Page 24 of Mistletoe Dreams
He got in and put the car in drive, pulling out on the road after checking for traffic.
"Aren't you going to yell at me?" Mason asked, slouching in the seat.
"Put your seatbelt on," Ben said, still whirling around in his mind, trying to figure out what to do.
As he came to the outskirts of Mistletoe Meadows, he saw the medical clinic sitting back, the parking lot half full.
Hannah had said that he could ask her for help anytime.
Was this anytime?
This was going to be a big ask. But maybe he could sit in the office, at least until Ben was done with the meeting and could figure out what he was going to do. Of course he could take Ben back to school, but how was he to keep him from walking off again?
He put the turn signal on and pulled into the parking lot.
"What are you doing?" Mason asked. Apparently he hadn't expected to stop at the medical center.
"I could ask you that."
"I told you I was skipping school," Mason said with a laugh.
"And you knew I meant why are you doing that."
"I felt like it." Mason clicked his seatbelt and yanked on the door handle.
Ben didn't have time to grill him.
He got out of the car and told Mason to follow him.
Pulling open the door, he allowed Mason to walk in before he did.
He hadn't expected it, but Hannah happened to be out in the waiting room, talking to a family, holding her iPad with her blood pressure cuff poking out of her white lab coat pocket and her stethoscope hanging from her neck.
She looked like a doctor this morning, when she hadn't last night. She'd looked like a beautiful woman last night.
Ben closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts.
When he opened them, Hannah had looked up, surprise lifting her brows.
"I don't see any bloody bandages," she said, tilting her head to the side, questions in her eyes.
"Can I talk to you for a moment in private?" he asked, not bothering to greet her.
She must've caught something in his tone, because she tilted her head and nodded, before murmuring, "Excuse me," to the person she'd been talking to.
Ben nodded at Mr. Greenwald and his wife before following Hannah to the back.
She opened the door, and he grabbed it and held it for her to walk through and then Mason as well.
Once she got back, she turned around, glancing at Dr. Terry, who stood in front of one of the closed doors, reading a chart.
"Do I need to wait for Dr. Terry to leave?" Hannah asked as she stood beside the counter, her hands at her side.
"No. I suppose not. I can't keep this a secret forever, I guess."
"What's wrong?" she asked, glancing again at Dr. Terry, who lifted her eyes and watched the proceedings but didn’t say anything.
"Mason skipped school today. I have a meeting I need to be at,and I'm going to be late. I don't have time to take him back and deal with it. I... I was going to ask if he could stay here, but it's a terrible idea. I'm sorry." He started to turn away. What had he been thinking? She was trying to work. She didn't have time to babysit his teenager.
