Ben held back a snort.Yeah, right under my nose, but it’s thewrongperson.
“Don’t jump to any conclusions and marry me off, Mum. It’s early days yet.”
“I’m just glad you’ve found someone, darling, and I can finally stop worrying about you.”
If only you knew.
They ended the conversation not long afterwards. Ben continued to sit on the bed long after he disconnected the call. He was so mixed up. On one hand, glad that he’d made his mother so happy, but on the other, uncomfortable that what he was doing didn’t feel right.
Putting those thoughts aside, he finally stood up and finished getting dressed.
* * *
“So,Cameron, it doesn’t look like you’ve done much more around the place since we were last here,” Spence said, eyeing the house before him. It had definitely seen better days.
“Shows how little you know, buddy. Check this out.” He walked over to the door that led to the kitchen and reached inside the doorframe for the light switch. Immediately huge lights under the eaves lit up—not exactly spectacular in the light of the day, but they’d obviously be great at night.
Spence congratulated him on the new outdoor lighting but couldn’t help a glance at Mel while he thought about the peeling paint on the walls that would be illuminated.Oh well, small steps.
Cameron’s place wasn’t large: only two bedrooms and a fairly poky living room, but on a great block of land. A bit like Ben, he’d bought a run-down place as soon as he could afford to do so and had grand plans to do it up. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as motivated as Ben and hadn’t really done a lot to it, despite being an electrician and having many of the skills needed to do up a house. He blamed his lack of progress on not having enough time, and his work as an electrical contractor did indeed keep him busy. However, Cameron’s lack of progress was mostly due to his natural inclination to spend time helping others rather than working on his own place.
Luckily, Mel knew Cameron and forgave him for his priorities, although that didn’t stop her dropping broad hints for the jobs she’d like done around their place. “Cameron’s going around to Ben’s tomorrow to give him a hand with rewiring the bedrooms.” She looked from Spencer to Cameron. “Maybe you could tackle our bedrooms next?”
“Sure, hon.” Cameron pecked her on the cheek, then winked at Spence. “The hard work of a good electrician is never done. Don’t know what you guys would do without me.”
Mel rolled her eyes. “God, you’ve got a big head.”
Cameron grinned broadly. “There’s no denying it. At least Ben appreciates my awesome talents, even if you don’t.”
“Urgh.” Mel ducked from under his arm and headed over to where Suzie was setting the table. It was a gorgeous afternoon, so they’d decided to eat outside and make the most of the afternoon sunshine.
“Speaking of Ben, he couldn’t be here today,” Cameron said as he crossed to the barbeque.
Spence’s breath hitched at the news he wouldn’t be seeing Ben today, but he aimed for casualness. “Oh, yeah?”
Cam passed across a pair of tongs, and Spence automatically started placing marinated chicken skewers on the barbeque. The chicken sizzled as it hit the hotplate.
“He has a job that needs to be completed by the end of the month,” Cameron said. “He didn’t want to leave it until the last minute, as the weather forecast is predicting rain next week.”
“Yeah. He’s very keen to get the job finished,” Suzie piped up. “He’s hoping for lots of referrals, so a good job on time is really important. You know he has built that business up from scratch and is getting a great reputation. He was even talking about bringing on another couple of guys when he secures the next client. That new estate is providing heaps of opportunities.” She took the cutlery from Mel, then started moving around the table, laying down the place settings, but didn’t stop talking. “Cameron, you know the lights for the bedroom? Have you bought them yet? I know you and Ben were talking about LED downlights, but I really think that feature centre lights would look much more dramatic. We can then use some nice lamps to provide mood lighting, and a reading light on each side of the bed. What do you think?” She didn’t look up but continued to make her way around the table.
Spence’s breath caught at the direction the conversation was taking.There’s no way in hell that Suzie is playing a role in decorating Ben’s bedroom.
“I was going to talk to him about it last night, but I totally forgot, what with everything that was going on.”
Everything that was going on? What was going on?
Spence looked around, at a loss, not following the conversation properly. He turned the skewers and watched them cook, tuning out Cameron’s response about the lighting. Once the food was done, he numbly trailed after Cameron, who carried the tray of chicken to the table. He sank into his seat as Suzie continued to talk.
“We had a wonderful dinner at Borelli’s. It wassospecial,” she gushed, launching into a detailed description of the restaurant down by the waterfront, the food, and the other diners before returning to the subject of Ben. “It is so reassuring to know that we both want exactly the same things. Family is just as important to Ben as it is to me. He’s going to make a wonderful husband and father. It’s why he works so hard, you know. He wants to be able to provide a good home for his family. You won’t believe just how much we have in common. I think taking our relationship slowly over all these years was the best thing for us as a couple. We know each other so well, it’s like we’ve been together forever, so we don’t have to take things slowly now.”
She prattled on, but Spence tuned out the monologue, instead losing himself in his own thoughts. He’d just wanted one sign so that he would know how to move forward. He guessed this was it—this was the sign. It wasn’t the sign he’d been hoping for, but it was pretty clear.I’m too late. Ben belonged to Suzie, and he’d missed his chance.Not that I ever really had a chance.
Spence picked up his half-empty glass and threw back the contents.
He shoved his chair back abruptly, mumbled something about getting a refill, and quickly headed into the kitchen. He put the glass on the benchtop and continued through to the living room. He wasn’t sure what to do—he couldn’t go back outside and listen to any more of Suzie’s happy-family tales, but he couldn’t just leave either.Fuck!All he wanted to do was go home and lick his wounds. He crossed the room and looked out the front window to where his car sat parked on the street. Actually, what he wanted to do was jump in the car and go find Ben. The mature and rational thing would be to go and talk to him, have an actual conversation and find out exactly what was happening between Ben and Suzie. It all just seemed so unbelievable, but based on what Suzie had said, a lot had happened recently—a lot that Spence knew nothing about. Why had Ben’s feelings about Suzie changed?
He turned from the window, feeling like an arsehole. He should behappyfor Ben; at least that’s what his head said. His heart had other ideas, and the pain in his chest threatened to overwhelm.
“Spence?”
He stopped pacing and turned as Mel approached, her expression thoughtful as she put her arms around him, and God, did he sink into that hug.
“It’s okay, honey. You’ll be okay.” She rubbed small circles on his back and whispered reassuring words in his ear.
Spence couldn’t hold back anymore and let the tears slip down his cheeks.
