Page 54 of Let's Call a Truce
She turned her phone toward me, showing off a picture ofBen. I recognized the pool from Dani’s apartment complex. The decorations in the background told me it was from her birthday party this past summer, which we missed because my sister was visiting. How different would things have been if I’d learned about Paris back then? Would I have been more open-minded without the confusing changes to our relationship muddying the water? Or would I have been even less understanding, ready to jump to the worst possible conclusion about him?
Ben had his arm around Paris and was smiling at the camera while she looked up at him like he hung the moon. And he was shirtless. The picture cut off before the phenomenal abs I glimpsed at the Mud Walk, but the tempting tuft of hair in the middle of his chest was on full display. I groaned.
“See?” Dani said. “That’s the challenge. You’re both gorgeous and fun. But he’s also got the sexy single-dad thing going on.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I replied. “Single dads are hot and single moms are a hassle. We’ve all read the romance novels, Dani.”
She leaned over to boop my nose. “You’re not a hassle. But I still can’t decide who’s the better catch. I think it’s too close to call.”
Asia patted my arm. “Juliana, obviously.”
“Thanks, babe,” I replied, and she blew me a kiss.
Dani rolled her eyes. “Don’t trust her. She hates conflict. She’d have said Ben if he was the one here.”
“Screw you.” I smacked her on the shoulder and refocused on the game, lighter than I had been since I stepped out of Ben’s office the day before.
But Asia’s comment about how Ben had been through a lot kept coming back to me. I obsessed over it while we loaded up the car. It kept pushing its way back in while we made our way through the grocery store, gathering everything we needed for the barbecue. I analyzed it on repeat as I set up the folding tables in the backyard and laid everything out.
I tried to shake off my funk, looking over everything before our guests arrived. The house was tiny, but the saving grace was the huge backyard. It was large enough to fit the oversize play set Jason and I had gotten the girls the Christmas before he passed away. It had cost more money than I had to spare to break it down and move it here, but the girls loved it and I couldn’t take away the last thing their dad gave them.
Huge oak trees, dripping with Spanish moss, shaded most of the backyard, making it comfortable all year round. I set the food table up in the shade and pulled out folding chairs, settling them in the sun for us thin-blooded Floridians who considered the seventy-five-degree weather chilly. When we downsized, I had sold a lot of the things we used to entertain. There wasn’t enough room in the house for themed serveware for each season, and I looked over the disposable food trays with the same critical eye I knew Katie and Morgan would use. Where was the adorable matching spring serveware when you needed it?
“Everything looks great,” a low voice said behind me. I shivered, and warmth rushed through my body as I turned to see Ben up on the back porch. “Sorry if I startled you. Sophie let us in.”
I continued to watch him, in awe of how he could make a pair of khaki shorts and T-shirt look so incredible. His hair was more casually styled than I saw at work, and it gave him an almost boyish quality, contradicted by the powerful muscles trying to break out of his T-shirt. Before I could stop myself, my eyes swept his body, taking it all in and remembering how it felt pushed up against my back. Ben stood still, not speaking, while letting me blatantly ogle him. When I made my way back up to his face, there was a small smile on his lips. His eyes were lit with affection, turning his dark brown eyes molten.
“It’s good to see you, too.”
I shook my head to clear it.
“Hey.” I chastised myself for not thinking of something cleverer. His smile widened at my speechlessness, but he let it pass without commenting for once.
He jogged down the handful of steps at the back of the porch, like he was too eager to reach me to walk. Halfway to me, he pulled up short, eyeing the kids chairs I’d set up with their own little table.
He tapped his index finger on the one closest to him, a bright floral folding chair. “This looks familiar.”
I swallowed back my laugh, blinking my eyes at him like an innocent doe. “Does Paris have it, too?”
We both knew exactly where he’d seen it. After his particularly childish prank of slipping me the salt instead of the sugar, which ended with coffee spit out all over the conference-room table, I figured if he wanted to act like a child, I’d treat him like one.
I’d snuck into his office while he was in another meeting, hiding both his nice office chair and his drafting chair in the break room and leaving that little one, an explosion of neon and flowers, behind his desk, with a note saying,Thought this might be more comfortable for you than that big-boy chair.
He’d come to my office, leaning on the doorframe with the chair hanging from two fingers in a pose that should not have been as appealing as it was. I’d adamantly denied that it was mine, but I offered to get rid of it for him. Because I was generous like that.
Ben ran his eyes around my backyard like he was searching for additional proof of my sabotage now that he’d been given access to enemy territory. Then hetsked, his eyes dancing. “Nope, we don’t own it. Must have been somewhere else.”
“Strange,” I said with a giant smile, and Ben laughed, loud and unencumbered. It was concerning, how much I liked the sound.
He moved next to me to arrange his chips and dips on thetable, while I fiddled with the plates. He let his hand drift over mine each time he reached for a bag. I sent him a bemused look, but he gave me a self-pleased smile and kept setting up. On the last bag, he let his hand linger, running his fingertips lightly up my palm and tracing circles around the sensitive skin at my wrist.
“Juliana—”
“This house is so charming,” came a shrill voice from behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin to put some distance between us. Katie had arrived. Her squeals filled the backyard as she took everything in. She had been to our old house several times, but this was my first time inviting her here.
When we moved, I wanted to keep my kids in the same school. After losing their dad, ripping them away from their school and friends seemed like more than they could handle. The only thing we could afford in their same school zone was a little bungalow a third of the size of our old house. I couldn’t tell if Katie’s comments were genuine or passive-aggressive, but they hit me in a sensitive spot. I faked a smile and caught Ben watching me.
His voice dropped low, for my ears only, while Katie made her way over. “It is, you know. Charming. You’ve made this house a home.”
