Page 25 of The Destined SEAL
We hash out the details, without consulting our significant others, and he ends the call with a cheery goodbye. I knew it would happen. I was surprised it took this long, but it truly wasn’t until I told him to move on that he did. Ben deserves happiness in whatever form he can find it in.
“We all set then?” Marcus growls from the other side of the room. The consternation in his words pricks my whole body with unease. Every once in a while, when he’s tired and worked to the bone, I see the side of Marcus I experienced right before I flew out to visit Ben. Luckily, it’s not frequent, but when it happens, it does make me uncomfortable enough to smile at his grimaceand leave the room and eventually the house with some lame excuse about needing coffee from a shop instead of a pot.
Brooding on his side of the room, I give him the details while focusing on the framed drawing of a park above his desk. He holds his pen up in the air to let me know I’m dismissed, and I leave the room quietly, respecting his need to get stuff finished.
I make my way out the back door and flop down in a chair on the patio, a stack of papers as my only company. Concentrating is hard. For the first time in my life, I feel something other than excitement and happiness at the prospect of seeing Ben.
I feel a swirl of anxious dread. Norah. I wonder what she looks like. I wonder if she’s seeing the smile that belongs to me. I wonder if Ben is finally in love.
Ben is gesturing wildly. “He turned around and said, ‘Don’t touch it unless you can fix it,’” he says, finishing some story he heard from his friends. “Not since before the dawn of time has anyone used an axe as a weapon,” Ben adds, shaking his head.
Everyone is rapt. Especially Norah. She watches Ben, chin resting on one hand, like he hung the moon. I can’t look at her longer than a few seconds without feeling something akin to buyer’s remorse. Marcus asks Ben lots of questions, and because Ben is so effervescent and malleable in any situation, he makes this whole thing seem as easy as walking down the street on a sunny day.
I sip my drink and smile. Marcus keeps his hand on my knee for a long time. When he finally takes it off when our appetizers arrive, there’s a sweaty, warm spot that reminds me of a swamp.
“Tell us about yourself, Norah. You’ve been so quiet,” Marcus says during a lull.
He’s irritating the hell out of me, but right now I could kiss him. Aside from a brief introduction in front of the hostess stand, I haven’t heard her speak. Ben wraps an arm around her chair, as if Marcus’s question reminded him she existed.
Norah grins at the subtle touch from Ben. She loves him. It’s so obvious to me. I wonder if it’s obvious to a stranger. I look at Marcus, but he’s staring at the couple with an air of indifference. “I’m a veterinarian at an animal hospital down the street from Ben’s house.” She’s smart and committed. And beautiful. Expecting anything less wouldn’t have given Ben enough credit.
I can’t keep the rabid curiosity at bay. “How did you two meet?” I ask.
Ben looks wildly amused as he tilts his head toward my voice. He reads beneath the surface of my question, and I might as well be fully exposed—stripped of the skin that masks my insides.
Ben turns his focus to Norah. “Go ahead. Tell them,” he prompts, leaning in close to her face.
She sighs. “Ben found a kitten in a sewage drain by his house. He pounded on the door two hours before my clinic opened. I happened to go in early that day to finish some files from the night before and opened the door when I saw the kitten.”
Ben smiles, pleased that he’s the hero in this story. “It lived, and now I have a black cat named Pennywise,” he explains.
Marcus puts his hand back on my leg, and I can feel his eyes boring into my bones.
I smile because Marcus is watching. “That’s a great story,” I say, actually meaning it.
Norah continues, her eyes taking on a far-off, love-swept look. “He kept coming back day after day to check on the little guy. God knows I’m attracted to a man who loves animals.Especially one as handsome as Ben. I asked him out the fourth time he came around.”
My eyes flare, but I tamp down on the surprise quickly as everyone is watching for my reaction. Marcus, for jealousy, Ben, to see if the story is getting a rise out of me, and Norah, because she’s talking to me. I flush.
“He’s so charming without meaning to be.”
I nod and reaffirm her sentiment. A million stories of how Ben charmed me come to mind, but I realize only one matters. Theirs.
Norah and Ben’s story is perfect.
“How did you and Marcus meet?” Norah asks innocently, merely returning the favor to let me wax poetic about my relationship. She doesn’t like speaking about herself. I can already tell she’s a listener.
I tell them the story about the first day of class at Harvard and how I ran late. Tardiness isn’t a trait I’d ever own on a normal basis, so I was flustered, and the professor had already started, and the only seat left was next to a very good-looking man with a bright, wide smile. Marcus whispered where we were at in the text and smirked as he tapped the end of his pen on the correct paragraph.
I wanted to explain to him that I got held up on a phone call, that I wasn’t this spaced-out loser destined to flunk out of Harvard before I’d gotten out of the gate. I didn’t have a chance, though. I stayed silent and thanked him with a meek smile. “He asked me to study that same day, right after class. The rest is history.” I squeeze Marcus’s hand on my knee.
“She’s a beautiful girl. Can you blame me?” Marcus says, palming his chest with one hand.
Ben looks off to the left. “Nope. Not at all.” His usual, jovial smile has vanished, and Norah rubs a hand on his back. Can she tell he’s upset because of me?
Does she know how important I am to Ben? The thought makes me feel weak—like a vulnerable calf waiting for slaughter. “That’s a great story, Harper. You two have so much in common. You’re the best couple ever,” Norah coos, clasping her hands together in front of her. Our story reads like a textbook, and theirs reads like a fable.
“Yeah, the stuff fairy tales are made of,” Ben adds, giving a pointed wink in Marcus’s direction. “It’s been a while now, hasn’t it?”
