Page 90 of Love Under Snowfall

Benjamin:

Yikes. All day?

Johnny:

Yup.

All right, perhaps Sherlock wouldn’t have been impressed, but it had done the job.

After signing a few documents and finding his Friday suspiciously open, Benjamin had acted on instinct and taken the day off. Bizarrely enough, that wouldn’t have been his first (second or third) reaction to an empty calendar three months ago before tendering his resignation to Dean McCaffery. But there he was, a duffel bag full with zero expectations for the long weekend.

The bell above the front door chimed as he entered the front lobby. The small space boasted poster-sized photos of people engaging in a variety of outdoor sports: hiking, kayaking, white water rafting, and rock climbing. But instead of the cheesy, posed postures and grins, the pieces looked authentic. Clearly, someone with an artistic eye had taken these because passion—either for the act of photography or participating in the adventures themselves—radiated off the images. He stepped closer and found signatures in the bottom corners of each: Z. S. Hartford.

Zac. Huh. He was the last person Benjamin would haveexpected to possess the talent to produce these. Especially since there wasn’t even a whisper of cleavage nor a single “artistic” butt shot among them.

“How can I help—oh!”

Benajmin looked up in response to the melodic voice and grinned. “Hey, Lucy.”

“Finally, someone takes my ‘the door’s always open’ comment at face value,” she said with a laugh, gliding around the front desk and wrapping the much taller man in a fierce hug.

One thing Benjamin had learned very quickly was that for such a petite package, the little brunette was way stronger than she looked. “I could sense the honesty in your voice.”

“Good. Because I meant it.” She bounced on her toes, clapping her hands, barely containing her joy. “Jonathan is going to be so excited. Hey, husband!” she barked loudly over her shoulder then turned back, giggling. “Calling him that never gets old.”

“Yes,wife?” Johnny crooned with a laugh that carried a slightly exasperated tone, like he did, in fact, find the moniker to be losing its luster. He turned the corner and stopped dead.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” she said, gesturing to Benjamin.

Advancing toward each other, the two men embraced in a back-patting hug.

“What brings you here, Benji?” A grin split wide across his bearded face and crinkled eyes glittering.

“Can’t a guy drop everything and drive three hours east for a beer and giant pretzel? I came to see you. How much more inventory do you have?”

Johnny flinched. “Hours worth.”

“But he’s about due for a lunch break,” Lucy cut in, snatching his coat from the nearby rack and thrusting it into herhusband’s arms. Shooing them out the door, she called, “Bring me the biggest bacon burger you can find, will ya?” then retreated into the back room.

A short while later, the two men sat at a bistro table in The Rooftop Tavern, beers in hand as the server, Stella, dropped off a couple BLTs.

“What really brought you all this way on such short notice?” Johnny asked, chewing thoughtfully on a thick-cut fry.

“We didn’t get a chance to catch up in December.” Benjamin shrugged. “You were understandably preoccupied.”

“Very true. But so were you.” He scowled and tossed another fry into his mouth.

Gulp. He hadn’t mentioned anything about his sister, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t know something had happened between them. Still, it was probably best to play dumb.

For a little while at least.

Try for nonchalance.

“What do you mean?”

Nailed it.

“You and my sister.” Johnny’s eyes never left Benjamin’s as he took a long pull from his frosty glass.

---