“Do you want to tell us what that was all about?” Ben’s voice was quiet.
She shrugged. “He said something that made me mad, that’s all.”
“Remind me not to make you mad,” Robert said with a laugh. “And Hope thought you might need backup.”
Ben’s lips slowly turned up. “I bet that felt good.”
Amy grinned. “Yeah, it did.” Then she changed the subject. “What was that whole ‘call my lawyer’ thing about?”
Robert turned to Ben. “That’s right, Bro. Are you serious?”
Ben took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I think it’s time.” A smile spread across his face.
Robert wrapped Ben in a bear hug and slapped his back.
Did I miss something?Something significant.
Hope came into the kitchen with Kallie on her hip. “Is everything okay?”
“Aunt Hope, you should have seen the way Amy slapped Lance, and Ben told Lance if he ever wanted to contact Amy again, he should call her lawyer,” Robert’s voice was full of pride.
Hope gasped, then she set Kallie down and hugged Ben.
Amy’s brow wrinkled. “Would someone like to tell me what’s going on?”
Beaming with pride, Hope turned to Amy with her arm around Ben’s waist. “I’d like you to meet my son, Benjamin James Young, the attorney.”
“Attorney? I don’t understand. I thought he was a mechanic?”
Ben smiled at his mother. “I’ll explain.” He motioned for Amy to follow him to the family room.
“You do that, son. Kallie and I will some lunch.”
“Not for me. I need to get going.” Robert kissed his aunt’s cheek and left.
Amy sat on the couch in the family room. Ben sat on the same couch, turning his body sideways to face her, so she did the same.
He took a deep breath. “I got a law degree at UCLA, and after two years working at a large firm in Los Angeles, I’d had enough of the city and was ready to move home. Melanie and I were ready to start a family, and we both agreed we didn’t want to raise our children in the city. So, we moved back to Providence, and I went into partnership with Uncle Brent, my dad’s brother, at his law office.” He paused to let his words sink in.
“Why are you working as a mechanic then?”
“When Melanie died last year and Cassey went missing, I nearly went insane. I exhausted all my resources, professionally and financially, including Melanie’s life insurance, trying to find my daughter. As each day passed without a single credible clue, my hopes of finding her alive sank lower and lower. About six weeks after the accident, Robert made me realize thatifCassey was alive, she could be anywhere in the world.” Ben paused, taking several deep breaths to control the emotion that had deepened his voice. “The chances of finding her were so low, I couldn’t eat or sleep, much less focus on cases. I couldn’t do it anymore. Any of it. I couldn’t stand the pity I saw in people’s faces every time they looked at me, so I rarely left my house. But that didn’t stop all the wonderful, annoying do-gooders in this town from bringing casseroles and cookies to my door all the time.”
He said it with a smile, but Amy knew it must have been difficult to have to pretend he was fine when he was anything but.
“So, I left. I had to get away from this wonderful, claustrophobic town I love. I couldn’t stand the silence in my house anymore, where every room was full of memories of them.” His voice grew husky again, and he paused for a moment. “But I couldn’t bear to be too far away in case we got news about Cassey. I went to my mother’s family cabin out by the lake where I’d spent some of the greatest times of my childhood. I became a recluse. If my family hadn’t checked in on me from time to time, bringing me food so I didn’t starve, I would have gone months without seeing another human being. It was a dark, difficult time.”
Amy longed to say something to comfort him, but words seemed inadequate.
“Robert and Jake were my lifesavers. They visited me as often as they dared, without driving me farther away. They were content to spend hours fishing with me in silence, or sitting, staring out the window. Paige came as often as she could too. She’d arrive, give me a hug, then go into cleaning mode. When she was done, she would sit and share her life with me.” He smiled as he remembered this. “Their presence reminded me I had people who cared about me. That’s what kept me from doing something stupid to myself that would have caused my family even more grief.”
“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you.” She reached out and covered his hand with hers. He put his other hand over hers, trapping it there.
A strange fluttering hovered between her stomach and her chest at the gentle pressure of his warm, strong hand. She’d reached out to him as a gesture of comfort, but his touch was anything but comforting.
“One day, after I’d been holed up at the cabin for about five months, Robert came with news that my Uncle Richard had died suddenly of a heart attack. I was shocked. He was only sixty-three. I’d practically grown up in his garage. He taught me everything I know about cars.” Ben sucked in a deep breath. “That’s when I realized, despite my additional grief over my uncle’s death, there were people who needed me. Aunt Charity needed help running the gas station and the repair shop. I’d finally found something to live for, if you can call it that. My family would argue I’ve not really been living, rather simply going through the motions, but taking care of the garage has given me a reason to get out of bed every morning. Which is something I hadn’t had since... the accident.”
“I’m sure she’s been very grateful, as well as everyone else in this town.” Amy squeezed his hand. “I’m grateful you were in the garage the day I broke down.”
