Page 53 of Home to Me

Smiling triumphantly, Brianna put away her phone and then hopped up on the bed, crossing her legs in front of her like a kindergartner getting ready for story time.

“Okay, then, Benny boy. Spill,” she said gleefully.

Ben shook his head, hesitantly launching into the tale—glossing over the sex part, of course. He shuddered. She might be twenty, but he didn't think she'd ever be old enough for him to talk about that with.

When he finished detailing all of the tense situations that happened that week during shooting, she asked pointedly, “So all of this tense and mildly hostile interaction—including her going to the Hometown Heroes Ball with her hottie cop friend—that's all been since you got back from Aspen?”

“I didn’t say he was a hottie,” Ben pointed out.

She looked at him like, Come on. Seriously.

He wasn’t going to argue with her. The guy was attractive. So he moved on and nodded.

“So, have you asked her what changed?”

Ben shook his head in the negative.

Brianna rolled her eyes. “And you say I'm the immature one. Do you think she's just freaked out because you guys slept together?”

Shocked, Ben spluttered, “We... What are you... I never said—”

“Yeah,” she said dryly, “calm down. You were very careful to euphemism the hell out of it. But in my experience, when two consenting adults who are hot for each other go out of town together for the weekend and their “relationship changes” and their “connection evolves” and they “grow much closer”—well, let's just say it's a pretty safe bet that they did it. Several times, in all likelihood.”

Ben closed his eyes, pained. “I'm still operating under the assumption that you don't even know what 'it' is and you never will.”

Brianna sighed. “Look, Ben, I'm not a little kid, no matter what you might lull yourself into believing. I know about this stuff. And what I know right now is that, no matter what else happens, no matter what comes of it—you need to sit down and talk to her about it.”

Ben gave a quick, decisive shake of his head. “No way. She's clearly not taking this seriously. Why should I?”

“Because it's obvious to me that this is the first relationship you've ever had that you actually are taking seriously. Don't you think that at least deserves a conversation?”

“I'm not taking it that seriously,” Ben protested.

Brianna rolled her eyes, her preferred way of expressing the sentiment 'Whatever!' since she turned twelve years old.

“I'm not,” he reiterated, although more weakly.

“Sure, bro,” she said sarcastically. “Whatever you say.”

Ben shook his head, but he knew in his heart of hearts that he didn’t believe his protests any more than she did.

17

After a tense morning of shooting pickup shots, Lauren went to her trailer to wait for the town car to come pick them up and take them to the airport. She saw Ben go through the door to his as well. She sighed. Ships passing in the night. No. That sounded too dreamy, too romantic, too passive. They were more like combatant armored tanks passing in the night, only kept from firing on one another by an uneasy truce.

Lauren was still fuming from seeing the girl going into Ben’s room the night before, and now he was compounding her anger by persisting in giving her the silent treatment.

Oh, unless of course the camera was rolling. Then he turned on the charm like nobody’s business.

Lauren couldn't get her conversation with Karina out of her head. It was playing on a loop…and, frankly, driving her crazy.

Finally, she realized that she would never get peace by just stewing about the situation with Ben, turning it over and over in her head like a chicken on a spit. There was nothing new to be learned from that, no progress that would be made that way.

Nope. The only sensible thing to do—hell, the only thing to do, period—was go over to his trailer and have this out with him once and for all. It wasn't going to get better until she took some action to make it better, and when it came to taking action, Lauren's motto had always been, “No time like the present.”

She walked over to Ben's trailer, her metaphorical armor on and guns drawn, ready for battle. She smiled amiably at the crew members she passed. She might not admire a whole lot of things about Ben Stevens and the way he acted, but she did admire how he separated his emotions from his professional demeanor. She could do the same.

Still. She wondered if, beyond the thin façade of her friendly greeting, they could see the steam coming out of her ears as she approached enemy territory.

---