Page 19 of What it Takes
“Sold,” Ben said.
“Ditto. We’re easy,” Jimmy said.
“That’s not what your wife says,” she retorted, and she was laughing as she walked away.
“Speaking of being easy, Mom says you’ve met Laney.”
“Haveyoumet her?”
“No, but everybody in town knows they hired help for Rosie and her name is Laney.” Jimmy paused while Tori set down their coffee mugs and a dish of creamer cups, and then he leaned forward. “And according to Mom, she’s about your age, pretty and held your hand or something.”
Ben rolled his eyes. “She didn’t hold my hand. She cleaned my cut.”
He held it up so Jimmy could see for himself, and then turned it so he could see it. The lighting here was better than it had been in the station’s bathroom and he probably should have cleaned it better after it took a beating today. It was a little sore.
“But the pretty part is true?”
Ben nodded, then took a sip of his coffee to avoid saying more. But Jimmy just watched, waiting him out. “Yeah, she’s pretty. She’s also divorced and has no interest in getting involved with anybody right now.”
“Huh. Seems to me a woman your age who was stuck in an unhappy marriage for a while would want to have a little fun.”
“Well, she doesn’t,” Ben snapped, a little more harsh than he intended. But he’d spent too much time trying to convince himself he and Laney were a bad mix to want to listen to his brother joke about it. “And I’m not looking for a littlefunat this point in my life. I’m almost forty, so if I have a relationship, it’s going to be with a woman who wants the same things I do, like a home and kids and maybe a dog.”
“Jesus, my kids are up my ass about getting a damn dog. Chelsea already told me if I bring home a puppy, she’s going to set my pickup on fire and she may or may not let me get out of it first.”
Jimmy kept going—something about garbage cans not being brought in—but Ben wasn’t really listening. And he wasn’t looking at him, either, because the view over Jimmy’s shoulder was of the door.
And Rosie walked through it, with Laney right behind her.
* * *
Laney was so focused on what Rosie was saying, she made it halfway through the diner before she spotted Ben. Luckily, Rosie also stopped, so it wasn’t awkward.
But Ben was rumpled and had sleepy eyes and was very, very dirty. And though she never would have guessed it about herself, Laney found it incredibly sexy.
Or maybe it was the way he looked at her—with a directness and intensity that made her shiver—before he shifted his gaze to Rosie.
“Good evening, ladies.”
“Heard you had a rough day,” Rosie said to Ben after smiling a greeting to the other man.
“Could’ve been worse.” When Rosie nodded, he looked at Laney. “Laney, this is my brother Jimmy. Jimmy, this is Laney.”
He turned in the booth to smile up at her. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too.” The resemblance between the two brothers wasn’t as pronounced as it was in the Kowalski family, but they had the same smile.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, and her gaze flicked to Ben, whose eyes were fixed on his brother, and then back.
“Not much to tell yet,” she said. “I haven’t been here very long.”
“I’m surprised to see you guys in town on a Saturday evening,” Ben said.
“Josh and Andy are holding down the fort,” Laney said.
“I’ve been trying to do some planning for the family vacation and I can’t get two minutes to think in that place,” Rosie said. “Katie came home, and then Drew and Liz were there and I decided if they were all going to hang out there, I’d just leave. And I made Laney come with me so she could drive and help me make lists.”
When Laney looked back at Ben, she wondered if the day had been harder than he’d let on. His eyes were tired and a little red, and they didn’t really crinkle when he smiled like they usually did.
