Page 11 of Planning on Happily Ever After

The corners of his mouth twitched as if he wanted to smile but couldn’t manage to pull it off. “I usually go by just Ben, but I suppose calling me all of those other names wouldn’t be completely inaccurate.” His voice was just as soothing and honeyed as it had been the other night, though as much as Holly had longed to hear it, she hadn’t ever imagined it would be under these circumstances.

She exhaled and chuckled, slightly hysterically, placing a palm on top of her head and one on her stomach, unable to decide which to do first, laugh, cry, or throw up. How had the two guys she had been fantasizing about turned out to be one and the same? Was this some kind of joke from the universe? He had been such a grump those two times she’d run into him in person, but she had been sure they had some kind of connection. Why was it always him?

When they had briefly talked over the game chat, she had felt that same strange sense of longing. As Holly stood there looking dumbfounded, she couldn’t help but feel as though she wanted to explore it, see what would come of trying with someone unlike anyone she had dated before,knownbefore. Holly didn’t believe in signs, but this felt different,significant. It wasn’t a joke, it was an opportunity. This was a real shot to explore something with this man, and she wasn’t going to waste it.

Holly tried to school her expression, but could tell her eyes were probably still wide with disbelief. Shaking her head, she smiled through it like she always did. “Well, okay then. It is nice to formally meet you grumpy-no-sweets-guy, aka Ben.”

Trish looked between the two of them, a mixture of confusion and amusement on her face. “I take it you two know one another.”

Ben nodded slightly, but said nothing. Maybe he wasn’t comfortable telling the story or maybe he was just being his normal, taciturn self. Henry mentioned he didn’t likepeopling, and dealing with her definitely qualified as that. Either way, Holly decided to save him, and herself, any embarrassment. “Oh, Ben and my brother, Henry, are friends and we had spoken before but just never met.”

“How funny.” Trish won the trophy for understatement of the year and Holly was tempted to tell her the entire story because she would probably get a real kick out of it, but ultimately decided that it was Ben’s tale to tell. Trish’s brow furrowed suddenly. “Why did you call him no-sweets guy?”

Holly blew a raspberry out from her lips and waved her hand. “Oh, that. He mentioned one time that he didn’t enjoy sweets like brownies or things like that.” She looked over at Ben and smirked at the memory of his adamant refusal of the treat. “They were good brownies, too. Such a waste.” His cheeks turned a little pink and Holly wanted to do a little shimmy at the thought she had made the seemingly uptight Ben blush.

His mother scoffed. “Oh, that’s baloney. My Benny loves sweets. Why, I’m sure if we were to scour his pantry right now, we would find a half empty box of Junior Mints or a bag of licorice.”

Holly narrowed her eyes at Ben, slightly affronted that he didn’t take her up on her previous offer. “Lying? Not cool, Benjamin. Not cool.” He rolled his eyes and the scowl was back in place, but not quite as firmly as before. Holly counted it as a win and clasped her hands together in front of her, putting on her brightest smile. “Now that introductions are out of the way, shall we take a look around?”

“Absolutely,” Trish said at the same time Ben muttered, “I guess.”

Holly laughed at how completely different mother and son were and threaded her arm through Trish’s before steering her toward the back entrance. “Now, I know the owners, and they have given me full permission to take you all over the property. I thought we could start in the main barn where we could hold both the ceremony and reception before moving onto some of the smaller buildings that would be for one or the other. There are also beautiful grounds near each one to hold either an outdoor ceremony or reception depending on the time of year.”

“That all sounds wonderful,” Trish said effusively before calling over her shoulder to her son who was trailing behind the two women. “Doesn’t that sound wonderful, Benny?”

Holly could hear his aggrieved sigh and smiled at his perpetual grumpiness. Before it would have been an instant turn off, but now that she knew he could be more talkative and open as he had been over the gaming chat, she found his grouchy demeanor somewhat endearing. He was like Crème Brule, and she was determined to crack that hard outer layer to get to the yummy custard underneath.

“Yes, mom. It sounds wonderful.” His flat tone betrayed just how little he actually meant what he said, but Holly appreciated the fact that he was trying his best for his mom.

Holly peered over her shoulder, her smile widening at how Ben was practically dragging his feet behind them. “Keep up please, Benjamin. We don’t want you missing out on anything,” she chastised playfully and winked at him. His mouth did that twitching thing again and Holly made it her new mission in life to get a full blown smile out of the man.

Spending the next hour with the two Williams family members on a detailed tour of Plumberry Farms was more of the same. Holly and Trish shared ideas about flowers and seating arrangements for the ceremony that would take place outside as well as what the indoor reception would look like while Ben shuffled along behind them, taking it all in. Holly couldn’t blame him, the area was gorgeous and she had always imagined getting married there herself, and a lot of the ideas she gave Trish were ones that she had hoped to use for her own wedding one day. As they toured the property, the women bonded over their shared love of all things romance, prompting Holly to invite Trish to the romance book club both she and Hailey attended.

As they walked back toward the main house, Holly’s eyes shifted to Ben. He had spent most of the last hour silent, offering only the occasional grunt of affirmation, but his presence had still felt necessary somehow, as though he added to the day simply by being a steady sounding board for each woman’s more fanciful ideas.

“You know, Benjamin, you could always join our romance book club, too.” It came out as a tease, but she was dead serious, wanting to see if he would blush at some of the racier books they read.

Even without his sardonic expression, Holly already knew the answer. “I don’t think so.”

Determined to keep their banter going, she couldn’t help but press on. “C’mon. It could give you some ideas for your game designs.” Holly bumped him with her shoulder and grinned, wanting,needingto goad a smile out of him. “Maybe then the female characters wouldn’t just be medieval Barbie rip-offs.”

Ben stopped walking and leveled her with a look. “One, they aren’t medieval Barbie rip-offs, and two, I don’t have anything to do with character design.”

Despite his words, there was a spark of humor in his eyes and Holly latched onto it like a lifeline. “But I bet you know the people who do and could suggest they make the female characters more badass. I would actually play a game if I could be like a warrior princess with a sword or a magic scepter, and then I could save the dude in distress. It would be like a visual, interactive romance novel.”

Ben’s eyes widened in surprise before his brow furrowed in thought. “That’s not a completely horrible idea, actually.”

Holly barked a laugh. “Whoa, an almost compliment. I think I might swoon.” She placed the back of her palm to her forehead and pretended to faint, earning yet another mouth twitch. Holly was starting to live for those small movements, taking each one along with the rush of good feelings accompanying them and committing them to memory. If she ever did get that full blown smile, she probably would faint for real.

Trish snickered and Holly glanced over at her, having completely forgotten the woman, herclient, was there. “I like this,” she said pointing back and forth between the two of them. Holly noticed Ben shift uncomfortably, but luckily before his mom could say anymore, her phone rang. “Its work. I need to get this.”

As Trish rushed off to accept her call, Holly leaned back against one of the birch trees that grew just near the main house, raising her head toward the sky and enjoying the clear blue day that peeked through the bare branches of the tree. The sun was almost overhead and she closed her eyes to bask in the warmth of it on her face, the sensation only adding to the fizzy feeling that had filled her chest all morning long.

Holly blinked her eyes open for a moment, and after spying Ben staring at her with his hands in his pockets, she closed them again, a slow smile spreading across her face at his attention. “It’s not polite to stare, Benjamin.”

“I wasn’t staring,” he choked, quickly trying to cover it with a cough. “And the name is Ben, not Benjamin.”

She smirked, loving the opportunity to tease him a little more. Holly was never very good at flirting, and while she wasn’t sure this was the best way to go about it with Ben, he was too cute when he was being needled by her. “No nicknames? What about Benji?”

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