Page 10 of Second Chance Wedding
He kept his face averted, staring out his passenger side window. “Benji…”
“It’s freaking Ben, okay? Why is it so hard for you to say it?”
His voice cracked as he shouted at her, reminding her that while he might have the physicality of a man, he wasn’t one yet. “Calling you Benji is a habit, but I am trying to break it. Nowtalk to me. What was so important that you had to leave?”
He glared over at her, and she noted his hands were fisted on his lap.
“I got sick of it.”
“Sick of what?”
“All of it. I wanted to leave. To go do stuff with my friends tonight. Not…watch how men look at you. It pissed me off. Even that guy—yourfriend. He did it, too.”
She blinked at his words. Struggled to understand. “You got upset because men were…looking at me?”
Silence followed, and she tried to put herself in his shoes to understand his perspective. She supposed a boy watching his mother be ogled by men wouldn’t make for the best party experience. “I’m…sorry that made you uncomfortable. But that’s no excuse for doing what you did. You could be injailright now.”
“He agreed that you could pay him.”
“And if Ican’t? It’s a limo, for pity’s sake. Do have any idea of how much a limousine costs? Or what the repairs might cost? Do you?”
“If you didn’t want to do it, why’d you offer to pay for it?”
“Because I love you and I wanted to keep you out of jail! Cole was right. What you did tonight would fall under grand theft auto. That meansyearsin juvenile detention or prison. What were you thinking? Benj—Ben, I won’t always be around to help you and then what?”
“I don’t care,” he shouted. “Nobody cares! Go back to your stupid party and leave me alone.”
“Nobody cares? Seriously?”
“Just go back to your party, Mom.”
“I can’t. Not when I can’t trust you to behave yourself.” She held out a hand, palm up. “Give me your phone.”
Angry tears flashed in his eyes as he glared at her from across the SUV. Seconds passed as he blinked hard to hide them.
“Ben, I mean it. I want your phone. Hand it over.”
He felt the pockets of his tuxedo jacket and then his pants. “It’s not here.”
“Benjamin, no more games. Enough!”
“I don’t know where it is! It must have fallen out when that guy assaulted me. Go askhimwhere it is.”
“Cole is a former marine. You would know if he’d assaulted you. And I’d advise you to stop saying that he did. Now hand itover.”
She watched as he yanked off his jacket and shoved it at her and then pulled the insides of both pants pockets out for her to see their empty state.
“I don’t have it.”
She held his gaze while she felt his tuxedo jacket for his phone, but even the interior pocket was empty. “Are you sitting on it?”
“No.”
She dropped her head onto the seat rest behind her and groaned. “Get out. We have to go find it.”
Ben seemed reluctant, but they retraced their steps across the lot to the alley and used the light from her phone to search for his.
It wasn’t there. If it had been, it was gone now, but she wondered if it was all a ruse anyway. She wouldn’t put anything past her son at this point, but short of a strip search, how did she get him to hand it over? “I’ll end service on it right now.”
