Page 23 of Take Me Back
He looked up at the bartender. “Perrier, if you have it.”
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he’d seek me out here. “You need Kat?”
Benjie shook his head. “No, I need to talk to you.”
The bartender set the green bottle of Perrier in front of Benjie on a cocktail napkin, and Benjie twisted the cap off, taking a little more time than I would expect. He folded the cocktail napkin inside out and wiped off the mouth of the bottle before he took a drink. Through all of this, I waited for him to tell me whatever he’d come here to say.
Finally, he looked up at me. “You’re not around much.”
This wasn’t a secret, by any means. I wasn’t spending as much time out of the country as I did before, and most of the time, I was home on the weekends.
“About as much as Kat.”
“What the hell do you do, again?”
“Imports.”
“Sounds boring as shit.”
I shrugged and took another drink. “It keeps me entertained.”
Benjie must have decided that was enough small talk. “I told her she was making a mistake by marrying you.”
Blunt and to the point. Even though I didn’t like what he was saying, I respected the guy for putting it out there so plainly.
“Is that right?”
He nodded. “She didn’t know you well enough. Not for real. And I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you still don’t know her either.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I knew what mattered, like how she tasted and what she sounded like when she came, but Benjie wasn’t here to whip out dicks and measure ’em. Actually, he would like that a little too much.
“You’re the one who pushed her at me to begin with, so I find it a little ironic that you warned her away.”
He sipped his fancy water before replying. “That was a one-night stand. Or it was supposed to be. She needed the distraction.”
“Why don’t you just tell me why you’re really here, Ben,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Has she ever told you about her mom?”
“I know she passed not long before we met.”
When the subject came up, it was clear from her body language that Kat didn’t want to talk about it. Considering there was a whole hell of a lot of stuff I didn’t talk about, I’d never pushed it. I figured she’d tell me when she was ready.
“She never told you the whole horrible truth, did she?”
I shook my head. I could have found out. It wouldn’t have taken much of my time. But I didn’t want to invade her privacy that way either. Some things were better left buried.
“No.”
“And you never pushed?”
“No.”
“You’re both so fucking stubborn, it’s a miracle you’re together.”
“Hey now—” He could take jabs at me, but he’d better watch it when he talked about Kat.
Benjie held up a hand. “I don’t mean in a bad way. I love that woman more than anyone in my life. She almost broke when her mom died.”
