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“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“And thanks for making up the story for Amy tonight. That was nice of you.”
“I like to think that I can be a nice guy when needed.”
“A regular knight in shining armor, huh? Like Sir Goodknight?”
One chestnut eyebrow lifted in a masculine challenge of her comment. “Anything wrong with that?”
“Nothing. As long as you realize that I’m no Lady Blush. I’m not a damsel in distress.”
“You’re saying you don’t need a knight in shining armor to rescue you?”
“I could use the armor. Not the knight.”
“You don’t see yourself remarrying?”
“No.”
“Why not? You’re young and beautiful. Why can’t you see a happy ending for yourself?”
“Marriage isn’t a happy ending for me. Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“Well, trust me, it’s not what it’s cracked up to be.”
“Amy said that she didn’t think her dad was a good dad. Why is that?” Ben’s expression darkened. “Did he hit her?”
“No, nothing like that.”
The line of his jaw tightened. “Did he hit you?”
“No.” Perry had never resorted to physical abuse. He hadn’t had to when a sarcastic comment could do plenty of damage. To this day she wasn’t sure if his intention had been to hurt her on any of those occasions, or if he’d simply been so self-involved that he hadn’t cared how she felt. She suspected it was the latter.
“Then what happened?”
“Why do you care?” Ellie countered.
“Because I cared about John and you’re his sister.”
“I already told you that I don’t need anyone looking after me.”
“Humor me, okay? What can it hurt, telling me about your marriage? Unless you’re still so in love with the guy that you don’t want to talk about it.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, but not because I’m still in love with Perry. Oh, I loved him in the beginning. Blindly so. I met him in my freshman English class in college. He asked to borrow my notes and never gave them back. That should have been a clue that Perry was only out for Perry. But he was a sweet-talking charmer. Incredibly good-looking. He swept me off my feet, promised me the world. We got married a few months later and I quit school to support him. Dumb I know, but Perry made it seem like the most responsible plan. He could focus on getting his business degree and then he’d get a great job and I could stay home with the family we wanted. At least I thought we both wanted a family. Perry said he did. He said all the right things. And we were happy in the beginning. Then I got pregnant. That wasn’t part of Perry’s plan. Not until he graduated from college. Even so, he pretended to make the best of things. And I worked until a week before Amy was born.”
“What happened then?”
“Perry acted like he was so proud of his baby daughter. He showed off pictures of her to everyone he met. But there were signs that things weren’t going well. We were always short of money. Perry would come up with one get-rich scheme after another. This time, babe, he’d tell me. This time it’s the real thing. But it never was. He graduated from college when Amy was two. A few weeks later we discovered that Amy has asthma.”
Ellie sighed and sat on the couch, kicking off her sandals to curl her feet beneath her. Talking about her marriage made her feel sad and stupid. “Perry didn’t take the news well. He likes perfection and suddenly Amy wasn’t his perfect little girl any longer. He took off a few months later and we haven’t heard much from him since.”
Ben sat on the couch beside her. “He doesn’t stay in contact with his daughter?”
“No. Not really. I keep telling her that her daddy loves her, and he probably does in his own shallow way. But Perry isn’t really capable of loving anyone other than himself.”
“Is he at least paying child support?”
He could feel Ellie retreating from him even though she didn’t move. “Look, I shouldn’t have gone on about things the way I did. I never meant to. When I’m tired, my mouth gets away from me sometimes.” She leaned forward. “Can I get you something to drink? A can of soda maybe?”
“Relax.” His hand on her arm prevented her from leaping up and retreating to the kitchen the way she clearly wanted. “I’m fine.”
Ben suspected that her refusal to answer his question about child support meant that slimebag Perry wasn’t paying. No surprise there. The guy didn’t sound like the responsible kind. He wouldn’t make a good Marine.
John had never gone into any detail about his sister’s ex-husband, other than referring to him as a dirtbag and much worse. Ben hadn’t pushed him for more information, that wasn’t his way. He wasn’t sure now that John had known the exact specifics. Ben suspected Ellie had shielded her brother from the worst of what had really occurred in her marriage.
Ben’s anger at her jerk of an ex-husband made him lose his focus on diplomacy. “You need money. I’ve got money.” He reached for his wallet. “More than I need or could possibly use. Here.” He held out a bunch of hundred dollar bills. “Take it.”
“I’m not for sale. Not in this lifetime,” Ellie growled, before leaping to her feet and pointing to the door. “Get out!”
Chapter Three
Ben realized his error immediately and jammed his wallet to his back jean pocket. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put it that bluntly.”
“You shouldn’t have said it at all.” Ellie’s voice vibrated with anger.
“Let me explain. Please. Hear me out.”
Her look warned him that he’d better talk fast so he did. “A little over a year ago I inherited a lot of money from my wealthy oil baron grandfather. I thought he’d disinherited me years earlier. He never really forgave my mom for marrying an unknown Marine from Chicago named Kozlowski. And he never approved of my brothers and me joining the Marine Corps instead of his oil company down in San Antonio. Anyway, I’ve got all this money that I did nothing to earn.”
“Then give it to a charity.”
“I’d rather give it to you.
“And I didn’t mean to imply that you had to do anything to earn it,” Ben quickly clarified before her mind went down that path. “I’m just trying to help out here.”
“Don’t. I’m not your responsibility. So thanks, but no thanks. I’m not accepting money from a stranger.”
“If you get to know me better than I won’t be a stranger.”
“It won’t change my mind.”
“We’ll see.”
“You’re incredibly stubborn.” Her voice reflected her exasperation.
“So are you.”
“Exactly. So don’t go wasting your time thinking you can change my mind.”
“Spending time with you is not a waste.”
“It is if you think you can change my mind.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“You haven’t talked much about Johnny,” she noted, changing the subject abruptly. “Is that because you think that talking about him will upset me?”
It upset Ben. Not that he mattered in this equation. Keeping his promise to his buddy by looking after Ellie was the only priority here. Nothing else was relevant. Not the fact that he was attracted to Ellie, that she made his heart beat faster, that the flash of her smile made him want to kiss her. All those things were totally irrelevant.
Telling himself that didn’t make the feelings disappear. Reminding himself to stay focused, he belatedly answered her question. “I didn’t want to say anything to upset you more than I have.”
“My brother loved being a Marine. He loved being part of a team that way. I know Marines are a tight-knit group and Johnny had never been part of something like that before. I just wanted you to know that. I can’t talk about it much right now. The wound is still too fresh.”
Ben nodded. He understood better than she could possibly imagine. “Wound” was an accurate description.
In the Marine Corps he’d been trained that pain was weakness escaping the body. But what about guilt? That showed no signs of leaving him. Instead it haunted him, darkly gnawing away at his insides.
“I understand that it’s too soon,” he said quietly, “but we’ve got time. I’m not going anywhere. Like I told you earlier, I’m based near here at Camp Lejeune. I really want to get to know you and Amy better. With that in mind, how about we get together tomorrow?”
Ellie shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of anything.”
“We’re all afraid of something.”
“Even a big bad Marine like you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Fine. Then what are you afraid of?”
“Snails,” he said promptly. “They give me the creeps.”
“Snails?”
“Hey, they’re all slimy and stuff.”
“They live in a shell.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I should have said naked snails then.”
“You’re afraid of naked snails?”
“Affirmative.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No. So what are you afraid of?”
“Not naked snails, I can tell you that much.”
“Go ahead, make fun of a guy after he’s bared his heart to you.”
“You didn’t bare your heart, just your phobias.”
“Hey, I didn’t say it was a phobia,” Ben protested. “Just that I’m not fond of naked snails.”
“Oh, so now you’re backpedaling, are you? I believe the actual comment was that snails give you the creeps.”
“They do. That doesn’t mean I have a phobia about them. A phobia would be the fear of running across naked snails everywhere I go. Usually the subject doesn’t come up that often. Unless I’m at a French restaurant. Getting back to you, you never said what you’re afraid of. Come on.” His sensual mouth quirked with an intimately teasing expression that made her heart skip. “There must be something?”
There were plenty of things. Of being a single mom responsible for a five-year-old daughter. Of what would happen to Amy if anything should happen to Ellie. Perry would be useless and his mom not much better. The thought of her daughter having to go into the foster care program the way Ellie and her brother gave Ellie nightmares more nights than she cared to admit.
Because she knew from personal experience how quickly lives could change. Their dad walked out shortly before Johnny had been born and died shortly thereafter in a fire. They’d been raised by a single mom. When Ellie was seven her mother died in a car crash, killed by a drunk driver who crossed into her lane of traffic. The head-on collision killed her mom instantly.
There were no relatives to take them in so they’d gone into the system. The only good thing had been that, thanks to a compassionate caseworker, she and her brother had been allowed to stay together.
That was one of the reasons why the failure of her marriage had hit Ellie so hard. Because she’d desperately wanted to have a family, to have some security. To have someone to share the good times and the bad times with.
A tiny voice in her head wondered if having Ben in her life might not be a good thing. Marines had a reputation for being responsible. Maybe he would be dependable. Maybe he would be there for Amy should anything happen to Ellie. Yeah, right. She’d only known the guy a few hours and already she was turning him into a knight in shining armor despite her protests that she didn’t need rescuing.
“Forget what you’re afraid of,” Ben said. “Tell me what makes you happy?”
“That’s easy. My daughter.”
“What else?”
“Chocolate. Dark chocolate.” The rebellious thought crossed her mind that a sexy Marine like Ben might make her happy, but she quickly wiped it from her memory bank. She didn’t believe in the happy endings found in her daughter’s fairy tale books. Ellie knew from bitter experience that they rarely existed in the real world.
“Come on, girlfriend, give me all the details.” Latesha made the demand as she and Ellie sat at a table, refilling paper napkins in the metal dispensers that went on every table. Al’s Place was temporarily empty. A fellow waitress and friend, Latesha was slightly older than Ellie and a whole lot more outrageous. “I want every single itty-bitty juicy detail.”
“There aren’t any.”
“Puhlease.” Latesha rolled her brown eyes in disbelief. “You take off last night with Mr. Too Yummy For Words hot on your trail. So come on…” She scooted her chair closer. “Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing happened. He took Amy and me out to dinner last night.”
“And…?”
“And he took us home again.”
“And then…?”
“And then he told Amy a really clever bedtime story.” The first thing Amy had asked Ellie this morning was where Ben was and when he was going to tell her more about Sir Goodknight and Lady Blush.
“What about you? What kind of bedtime story did he tell you?” Latesha’s grin was wicked.
Before Ellie could answer, Cyn joined them. In her mid-twenties, Cyn had a fondness for anything black or purple. She also loved silver jewelry with a Celtic design. With her blond hair and green eyes, she looked nothing like Latesha, but the two shared the same personality type. Cyn perched on the edge of the table. “What are you two talking about?”
“Ellie was just going to give me the juicy details about her night with Mr. Too Yummy For Words.”
Ellie frowned. “His name is Ben and he didn’t spend the night.”
“I hate it when they take off after getting what they want,” Cyn noted.
“It wasn’t like that,” Ellie vehemently denied.
“Then tell us what it was like,” Latesha said.
“I’m trying to, but you keep interrupting me.”
“I wasn’t interrupting you, that was Cyn.”
“It was not. You’re the one who keeps talking.”
Ellie cleared her throat. “Hello? Earth to girlfriends. Listen carefully.”
“Yeah, Cyn, listen carefully.”
“She was talking to you, Latesha.”
Ellie sighed in exasperation. “I’m talking to both of you. Or trying to. Ben and I did not sleep together.”
“Define sleep together,” Latesha said.
“I mean we didn’t…you know.” Ellie waved her hand.
“Why not?” Cyn demanded.
“Because I just met him and because I’m a mother with a young daughter.”
Latesha reached for another pile of paper napkins. “That doesn’t mean you can’t be attracted to a sexy bad-boy like Ben.”
“If you don’t want him, can I have him?” Cyn asked.
“Forget it,” Latesha said. “I have dibs on him. I talked about him first.”
“Look at her face.” Cyn pointed at Ellie. “She wants him for herself.”
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