“Yes, she is.”
“I think they’d want to know what’s going on with you. Just like they did with Shiloh.”
“Maybe.” Amelia finished the last of her papers, then gathered up the folded stack and shuffled them into order. “Almost done?”
“Just a couple more.”
Ben finished them, then handed them to her. He wanted to continue the conversation, but he could see her shutting down, and he didn’t want her to close him out completely.
“Thanks for the help,” Amelia said. “I’ll have Marian cut you a check for your labor.”
Ben chuckled. “Not necessary.” He watched as she put the stack of bulletins in a tray on her desk. “Anything else I can help with?”
“Nope. I’m done for the day,” she said. “I’m going to head home before I go to Mom and Dad’s. I need to pick up the present I bought for the birthday girl.”
He waited until she was finished with everything, then walked with her out to her car, Luca trailing behind them.
“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked as they reached her car.
She hesitated, and for a moment, Ben thought she was going to refuse.
“Yes. What time should I be there?”
“I’ll come pick you up around five,” he said. “Will that work?”
She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
As Ben watched her drive away a couple of minutes later, he had an unsettled feeling inside him. He wasn’t sure why, but he hoped that spending time with her the next evening might help dispel it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Amelia set her phone on the counter, then poured herself a glass of water. “I’m not sure I should have agreed to go tonight.”
Tracy gave a laugh, the sound drifting from the speaker of the phone. “From what you’ve said, every time you’ve been presented with the option of spending time with Ben or not, you’ve decided to do it.”
Amelia sighed as she picked up her phone and carried it along with her glass to the couch. Sinking down, she lifted the glass to take a sip.
“Yeah. I know the best thing is to keep my distance from him, but it’s hard.”
“Why don’t you just go for it?” Tracy asked. “He seems quite determined to be with you.”
Amelia couldn’t argue about that. “I’m just not sure that’s the best thing in the long run.”
“You’re asking him to understand your reluctance to have a relationship when he doesn’t have all the details,” Tracy said. “Now that you have answers, you need to tell him. Maybe that will be enough to get him to back off.”
Amelia’s stomach clenched at the thought. Though she might have felt that it wouldn’t be good to saddle Ben with all her issues, clearly she didn’t want to consider no longer having him in her life. Which was probably why she kept accepting his invitations to spend time together when she should have been saying no.
“Just give him all the info,” Tracy encouraged. “From what you’ve said, he wants to know the details.”
“He does,” Amelia agreed.
“You’re lucky. My former boyfriend didn’t care much about the details of what was wrong with me. All he cared about was that I couldn’t do all the things I used to be able to do. I guess that’s why he’s now my ex.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Amelia said.
“In some ways, it was a relief,” Tracy said. “The way he treated me showed that he wasn’t the man I fell in love with, and he’d say I wasn’t the woman he fell in love with either. Once our relationship was officially over, it felt like a burden had been lifted, though. I no longer had to continually manage his feelings as well as my own.”
“That’s what I’m worried about with Ben,” Amelia said. “That he’ll start out fine, but as reality sets in, having to deal with my health will wear on him. On our relationship.”
