Chapter 26
Maven
Ben’s truck wasn’t at the Walkers’, but before I turned the car around, Ann came out of the house, waving for me to stop.
“I thought that was you,” she said when I rolled down my window. “Are you looking for Ben?”
“I am. I tried his phone, but it goes straight to voicemail. Do you know where he is?”
She hesitated. “I think I saw his truck come by here not too long ago.”
“But he’s not here anymore?”
She glanced up at the sky. “It is such a lovely afternoon, isn’t it?”
I followed her gaze upward. It was a fairly warm day for October, warmer than it had been the last few days, anyway. Though I wasn’t sure why she was mentioning it currently. “Yeah, it is.”
“You should take a walk.”
I stared at her. “Right now?”
Ann nodded, her eyes urging me to agree.
“Okay,” I said, turning off the engine and climbing out of Carson’s black Lexus. “Do you want to come with me?”
She shook her head. “You should go by yourself.”
Ann was acting strange. I glanced around the yard, then at the house behind her. “Are you safe?” I whispered.
Her brow lowered.
“Ben told me about the… stalker.” I mouthed the last word. “Do you need me to get help?”
Laughter burst out of Ann, her hand coming to her chest. “No. Sorry. We’re safe. I just think you should go for a walk.” She glanced toward the dirt road that separated their property from their neighbors and again I followed her gaze.
“Is Ben up there?” I asked, beginning to understand her ambiguous clues.
She tucked her lips inward and lifted her shoulders.
“I guess I’ll take a walk and find out.” Not sure what I was getting myself into, I started in the direction Ann had indicated.
“Turn right when you get to the dirt road,” she called, immediately covering her mouth like she wasn’t supposed to have said it.
The last of the leaves still clung to the trees, and bright fall colors littered the ground, contrasting the trunks of the birch trees as I walked.
To prevent the beauty from dulling my anger too much, I set my focus on the dirt at my feet.
After I’d walked a good distance, barking brought my gaze upward.
Finn stood in the middle of the road just before a bend, staring at me.
I patted my knees, and he came bounding toward me, tail wagging wildly. “Hey, boy.” I leaned over to pet him. “Aren’t you supposed to be hiding from me with Ben?”
“Finn,” Ben’s voice brought my gaze up again just as he stepped into view. He stopped mid-step. “Maven? What are you doing up here?”
“What I’m doing here is having you explain this to me.” I pulled the folded piece of paper from my back pocket and held it up, continuing toward him. “And why you left it on my porch.”
“It’s what you wanted from the beginning.”
My jaw slackened. “It’s what I wanted in the beginning, Ben. If you think this is what I want now—you just signing a document without even speaking to me, then leaving it for me to find at my convenience—you’re crazy!”
“If I’m crazy, it’s because of you!”
“Because of me?” I scoffed, coming to a stop a few feet in front of him. “You’re the one who keeps leaving, Ben. How is any of this my fault?”
“Because you were supposed to marry Colin!”
My head retracted slightly. Why was no one making any sense today? “What?”
“You weren’t supposed to show up back in Autumn Ridge, single, and tell me we were still married!
Then remind me of what our lives were supposed to be!
” He ran a hand through his hair like he wanted to rip it from his head.
“Since the moment you returned, I’ve been on the brink of sanity, going back and forth on whether I should try to convince you to stay or reconvince myself that it could never work between us and to keep my distance.
” He shook his head, tossing up his hand.
“How am I ever supposed to get over you when you won’t let me? ”
I clasped my hands into fists at my side, raising my voice to match his. “You were the one who left me, Ben! Have you forgotten that? Because I haven’t. I would have given up everything for you.”
“I didn’t want you giving up everything for me! I wanted to be the thing you wouldn’t give up! Instead, I became the one forcing you into a life where you clearly felt you were settling. The one keeping you from the life you were meant to live.”
My legs grew weak. I was having a hard time drawing in air, and my mind was reeling, trying to make sense of it all. “That’s why you left?”
“And it’s why I won’t ask you to stay.” He drew in a sharp breath. “I promised myself I would never ask you to give everything up for me. Because I know you would. Just like I knew you would have when I left you.”
I lifted my chin, my whole body trembling from the confrontation.
And the realization of why he’d left. It was stupid.
And foolish. And I was still mad at him.
No, I was furious. But his admission also healed a part of my broken heart.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel like our life in Autumn Ridge was settling, but that doesn’t give you the right to make assumptions about what’s best for me, Ben.
You need to talk to me. I need to have a say.
So unless you’re actually opposed, I’m staying in Autumn Ridge.
” I held up the paper he’d signed. “And this form you left for me? I’m going to sign and submit it, not so we can move our case back to New York, but so we can stay married. ”
Concern drew his brow downward, and he shook his head. “What about your career, Maven? You can’t leave New York—”
“Bennett Thomas Walker.” Using his full name in combination with my tone caused him to stop talking. “Do not tell me what I can’t do, or I’ll make you regret it every day for the rest of our long lives together.”
He stared at me, searching my eyes, his chest rising and falling. Eventually, the corners of his mouth twitched. He stepped forward, closing the distance between us. “Is that a threat or a promise, Mrs. Walker?”
“It’s both.” I grinned up at him, my heart nearly full to bursting. “Now kiss me before I have to get upset again.”
His lips were on mine with a force I returned in equal measure, his hand behind my head drawing me to him.
I couldn’t get close enough, so I hopped up, wrapping my legs around him, causing Finn to go loopy with excitement.
Ben’s grasp tightened around me, pulling me closer still. But it wasn’t close enough.
“Let’s go back to your place,” I whispered between kisses.
He pulled back, breaking our kiss. “I need to show you something first.”
Bennett
Present Day
“What is it?” Maven asked, taking hold of my hand as I led her forward, Finn plodding along at our heels.
I drew in a slow breath, still recovering from the kiss we’d just shared and what Maven had just implied when she’d mentioned going back to my place.
But this would be worth the wait. “The project I was telling you about, the one I was working on when I got home late those first few nights you were in Autumn Ridge. It’s just around the bend. ”
She jogged the next few steps to keep up with my long strides, and I tried to shorten them, but it was difficult to curb my excitement.
When the two-story farmhouse finally came into view, her feet seemed to cement into the ground beneath her.
She lifted a hand to her mouth, her gaze flicking from the overlook of my family’s farm, to the house, to the wraparound porch and the custom-built porch swing I’d just finished and put up.
“I…” She gave a light clearing of her throat, her eyes wet with tears. Then she glanced over at me. “You built it?”
I nodded.
“But… why?”
That was a complicated question. When I’d come back to Autumn Ridge, I’d been determined to create a life worthy of being chosen.
A life that would hopefully be enough for someone.
But the problem was, when I started building the house, Maven had been with me throughout the process.
Every choice I’d made, she’d been in the back of my mind.
All the nights I couldn’t sleep, I’d spent here, building, her memory keeping me company whether or not I wanted it to.
Eventually, I realized that if I ever did fall in love again, it wouldn’t be fair to bring another woman home to a house I was apparently still building for Maven.
So I’d determined to sell it once she’d married.
Officially rid my mind and heart of her. At least, as much as I was able.
But truthfully, the answer to Maven’s question all boiled down to one thing: “I guess it was the only part of our life together that I could keep building toward.”
She wiped at her eyes, a small quiver in her breath. Then she took hold of my hand, clasping it like she would never let go, and leaned her head against me. “Will you show it to me?”
There was no furniture in the house, as I’d had no intention of moving in.
I hadn’t installed two of the three bathroom vanities, the entire place needed to be painted, and the kitchen was not only missing appliances, but the light fixtures had yet to be put up.
But Maven looked at everything with awe.
“And this…” I led her into the room where six large bay windows let in the last rays of the setting sun “…is the music room.”
Maven gave a small gasp that made every thoughtful detail—from the taller ceilings and breathtaking views to the carpeted floors and intricate molding—worth the effort. After taking it all in, she moved to one of the windows, a hand over her mouth and her other arm wrapped around her stomach.
“It’s still coming together.” My gaze brushed over the twin mattress on the otherwise empty floor from all the nights I’d crashed here.
In the room that reminded me most of Maven.
“I typically only work on the house at nights and on the weekends. But with some extra effort and a little help, I could probably have it move-in ready by the first of the year. That is, if you even—”
“Yes!” Maven spun toward me, nodding her head, tears brimming in her eyes.
“I want to. I want to live here. And have babies here. And teach them to play music in this room. And sit on that front porch swing with you when we’re eighty and laugh about what a terrible idea it was for you to have left me.
” She stepped closer, lifting her hands to my face. “This is what I want.”
And then she was kissing me again.