Page 51 of Standing Still

“Seducing her? Who says that shit?”

“Well, did you? You fucked her, didn’t you? Man, I never thought you’d do something like that.”

I open my mouth to refute this bullshit when the voice echoes out around the mostly empty space.

“Ben?”

We both turn at the sound of Elle’s voice. She stands there, her hands clench into fists as she stares from Craig to me, a look of pure hurt crosses her face. Shit. I don’t even know how Craig found out about that bullshit idea of my brothers.

“Elle,” I get up, put the beer bottle on the counter and turn to face her. “That isn’t what happened. You walked in on the end of that conversation. Let me explain.”

“Oh really?” she scoffs a laugh. “God, I am such an idiot.”

“Elle, listen.”

“No thanks. You got what you wanted. When I have to come back here, to fulfil this stupid deal of my fathers, stay the hell away from me.”

She turns and hurries out of the bar.

“Fucking hell, Craig!” I yell at him. He has the good grace to look apologetic.

I run after Elle. She is already opening her car door. I hurry over to the driver’s side and stop her.

“Elle, that isn’t what happened. I would never do that.”

“Oh really? That’s not what it sounded like. And it worked out for you, didn’t it? I’ve signed the papers.”

“If you think I would do something like that, use you like that, then you don’t know me at all.”

“That’s the problem though, isn’t it, Ben? I don’t know you. Just like you don’t know me. Let me go. I can’t be around you right now. And for your information, I didn’t just sign this for you. I have a real reason to come back to Mystic and I was coming to tell you.” Her eyes fill with tears, and I can’t fucking stand it. “You know what? It doesn’t matter, just leave me alone.”

“What do you mean? What happened?” She shakes her head. “Elle, come on, you can’t drive off without hearing me out. Jared said that bullshit, but I never thought of going through with it.”

I reach out and touch her arm. Wrong move. She flinches back like I’ve shot her. I hold up my hands and step back a little, letting her know I’ll give her space. She pulls away and gets into the car, slamming the door shut before I can stop her. I yell her name as she drives away. Fucking hell, she won’t even give me the chance to explain. I watch the car as it turns a corner.

I glance at my truck, think about going after her, but what would be the point?

If she believes that of me, is there any real point in us trying to work this out?

I put my hands on my hips and stare at the floor. Why the hell would Larry tell me she is going back to New York when she is still here? And what did she mean about there being another reason for her to stay in Mystic? I call her cell again. It goes straight to voicemail.

“Elle, call me back,” I growl angrily, then hang up. Craig is standing in the doorway of the bar.

“I can speak to her, explain I was talking crap,” he offers.

“Just leave it,” I say, taking out my keys and getting in the truck.

All I can do is hope she calls me back. The way I feel right now, though, I’m not sure I want her to.

Chapter Nineteen

Kevin sits across from me with an annoyed frown on his face. He’s been here for an hour now, helping prevent me from freaking out. As he talks, I wonder why I can’t just be attracted to him. We would make sense. Much more sense than me and Ben.

Fucking Ben. I still can’t believe him. I’ve forced myself not to recall how vehemently he denied it and how he ran after me. I’d had so many shocks last Monday I didn’t have the space in my head to consider his words or how much he meant them. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have run away. But the shock of hearing Craig say Ben used me, hung around with me, slept with me, just to get me to sign that document, made me sick.

Of course, it didn’t help Dawn called to tell me it wasn’t true. She said Jared Daniels was an idiot asshole who made a flippant comment. Then perpetuated that by joking around with his brothers and friends about Ben charming his way into my pants, so I’ll agree to the proposal. But she swore Ben would never have followed through on it.

I also felt extremely guilty. I ran out on her after she had a baby. One thing I promised both of us was, I wouldn’t disappear fromher life. We’d spoken every other day since I got back to New York after she called to tell me not to believe what I heard.

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