Page 34 of Somebody's Watching Me
Laura Jean clucked her tongue, disgusted by his remark. Going out of her way to be kind, she’d mothered Rebecca right along with SiSi. “It’s because Becca understands the tenuousness of her situation. She has a right to go on the defensive. I mean, what do you expect? She’s trapped.”
“Like a wild animal.” Ben gazed through the window. They were passing the county line where civilization faded, leaving endless rows of pine. Fairweather land held ever so tightly in his father’s grip. The potential for the area far outweighed their other investments, but James always refused, leaving it a wasteland of nothingness on the Gulf of Mexico. “The kind that attacks even when you’re trying to help.”
“You need to install some lights out here,” Albie mumbled. Hardly anyone traveled this late at night on the two-lane highway connectingPort Michaelson to Hollingsdale, and he hit the gas. “At least one near Haven.”
Cutting across the median, they turned onto a clay road. The car dipped and rumbled down the drive, always making the final stretch to Haven House feel like a descent into hell for Ben.
Built by some great-great of his, the place had been left vacant for decades until his grandfather restored it well beyond its former glory. The old man died just shy of its completion, and Ben’s father had no interest in continuing the project. It was dumb luck that James had started to entertain the idea of selling it when Simone became pregnant. Seizing the opportunity, Ben managed to convince him to keep the place as a tax write off and assign a small staff to maintain the estate.
Albie parked directly at the end of the front walk. “We’ll bring your car over and come back to check on Livy.”
“But should we leave the car here?” Laura Jean chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t want your parents to see it at Haven late at night.”
Ben wasn’t worried about his parents. With James’ health declining, his father couldn’t go far without a nurse or extra help on hand. The doctors said it was a watch and wait game, and none of them minded playing it. When it came to his mother, Helen never left her kingdom of Hollingsdale these days. Parkland was her castle, where she ruled over the other society wives with an iron fist.
“It’s okay.” Smiling at her, he lingered. He wouldn’t see her—them—again until his wedding. “But instead of coming back over to check on Becca, how about you guys spend the night at the beach house, and I’ll call you if I think Livy isn’t feeling well? It’s late, and I’m sure she’s asleep.”
Laura Jean loved the beach and squealed in excitement. “I can get behind that idea!”
Warmth hummed in the center of his chest, and Ben fought the urge to rub his thumb over it. Making her happy shouldn’t feel this good.
“You fight dirty, Fairweather,” Albie said. “And don’t be a jackass to SiSi. She had her reasons for not telling you Selah was sick.”
Exiting the car, Ben leaned down. “Not good ones.”
He said goodnight and jogged across the lawn, careful of the rainbow garden. Selah loved the flowers Ty planted when he and SiSi moved here, and he wasn’t about to be the one to ruin them.
Fishing his keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the front door, knowing SiSi had the place secured tighter than a vault. His concern over his parents coming out here might be minimal, but she lived in a constant state of paranoia that never allowed her to let her guard down.
It was dark inside the house, with only the soft flare of the hall lamp allowing him to see. From above, a pair of shoeless feet padded down the stairs, stopping halfway. “Oh, it’s you.”
Reminding himself that she was indeed no more than a child, Ben came to stand at the foot of the staircase to look Rebecca over. She appeared tired and pale, clutching baby Livy tightly to her chest.
“I heard Selah had a stomach bug, and I came to check on him,” he said softly, not wanting to wake Livy. “Are you feeling okay?”
“You left your bachelor party to check on Selah?” She tilted her head to peer into the foyer. “Is Charlie with you?”
“Ah, no.”
He wasn’t going to be the one to tell the news. SiSi might hate him for making her do it, but Ben refused to be the one to tell Rebecca that her boyfriend’s wife had miscarried again, and he was at home where he should be.
“Is SiSi in her room?”
Rebecca turned to go back upstairs, her long, dark ponytail swaying as she went. “Yeah, but Selah doesn’t have a stomach bug. He ate the bag of chocolate chips we were saving to make cookies.”
Well, that explained it. Selah’s stomach couldn’t handle sweets.
Heading down the hall to the rear of the house, he opened SiSi’s door without knocking. She’d picked the large suite on the ground floor when moving in. A chamber of rooms that offered enough space to hold her private bedroom and a nursery for Selah.
As he entered, the soft rumblings of a cartoon played on the corner TV while SiSi lay on the room’s large bed, reading a book as Selah slept with his head in her lap.
She didn’t look very happy to see him. “You stink like cigarettes.”
“I was at a bar. You should have joined us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She expertly extracted herself from under their son as only mothers could do. “Take a shower and change into something else.”
Her audacity floored him at times, and he followed as she marched into the bathroom. “I don’t care what I smell like. I came to check on my kid.”
