Page 31 of Coming Home

Shelby

Chapter 11

When I walked into the house, my head was swimming. Ben had escorted me to the front door and kissed me goodnight. He still took my breath away, but I was terrified he’d leave in two weeks and I’d never hear from him again, mated or not. Knowing we were true mates and feeling our bond growing by the minute made me even more scared. I’d seen what an unresolved bond looked like and I didn’t think I was strong enough to live through it.

Maddie was still up rocking Sara in the living room, though the rest of the house was quiet because it was late. Ben and I had gone down to the river and sat and talked some. I had a better picture of what he had been doing all these years and I’d admitted the struggles I’d had seeking out a career. Neither of us talked about anything too personal, but it was nice.

“Hey, Cora and Zach were making bets on how late you’d be out. They just went up to bed,” Maddie said.

“Hey, you’re here!” I said. “When did you guys get in?”

“About an hour ago. Oscar was tired so he and Liam went straight to bed, but this one was ready to party,” she said, looking down affectionately at her daughter.

Maddie and I had been close once. I was the first to open up to her and accept her back. She’d asked me to be at her wedding, to which of course I’d said yes. Still, in the last two years of having her back in our lives, we hadn’t really talked about stuff.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. “Lily filled me in a little over the phone. Ben left nine years ago, and you really haven’t heard from him since. Now he’s back, that’s got to be hard, or is this a good thing?”

I shrugged again. “Jury’s still out.”

“Well, you looked happy when you walked in, if that’s any consolation.”

“It’s pretty surreal having him back here,” I said.

“I know from our girls’ night last time I was here that you and he were pretty close. Are those old feelings resurfacing?” she asked. “Because you’re blushing like a girl who just had the best sex of her life or who just met her one true mate.”

“We didn’t have sex,” I blurted out, unable to deny the other.

Maddie’s mouth dropped open, then she closed it as she contemplated what to say next. It clearly did not go unnoticed that I didn’t deny the second accusation. I just couldn’t. I needed to tell someone.

“Um, do you want to talk about it?” she finally asked. “Because if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, that’s a pretty big deal, Shelbs.”

“I think I’ve always known, Maddie,” I confessed. “It doesn’t feel like some big revelation, but there are things I should have told him, and I didn’t because I was so mad at him at the time. What if he can’t forgive me? I’ve barely forgiven myself.”

She nodded. “If anyone can understand and appreciate that, it’s me. You think I wanted Liam to know about everything that happened to me? I didn’t think he could forgive me everything I had done, even knowing that most of it wasn’t my fault. But he needed to know for us to move past it, for me to move past it.”

I sighed. I knew what I needed to do, but it would wait until after Thanksgiving.

“Oh, not to completely change the subject on you, but Cora wanted me to tell you that since dinner at Peyton’s went so well last time, she caved and is moving Thanksgiving there, too. Something about the kitchen being nicer to cook in.”

“Mom’s letting Peyton host Thanksgiving?” I asked, shocked to hear it.

“Apparently it’s a group effort with just a location change,” Maddie said with a laugh. “But basically, yeah. She wanted me to tell you to let Ben know, said he and his brothers were supposed to be having dinner with us.”

I pulled out my phone and frowned down at it. “I don’t have his number,” I confessed. “I can try the house.”

It rang four times and I was about to hang up when Will answered. “Shay residence.”

I could hear Troy and Ben yelling in the background but could only make out some of it.

“I told you to stay the hell away from her,” Troy said.

“I can’t, Troy. Someday you’ll understand, but I can’t.”

“You’re just going to leave again, Ben, and then we’ll all be left to clean up your mess. She deserves better.”

“Probably, but that’s not how this works,” Ben said.

“Hello?” Will asked and I realized I hadn’t said anything.

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