Just harmless daydreams. That was all.
Liam let himself fall asleep with thoughts of Ben and North Falls dancing through his head instead of the work-related ideasthat had been occupying him all week, and his sleep was long and peaceful.
BEN HADalways liked building things, and building a home for a student at his school was even more satisfying than regular projects. And, if he was being honest with himself, it was nice to have a distraction from all the thoughts of Liam and all the speculation about what might have been, if things had been onlya little bit different. If they’d been more mature, more able to handle a relationship back in college. If Liam hadn’t been such a cheating bastard. If—and this one was tougher to think about, but also more intriguing—if Liam hadn’t had to leave the week before. If he’d stayed, if he and Ben had talked, if they’d both said all the right things at all the right times? What would have happened?
Maybe nothing. Maybe seeing each other again, clearing the air, and moving on had been the best resolution to it all. But what if… oh, damn, what if….
“You’re looking bright and cheerful,” Dinah said from the big chair on her front porch. She must have been watching him as he walked down the street and he’d been too involved in his thoughts to even notice. Damn, had he been making faces? He waspretty sure he hadn’t actually wrapped his arms around himself and started rubbing while he smooched the air, so things weren’t as bad as they could have been.
He pulled himself together enough to respond. “It’s a beautiful day, I’m going to be with beautiful people, and we’re going to do a beautiful thing. How could Inotbe cheerful?”
“Beautiful people?” she said. “Does that mean Calvin toldyou? When I heard, I was worried he hadn’t.”
“Told me what? Heard what?”
“About Liam? Seth just called from the site—I’m surprised he didn’tsleepover there, he’s so wrapped up in all this. If I wasn’t pregnant, he probably would have—and he said Calvin showed up withLiam. And—you didn’t know he was there. He wasn’t who you meant by ‘beautiful people.’” Dinah clearly saw the confusion on Ben’sface and was generous enough to give him a little time to recover. “So you must have meantmeas the beautiful people! You must have noticed my glow! Yes, some people would say it’s just gestational hypertension, but you and I know the truth, right?”
“You always look beautiful,” Ben said absently. Then, “Why wouldLiamcome to this?”
“I can only imagine,” Dinah said, her tone dry.
Ben squintedat her. What was she trying to say? “He’s here already? From the city?”
“Came up last night, apparently. Stayed at Calvin’s.”
Calvin. Of course. After all these years, Ben should have learned. At the first sign of anything confusing or hard to explain, he should just assume Uncle Calvin had caused it and move on with his life. Bermuda Triangle, crop circles, weeping statues—Uncle Calvin’s work,all of it. Liam coming back to North Falls? Maybe Uncle Calvin hadn’t been responsible for thefirstvisit (or for all the unnoticed visits that had apparently come before, if they were even real) but Calvin had definitely been doing everything he could to get Liam back ever since. And he was Uncle Calvin, so he succeeded in causing mischief where a mere mortal would have failed and surrenderedthe effort.
“He’s going to help?” Ben asked. “With the house? That’s why he’s here?”
“Apparently,” Dinah said.
Well, it was pretty hard for Ben to object to a certified architect taking part in a charitable building project. And pretty hard for Ben to withdraw his own participation, considering he was the one who’d brought the Bindermans’s plight to the Community Circle’s attention. Which meanthe’d better start getting his game face on: more Liam time was imminent.
“Seth said he was helpful with the raspberries,” Dinah said. She set down the book she’d been reading and pulled herself upright. She and Ben had arranged to walk over to the work site together, but Ben wondered if there was a way he could suggest they drive. He actually wondered if there was a way he could suggest thatDinah stay home with her feet up; she wasn’t hugely pregnant yet and she was good with tools, but, really, she was pregnantenough, and there were lots of people who’d promised to help out. Was there really any need for Dinah’s body to do more work than it already was?
But Dinah was the best judge of that, of course. And Seth would have already brought the topic up, surely. So….
