Page 78 of A Good Book

Ben startled when I grabbed his jacket and shook him. He narrowed his eyes.

“I was so scared. Why did you leave?”

He slowly shook his head, and I fumbled with my jacket to dig the pen and paper from my pocket.

Why did you leave? I was so scared!

He read my words then his gaze swept along my face before he wiped my tears.

“Sorry. A couple asked if they could have the table, so I figured you’d assume I was meeting you outside.”

“Well, I didn’t—” I sighed, stopping myself and writing it down.

Why would I assume that? Why not wait in the food court? I had no idea where you were!!!

Ben chuckled. I’d been trying all day to get him to smile, and my anguish is the thing that brought him joy?

I wiped my face with the back of my hands, grabbed all the bags, and stomped toward the parking lot, not giving a single glance behind me. If a car hit him, that was too bad. He caught up with me and tried to take the bags. I jerked away from him.

“Gabby?”

I picked up the pace and ignored him, giving him a taste of his own medicine.

“Gabby, I’m sorry.”

When I got to the car, I tossed the bags in the back seat.

Ben opened my door, but I shoved him.

“I can open my own door.” I no longer cared if he could hear me.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

BREATHE, “HANDS TO HEAVEN”

Gabby

“Gabby, I’m sorry,”Ben repeated multiple times on the way to his house, but I ignored him.

As soon as I shut off the engine, I retrieved his bags from the back, and carried them inside while he followed me. I looked around for his parents.

“They’re gone. Tillie had an appointment, and they were going to lunch,” he said.

I turned and relaxed my hands, letting the bags fall to the ground. Then I shrugged, just like he had done to me all day, and started to brush past him to go home.

Ben grabbed my wrist. “I should have broken up with Susie. In the eighth grade, when Michelle said you liked me as more than a friend, I should have broken up with Susie.”

I closed my eyes.

“Maybe it would have changed the trajectory of my life. I wouldn’t have had to be your best friend while you fell for other guys. I missed my chance, and I was too scared to ask for a second one. So I stood in Matt’s shadow. I watched you fall for everyone but me. And I told myself that someday, I would be everything you wanted and more.” He laughed. “For every dream you’ve had about Matt Cory, I’ve had a million more about you. And now I’m nothing. Less than nothing. You deservesomething.”

Ben didn’t play fairly. Why couldn’t he let me stay mad at him? He didn’t deserve my sympathy. I wasn’t sure he even wanted it. My brain struggled to sync with my heart. One thought I should love Matt Cory, the other knew I loved Benjamin Ashford.

I pulled out the pad of paper and pen. Ben plucked them from my hands and tossed them aside. When I gave him a confused look, he shook his head.

“I don’t want to talk.”

I shifted my focus from the discarded notepad to his face. With anguish in his eyes, he tilted his head and lowered to kiss me. We were so good at kissing each other.Thatwas my talent.

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