Page 44 of Castling the Rook (Checkmate 3)

“What about Officer Cruz? He could be your boyfriend.”

“Riley?” Laughing, I press a kiss to the top of her hair. “Riley’s not my boyfriend, honey. He’s my friend, and he’s a boy.”

“You sound like Ben right now, ya know that? But he’s your friend, and there are jobs here. Maybe you could take one of them, move over, and stay with us. You don’t have to go home again. There’s no one there, anyway.”

“Wow. That’s one way to invalidate my entire adult life. Thanks, babe.”

Snickering, she drops her book and winds her arms around my stomach. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I just meant, I love you, I miss you, and I wish you lived here.”

“They landed!” Ben spazzes out in the middle of the luggage carousel area and reminds me of the toddler he once was. Feet bouncing, hair flopping, stupid grin that makes me want to throw a cheese puff just to see if he can still catch it. I watch him jump, and try to pocket this unbridled happiness, so the next time he’s being a dick and forgets my title, I can remember this, I can remember, mountain man or boy, he just wants his mommy.

He pretends to be a grouch most of the time, but material things and fun experiences mean nothing to him. He just needs his family to be happy. His mom, his sister, even me. He needs to know we’re safe, and when we are, he’s the most content man-boy on the planet.

If you could divvy each human up into parts – loyalty, love, compassion, kindness, common sense – and you could say the average person might be twenty-percent of each, then I can say without a shred of doubt, Ben Conner is one-hundred-percent loyalty. That’s not to say he lacks the rest, just that the loyalty chip inside his brain is faulty and always set tosuper drive.

That also means he’s not at all dating two girls. More than likely, he’s dating neither, but that he feels a sense of loyalty to one or both. He can date one and still hang with the other; in his head, it’s that simple. It’s that black and white. If hisfemale friendneeds a friend, he’ll be there no matter what anyone says about it.

“Ben!” Livi throws her book to the floor and sits taller. “Stop skipping like a little girl. It’s embarrassing. Here.” She leans across me and tosses his cardboard tube at his legs. “Mom will still be ten minutes while they make sure the plane is switched off and not gonna explode.”

“Olivia! Don’t say shit like that.”

“Maybe there was an emergency mid-flight,” she taunts. “Maybe Oz saved the day and flew the plane. Maybe he’s a hero, and now he’ll be too busy to be your friend.”

Ben turns back to us and glowers. “Oz is an idiot, he can’t fly planes, he’s not a hero, and there was no emergency. His only fuckin’ job was to get my mom home in one piece, and if he doesn’t deliver, I’m gonna cut him up and feed him to the deer.”

“Just admit it,” Livi grumbles. Climbing to her feet with her rolled sign, she pokes the bear. “Admit you love him. Admit you missed Oz. It’ll make you feel better to get it off your chest, I promise.”

“I will not.” He unrolls his sign as an excuse to not meet our eyes. “He’s an asshole, and he’s lucky I didn’t object to their bullshit wedding.”

She rolls her eyes. “Sasquatch, you’re probably all constipated because you don’t admit your truths. Just say it already. Say you missed him. Quick, before he gets here and hears you. That would be embarrassing,” she adds on a grumble.

I grin when he unrolls his sign and presents his poetic welcome home.‘Give my fuckin’ mom back, Pig!’I tried to stop him. I swear I did, but he’s heavier than me, and I couldn’t wrestle the marker out of his determined fighter hands. So he gets the sign, and I get to watch him make a fool of himself in public.

“Admit it, Ben!”

“Fine, I missed them. I missed him. He’s a cool guy, and he treats mom really well.”

“Now admit you love me, Sasquatch.”

Squealing like a girl, Ben turns and throws himself into his mom and new step-dad’s waiting arms. He hugs them both, and though tears in Lindsi’s eyes are expected, when Oz’s whiskey colored eyes mist with emotion, I have to turn away and study my nails for a minute while the family hug and I pull myself together.

I tap Livi’s leg and push her forward, and the trio open up and pull her in until they’re one unit. A week apart is alongtime for this family. They were abused, beaten, and broken for a long time. Lindsi was a single mom for a decade, she busted her ass to ignore her demons and put food on their table.

And now they have a family again, a loving unit that was able to heal all their hurts and stop a teen boy set on hurting people to help ease his own pain.

Ozisa hero. He’s Ben’s hero.

Stepping out of their embrace several long minutes after they began, Oz gives Lindsi and her children a minute to reunite and steps away. Towering over me, and stopping only when the toes of his shoes touch mine, he extends a hand and a handsome smile. “Hey there, Conner. Need a hand?”

Smiling, I allow him to pull me up and slam me against his chest until the oxygen whooshes from my lungs. “I missed you, Andi.” He drops a kiss on my temple. “You kept my babies safe.”

“You kept my sister safe, so we’re even.” Pulling back, I look into his smiling eyes. “Did you have fun?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Get her pregnant?”

He snorts. “Can’t say I didn’t try.”

---