Page 17 of Resisting Fate
She hesitated only a moment before wrapping her arms around his waist, giving him a small squeeze. His arms wrapped around her back in a warm hug that made her feel surrounded by pure radiant love. She didn’t question it, only soaked it in.
“We could use some more potatoes down here!” Jackson called.
Missy jerked away from Ben.
“Shut up, Jackson,” Hannah said. “They were having a moment.”
“Sorry to hold up the line,” Ben called, passing a couple of bowls of potatoes down to them.
Missy stood there, frozen. She’d shared too much, exposed herself.
Ben waved a hand in front of her face. “Stop your daydreaming and get back to work, Missy.” He grinned. “It sounds like I’m calling you lowercase missy, but you are Missy. Melissa, right?”
She gave herself a mental shake. “Yes, Benjamin.”
“It’s Benward.”
She stared at him.
He grinned. “Kidding. It’s Benjamin.”
She turned the water back on and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. If she kept talking, she feared she’d blurt her entire life story right here in the middle of a busy kitchen full of strangers. He’d shared, so she shared. No more. She didn’t want to dwell on the past. She only ever shared like that with her sister, the most nonjudgmental loving person Missy had ever met.
“Wanna switch?” Ben asked. “I wash, you dry.”
“No, I’m good.”
“There’s ten more sacks of potatoes plus more in the back.”
“Check in with me in an hour.”
A few minutes passed in silence before Ben said, “Cranberry-sauce duty is a lot more fun. Just some stirring and it smells so good.”
She kept scrubbing potatoes and passing them over. “Then what’re you doing over here on potato duty?”
“Why do you think I’m over here on potato duty?”
A shiver went down her spine. Her? He’d chosen the worst chore in the place because of her?
“I don’t know,” she finally said.
“You’re dense.”
She glared at him. “I am not.”
“Duh.”
“Oh, that’s real mature.” She went back to scrubbing.
“Missy Higgins,” he said in a mock offended voice, “I am not leaving here today until you admit it’s fate that brought us together. It’s happened too much to be coincidental.” His voice took on a deep robotic tone. “Resistance is futile.”
She shook her head, focused on her chore. “You seriously believe in fate?”
“Not until you.”
Shiver upon shiver, goose bumps on top of goose bumps. She risked a look at him, and he gazed back steadily with no hint of dimpled amusement. Her breath caught. She swore and went back to work. He chuckled in a deep rumble by her side.
Harmless flirt, harmless flirt,she repeated to herself in a mantra, though she was beginning to believe Ben was much more dangerous to her carefully structured safe life than that.
