Page 4 of Waiting for Him
She pulled away so she could look up at him again. “I’ve felt that way for a lot longer than you have. I was so happy when you asked me to the prom even though I knew it was only because you and Mary Jo Dwyer just broke up, and everyone else was already paired up for the most part.”
He at least had the decency not to deny it. That was the reason why he’d asked her, but he wouldn’t have done it at all if he hadn’t thought they’d have a good time together—which they had.
She took a deep breath and blurted out, “I didn’t want to stop tonight.”
Her face turned beet red as the implications of what she said sank into his brain. Was she telling him she would have given him her virginity tonight if the cop hadn’t interrupted them? Holy shit! What was he supposed to say to her?
With any other girl, he would have been all over her without a second thought. He knew he could be a dog sometimes. He’d lost his own virginity two months before he turned fifteen. And like every other typical, red-blooded American male, he rarely said no when a girl offered him a roll in the sack or the bed of his truck. But he needed her to be sure this was what she wanted, and it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing because he was leaving. He couldn’t . . . wouldn’t do that to her. Kissing her had already changed the dynamics of their relationship, but having sex with her would put them in another orbit. And he knew it wouldn’t be just sex. With Katerina, it would be making love.
“Baby, do you know what you’re saying?”
She nodded and then babbled nervously, “I wanted you to be my first . . . you know. I still do. I mean, I know you’ve been having . . . you know, sex for a long time now. I mean, everyone at school talks about who’s doing who, but I haven’t . . . you know . . .”
“You’re still a virgin.” He’d meant to say it as a question, not wanting her to know he’d overheard the conversation with her friends, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“I know it’s silly, but . . .”
He cupped her cheek with his hand. “It’s not silly, Kat. Not at all. But as much as I want to say yes to you . . . to us, I think it would be better if we waited until I finish basic training and find out where I’m being stationed. I don’t want to have one or two nights with you and then end up on a base on the opposite side of the country. It’s not fair to you.”
He covered her mouth with his fingers when she tried to interrupt him. “But I’ll make you a deal, baby. If this is what you want . . . if you’re sure, then I’m willing to tell every woman I run into from here on out that I have someone special waiting for me back home, and she’s the only one I want. Will you wait for me, Kitten? Will you be my girlfriend and wait until the time is right for us?”
“Yes, Benny, I will,” she whispered. “I promise. I’ll wait for you . . . forever.”
Alex was going to kill him.
* * *
Rick Michaelson stood between his wife and child at the cemetery and kept his hand on his grieving son’s shoulder. His boy was on the verge of entering the military and becoming a man, but his life had been turned upside down in the blink of an eye. They watched as the funeral director’s crew unloaded scores of colorful arrangements from four matching hearses and placed them beside the caskets. The area around the grave sites was filling up with close to two hundred people who’d known one, two, or all members of the Maier family and come to pay their respects.
A somber priest stood at the head of the graves to give the deceased their final blessing. Ivan and Sylvia would be buried side by side, just as their children, Alex and Katerina, would be in the plot next to them.
The Sunday after Ben’s going-away party, the family had taken off on an hour-long afternoon drive to visit Ivan’s mother and sister, but they never arrived. A fiery crash on a lonely stretch of highway snuffed out the lives of four people and left many others, like Ben, struggling to find a reason behind the terrible tragedy.
Rick knew although his son’s overwhelming grief would one day become bearable, losing his best friend and the young man’s family would forever change Ben’s life. He just hoped that, when his son emerged from his grief, he would come out on the right side.
Chapter Three
Present Day . . .
Kate had known Benny would be shocked when he first saw her, but she hadn’t expected him to pass out. As far as he knew, she was dead and buried in a cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia, and not living and breathing at his place of business. His boss, Ian, had asked her to have a seat in the reception area, but she couldn’t sit. Instead, she was pacing back and forth, trying to keep her feet from running out the door and taking the rest of her body with them.
Benny would’ve been better off if she’d never come looking for him, but it was too late to change her mind now. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to cause him any more pain, but her life was in danger, and she trusted no one in the world more than him. It was sad he wouldn’t be able to trust her in return. Not after what she’d put him through, even though none of it had been her fault. Her father was to blame for everything . . . her recently-deceased father. And for the first time in Kate’s life, she was all alone.
The sound of footsteps caused her pacing to cease, and she turned to see Benny stalking toward her, followed by his boss and the lab mix. The look on the man’s face, the man who’d once been the boy she’d fallen in love with, was now hard. Shock was giving away to anger, and it was evident by the raging inferno in his beautiful amber eyes. Eyes that still haunted her dreams after all these years.
He stopped in front of her and crossed his arms. The Navy had taken his gangly, teenage physique and made it broad, strong, and sinewy. She longed to have him pull her into his powerful arms and hold her while telling her everything would be okay. Instead, he glared at her from several feet away. “Do you want to explain how a woman I watched being buried twelve years ago is standing in front of me? Because as far as I know, reincarnation is still a myth.”
“I-I’m sorry, Benny. I’m so sorry. But if we can go sit down, I’ll explain everything. I promise.”
Benny’s clenched jaw ticked at her use of his childhood nickname and again at her vow. The last time she promised him something, she’d said she would wait for him forever. As far as he knew, that hadn’t happened.
When he said nothing, Ian stepped around him and extended his open hand to her. “Ms. Zimmerman, please come back to the conference room, and we’ll talk this out.”
A growl from deep in Benny’s throat escaped his mouth, and he ignored the warning look Ian sent him. “Her name is Maier, Katerina Maier, and you’re damn right we’re going to talk.”
While the two of them walked back to the room, she heard him take several deep breaths before turning around and following them.
Upon re-entering the room they had vacated moments ago, Ian took the seat he’d planned on giving Boomer. The meeting had taken a dramatic turn before it even began, and he needed to take control of the situation before it blew up in their faces. Boomer sat across from Kate with his arms crossed and glowered at her.
