CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
“I can’t. I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m going to Mom and Dad’s. One of Layla’s kids is having their birthday today, so we’re having a family dinner.”
Ben was disappointed, but at the same time, he was glad she was spending time with her family.
“How about tomorrow?” he asked. “Fancy another outing on the boat?”
Amelia stared at him, and he could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. “I don’t know. I saw that it was supposed to be cloudy, maybe even rainy.”
Ben frowned. “It is?” He pulled out his phone and checked his weather app. “Well, only in the morning. It’s supposed to clear later in the day. We could still go out on the boat for dinner.”
Amelia shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“What?”
She glanced at him before looking back down at her hands, where they were wrapped around her now-empty latte cup. “Us spending time together.”
“I disagree. I think it’s a great idea.”
“Ben, we’ve discussed this already. I’m… I’m just not in a good place for…” She waved her hand in the air, gesturing between the two of them. “Whatever it is you want between us.”
“I want a relationship with you,” Ben said, deciding to be blunt.
Shock briefly crossed Amelia’s face. “But… why?”
“Listen, now isn’t the time to discuss this,” Ben said with a glance at the gym. “Cole’s going to be blowing that whistle soon, but I want to talk to you about it.”
Amelia shifted in her seat. “I’m not sure there’s anything to talk about.”
“Please, Amelia,” Ben said. “Just… let’s have a conversation about it.”
She sighed and reached for the empty croissant bag and carefully folded it into a small square.
“I guess we can go out on the boat tomorrow.”
Ben grinned. “Perfect.”
She didn’t seem very excited about it, but Ben was glad she was at least willing to have a conversation.
“What time?”
“Same as last time,” she said. “I do better when it’s not super sunny or hot.”
“Okay. I’ll have Connie make us a meal,” he said. “Any requests?”
“My tastes haven’t changed much,” she said. “I’m sure whatever you decide will be fine.”
“I can promise you a good meal, but there are no guarantees about fireworks.”
She gave a small shrug. “It’s probably better if there aren’t any.”
Ben didn’t happen to agree, but he didn’t press. They’d have time the next evening to talk through things. That was what he wanted most. A good conversation with her.
The whistle from the gym grabbed Ben’s attention, and he glanced toward the open doorway. “I guess I’d better get back to work. Talk to you later?”
She nodded and gave him a small smile. Ben jogged toward the group, preparing himself for the rest of the afternoon.
When the clinic ended, Ben spent a few minutes talking with the kids, some of whom wouldn’t be returning to future clinics. Once the kids were gone, Cole gathered the men for a debriefing of the week. A couple of the men weren’t returning the next week either, and Ben was sad to see them go.
After everything was done, Ben left the gym, not surprised to see that the hallway table was empty, the chairs pushed neatly in.
“I’m going to swing by the office,” Ben said as Luca joined him. “To say goodbye to Amelia.”
He found her seated at her desk with a stack of folded papers in front of her.
“The bulletin for Sunday?” he asked as he sat down across from her.
“Yep. Not sure how many churches still do paper bulletins, but we do.”
“Need some help?” Ben offered.
She glanced at Luca, then back to Ben. “You don’t have to leave?”
“Nope. Dinner’s not until seven at the house.”
Amelia took half of the unfolded stack and slid it across the desk to him. “Make sure you line up the edges.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ben said as he picked up one of the bulletins and looked it over. “Did you design this?”
“Yes. It’s one of my assignments,” she said. “Marian isn’t a fan of computers, so I took it over when we split the job.”
Luca had disappeared into the hall, but Ben didn’t rush to join him. His bodyguard knew how to roll with the punches when necessary.
“What’s exciting in the bulletin this week?” Ben asked as he carefully lined up the edges.
“Not a whole lot,” Amelia said. “Things at the church are pretty quiet with it being summer. There are only a couple of programs continuing.”
After he’d folded around ten bulletins, he said, “Why don’t you have a folding machine to do this?”
“A folding machine?” Amelia asked, her movements slowing.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure they have machines that fold papers like this.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Marian just told me that this was how it’s done.”
“Because that’s the way it’s always been done?”
Amelia gave a little huff of laughter. “Probably. She isn’t a big one for change or for technological advances.”
“Well, while it might not benefit her anymore because you’re doing it, I think it might be worth looking into for your sake.”
Her movements stilled as she looked down at her hands. “Why do you say that?”
“Am I wrong in assuming that maybe some of the joints you mentioned hurting are in your hands?”
She slowly curled her fingers into her palms and then opened them. “Yes. Sometimes.”
Ben didn’t say anything more. He’d put the thought in her mind, but he wasn’t going to leave it to her to arrange for a folding machine. He was going to find one and have it delivered to the church.
If nothing else, he was going to do what he could to make her life a little easier and maybe a bit less painful.
“Did I tell you that I’ve made the decision to move into Annie’s old place?”
Amelia’s brows rose. “Really? Why?”
“I don’t know,” Ben said. “I just thought I’d like a bit more space of my own.”
A small smile crossed Amelia’s face. “I love the loft in that place. I used to go there for fittings sometimes. She decorated the loft so cute with her work stuff on one side and the bedroom on the other.”
“I had a bedroom there too,” Ben said. “It was on the main floor, and sometimes I spent the night there when my folks were in New York. I didn’t always stay with Annie when they were gone, but I always knew that I could if I wanted to.”
“It sounds like you considered it your second home.”
“Definitely,” Ben said. “And now it’s going to become that again.”
“How does your mom feel about you moving out of the main house?”
Ben added the bulletin he’d folded to the pile. “I think she has mixed emotions. She’d rather I stayed in the main house close to her, but I think she’s hoping that my moving into Annie’s house means I’ll be staying longer.”
“Sounds like a mom,” Amelia said.
“My mom has always wanted to keep me close. I’m her baby after all.”
“You’ve got a great mom,” she said.
“So do you.”
Amelia nodded. “Yes. Charli’s been great to me. My birth mother, however, wasn’t as good.”
“Sometimes I forget that Charli isn’t your birth mom.”
“Me, too. At least now,” she said. “At the start, it took me awhile to understand that she wanted to be my mom. There were times when I thought she only tolerated me because she wanted my dad. You know, because he was Layla’s dad.”
Ben paused in his folding. “You never mentioned that back then.”
Amelia shrugged, then began to fold another bulletin. “By the time we started hanging out together, I’d mostly gotten over it.”
“Mostly?” Ben asked.
“Let’s just say that the idea has never completely left my mind,” she said with a sigh. “But I don’t dwell on it.”
Ben considered the revelation as he continued to help Amelia. He’d always thought she and Charli had a good relationship. It hadn’t been the same as Charli and Layla’s, but he’d just assumed it was because Amelia had a more reserved personality than Layla did.
Now he wondered if Amelia had just never fully opened herself up to Charli, especially if she’d thought that Charli had only tolerated her. It might have made Amelia wary of sharing too much about her feelings with Charli.
Was that part of why she’d been so intensely private about certain things? How much did Charli know about her current situation?
“Have you told your mom and dad about going to New York for the testing?”
Amelia slowly drew her finger along the fold, flattening it into a crease. “No. They’ve already been through a lot of medical stuff with Shiloh. I don’t want to add to their stress.”
“But it’s been awhile since Shiloh had medical issues, hasn’t it? Isn’t she doing better?”
“Yes, she is.”
“I think they’d want to know what’s going on with you. Just like they did with Shiloh.”
“Maybe.” Amelia finished the last of her papers, then gathered up the folded stack and shuffled them into order. “Almost done?”
“Just a couple more.”
Ben finished them, then handed them to her. He wanted to continue the conversation, but he could see her shutting down, and he didn’t want her to close him out completely.
“Thanks for the help,” Amelia said. “I’ll have Marian cut you a check for your labor.”
Ben chuckled. “Not necessary.” He watched as she put the stack of bulletins in a tray on her desk. “Anything else I can help with?”
“Nope. I’m done for the day,” she said. “I’m going to head home before I go to Mom and Dad’s. I need to pick up the present I bought for the birthday girl.”
He waited until she was finished with everything, then walked with her out to her car, Luca trailing behind them.
“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked as they reached her car.
She hesitated, and for a moment, Ben thought she was going to refuse.
“Yes. What time should I be there?”
“I’ll come pick you up around five,” he said. “Will that work?”
She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
As Ben watched her drive away a couple of minutes later, he had an unsettled feeling inside him. He wasn’t sure why, but he hoped that spending time with her the next evening might help dispel it.