And just like that, Ben’s thoughts returned to Charlotte — to Paige. Once he realized the young girl named Paige and the woman named Charlotte were the same person, he’d been piecing together similarities between the two. The same unusual eyes, but with more gray in them now than when they were kids. The same blond hair that was short and wavy now, versus long and shiny then. The same smile, though adult Paige had all her teeth while child Paige had one or two missing.
She had denied it, but not before she’d let her guard slip, telling him he was right. Paige was pretending to be someone else, and he wanted to know why.
“I’m going to stay in town a few more days. I have some unfinished business.”
Easton took his eyes off the road long enough to glance at his brother. “Unfinished business? Yeah, right. What’s her name?”
“Charlotte Redding,” Luke supplied. “Or at least that’s the name she’s going by.”
“Her name is Paige.”
Luke leaned forward. “How did you find out her real name? Did she tell you?”
Ben turned his attention to the passing scenery out his window. “She didn’t have to. I know her. Or knew her, a long time ago.”
“If you knew who she was, why did you have me run a background on her?”
“I didn’t find out for sure who she was until tonight. I knew her when we were kids. Before English and you guys came into my life. It’s been over twenty years since we’ve seen each other.”
“Are you serious?” Easton exclaimed. “What are the odds?”
“Evidently better than average,” Ben replied dryly.
“Strange that you’d run into her again when she’s in trouble,” Luke interjected.
“What kind of trouble?” Easton questioned.
Ben frowned. “I don’t know. After she got over the shock that I knew who she really was, she stuck to her story. Told me she wasn’t who I thought she was. She threw me out of her apartment. You guys called about Hanson, and I had to leave.”
“What’s your next move?”
Jackson’s question was one Ben had refused to considered until now. With his case — the very reason he came to Ivy Springs — cracking wide open, he’d had to walk away when every fiber of his body screamed for him to stay, to find out the truth, to reassure her that she was safe with him.
“I don’t know,” Ben finally replied. “I can’t force her to trust me, and if I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know how I can help.”
Easton scoffed. “Just charm her like you always do when we need people to open up. You never have trouble with that.”
“I don’t want to pretend with her. She’s afraid to trust people, and when she figures out that I haven’t been completely upfront with everybody, she’s going to shut me out even more.”
“So charm someone she knows.” Jackson leaned forward. “Get someone she does trust on your side before you offer her your help. But I have to ask. You sure it’s a good idea to get involved in what she has going on? You may not like what you find out.”
Ben sighed. “I owe her. You guys remember what I was like when I came to live with you. The kids at school, my own family…hell, just about everyone in my life then made me feel worthless. Except for her. Even at six years old, she was fierce. I had never known anyone like her then or since. I really thought I was going to disappear when her family moved from Fire Creek. She was the only person who gave a shit about me. But then I met Gish and you guys. I haven’t thought of her much over the years, but I’ve never forgotten her.”
“So this is you paying back a favor? Nothing more?”
Ben opened his mouth to respond to Luke, but the words of agreement refused to pass from his throat. His brothers may not understand his connection to a woman who was both a friend and a stranger, but he wouldn’t ignore it.
“Your silence says it all,” Easton drawled. “She’s your Bailee. Am I right?”
None of them had thought Easton would marry and settle down when he enjoyed the attention of various women he met at the bar or as he went about his life. Same with Jackson and Luke, who never expressed any interest in starting a family of their own. Their experiences with family weren’t worth repeating, and though they found acceptance in the makeshift family they created, they had no idea what it took to create the fairytale happily ever after with a wife, kids, and the proverbial house with a picket fence.
But Jackson met English’s daughter, who went from not wanting anything to do with her biological father and the boys he chose to raise over her, to marrying one of those boys and building an unorthodox relationship with her father. Luke met Melody, who was raised in a loving family, but through her job as a paralegal, had seen the worst of what humanity could do. And Easton met Bailee, a woman who showed him they could truly have it all.
Ben had no idea if Paige wasitfor him or not, but he refused to believe it was an accident that the grownup version of him met the grownup version of her at this point in their lives. She needed help. He was qualified to provide it. And then they would be free to get to know each other as the adults they were now. They could walk away with a renewal of the friendship they hadas children. Or they could walk away with more. Ben would be lying if he said the thought didn’t appeal to him.
“You need us to stick around too?” Jackson asked before Ben found the words to respond.
“I can’t ask you to do that. Not when I have no clue what’s going on with her and even if she’s going to be open to my help.”
