Page 76 of Let's Call a Truce
“You must be really close,” she said with a smirk.
“Yep.”
“You must have workedlong and hardon your friendship.”
“Sure.”
“You must have a realdeepbond.”
“Okay.”
“Goddammit, Juliana! Are you doing it or not? I saw the way he looked at you in Boston.”
I burst out laughing but shook my head at her. She scowled back, but I wasn’t talking about it, especially when the kids were a few feet away.
She huffed. “Fine, don’t tell me. Apparently, a month of friendship isn’t enough for you to spill all your secrets to me, so we should probably call the whole thing off. I don’t see the point of it if you won’t gossip with me about your sexy coworker.”
I laughed again and threw an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be like that! You’ll break my heart.”
“Fine. But I want the details eventually, understood?”
“I’ll take that deal.”
We ended the visit at the bookstore, where I bought the girls matching Gator dresses. I snapped a quick picture and texted it to Ben. His reply came back less than a minute later.
Ben:Stop brainwashing the children
Juliana:Embrace the public school, babe! We’re going to be paying for three kids in college at the same time
I stared at my last text in horror. We hadn’t talked about long-term stuff yet. We were in an exclusive relationship, but it had been barely over a month. Not seeing other people was a far cry from combining finances and raising our kids together.
Juliana:Wow, okay. I’m sorry. That was presumptuous. Ignore me.
Ben:Don’t do that. I don’t want you to censor yourself with me
Ben:And you’re not going to scare me off. Bring on the stress of budgeting for three kids in college if it’s with you.
I bit my lip to keep in my smile. He surprised me every day with his commitment to us. No reservations. No hesitancy. No fear. Maybe I could let my own fears go and trust this was real.
Chapter 23
Saturday afternoon barbecuesbecame a bit of a tradition with an ever-changing cast of characters. Asia joined most weeks, teasing us about how we needed to be more subtle if we didn’t want the kids to catch on, as well as my parents and Clara’s friends’ families. Niran showed up once with a whole slew of Thai food from his restaurant, and I complained to Ben that no one was ever going to want to eat my food again when they knew this was an option.
The only constant was Ben, and we fell into a rhythm, dancing around each other in the kitchen to prepare, and sneaking kisses when we knew the kids were distracted. The other moms noticed our new vibe and filled the barbecues with knowing looks and whispered questions.
I ran inside one Saturday to grab Ben, who was working in the kitchen. The laughter floating from the backyard brought a smile to my face, and a wave of contentment settled over me. This was the life I wanted.
The sight when I rounded the corner stopped me in my tracks. Blood streaked down Ben’s arm, a pained expression on his face. The world spun as images flashed before my eyes. Jason in the road, body coated with blood and his eyes unseeing. The face changed, hazel eyes shifting to dark brown, auburn hair to brown in a constant wave, the two men shifting and merging.
I registered a voice, low and frantic, but couldn’t see throughthe haze. My airways were cut off, my heart stuttering in a way that said it wouldn’t last much longer.
Warm hands pushed my hair away from my face. “Baby. Baby, please, talk to me. What do you need?”
I blinked and saw Ben’s face, his skin still warm and tan unlike in my vision. “Lavender,” I gasped between breaths.
He took off in the direction of my bedroom, coming back—in seconds or minutes or hours—with the lavender oil from my bathroom.
The bottle opened under my nose. “Breathe, baby.”
