Avery pressed her clenched fist to her chest. Feeling skin there, she realized how revealing her running top was and made an effort to cover her cleavage with her palm while trying not to look like she was covering cleavage. Sheesh. She’d never thought about it before, but Walker/Ben made her aware not only of his body but of hers. For example, her mouth was dry, dry, dry, and her palms were slick. Not to mention there was something funny going on with her stomach, like it was on a whole different elevator that kept dropping quickly.
“Ben.” She tried his name and found that she liked it. Walker was the guy who had made her miserable for a night. But Ben? Ben was a decent man who’d made sure a bunch of kids had the chance to run around last night. She could get used to having a man like Ben around. What were they talking about? Kids … Oh yeah! “Kids need to know they’re important. They don’t see the hundreds of things we do for them every day as a sacrifice. It’s our job to take care of them, right? It’s like our attention and time are the only currency they understand.”
“Agreed.” He dove into her eyes, making her feel as if she were standing before him with nothing to hide. The air grew warm and swirled around them, brushing against her skin, encouraging her to step closer.
The elevator doors dinged open. They stayed put. It became difficult to gather a deep, satisfying breath. Ben leaned—or maybe that was her—but they were close enough that she could smell his aftershave.
A lady bustled inside. “Going up?” She pressed the button for the second floor.
Ben’s hand shot out, stopping the door from closing. “Getting off.”
Avery ducked her chin and walked out, trying not to feel the woman’s glare.
“Are you going to the gym?” Ben asked pointing down the hallway.
“I’m going to run outside.” She pointed to the front doors.
“Be safe.”
“You too.” She waved and left, berating herself.You too—really?Like he needed to be safe in the hotel gym. Dumb. She was so out of flirting practice, she was embarrassing herself. Not that she was flirting with Ben. That would be a bad move.
She sped up her walk and then broke into a light jog. The hotel was in an upper-crust area of town. Like Ben would own a seedy hotel. The guy was rich with a capital R. Come to think of it, his profile on Capture My Heart hadn’t said anything about being a billionaire. That was weird. What was also weird was that he was on the app in the first place. He had to know dozens of eligible women—models, actresses, other billionaires, and a few millionaires. So what was the deal?
Her phone rang, and she tucked earbuds in before answering. She liked to talk while she ran. Sure, the magazines said that being able to hold a conversation was a sign that you weren’t pushing yourself hard enough, but that wasn’t the point of running. Running was for her peace of mind. It centered her and allowed the stresses to drop away.
“Hi, Evelyn.” She greeted her house sitter for the weekend.
“Your plant is dead.”
That could not be possible. Although Evelyn was notorious for killing flora of all kinds. Her side of the yard was a patch of grass that she paid someone to mow. “I’ve been gone for less than 24 hours.”
“It was droopy before you left. How’s the field trip?”
“Not horrible.” She hadn’t filled Evelyn in on the Ben drama that had happened since the blind date. It just wasn’t something she felt comfortable disclosing. “Landon sprained his ankle. I’m worried about the hike today.”
“You baby him too much. Can he walk on it?”
“I think so.” He’d made it to the bathroom the night before with only a small limp. The ice helped a lot.
“Then he can walk it off.”
A battle waged inside Avery. Mother Bear usually won, but there was this new contender—Awesome Mom, who came out strong. She was championed by Ben’s advice and example. “You’re probably right.”
“Of course I’m right.”
Avery rounded a corner. On her right was a small grocery store with a cute green-and-white awning out front. Her snacks were completely gone. On the off chance the kids decided to hang out in her room again that night, she wanted to be prepared. Ben had been right: as long as there was food lying around, the kids were content. Although, after watching them plow through cookies, she’d felt like his advice should have been, “You need to feed them or they’ll eat you.”
“Tell me about book club. What did I miss?” She gripped the steel bar of a shopping cart and headed inside. Her credit card was tucked into her phone case on her arm. She’d have to carry everything back, so she needed to be smart about what she bought.
“Trudy took that cat of hers back to the vet.”
“What for this time?”
“She said he was running a fever.”
“More like Trudy’s fevering for the vet.” This was one of their favorite topics of conversation: thewill they or won’t theyof Trudy and her handsome vet. The man was good with animals and apparently sweet on the eyes. Trudy had tried to get a picture of him one time but had fumbled her phone and broken the screen. Book club laughed about it for months. Anytime someone came in with a cracked screen, they all begged to know who the hot guy was that caused it. For most of the ladies, there actually was a hottie involved.
Avery bit her lip, wondering if she should try to get a picture of Ben this weekend. Would that be weird?
