Page 118 of Tight Ends & Tiaras
“Babe,” he says softly. “Shit. I’m sorry. I know you were just trying to do something nice. Actually, I had planned—”
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” I wipe my face with the back of my hand. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Sienna—”
“Forget it. Really.”
The next twenty minutes are tense. I wish I could beam myself back home and forget this whole conversation, but we’re on the outskirts of Dallas, so it’s not like he can turn around and drop me off in Charming.
Lily wakes up, which breaks the godawful silence. But then she makes a weird gurgling noise, and I twist around to look at her in the backseat.
“Are you okay?”
When she vomits all over herself, I have my answer.
Ben curses and pulls off onto the access road.
“I think she got carsick.” A teary-eyed Lily and I sit on a park bench while I wipe her down.
“Should we hang out for a while? Let her stomach settle?” Ben asks, his disembodied voice coming from the back of his SUV where he’s cleaning out puke.
“Probably.” I get her out of her dirty clothes. Damn, that was the nice outfit I wanted her to wear to see Ben’s aunt and uncle. I change her into clean clothes and pat her back. She lets out a huge burp and laughs.
“Do you feel better?” I kiss her on her forehead.
She wraps her little arms around my neck and sucks her thumb as she watches kids play on a swing set.
When Ben is done cleaning the car, he takes her from my arms.
“Hey, peanut. Are you okay?” He snuggles her to his broad chest, and I melt. He’s so good with her.
It makes me miss my dad, even though he talks to me like I’m an idiot.
Like Ben did a little while ago.
I can’t shake the feeling that maybe he’s right. Maybe I don’t really know him. How can you truly know a person unless you’ve been tested?
Before my father hit it big, he probably would have sworn up and down that he’d never leave my mother. Success, like stress, tests you. Tests what you’re made of. Tests your core beliefs.
That thread of doubt leads me to a bigger question.
Like whether he and I are really compatible.
Because I do skydive. I do bungee-jump. I enjoy waterskiing tricks. I’m the first one to dive off the dock. He’s told me he likes to play it safe. It’s why he didn’t go for the draft. But now it’s sinking in what that means.
By the time we pull up to his uncle’s house, it’s getting dark, but his family’s beautiful two-story is all lit up.
I check myself in the mirror and barely contain a groan. My mascara is goopy under my eyes, which are bloodshot. Nice, Sienna.
“Why didn’t you tell me I’m a mess?” I grumble as I dig in my purse and pull out some tissues. “I look like one of those girls in a horror movie.”
“I didn’t notice anything. You always look beautiful to me.”
And then he goes and says something like that. I don’t know whether I want to beat him with my shoe or kiss him.
After I swipe under my eyes, I resign myself to looking drab because there’s no time to redo my makeup.
I unsnap Lily from her car seat so Ben can greet his family. Ben’s aunt and uncle step out onto the porch, huge smiles on their faces. They hug Ben like he’s the long-lost son. I smile as I watch them. It’s obvious they adore him.
