Page 21 of Trial Run

“I guess I have.” He hadn’t noticed the time pass. Apparently being slapped in the face by lust was a good distraction.

“I can take you back home now.”

“Yes. I have appointments this morning.”

Once they were buckled back in, Nell turned to him. “Come out with me again tomorrow. I’ll be delivering your flowers the rest of the week. You can hide out in the back seat of the van, andnone of your patients will see you there. It’s just, I think this is helping you. Don’t you?”

She wanted to help him more than he wanted it himself. And he already knew he had a problem with saying no to her.

“I think you’re right. I’ll come with you again tomorrow. And I’ll ride in the back, like you said.”

The back seat would be better. Farther away from her. Ben kept his eyes on the road the whole way home. Because something long-dead had roared to life inside him, and oh God, tomorrow was going to be torture.

Chapter 6

By the end of the week, Ben had made important progress. He’d walked to the van unassisted. He’d gone out for more than one errand, riding along as Nell delivered flowers to several of his patients in a row. Last night, he’d gone outside by himself, after sundown, and walked himself to his car.

He’d sat inside the black luxury sedan by himself, not starting the ignition, but with both hands on the wheel. Practice for when he’d do it by himself next week.

He hadn’t made any progress in banishing his sudden, inconvenient attraction to Nell, however. And today was the last day of their delivery runs. She’d told him yesterday that Marco would be with her today, because his school had an inservice day. It was a good thing they wouldn’t be alone together. A very good thing, because otherwise he might do something stupid like ask her out.

She didn’t want that from him. And she shouldn’t. He was a dozen years older than her, and she’d been through a lot. It wouldn’t be right to ask for something she didn’t want to give, the very thing she’d told him from the start she would not do. Especially because he’d given her money.

Still, he caught himself staring a lot. At her striking eyes, the color of slate under a running river, gray and bright at the same time. He’d be in the middle of a sentence and forget what he’d meant to say, but luckily she hadn’t seemed to notice him trailing off. She stopped his brain.

He noticed everything about her now. Once he’d started, it was hard to stop. He noticed the sweep of her thick ponytail across her shoulders. Her long, elegant fingers. And she had the most amazing curves that he absolutely should not be watching at all as she ran up the steps to deliver flowers.

She’d never know his thoughts, and that was a good thing. He had a lot of practice hiding those, pretending to be calm on the outside when the inside of him was a brew of tension. Or in this case, a pure sensual fog.

In the close space of the van, her citrusy shampoo filled his nose, cutting through the scent of the flowers. His fingers itched to touch the velvet-smooth skin of her jaw.

This was very bad. He’d been so isolated, he’d latched onto the first person who’d been kind to him in months. That had to be the explanation. Except now he’d been out of the house five days in a row, he hadn’t seen anyone else remotely interesting.

He’d told her he was rarely attracted to anyone, which was true, and which had probably made her feel safe from any advances from him. He’d be the biggest hypocrite to turn around and ask to see her again after today.

No, today would be their final outing, and then they’d both return to their normal lives. Their time together was up, and after this, they wouldn’t see one another again.

So it was a good thing she would have Marco with her again in the delivery van today. Overall, a very good thing. On impulse, Ben grabbed both halves of a small geode off his display shelf and pocketed them before heading to the front door.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing the back seat with another passenger today,” Nell greeted him when he opened the door.

“Not at all.” His eyes ate her up, taking in every detail before he forced himself to look away. “How many stops do we have this morning?”

“Want to try for five?”

“Five it is.”

“He probably won’t talk to you. Marco.” She walked alongside him down the steps, matching his long strides. “He doesn’t talk to strangers very much. But if he does warm up to you, you’ll hear lots of facts about life on the ocean floor or fossils.”

“Ah, a future scientist.”

“Maybe so.” She smiled her sunshine smile at him, the genuine one, which he could now easily distinguish from the fake one. Her mouth was full and wide, her eyes crinkled at the corners.

He didn’t need to hold her arm as they walked anymore, which was good, because he also didn’t need the reminder of how she fit next to him, right at shoulder height. At this point, he wouldn’t be able to walk and feel her against him at the same time.

He slid into the back seat and found himself face to face with Nell’s second-grader, who sat in a booster seat printed with dinosaurs. Marco wore Hawaiian print board shorts and a red T-shirt, and he held a tablet in his lap, but ignored it in favor of staring at Ben. His expression wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t friendly, either.

Ben swallowed his embarrassment at riding in the back seat like a child. Alone, it hadn’t felt so bad, but sitting next to Marco brought home the fact that he hadn’t been brave enough to face the front seat since the first day.

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