Page 138 of All The Things: The Last Thing He Needs Omnibus

“Did Gavin knock you up?”

Ben narrowed his eyes even though she couldn’t see him. “No,” he said flatly, as if it were even possible. “But his little sister is, and I thought she could maybe use something like that…”

Anna was quiet for a beat, as if she wasn’t sure what Ben had just said. “Gavin’s sister?”

“Yup.”

“Like… bio-sister? Crazy family? Scary God-hates-fags people?”

At least he wasn’t the only one hung up on that. “Yup.”

“I’m going to need more information, I think.”

Ben detailed the events of the last forty-eight-hours for her. He might have left off the bit where he made a pregnant, homeless seventeen-year-old cry, but he covered most of the bases.

“Well, shit.” She was so helpful, his sister.

“That about sums it up, yeah.”

She laughed again, though this one was less joyful and a little more sardonic. “So you want to make amends and get Gavin to speak to you?”

“I didn’t say I need to make amends for anything,” Ben pointed out. “And I didn’t say Gavin isn’t speaking to me.”

“You don’t have to say it. I know you.” That was true enough. “You probably lost your shit, and Gavin is probably still sending you death glares from miles away.”

“My shit is right where it should be.”

“If you say so…”

She finally told him the name of the program he needed, but, Jesus, he felt like he’d been on the phone with her his entire life. He scanned the rack in front of him. “They don’t have it,” he said as he pulled another from the shelf. “Hang on.” Ben took his phone from his ear and snapped a picture of the case, sent it to Anna. “What about this one?”

He could practically hear her roll her eyes. “It’s not that complicated, Ben. If it’s for pregnant women and it increases flexibility, it’ll do.” She paused, though, and Ben figured she had checked her text. After a moment, she said, “Yeah, that’ll work. Get her one of those big exercise balls too. She’ll need it.”

“I can’t really take something like that home on my bike…”

“They don’t come inflated.” Her words were innocuous enough, but her tone clearly said, How are you such a moron?

“Like I’m supposed to know that,” he said. “When I work out, I lift weights. I use the rowing machine or the treadmill. I don’t bounce around on a big ball.”

“You should try it,” she said. “You could probably do with some more flexibility too.” After a beat, she added, “I know a guy who can suck his own dick. That could come in handy.”

Ben had moved on from the videos, but he looked around the store as if other people could hear his conversation. “Jesus,” he muttered into the phone. “Where are the kids?”

“They’re sitting right in front of me,” Anna said, sarcasm dripping from the words. “I thought it’d be fun to see what their teachers think of the new vocabulary.” Then she told him, “Derik took them out on the boat for the day to give me a break.”

That made more sense. Derik wasn’t a fisherman, not by trade at least, but he did have a small boat and the kids had been raised on it, just as Ben and Anna had grown up on their father’s fishing boat. “Lucky you, huh?”

“I’d tell you I’m not lucky and that I’d spent the day cleaning and hemming curtains, but that’d be a lie.”

Ben made his way to the fitness section and looked for the exercise balls. “What did you do?”

She let out a long, satisfied sigh. “I soaked in a hot bubble bath, exfoliated and shaved all the things, gave myself a manicure and a pedicure, and now I’m eating a pizza, trying not to crack my clay face mask.”

“Thought it was supposed to be bonbons, not pizza. You’re so unrefined.”

“I’m saving the bonbons for when the kids go to bed. I have a date with Pedro Pascal.”

“How does Derik feel about that?”

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