Page 58 of Standing Still

“Not to me.” I cross my arms over my chest.

IhopeI know the reason. My stomach is fluttering so badly as I wait for him to tell me. He wouldn’t have come all the way here to tell me something bad, or that will upset me. Right? I watch him as he looks around, taking in my apartment. It is so different from anything in Mystic. You only need to look out of the window and see we’re in a different world.

I drink him in as he looks around, in his rough and worn jeans and scuffed boots, the band t-shirt, his mussy hair and rough beard. Adrian wore jeans around the house, but they never lookedso casual as Ben’s. My ex-husband is good looking, tall and toned, but Ben is something different. He is the embodiment of sex on legs, with his broad shoulders, narrow waist and built arms.

My heart beats a little faster as he turns his gaze back on me, his eyes so dark and penetrating, like he’s looking straight inside of me.

“You left.”

I bite my bottom lip but don’t draw my gaze from his eyes.

“You didn’t speak to me, didn’t call, didn’t listen.”

I resist the urge to wring my hands together. All words have flown from my brain. Despite the look on his face, the straightforward tone of his voice, I see the hurt there.

“What was the plan? Just come back to Mystic when your contract dictated, pop in to see how business is going?” He’s about to say something more but stops himself, running a hand through his hair. “Shit, I don’t know what I thought I was gonna say to you when I got here, but it wasn’t this.”

“You drove here?”

“Yeah,” he looks at me like that was the weirdest question.

“Where is your truck?”

Ben scratches the back of his head. “In a garage about two blocks away. Is that important?”

“You used a parking garage, Ben. That will cost a fortune. I have a parking space downstairs.”

Now he is looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I’m supposed to know that… how?”

“We should go move it,” I decide and grab my apartment key and a denim jacket from the closet in the front hall. The space just got a lot smaller, and the air might help allow me to breathe.

“Elle,” Ben steps forward and lightly takes my wrist before I can put the jacket on. “I can afford to pay for a parking garage for the night.”

“You’re staying the night?” I ask, not thinking before I open my mouth.

“If you insist,” he smirks. “It’s been a long drive. You got anything to drink in this fancy ass apartment?”

“Don’t make fun of my home.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I mean, I could stare at that for hours.” He points to an Angelika Millmaker painting on the wall. He tilts his head. “Trying to figure out what it is.”

“It’s a painting of a garden.”

“Is the artist five? Or does she need to fire her gardener?”

“You’re perpetuating the small-town hick persona.” I give him a smirk back and head to the kitchen.

After a few moments, he follows. My kitchen is a long, narrow galley style with units both top and bottom on either side of the space. Adrian always liked clean white modern décor, but I’ve brightened the place up with colourful containers, flowers, and other decorative pieces.

I pick up the kettle and fill it with water, then turn to set it on the stove to boil. Ben is leaning against the archway into the kitchen. There are no doors on either end of the long open room, so light from the windows fills the space.

I get out some mugs and set them on the counter, feeling his eyes on me. The silence is growing uncomfortable. One of us is going to have to address this issue. I turn to face him.

“I’d already decided I was going to sign, then I found out that Claudia had a son. Darren’s son.”

“I heard,” he says, and my eyes widen, but I guess once a few people heard about it, it would spread like wildfire. “It must have been a shock.”

“A good one,” I smile. “He looks just like him. Claudia brought him here a few days ago, we talked. He’s going to college here, so he’ll be near. I’ll be able to get to know him better.”

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