Chapter Seven
A knock at the door startled Sam from the half-doze he’d fallen into, thinking about what it meant that Ben was ready to be out now.
Was he telling him for the sake of telling him? Or was there more to it than that?
He sat up on the edge of the bed, blinking as Ben answered the door.
A small, blonde woman walked in, followed by a man who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a pedestal in a Greek marble gallery.
Not Sam’s type, though. Sam’s type was a little softer around the edges, more brains than brawn, less classically pretty and more understatedly masculine.
Ben, basically. Ben was his type.
“Are we settling in?” the woman asked, her smile bright and broad. She was practically bouncing in place, enthusiasm rolling off her in waves.
She looked like exactly the kind of person who’d run a couples’ retreat. Or, alternatively, make yoga videos.
“Uh, yeah,” Ben responded, rubbing the back of his neck. He’d obviously been caught just as off-guard as Sam had. “Yeah, I think we’re getting comfortable.”
“Well, I’m Annie, and this is Robert,” she turned to smile at her husband, who gave Sam a silent nod in return. “And if there’s anything you need, don’t ever hesitate to ask. We just wanted to welcome you and drop your schedule off.”
She held out a brightly-printed brochure, which Ben took.
“Pleasure to meet you,” Sam said belatedly, still trying to get over the shock of so much personality being contained inside one person. Annie was so enthusiastic that it made Sam tired just looking at her.
“Now, don’t take that schedule as gospel,” Annie continued, as though Sam hadn’t spoken. “If there’s an activity on but you’re kinda feeling the one-on-one couple time a little more, feel free to skip it. This weekend is aboutyou.”
“Oh, we know,” Ben said, turning to smile an unnaturally bright smile of his own at Sam. Sam managed to smile back, but only barely.
Ben wasn’t the kind of man who smiled brightly voluntarily. A tiny twitch of his lips meant he was happy, a broad grin meant he’d just made a terrible joke, but he didn’t smile like this.
It was unnerving to see him do it, and Sam hoped he’d stop soon.
“Uh, yeah. We’re really looking forward to reconnecting,” Sam said. “Sorry, I’m a little out of it right now.”
“He just got home,” Ben explained. “Business meetings all over Europe, you know how it is.”
“Of course,” Annie agreed, though Sam suspected she did not, in fact, know how it was.
Neither did he or Ben, so that made them all even.
“But thank you for coming to check on us,” Sam said, hoping those would be the magic words that made them go away. “The room is beautiful.”
“I’m so glad you’re comfortable,” Annie enthused. “Will we see you at the first activity? It starts in an hour.”
“We’ll be there,” Ben said before Sam had any chance to respond. “Gotta get off to a strong start.”
Who the hell was this guy, and what had he done with Ben?
Sam supposed this was Ben’s best attempt at undercover. In that case, it was…
Well, it was still terrible, but kind of adorable all the same.
“Great! We’ll see you soon,” Annie said. “Bye for now.”
She stepped back through the door and closed it on the way out. Sam breathed a sigh of relief. If they were going to have to interact with her all weekend, it was going to be exhausting.
Ben paused for a few seconds, and then locked the door.
