At that, somewhat confused, Ben turned to Ella’s mother and offered her his free hand.He repeated his name, “Ben Carrington, ma’am.”
Sighing, her mother shrugged, then reached out and shook Ben’s hand.“Sandra Santiago.”Then added, “How do you know our Ella?And why are you here?”It was as if her mother sensed that Ben’s presence could only spell trouble.The whole time Ella’s father continued to stare at Ben.
After a moment, Ella found her voice and said, “We need to talk.As a family.”
At her words, Ben dropped Ella’s hand.Drawing her in closer, he placed his arm around her shoulder before adding, “Yes, we have some things to tell you.Can we all go inside and visit for a moment?”
Ella’s parents looked at each other and then back at Ella and the handsome stranger she had brought home with her.Her father nodded toward the house.Saying nothing, they all filed up the steps and into the living room of the large, two-story house that had been Ella’s home her whole life.
Ella introduced Ben to her parents and siblings.Together, they shared the news of their engagement and pregnancy.All of it went over about as well as the proverbial turd in a punch bowl.Ella’s parents did indeed freak out.
Everyone agreed that Ella must have the baby.But her parents wanted her to leave the baby with them and for her go on to school in Michigan.They promised to care for their grandchild, but only if Ella completely broke it off with Ben immediately.They assured her that they did not blame her for getting pregnant before marriage.She was an innocent girl who had gotten mixed up with the wrong kind.Surely, it was all Ben’s fault.He had lured her into doing things she would never have done otherwise.Even though her mother said she did not blame Ella directly, Ella could see the shame and disappointment in her eyes.
Ella’s parents assumed that she had gotten pregnant that weekend when Ben first came to town.Ella did not mention anything about meeting him in secret several times on her weekends in San Luis Obispo.She knew that would just be lighter fluid on the fire currently churning up her life.
When her parents tried to blame Ben for everything, Ella did her best to defend him.She told them how much she loved and respected him.She tried to share all the wonderful things about him.However, in the end, they were not open to listening.They were even more closed off to the idea of them marrying.And as far as the idea about Ella returning to Malibu to live with Ben, forget it.Her father absolutely forbade it.
It was a long, miserable two hours that felt more like a criminal hearing than a family discussion.Through it all, Ben never left Ella’s side.He held her hand and reassured her.No matter what anyone said to or about him, he stood firm in his devotion to her.Occasionally, he would look at her as if he was shocked at how hostile her family could be.Ella was not.She had tried to warn him.
When Ella would look back on this day in the future, she would remember there had been a lot of yelling, tears, threats, and recriminations.She would always wish the day had ended differently.But it didn’t.It ended ugly, with Ella crying and Ben trying to help her calm down.He was her rock after her father declared that if Ella left with Ben and went to Malibu to “live in sin,” she would be dead to him.
Ben rubbed Ella’s back, offering silent strength when her mother collapsed in a puddle of tears at the table, begging Ella to “please break it off with that boy and not tear the family apart.”He was calm and steady as he loaded the rental car with Ella’s two hastily packed suitcases.All the while, her father stood in their front yard yelling some pretty awful things that Ella knew in her heart he did not mean.At that moment, it felt like a crazy nightmare—one she would not have survived without Ben.
Even still, Ella cried all the way to Sacramento and the whole flight home.Although Ben was acting strong for Ella, inside he had never felt more angry or at a loss of what to do in his entire life.Her family was a lot, and he had never been around anything like what he just experienced.For as awful as it had been, Ben could tell that Ella’s parents loved her very much.They just had a very different life in mind for her than the one she was embarking on with him.He could not imagine his parents talking to him the way Ella’s had talked to her.He did not know how to fix those relationships for her.But he could hold her hand.Tell her he loved her.Promise never to leave.Tell her everything was going to be okay.He was not sure he actually believed that, but he instinctively knew it was what Ella needed to hear.Or at least, he hoped it was.
Chapter 13
Malibu, California
Ella’s first few days in Malibu were filled with throwing up, sleeping, reading, and waiting for Ben to come home.Ben insisted that Ella find an OB/GYN and be thoroughly checked out.He was worried about her.He read that sucking on ginger candies helps with nausea and ordered some.They helped a little, but for the most part, it was still brutal.
Ella found a doctor who was in her mid-fifties with frizzy gray hair and a large welcoming smile named Dr.Mary Kleck.Ella liked her immediately.After examining Ella, Dr.Kleck declared that even though Ella had lost quite a bit of weight, her overall health was quite good.At that initial visit, the doctor did an ultrasound.Ben and Ella sobbed when they saw their baby’s heartbeat on the screen.Of course, it was too early to know the gender, but seeing that little blip on the screen beating connected Ella and Ben with their baby in a way nothing else could.
The second thing Ben insisted they do was to get Ella a credit card and set her up a checking account so she would have funds for whatever she needed.At first, Ella refused, feeling self-conscious about taking Ben’s money.Ben won her over by explaining that as they were going to be married, it only made sense to go ahead and get everything set up.Besides, he argued that she would be doing most of the food shopping.In the end, Ella agreed.
Ella was shocked when she saw her balance for the first time.She had never had access to that much money in her life.She was pretty sure her parents hadn’t either.It was very unnerving.With such a ridiculous balance, she really did not need to worry about over-spending, but old habits die hard.She watched every penny and kept every receipt to give to Ben.She had grown up seeing her mother pinching pennies and handing over receipts to her father.After the third time Ella did this, Ben sat her down and reminded her they were a team and what was his was hers.The money was for her to buy what she wanted, when she wanted it.She did not have to justify anything.Ben also explained that she did not need to worry about the balance because more money would be added each month as needed.When Ella asked Ben where the money came from, he said investments from the art sales of his first father, Tommy Thompson.
If Ella had needed a reminder that they came from two completely different worlds, this would have been it.Ben had such a cavalier attitude toward money.She wondered if that came from having done nothing to earn it.Money seemed to mean nothing to him.It was just a given in his life.On the other hand, Ella knew from cold, hard experience that money earned was painful to part with.She wondered if Ben had ever had to earn a dime in his life.She’d bet not.She did not mean that negatively toward him.She loved him.It was just who he was.
Ella thought perhaps that was the biggest difference between them.Everything she had ever gotten, she had earned: money, education, her future.To Ben, those things came easily.To her, they were valuable prizes to be earned with hard work and careful planning.This led Ella to ponder if being given everything had somehow cost Ben something intrinsic that could not be bought or given.
Ella also knew that Julia and Sophie would call her nine kinds of crazy for overthinking everything in regards to money.They would tell her to be grateful, that she was one of the lucky ones.Ben loved her and wanted to spoil her.She should shut up and enjoy it.Given Julia’s track record with men, Ella knew she would be right.So she decided to stop overthinking all of it and be grateful that Ben was in a position to provide for her and the baby.She would make sure he knew how much she appreciated him.
Money and marriage worries aside, over the next few weeks, Ella and Ben settled into a comfortable routine.Sometimes, it felt like they were playing house.They ate dinner together every night, then they spent a couple of hours either playing hotly contested games of chess or watching movies.Those hours spent together, eating, playing, laughing, or just lying around watching a movie were the best.
During these weeks, Ella became aware of how seriously Ben took sports, or at least Razorback sports, specifically Arkansas football.Ella had grown up with her father and brothers obsessed with soccer.They followed it like a religion, and they each had their favorite teams.They spent a ridiculous amount of time discussing plays, trades, and games.All of that paled in comparison to how Ben felt about his beloved Hogs.It seemed to him a foregone conclusion that Ella would love watching the games as much as he did.
Their first three Saturdays together had been planned around the games.Ben would rant and rave at the television.Afterward, he would try to engage Ella in deep discussions about the plays, calls, and performances of the coaches and players.At first, Ella found this challenging.But being Ella, she researched it and to her surprise learned a lot about the offensive and defensive plays for the sport.She also researched the team and the coaches.In a very short amount of time, she learned more than she ever wanted to about it all.She knew in her heart that she would never be a true fan of the game, but she had learned enough to fake her way through a conversion.
Ben did not seem to notice Ella’s lack of true interest.He took it for granted that of course she would love watching his Hogs as much as he did.When Ben told Ella they had only two games left until bowl season, she was excited.She knew she could continue to fake her interest for at least another few weeks.
That hope died a horrible death the day Ben came home and informed Ella that it was only ten more days until the opening of basketball season.Evidently, the Hogsalsohad a great basketball team.She knew what that meant.So wanting to be able to share something that meant so much to him, Ella began researching Arkansas basketball.She found she was much more interested in that and actually began to look forward to the opening game.She did hope that Ben was not going to go all Hogs baseball on her too.At least she realized she would have several months to get ready for that.They would not start playing until early spring.Who knew where she would be and what she would be doing then?
Ben felt a calm peace with Ella.She felt so right wrapped securely in his arms every night.He had not felt this peace since he was a young boy in New York before his first father died.Because of his childhood, Ben knew that times of calm peacefulness often did not last, so he was holding on to this time with Ella with both hands while cautiously watching for anything that might blow the little world they were slowly building apart.
During this time, the most shocking part for Ella was that she, Ella Santiago, Good Girl Extraordinaire, was living with a man without the blessing of holy matrimony.Some days, the guilt about that was almost worse than the boredom that followed her around like a lost puppy all day.While Ben was in class, Ella took care of the apartment and did a lot of cooking.Because she continued to suffer from morning sickness, she was grateful not to have to get up and go to work every day.When she was able, Ella would enjoy a walk along the beach or stroll down to some local Mom and Pop shops.But as enjoyable as those things were, Ella found herself at war with the Beast of Boredom.She had never had so much free time in her entire life.She tried to fill the hours with something productive, but the days crept by so slowly.There was only so much laundry, shopping, and cooking one could do.Ella had not grown up watching television and found it mind numbing.Watching a movie with Ben at the end of the day was one thing, but sitting around all day watching television was exhausting.
Instead, Ella doubled down on her reading.She had an app on her phone that allowed her to download books from her hometown library.At the very least, she read a book a day.Some days, she read two.Most were nonfiction books about soil conservation or ways to make the soil more productive.She found them fascinating and spent hours making notes.She would sometimes laugh to herself because she knew that Sophie would say she would be better served reading romance novels if she wanted to learn something useful.But Ella knew that romance books were no longer needed because in the weeks she had been living with Ben, she had learned pretty much all she needed to know from him.
