Page 36 of Planning on Happily Ever After

Holly thought for a moment. She enjoyed surprises for the most part, but then she thought about the one time she went out on a second date and the guy surprised her by taking her geocaching on the beach. At first, she thought it was quirky and fun, but ninety minutes and a bunch of sand in her shoes later, she was ready to call it quits. She had stuck it out for a little while, figuring she needed to at least see what the so-called treasure was, and was hugely disappointed when it turned out to be a shoebox full of thimbles. Holly ended the night alone with a frozen pizza and a big glass of wine.

Shuddering at the memory, she turned to face the date she had far more faith in. “Surprises are overrated.”

Ben looked at her quizzically, a curious smile on his face. “I feel like there’s a story there, but I’ll ask about it on the hike.”

“Hike?” Holly glanced down at her canvas tennis shoes not confident they would last more than twenty minutes.

Ben grabbed her hand and linked their fingers together. “Well, more of a nature walk near the beach. It rained so much yesterday that anything more would be too dangerous.”

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it and Holly sighed dreamily, trying desperately not to swoon at his actions, finally understanding how Hailey must feel every time Louis did the same thing. Content to just sit back and enjoy the ride, Holly let her head fall back on the headrest and stared at Ben as he drove, studying his profile like there would be a pop-quiz about it tomorrow.

Not long after she’d just finished mentally writing an ode to the three small crinkles near his right eye, the car finally came to a stop in a lot near Lighthouse Park, a place she had only visited a couple of times despite it being so close to her hometown. Holly started to open her car door, but Ben tugged their still joined hands. “Nu-uh. That’s for me to get,” he prodded before kissing her hand once more and exiting the vehicle.

Once he had opened her door and pulled her out, she looked up at him sardonically. “I can open my own doors, you know. I’m a whole twenty-five-years old.”

He tapped the bill of her ball cap and tutted. “It’s not about your age, sunshine. I just figured anyone who rooted for Boston might have a hard time with something as complex as a door handle.”

Holly lightly punched his shoulder and he gripped his arm, feigning hurt. “Keep it up, Yankee, and this date will be over before it starts,” she teased with a laugh.

“Well, I definitely don’t want that.” He grabbed her hand and steered her toward the trailhead. “Come on. Let’s get our hike on.”

Holly happily followed along behind him, realizing that no amount of teasing would have caused her to walk away from this date. It had already been one of the best of her life and they had only been together for twenty minutes. Ben could have taken her to an empty dog park and she would still be enjoying herself because being with him, someone she really cared about, reallylovedthat made every experience that much better. Visions of more dates were already flashing through her mind, but if Ben wasn’t on the same page, her fall into love would have one hell of a hard landing, and there was no positive spin Holly could put on that.

As they walked toward the trail, Holly’s mind flashed back to the phone call she’d gotten from Ben’s mom the day prior.

“Trish, what can I do for you today?”The question was met with a sniffle, a wedding red alert.“Is everything alright?”

Trish sighed.“Actually, no. Everything is not alright.”

“Would you like to talk about it?”Holly was hoping for a change of mind on floral arrangements, but wasn’t that lucky.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just having pre-wedding jitters. I really like Marvin, and I don’t love being alone, never have.”She huffed a small laugh. “It’s just so hard to not compare him to my first husband. Ben’s dad was incredible, brave and so strong about every little problem that came our way, and he loved how silly and romantic I can be. He told me that every day.”

Holly had blinked back tears of her own as she listened to the wistfulness in the woman’s voice.“He sounds like a wonderful man.”She felt a pang of grief both for Trish and for Ben. He never got to know his dad, but he ended up being as great a guy as it seemed his father was.

“He was, which is why it’s always been so hard to stick it out with anyone else. Eventually, every one of them went from loving my silly, romantic side to becoming irritated by them. Even Marvin seems to only be tolerating me at the moment. He’s the one who wanted to get married, but he has shown no interest in the actual wedding. He keeps telling me that it’s impractical and silly.”

Holly’s heart had broken at Trish coming to the realization that perhaps her potential marriage wasn’t a good idea after all. “I’m so sorry that you’re going through all of this,” she’d replied, wishing there was more she could offer besides the same old platitudes.

“Thank you.”Her throat cleared and when she spoke again, her voice was brighter.“I’ll be okay. I’m probably just being nitpicky.”

Holly would normally have been the first to agree with putting a more positive spin on something, but she couldn’t do it this time. There was optimism, and then there was being so positive you talked yourself into a bad situation.“I don’t know your relationship, so I can’t speak to that, but I do know that if something doesn’t feel right, it’s probably worth talking about with Marvin, especially before you go through with anything that might complicate matters.”

“Ha, very true. The only thing harder than trying to date as a fifty-five year old widow would be trying to do it with a divorce on top of that.”Trish sighed once again.“I feel awful that I’ve left you to basically plan my entire wedding for me, though I suppose it wasn’t all terrible.”

Holly knew what the woman was implying and had no rebuttal. The planning had been wonderful.“Ben is a good man.”A great man, but she didn’t want to be so effusive and give the woman ideas.

“He is, and I’m happy for the two of you. I see the way you two look at each other, and it reminds me of his father and me, gives me hope for the future. I don’t think I’ve seen my Benny this happy since I bought him his first computer, and he really, really loved that computer.”

The significance of that statement wasn’t lost on Holly. She had definitely been feeling something that seemed a lot like love, but she hadn’t been able to tell if Ben had felt it, too. Holly had been afraid to think about how deep her feelings went before knowing how Ben felt, but hearing the person who knows him best tell her how happy he was helped to calm her nerves. If she was happy and Ben was happy, that was all that really mattered.

“Normally I’m the one that’s quiet.” Ben’s deep voice broke through her memories and brought Holly back to their hike. “What are you thinking about?”

Holly smiled at their joined hands, loving how they seemed to find their way to each other automatically now.Is the first date too early to tell someone you love them? Probably.Ben was strong and put on such a tough front, but he was just as fragile as the rest of the world, and she would do everything in her power to protect his heart, but she also needed to protect her own.

Holly gazed up into the bright blue sky before meeting Ben’s gaze again. “I was just thinking about what a beautiful day it is, and how there’s no one else I would rather share it with.”

“Same here, sunshine.” He tugged on her hand and increased their speed. “Come on. There’s something else we can share together.” As Ben pulled her toward the shoreline, Holly felt the overwhelming sense that it might not matter how much she tried to protect her heart because it already belonged to him.

---