Page 4 of Planning on Happily Ever After

Hearing his mother admit that broke Ben’s heart. “You won’t do anything to screw it up, mom.” Ben sucked in a deep breath and did his best to quell her worries along with his own. “I have a good feeling about this one, too.” It was a bald-faced lie, but it was better than spewing more of his pessimism.

“Uh-huh,” his mom said skeptically. She could tell he was full of crap, but she didn’t call him out on it. “Even so, I want you there with me. Please?”

Ben’s mom had always been there for him, so he figured he could suck it up and be there for her, even if his chest was tight and shoulders were up to his ears just thinking about it. “Okay. Just tell me when and where to show up for all the planning stuff and I’ll be there.” He couldn’t imagine a bigger waste of his time, but if it made his mom happy, he would do it.

“Yay! Thank you so much, Benny.” He could hear clapping through the speaker and her joy cracked the icy surface of his heart for just a moment. “You are the best son ever. Now, I need to go find that planner. Love you, honey.”

“Love you too, mom,” he replied before ending the call.

Ugh! He was going to have to interact with some wedding planner and florists and caterers. Ben rubbed at the pain that had flared up in his chest again, wondering if twenty-eight was too young to have a heart attack. Ideally, he would just sit next to his mom and offer her his opinion when she asked for it. She was quite the social butterfly, so she probably wouldn’t have an issue with him saying next to nothing. Ben pulled up the sleeve of his coat and glanced at his watch. The phone call with his mom had taken more time than he’d expected and he needed to rush over to the hardware store and get back to work.

Pushing his way out of the alleyway and back onto the sidewalk, Ben doubled his pace in an effort to get the washer for his sink as quickly as possible. He was barreling down the sidewalk so quickly that by the time he saw the woman in front of him, it was too late.

“Oof,” she grunted as her body tumbled away from his. Ben instinctively grasped her arms and held on to her as tightly as he could so she stayed upright, not wanting the guilt or inconvenience should she hit the concrete.

After he was sure they were stable, Ben glanced down at the woman he was holding onto, the long, chocolate brown waves that cascaded from the top of her head currently obscuring her face. His eyes trailed down her body to assess any damage, and in doing so, he noticed her rather alluring form. She was on the taller side, but still shorter than his six-foot-two inches, the perfect height for kissing without developing a crick in his neck. Shaken, he flung the thought away immediately, unsure why it had occurred in the first place. Most of her body was hidden under her large coat, but Ben got a glimpse of toned legs peeking out from beneath it, his body reacting strongly to even that brief look.

Ben winced and tried to quell the need building low in his belly, causing his dick to plump with interest. Was this another sign of heart damage?Probably a side effect of living like a monk for too long. Mentally penciling in an extra workout to release whatever pent-up hormones were causing his lapse into romantic whimsy and sexual attraction, he brought his eyes back up to face her, his lungs seizing at the sight before him.

The curtain of her hair had parted, giving Ben an unobstructed view of someone so beautiful he had to blink rapidly for a moment to be sure she was real. The woman’s fair, heart shaped face was like that of an angel, an innocence about her he wasn’t normally drawn to but couldn’t seem to look away from. Her doe eyes were as blue as the sky above them and her lips, which were currently forming a small ‘O’ of surprise, were lush and rosy.

The lips shifted into a smile, and Ben was once again wondering about heart attacks because seeing this woman’s dazzling smile and adorable dimples caused the organ to beat roughly against his ribs, like it was trying to burst from his chest just to get closer to her. The woman was simply staring and smiling at him and he was feeling warm and a little bit fuzzy in the brain. Her presence was as comforting as it was infuriating. Ben didn’t feel things like this and he needed to get his washer and get home so he could recharge because something was clearly wrong with him.

Ben felt the skin of his brow tightening along with everything else on his body. He’d been away from home for too long and between navigating the crowds of people and dealing with his mom’s revelation, everything was being thrown out of whack. Ben dropped his hands from her arms and stepped back, immediately missing the feeling of her body next to his and the smell of flowers that seemed to emanate from her. He never missed being close to anyone which in itself was more proof that something was wrong and he needed to leave.

“You should really watch where you’re going,” he told her. His voice was rough with some kind of emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

The woman nodded obligingly before shaking her head in confusion, her face pinching adorably. “Wait, what? I’m sorry if I wasn’t paying as much attention to what I was doing, but you were also walking crazy fast, so I would say the fault is mutual. But hey, no worries.” Ben watched as she reached into a white paper bag and presented him a lump of brown clay. “Brownie?”

Despite her being nothing but polite, Ben scowled at her and grumbled, “I don’t do sweets.” The Junior Mints that currently resided in his pantry and the ice cream he ate as a post workout snack last night proved otherwise, but he needed this interaction to end, and taking a brownie from this woman could lead to more conversation and possibly more alarming and unfamiliar feelings.

“Really?” Her expression filled with curiosity the longer she looked at him. “That’s a shame because these are the best brownies ever. My sister makes them and they are just the right amount of fudgy.” He watched as she took a bite of the brownie in her hand and licked the crumbs from her plump lips. The movement of her pink tongue gliding across them was doing strange things to him, but Ben couldn’t make himself look away from her. “Are you sure you don’t want one? They might help with the whole grumpy thing you’ve got going on right now.”

“I’m not grumpy,” he barked at her defensively. He didn’t mean to say it so vehemently, but he was completely thrown off by the bizarre energy this woman was throwing around. He needed to get out of there. “Look, just watch where you’re going, okay?” Brushing past her, he stalked off toward the hardware store, eager to leave her and every feeling she conjured up behind him.

What was that?Ben absently rubbed at his chest, making a mental note to check his blood pressure and schedule a doctor’s appointment. For the entire rest of the walk to the hardware store he could not stop thinking about the woman he ran into, or the feelings she’d stirred within him. If he didn’t know any better, he would call itlove at first sight, but that was impossible, especially for someone like him who didn’t even believe it was a real phenomenon. Spying the bench outside the store, he plopped down, resting his head in his hands. His body felt weary and oddly energized at the same time, and as he tried to regain his composure, two questions turned over in his mind.What are these strange feelings? And how can I get rid of them?

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