Chapter 3 #2
“I mean, you’re a bodyguard. Former Swick. That makes you more warrior than princess, right?” He tried a smile.
Something flashed across her face, too quick for him to catch. Disappointment, maybe?
“Please don’t tell anybody I was afraid of a spider,” she said quietly.
“No, of course not.”
“I’m just lucky everybody’s off to lunch.” She looked around. “I’d never live it down.”
“Cross my heart, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thank you.” She smiled sheepishly. “And do you think maybe you could—take him with you? Or something?”
“Yeah, sure. I—” Ben looked back down at the pen caddy. “Hang on, where’d he go?”
Charlie had been stepping down from her chair.
She immediately stopped and jumped back up.
“What do you mean? You can’t find him?” She looked around wildly.
“Oh my God, he could be anywhere.” She looked up at the ceiling above her head as if the spider would materialize there and drop into her hair.
“Charlie, he wouldn’t have gotten that far that quick.”
“But you said he’s a jumping spider! Couldn’t he have, I don’t know, jumped up onto the ceiling?”
Ben chuckled. “Well, they do jump pretty far, but not that far.” He peered into the pen caddy again. He didn’t want to rummage around in it just in case the little guy had gone to the bottom. He’d feel terrible if he squished him by moving the wrong pen at the wrong time.
“Maybe you could take the whole caddy?” Charlie suggested. “I don’t know.”
“I could,” Ben started, “except I’m a little afraid of crushing the guy if he’s down at the bottom.”
“Oh. Right. I mean, I don’t want him dead. I just don’t want him crawling on me.” She shivered.
“Hmm. All right, I’ll just be very careful with it then.”
He picked the caddy up gingerly, carefully, so that not a single pen or pencil moved. There had to be at least twenty-five shoved in there, with pens of all different colors.
“Once I de-spider your caddy, I can bring it back to you.”
“Oh, thank you! That would be great.”
She stepped down from the chair. She stood so close to him. God, she was beautiful.
And they were standing so close.
And no one was shooting at them.
She took a step toward him.
But then her gaze fell back onto the caddy in his hand and she stepped back. Her cheeks turned pink.
Absolutely adorable.
“You promise?” she asked. “Promise you won’t tell anybody I’m afraid of spiders?”
“I promise-promise. And don’t worry—it’s one of the most common phobias. You’re hardly alone. My guess is that half the guys who work here have arachnophobia, they just aren’t brave enough to admit it. Which puts you ahead of them.”
Shit, should I have said that?
“Well, I need to get going,” he added quickly. “Shane and I are going to lunch and—oh, I’m late—and, uh, caddy, and I’ll clean it up for you and—okay, bye.”
Ben took off back through the maze of cubicles toward the kennels.
Smooth. Real smooth, Moose.
But as he carefully carried the pen caddy away, searching for one tiny fuzzy spider among twenty-five colorful pens, he couldn’t stop smiling.
Charlie King was afraid of spiders.
And just now, she’d let him be her knight in shining armor, even if it was just for a jumping spider no bigger than his thumbnail.
He’d take it.
Just before Ben reached the restrooms, the jumping spider crawled to the top of the same pencil where Charlie first spotted him. He waved his front legs in the air and Ben stopped walking.
“Good, at least I can see you now. I’ll make sure you don’t get squished.
” He started walking again, gaze planted firmly on the spider.
He reached the doors to the outside training area and pushed one open with his broad shoulder.
It was a beautiful summer’s day, with the lightest breeze that played with a loose lock of his hair.
He tossed his head back and headed for the nearest tree, singing under his breath a verse from a Loreena McKennitt song:
“She left the web, she left the loom
She made three paces through the room
She saw the water-flower bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.”
When he reached the tree, he slowly, gently reached for the pencil, hoping he wouldn’t scare the spider back down into the caddy. It watched his fingers but thankfully stayed put as Ben pulled the pencil out like a magic wand and lifted the eraser end toward the lowest branch.
The spider leaped from the pencil to the branch and turned around to stare at Ben at eye level. Ben chuckled, then softly sang:
“Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
‘The curse is come upon me!’ cried
The Lady of Shalott.”
“Whatcha singing?” Shane asked behind him. Dammit, the man was silent when he wanted to be. Then again, talking to Charlie often had the effect of sending Ben into a daze.
“N-nothing,” Ben said.
One of Shane’s eyebrows rose—he wasn’t fooling his friend one bit.
Shane had known Ben since they were in grade school, knew that one of the techniques Ben had used when his stutter stopped him mid-sentence was to sing something quickly under his breath then continue where he’d left off talking.
It usually worked—but also made the other kids think he wasn’t all there, and so they teased him mercilessly, calling him ‘dumb as a moose.’ Ben’s friends took on animal names of their own in response to the teasing, turning ‘Moose’ into a true nickname instead of a taunt.
Ben would be forever grateful for the kindness of his friends—his brothers.
But right now, he would’ve given anything not to have Shane standing right there looking at him, knowing his secret. Shane’s gaze went from Ben’s face to the caddy clutched in his hands.
“That looks familiar,” Shane said. He tapped his chin, pretending to ponder. “Now…where have I seen it before…”
“Just stop,” Ben grumbled.
Shane’s expression broke into a wide grin. “King Charlemagne doesn’t let that thing out of her sight, man. She’s damn near feral about anyone trying to steal one of her pens. And here you are with the whole enchilada. If you’re trying to play a practical joke on her, I’d advise against it.”
“I-I’d never do that,” Ben said, defending himself. He turned and strode toward the door to go back inside and clean off every single pen, marker, and pencil and the caddy itself, as promised.
“Hey, wait up, Moose. Seriously, how’d you get ahold of that?”
“None of your business.”
“Wait…did you actually ask her out?”
No, I made a complete fool of myself.
“I said, none of your business.”
“Come on, don’t be like that.”
Ben paused as he opened the door. “I mean it, Elk. It’s none of your damn business.”
“Whoa, okay, man.” Shane put his palms out facing Ben.
“P-please, just drop it, okay? I have to bring this back. I’ll meet you after that for lunch.”
“She didn’t turn you down, did she?” Shane asked quietly, all seriousness as he closed the door behind them.
Ben sighed as he headed for the restroom. “I’d have to ask her out for her to turn me down.”
“Well, swiping her pen caddy isn’t going to endear you. Unless you’re planning on holding it ransom?”
“Nope.” Ben reached the restroom, checked the knob, and was relieved to find it unlocked. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
He opened the door and the light flicked on automatically. He glanced at Shane’s confused expression right before he shut the door in his face.
Ben looked at himself in the mirror over the sink.
His face looked flushed, and he was hunching again, making himself smaller without realizing it.
An old habit from school—he was the biggest kid in class always, and conscientious about it.
His size scared the girls and made the boys dare each other to punch him.
“Thought I was past all that,” he told his reflection, watching himself stand up straight and square his shoulders. The military had taught him to be proud of his strength and size, and now most days he was. Just every now and then, the young kid inside forgot.
Ben turned on the faucet and one by one washed each pen and pencil carefully. He realized there weren’t just colored pens, but colored pencils meant for drawing. The corner of his mouth turned up as his heart sped up. A new piece of the puzzle that was Charlie King clicked into place.
A gob of webbing was stuck to a blue-green pen, and inside it, the shadow of a molted skin.
She wouldn’t have liked to find that. Ben’s smile grew as he washed it off and watched it circle the drain.
He checked the inside of the caddy for more webs and found the husk of a fly.
He flicked it out into the sink and it joined the web down the drain.
He carefully dried off each pen and pencil and placed them all back into the caddy.
He chuckled again, remembering the sight of Charlie on the office chair.
He wasn’t laughing at her fear, but at his wonder at seeing her afraid of anything.
Warrior Princess.
He grimaced as he opened the bathroom door. He’d really flubbed it with that one. Imagine calling someone as strong as Charle a princess. No wonder she’d looked at him funny.
Shane was nowhere in sight. Ben’s phone buzzed with a text. He checked it and found a message from Shane telling him to let him know when he was ready to go and he’d meet him out front.
Ben reached Charlie’s cube. She was so engrossed in a book, she didn’t notice him at first. The salad on her desk looked untouched.
He cleared his throat and her head snapped up.
Her desk drawer flew open and the book disappeared inside, but not before Ben noticed the multicolored highlighted lines on the pages and the telltale worn cover of a well-loved paperback.
The other thing he noticed was the title of the thick book. Shane had not lied when he told Ben the secret, and Ben had not been mistaken when he heard Charlie last night.
You’re safe with me. I swear it to you upon my honor.
“Ben. I wasn’t expecting you back until after lunch.” Charlie stood and leaned her hip against the drawer as if to guard it.
Don’t ask her what she’s reading. Don’t ask—
“What are you reading?” he asked, wanting to slap himself at the same time.