Page 16 of Reckless Flames

“Yeah, I guess I am. I know I’ve given you reason not to want a relationship with me, but maybe we could just put a pin in that and do something for the fun of it. What do you think?”

“Uh…okay. It would be nice to do something really different and forget everything that’s been going on for a few hours. It wouldn’t be a good idea to go to a restaurant in town, though. What did you have in mind?”

“I do have a place in mind, and it’s not in town. That’s all I’m going to tell you until tomorrow evening.”

“Okay, I think it’s time for me to go to bed, then. I hope you don’t mind if I sleep in tomorrow morning.”

“No, get as much sleep as you can. I won’t be able to—that’s the price of parenthood, but I’m used to it. I do think we should go to the police tomorrow with the latest stalker episode, but we can do that whenever you’re up for it.”

The guestroom bed was super comfortable, but I wasn’t actually tired yet. I just needed to get away from Ben and process the whole date thing. When I discovered his failure to be open and honest with me, it made it look almost as though he really just wanted sex and had no intention of letting me into his life. Yes, we had had hours of great conversation, but he’s way too smooth to think that a guy can get sex without chatting a girl up. But now he wanted to go on a date? Could he possibly be interested in me as a potential partner? Why did he have to be so confusing, and why did I have to be so attracted to him? I decided to stop stewing about Ben Culver and go to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up a little after 9 a.m., dressed, and went downstairs to look for Ben. It felt so…odd, being in his house when I still didn’t know what to think of him.

I found him and Caleb in the study. Ben was working at his desk, and Caleb was curled up in a chair with a book. They both looked up as I walked in, and Ben introduced me to his son.

“Caleb, this is Sophie.”

Caleb smiled and said, “Hi.”

“Hi, Caleb, what are you reading?”

“I’m reading a book about The Bad Guys.”

“The Bad Guys? What kind of bad things do they do?”

“They’re animals that everyone thinks are bad. Like there’s Mr. Shark and Mr. Snake and they try to do good things, but they make really funny mistakes when they try to be nice.”

“That sounds like a fun book to read.”

Ben broke into the conversation, “Have you had breakfast, Sophie?”

“No, I don’t need much, but a cup of coffee would be great.”

“Let me introduce you to the kitchen,” he said with a smile, and he stood up from his desk, walked over to me and, making a show of giving me his arm like a gentleman would have done a hundred years ago, off we went.

“Caleb has a playdate with a friend in town, and I thought maybe we could go to the police after I drop him off. What do you think?” Ben asked while I was eating breakfast.

“Good idea. I’d like to get it over with. Why don’t I just ride along with you two, since you’re headed into town?”

“Perfect. Can you be ready in an hour?”

I scoffed at him. “I can be ready in fifteen minutes, but I’ll use the extra time to get my laptop set up.” I headed back upstairs a minute later with Ben’s Wi-Fi info.

The three of us played I Spy on the way into town. Caleb told us it was a baby game but then joined in anyway after a minute or two. Ben pulled up in front of a house in town and walked to the front door with his son. I saw his knock on the door answered by a smiling mother whose son pushed past her to pull Caleb into the house. The adults exchanged a few words, and Ben returned to the car.

Our next stop was the police station. We had arranged a meeting with Detective Roberts, so Ben was able to relate both of his stalker sightings directly to the officer in charge of the case. It didn’t take long, and we were soon on our way back to Ben’s.

On the way, I tried to find out something about his plans for our date that night, but he was too cagey for me. All I could get out of him was that we should shower when we got back home, since the restaurant was a distance away. But when I asked him what I should wear, he told me I could wear any old thing.

Things only got more confusing when he drove us to the airport a little later, and we boarded a private jet waiting on the tarmac. I mean, there I was, wearing “any old thing,” so where could we possibly be going—to McDonalds in Poughkeepsie?

I was understandably stunned when I saw that we were landing at JFK International, so, yeah, you could definitely say that the restaurant was a distance away. Then, he gave the cabbie an address on 5th Avenue that would have to be, judging by my memory, up around Bergdorf Goodman’s. On the way to wherever, I almost hit him, trying to get some information out of him, but he was pretty relaxed for a guy getting threatened the way he was.

Bergdorf’s was the destination, as it turned out. Inside, we were met by a personal shopper, and I was informed that I would be choosing a dinner dress and accessories. I turned to look at Ben, as if to say, “Are you fucking kidding me?” All I got in return was a grin.

I had so much fun trying on dresses and ended up choosing a gorgeous sparkly silver sheath with spaghetti straps that he very clearly approved of. Shoes to match and an appropriate bag and jewelry plus a designer tote for the clothes I had been wearing, and we were on our way to Nobu Downtown.

It was the best date night of my life so far. Dinner was great. Super expensive—especially given how small the portions were, but we ordered a lot of dishes, and the food was really good.

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