Page 17 of Home to Me

Lauren felt anxiety and panic rise over this new out-of-control feeling inside of her. Distance. Space. That’s what she needed to put between them. Picking up the pace, she decided that speed was her best friend—she needed to get away from him. But this plan backfired as well; she quickly found out that her four-inch heels were not made for walking quickly in the light dusting of snow that coated the parking lot.

The heel of her right foot sank down unexpectedly, upsetting her balance, and with little-to-no control over her extremities and no way to stop it, Lauren felt herself begin to fall, hurtling quickly towards the ground at a frightening pace.

In her mind, she knew that, at any second, she would be flat on her ass in the snow, but there was literally nothing she could do about it except try to brace herself for impact. It was simply going to happen, no matter what her feelings about it were.

Yet...it didn't.

The instant before her derriere hit the white stuff, she felt strong arms catch her from behind and lift her neatly back onto her feet. For a moment, she couldn't move. The feeling of Ben's strong arms overwhelmed her completely.

After she was finally able to control her muscles again, she let out a shaky breath, thanked him politely, and stiffly walked the rest of the way to Amanda’s office without looking back.

It was ironic, she thought to herself grimly, but the feel of this man's arms around her had frozen her body more completely than landing in the snow ever could have.

6

Ben reminded himself yet again to keep his head in the game. He was at work, and he needed to keep his mind on filming.

Honestly, he couldn't even believe that this was something he needed to remind himself of. Maintaining laser-sharp focus was never something that was a problem for him. In fact, aside from the ability to immediately read people and ascertain what approach they needed in order to close a deal, it was probably his single biggest professional asset.

When it came to work, whether that work was real-estate-agent-related or television-show-hosting-related, there was no one more focused than Ben Stevens.

That is...until this week—particularly until today. Why today? Because today was the day that they were filming introductions and pickups all around downtown Hope Falls, which meant that they were filming in the two-block radius surrounding Lauren's office.

In fact, they were currently filming right across the street from her door.

It seemed that he simply could not stop glancing over at the large front window of her real estate office, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Every time he caught movement in his peripheral vision, it took everything he had not to whip his head around towards her door to see if she was coming out, hoping that the movement he glimpsed would be Lauren stepping out onto the pavement in all of her refined beauty.

He felt completely pathetic. No matter how hard he tried to break himself from this pattern, it seemed that he couldn’t stop. If all of his glances yielded nothing, then he might’ve been able to quash his impulses, but that wasn’t the case. Nope, his efforts hadn’t been entirely in vain. He’d been rewarded several times with glimpses through the window of her perfectly styled blonde hair as she moved about inside.

However, that was a while ago. There’d been no sign of her since he’d last caught sight of two clients walking into her office nearly forty-five minutes ago.

Which was actually good news. He didn’t know if he could’ve functioned, even as half-assed as he was now, if the entire time the sight of her was one mere, tantalizing head-turn away.

He didn't really understand why he was acting like this. He wasn't 'interested' in Lauren. She was far too much trouble for him.

Not only did he not enjoy girls who made him work too hard to be in their lives, he didn't even have time for it. So this wasn't a matter of wanting to actually make a play for her. He just found himself powerless to keep his eyes off of her. He felt drawn to her like no one he’d ever met. She was the flame and he was the moth.

It didn’t help matters that it’d been several days since he’d last had any interaction with her; three whole days in which he seemed increasingly unable to go for any considerable period of time without thinking about her. As the hours and days passed without any run-ins, he started to grow more and more frustrated.

In a town the size of Hope Falls, what were the chances that you could go for three whole days and not run into someone?

Pretty slim.

Did it mean she was avoiding him?

Quite possibly. She certainly didn't seem fond of him. However, Ben suspected that, underneath the layers of her tightly wound exterior, she enjoyed their verbal sparring as much as he did.

Ben smiled inwardly. It was pretty adorable the way he was able to get her frustrated and flustered so easily. Honestly, it was getting to the point where he wanted to see her so badly that he didn't even care if he had an unpleasant interaction with her as long as he was able to have some sort of interaction.

He didn't stop to analyze what this sudden and unexpected addiction to just being near Lauren Harrison might mean. After all, in less than two weeks, he would be gone from Hope Falls forever, probably never to lay eyes on her again. This was an aberration, an anomaly. He had never reacted this way to another woman before, and he doubted he ever would again. So why not just enjoy it while it lasted? That was his philosophy.

As the shoot was wrapping, Ben was starting to reconcile himself to the idea that he might not encounter Lauren that day at all. As luck would have it, though, that’s exactly when she stepped out of her office door accompanied by the well-dressed couple Ben had seen entering an hour ago.

She was speaking animatedly, her hands gesturing engagingly to make her point. It was clear that, whatever her subject, she was very enthusiastic about it. Ben stood, mesmerized by the sight, realizing that this was something he hadn’t actually seen before: Lauren in the sales zone. It was hot. It was something she’d never been in in his presence. He realized, with awe, that this woman was the Holy Trifecta. Beautiful. Sexy. Adorable.

A lot of women were beautiful. A lot of women were sexy. A lot of women were adorable. But it was rare that a woman possessed all three qualities. It was charmingly irresistible.

It seemed that Ben wasn’t the only one who noticed. The couple that were accompanying Lauren seemed equally taken with her.

---