Page 13 of Home to Me

She looked at Ben, adopting a regretful expression, and said, “Sorry. I have to get this. Please excuse me.”

Ben nodded his agreement, but Lauren didn't even wait around to see it. By the time he started nodding, she’d already turned away from him and started to walk to the far side of the room, giving herself at least an illusion of privacy.

He couldn't hear exactly what she was saying on the phone, but he caught enough snippets to make it clear that she was closing some kind of deal. When she walked back over to him, she was flushed with excitement. He recognized that particular brand of enthusiasm. That was a victory flush. She’d just closed a deal, and from the look on her face, it was probably a difficult one.

Ben smiled wide. He was truly happy for her. He knew that feeling well and loved it every bit as much.

“It's the best feeling in the world, isn't it?” Ben asked, his smile lighting up his face.

Lauren looked, for the first time all day, completely and totally in the moment, her guard down, and—dare he say it—possibly even enjoying his company.

“Yes. It is,” she confirmed, a broad grin spreading from ear to ear.

Ben, perhaps letting his confidence get the better of him or perhaps seduced by the mystical allure of her smile, committed the cardinal sin of sales—he went too far too fast. Well, no, scratch that. The cardinal sin of sales is when you keep talking after you've already got the sale—but going too far too fast came pretty close.

He reached out, brushed her arm with his fingertips, looked straight into her eyes, and said softly, “You're beautiful when you smile. You should do that more often.”

This had a disastrous effect on her state of happy relaxation, which is to say it completely annihilated it. Lauren snapped immediately back into 'business mode.'

Looking around as if she couldn't quite believe that she’d wasted this much time goofing around in the house with him, she said impatiently, “Where in the world is the PA with my check? I need to get a signature and hand over these keys so I can go home.”

With that, she spun and exited the bedroom, the moment entirely shattered because of him. He heard her footsteps descending the stairs and decided (with reluctance) that since she obviously wasn't coming back, he might as well follow her.

He caught up with her just as Lauren was exiting the front door, and they both saw the PA standing in the driveway, on her cell phone, staring up at the mountain opposite the house.

Damn. Ben knew that there was no way that Lauren would be around any longer than absolutely necessary, which meant that his opportunity to recapture the moment they’d shared in the bedroom, just slipped through his fingers like sand.

As Lauren and Ben were approaching the PA, they heard her talking on her phone saying, “I don't know where she is... I know. I'm freezing my ass off... I was supposed to meet that uptight, prissy chick here, but I don't see her anywhere.”

“Found her!” Lauren said cheerfully, and the PA spun around, her face red with embarrassment.

“Yeah, I'm going to have to call you back,” she muttered softly into the cell phone before snapping it shut.

“Oh, honey,” Lauren said sympathetically. “Of all the things you said into the cell phone, that shouldn't have been the one you chose to say quietly.”

Ben started cracking up. The PA looked mortified. Ben could sympathize. Not only had she been overheard saying mean things by the very object of her derision, but now the host of the show on which she was a lowly production assistant was having a good laugh at her expense. All in all, not a great night.

“Sorry,” the PA muttered, holding out the signed lease and attached check. “I really didn't mean anything by it.”

“Not at all,” Lauren replied graciously, giving the paperwork a quick once-over and then handing the keys to Ben. “And now, if you all don't mind, I believe I am going to take my uptight, prissy ass home to soak in a hot bath.”

She was halfway down the driveway towards her parked Mercedes when she turned to Ben and, with a small smirk and a wink, said, “Who knows? Maybe it'll loosen up the stick.”

With that, Lauren climbed into her car and zoomed away. Ben was impressed with the way she handled the situation. Most of the women he dealt with couldn’t handle being insulted. They flew apart. But Lauren—she was a class act. She didn't explode with rage. She merely gave as good as she got. He liked that.

Of course, now she’d left him with a completely different problem. He had no idea how he was going to fall asleep that night because all he could do was picture Lauren Harrison naked in her bathtub.

5

Lauren was relieved to have the events of the previous day over with. As intrigued as she was by Ben on some levels, her overwhelming feeling towards him was annoyance at his juvenile antics.

Yes, as glamorous and exciting as the prospect of being part of a film production crew would sound to most people and—in all fairness—had actually sounded to her when the idea was first broached, Lauren was extremely glad to be getting back to her old life.

Take what she was doing at the moment, for instance; grabbing a quick and fun lunch with Sam. They didn’t have enough time during their lunch hours to do a whole lengthy sit-down-and-order-and-have-to-wait-for-the-check production of it, so they grabbed some pre-wrapped sandwiches at Two Scoops ice cream parlor and were sitting at a sidewalk table, eating them and catching each other up on their lives.

Sure, it wasn't what most people would consider the height of excitement and glamour, but hey—good food, good friends, and the distinct absence of anything or anyone who was aggravating and annoying her? Lauren would take it.

“So, Sam,” Lauren asked with interest, “what has it been like working side by side with your hot man day after day? It seems like you guys would be too distracted to get any actual work done.”

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