Page 64 of Home to Me

Where did that come from?

He had no idea what had possessed him to make such a request. Well...other than the overwhelming desire not to see Lauren walk out of the door… Yep, I guess that was motivation enough.

She paused and turned slightly to look back over her shoulder at him.

Ben’s mother said, “Oh please do stay, Lauren. What a lovely distraction you would be from this awful place.”

Then he heard his sister pipe up, “Hey, what am I, chopped liver?”

“Yes,” he said playfully.

She threw an empty paper cup at him.

He reached out his hand to Lauren and said, “Please stay.”

He saw in her eyes that she wanted to bolt for the door, but then something else came over her—a look of determination—she nodded and placed her hand in his.

Although Ben had spent enough days and nights in hospital rooms with his mom, critically ill in the bed, to realize the sheer lunacy of describing any afternoon spent in a hospital as “fun” or “pleasant” or anything like that, those were exactly the adjectives he would choose to describe the time Lauren spent there with his family.

They chatted and got to know each other. Ben even endured the good-natured humiliation of his mom and sister relating embarrassing childhood anecdotes, of which he was the star.

As the afternoon wore on and it was clear that Lauren was beginning to feel truly comfortable with his mom and sister, she said, “So, Alana, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, dear. Anything,” his mom replied.

“How did you know who I was?”

“I don't follow, dear,” his mom said, her forehead wrinkling in puzzlement.

“Well,” Lauren explained, “when I first walked in here, you said that I must be Lauren. How did you know that?”

Alana smiled. “Well, I have your picture, of course!”

Lauren was surprised. “Really? How? The show hasn't put up a website or anything. There isn't even a show for sure yet.”

“Oh, no, no... That's not what I meant,” Alana clarified. “Brianna, honey, where's my phone? Can you get me my phone?”

Ben said in a warning tone, “Mom, maybe we shouldn't be doing this. Maybe you should just be resting.”

“Oh, nonsense,” Alana replied, either missing the warning tone or choosing to ignore it, “I'm not so far gone I can't summon the strength to swipe my fingertip across my phone.”

Alana picked up a pair of glasses from where they were sitting on the tray in front of her and put them on. Then she took the phone Brianna was handing her and swiped to unlock it and pressed the icon for her photos. She moved the screen a few more times and handed Lauren the phone.

“Here you are, dear.”

Lauren took the phone, and Ben could see how intrigued she was. It was written all over her face. He shook his head. Damn.

He knew what the picture was. It was the photo he had taken with Lauren across the street from her office when he was teasing her in front of her clients. It had come out really cute. He was looking down at her with a supremely confident look on his face, and she was looking up at him, shocked. Her mouth was even open a little, as if her jaw were about to drop. He loved it.

He had texted it to his mom as a joke. He had captioned it. “Just thought you should know I still have a way with the ladies. Love you, Mom.”

It had never occurred to him, not in a million years, that Lauren would one day be looking at that text.

Great.

He looked over at her. She had a faraway look in her eye and a small smile on her lips.

He smiled as well. He remembered very well, as she must be remembering now, what he’d said to earn that shocked expression.

---