Page 25 of Coming Home

“Yes, sir. Sorry, it’s a military habit.” He smiled that smile that had gotten him out of trouble our entire lives.

“Look, Cora will murder me if she knows you’re here and dinner’s not ready. Do me a favor and go with Shelby and we’ll just act like you didn’t know I forgot to pick up the wine,” Dad said.

I wanted to protest, but how? It would just bring up too many questions I didn’t want to answer.

“No problem, sir. Red or white?”

“Red. Thanks so much, both of you.” Dad popped back into the house and shut the door behind him.

I rolled my eyes. “Just wait in your car and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He shrugged and followed me to my car. He was in my passenger seat before I could stop him. I slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut.

“I said your car,” I grumbled through gritted teeth, knowing he wasn’t going to get out.

“I did promise your dad I’d go along with you.”

I didn’t bother to argue as I drove over to the store to grab a bottle of wine. Ben followed me but didn’t say a word. Collier was a small town, though. Of course everyone noticed.

Lotti Moffat was working the register as I got in line to pay.

“I declare it’s like time turned back ten years, seeing the two of you together. Benjamin Shay, welcome home. I heard about your daddy. I’m so sorry. If there’s anything you all need, please just let us know.”

“Thanks, Lotti I appreciate that.”

“You must be thrilled to have him home, Shelby.”

“Thrilled,” I said in a dry voice. I paid and left without another word.

Once in the car, Ben started talking. I wasn’t ready to hear it and tried to shush him.

“Do not shush me, Shelbs. I screwed up. I know that now. I was a wrong about a lot of things, but especially about you. If I could go back and do it all over again, things would be very different. But I can’t. All I can do is start over again.”

I didn’t respond until I pulled up into the driveway. “You can’t just get a do-over, Ben. And I’m not ready to talk to you.”

I jumped out of the car before he could respond and ran into the house, barely refraining from slamming the door behind me.

I marched into the kitchen and gave the wine to Mom. Dad quirked a brow at me and I knew he was asking where Ben was. As if to answer his question, there was a knock at the door. Dad grinned and winked at me as he got up to answer it.

“Ben’s here,” Mom said, clapping her hands together excitedly. “I’m sure the two of you will want to sneak off and catch up, but first, dinner.”

I rolled my eyes behind her back and fought not to groan. Of course she’d think that, because I had never let any of my family think a bad thing about Ben, or know the extent to which he hurt me.

When Dad came back with Ben in tow, the four of us sat down to dinner. It was awkward for me especially, since no one else seemed to notice or care. I stayed quiet, and even that didn’t draw their attention because Ben carried the conversation for everyone.

The hardest part to endure was the images my wolf kept flashing through my mind of Ben and me naked together.Mine, she kept growling.

He can’t be, I thought.

I was growing uncomfortable and agitated by the moment, then Ben reached his foot across to me and rubbed it against my own under the table. My parents were oblivious to that simple gesture, but the immediate calm it gave me was frightening.

“What’s for dessert?” I asked, just trying to speed the evening along.

Mom grinned proudly. “Well, I started to ask Peyton to bake something fabulous, because we all know I’m not that great at it, but then I remembered that your father is supposed to be cutting back on the sweets, and you and Ben used to love that ice cream shopin town and thought it would be great for the two of you to catch up over that instead.”

Why did I feel like my parents were trying to set me up with my ex-best friend?

“Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving and they probably closed early for it,” I said sensibly without straight up protesting the ridiculous idea.

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