Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Ben “Moose” Massey
Ben walked into the Watchdog reception area and found Jodie at the front desk.
"Hey, Ben! What brings you here?" she asked with a bright smile.
"Just here to take Shane out to lunch. I owe him."
"Oh, if you're going out for burgers, bring me back some fries?" She batted her eyes at him.
Ben felt himself start to blush. It didn't matter what woman it was. Didn't matter if she was serious or kidding. Didn't matter how long he'd known her. He lacked the confidence his brothers had around women.
"Sure," Ben said. "I'd be happy to."
"Great! I think Shane's in his office. If not, he's out with Alex and the dogs. Go on back."
Ben nodded. "Thanks, Jodie."
He started down the hall. The offices could be a bit of a warren, and he wasn't exactly sure where Shane's office was, but he'd find him. If not, he could ask. The place was full of people he knew. Most of them friends. Some just acquaintances.
And one very special lady.
Charlie King.
Just thinking her name did something wonderful to his belly. And, he had to admit, a place just south of his belly.
Charlie wasn't just the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen—though she absolutely was that, with her intense eyes that could pin a man at fifty yards and that smile that made his knees weak on the rare occasions she aimed it his way.
But it was more than that. She was talented.
Brilliant, really. She could clear a room faster than most of his Ranger buddies and moved with a lethal grace that was somehow both terrifying and mesmerizing to watch.
She was someone he'd want at his back in a gunfight without hesitation. Hell, she’d just had his back in a gunfight at Echo Ridge Ski Lodge.
When bullets were flying and the world had gone to hell, Charlie had been steady as a rock, professional and deadly and absolutely fearless.
Watching her intelligent face as she took in the plan Gina laid out.
Seeing her in action during the firefight—grace and power and bravery.
She had to be the bravest woman he'd ever met—
A sudden, unexpected sound stopped him.
Wait—is that Charlie…screaming?
Ben took off at a run down the hall. Where was she? What was going on? Something had to be seriously wrong. He’d never heard her scream.
He turned the corner.
And there she was, standing in the middle of a cubicle maze.
Charlie was a tall woman—just over six feet, he guessed. But for some reason, he could see all the way down to her waist over a cubicle wall.
Wait. Charlie's not that tall, he thought. What's going on?
She was in profile, looking down at something below her, with a look of absolute terror on her face.
"Charlie!"
Her head whipped around in his direction. "Ben! Oh—ah—um—"
He ran to her. She was standing on an office chair. Well, that explained the extra height.
"What's going on?"
"It's—it's—" She pointed.
Ben looked. On her desk was a day planner, a laptop, some sticky notes, and a pen caddy. She was pointing at the pen caddy.
"You're afraid of pens?"
"No! No, no. Look closer. Look on that one." Her hand shook as she leaned forward and pointed.
Ben bent down and looked closer. A tiny jumping spider—fuzzy and as adorable as a kitten—sat on top of a pencil eraser, staring at him.
He grinned. "Hey, little guy." He looked up at Charlie. "Congratulations, you've got yourself a pet jumping spider. Technically it's a Phidippus audax, better known as the Bold Jumping Spider. And wow, he’s got yellow spots instead of the usual white—"
"Ben."
"Yeah?"
"Please?"
Ben was absolutely confused. She looked terrified. Was she messing with him? This was the same woman he'd watched take down two Russian oligarch henchmen with brutal efficiency.
But judging by her expression and the fact that she was standing precariously on an office chair, he was pretty sure she was serious.
"You're telling me the warrior princess is afraid of an adorable, fuzzy little jumping spider?"
Charlie reared back. "What did you just call me?"
Oh God, I really overstepped. The words had just flowed out of him without thinking.
"Um. Warrior princess. Emphasis on warrior," he added quickly.
Charlie blinked. Several times.
"I mean, you're a bodyguard. Former SWCC. 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, and he noticed they were 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. They were almost eye to eye. 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.
Read Ben and Charlie’s story in Avalanche on the Mountain: Watchdog Mountain Division, Book 6.