In Her Eyes (12 page)

Jimmy walked out of the locker room opposite of where Parker was standing in front of Ben. But before Parker could do anything else Ben stormed out of the locker room.

* * *

Ten minutes later and Ben was about halfway back to his dorm. He didn’t really want to go back to his dorm. His mind was focused on two things. One of them he didn’t have the energy to confront, and the other was Casey Taylor.

As if on cue Ben’s phone started to buzz in his pocket. “Hello?” he said.

“Hey, it’s Casey.”

The second she spoke, Ben knew something was wrong.

“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to call,” he said.

“Sorry, I got held up at work for a few minutes.”

“No problem, you still in the mood to grab a bite to eat?”

“Actually, I’m starving, but…”

There it was. The “but.” Quite possibly the worst word in the entire English language. To date, not a single person has managed to put together a positive comment after saying the word “but.” Tonight wasn’t any different.

“…I can’t tonight,” Casey finished.

“Is everything alright?” Ben asked.

“Everything is fine, and I’ve been looking forward to tonight, but…”

Seriously? I hate that word.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t find a sitter.”

Wait
…
that’s not a big deal.

“Do you like pizza?” Ben said.

“Umm, yes. Why?”

“Does your daughter like pizza?” Ben said.

“Yes…why?”

Ben knew what he was about to say was risky. He also knew something she didn’t: He was great with kids.

“Do you have any beach chairs?”

“Ummm, I have a few, but why?”

“Okay. I’ve got an idea, if you trust me.”

There was a hesitation on her end. Then she said, “Okay.”

Ben could tell she was nervous. He didn’t know how many guys she’d dated since her daughter was born. He didn’t know how many of them had met her or if it went good or bad. However, he did know she was taking a chance on him, and right now it was something he needed more than anything.

32

Familiar

April 13, 2015

A half hour later Ben pulled into Casey’s driveway, put the truck in park, and looked into the rear-view mirror. He caught sight of the look in his eyes and realized this wasn’t the same type of nervous he got before each race. The excited nervous he had on their first date was gone. This was more of a scared nervous.

His thoughts drifted back to Grace for a moment as he sat there silently in the truck. He wondered if Casey’s daughter would be anything like Grace, and what it would feel like to be with Casey around her.

The slight movement of the front door opening pulled him back to the present. Casey stepped through the threshold and leaned against the door jamb. She was wearing a dark navy dress that stopped several inches above her knee, and had a small column of four gold buttons that ran vertically up from her waist. The bottom of the dress fell soft and lose against her legs, but the top seemed to hug every curve and facet of her body. It accentuated her tight waist, and every thought he had for a moment was about wrapping his arms around her.

The scoop neck top was flatteringly modest, while the thin straps on her shoulders revealed her unbelievably sexy arms.
That is definitely an underappreciated part of the female body.

Her blonde hair was down and fell just below her shoulders. She looked absolutely stunning except for one thing: she wasn’t smiling.

It probably had to do with the fact that he was still sitting in the truck, looking more hesitant than excited. Maybe she was thinking this was a mistake.

Ben reached over to the passenger side and picked up the pizza from Papa John’s, and two red roses from Flowers By Edie.

Casey smiled the second he stepped out of the car, and for what felt like the first time since he pulled into her driveway, he breathed. He carried the pizza box like a waiter in his left hand, while his right held onto the flowers. Just before he reached Casey he rested one of the flowers on the box so he could hand the other one to her.

She took it with both hands. “Thank you, it’s beautiful.” 

“Hopefully the other lady of the house will think so as well,” he said.

Her smile faded at the sound of his words. “Ben,” she said looking up at him. She was going to warn him that meeting Emma isn’t like meeting a friend or a parent. It is so much more. And once he does this, there is no going back. Everything will change.

“I know,” he said, as if reading her mind.

Her lips parted for a second as she breathed in deeply. He knew it wasn’t the right time, but the way her lips moved, the sound of her breath. All he wanted right now was to kiss her.

The door moved behind Casey and two little bare feet appeared. “Mom, what are you doing out here?”

Casey stepped to the side and Ben saw Emma for the first time. Her resemblance to Casey was uncanny. Her nose, her ears, her mouth, the shape of her face. It all matched her mother’s perfectly. All, except for one thing: her eyes. They were similar to Casey’s deep blue, but with a familiar hint of green. Almost aquamarine, Ben thought.

Casey held out her hand. “Emma, come here, I want you to meet someone.”

Emma walked over to her mom and took her hand, her head coming up just above Casey’s waist.

“This is Mr. Ben, the man I was telling you about.”

Ben knelt down and held out the other rose. “I didn’t know what your favorite flower was, but I got you this rose.”

Emma took the flower and held it up in front of her with both hands just as Casey had done. “It is very pretty, but I like blue ones the best.”

Ben smiled as he knelt there looking back at Emma. He couldn’t help but feel there was something so incredibly familiar about her. “I’ll remember that for next time,” he said.

He stood back up. “Is everyone hungry for some pizza?”

Casey looked down at Emma, who was shaking her head up and down with a big grin. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Casey said.

He looked down at Emma again. The whole thing with the reporter must have gotten to him more than he thought. Because this time he realized why the greens and blues that danced in her eyes looked so familiar. They reminded him of Grace.

Emma nodded and Ben started walking back towards his truck.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“It’s a surprise. But I need the chairs.” Casey looked completely confused when he turned back around. “Are they in the garage?”

“Is what in the garage?”

“Stay with me now, the beach chairs. You
are
the girl I talked to on the phone a half-hour ago right?”

“Yes…I just…the chairs are in the garage. I’ll open it and fix some drinks.”

“Okay, but one more thing.” Ben walked back up to her and kissed her quickly and without hesitation. “I’ve been wanting to do that since I saw you tonight.” Ben drew an X over his heart with his index finger as he backed down the walkway. “I won’t do that with Emma around, cross my heart.”

33

Counting Cars

April 13, 2015

A few minutes later and Casey walked through the garage carrying three glasses of water, with Emma next to her carrying a roll of paper towels and some paper plates. All she could do was laugh when she found Ben sitting in a chair in the bed of his truck.

He stepped down and grabbed the glasses from her, then hopped back up on the tailgate and sat one in each of the cup holders attached to the folding chairs. Then he turned around and held out his hand.

Casey gave him the standard you-want-us-to-have-a-picnic-in-my-driveway-in-the-back-of-your-truck look.

Ben responded with the standard guy look, which pretty much never changes.

She reached up and grabbed Ben’s hand and stepped up on the tailgate next to him. Casey turned around to grab Emma, but was surprised to see Ben already motioning to help her up. She was worried how Emma might react.

“Your turn,” Ben said to Emma. “Now reach your hands straight to the sky. You ready?”

Emma nodded holding her arms up like she was Superwoman.

Ben grabbed her by the wrists and lifted her straight up on to the tailgate. He held his hand up in the air, “Good job. Hi-five.”

She slapped his hand and he moved it down by his feet. “Down low?”

She went to slap it again, but he moved it just in time. “You’re too slow.”

“Hey,” she said. “You moved it.”

Ben laughed, and Casey smiled.
Guys are so weird.

“Are you a pepperoni or cheese type of girl?” Ben asked, still kneeling in front of Emma.

“Pepperoni, please.”

“I knew it. You have that special pepperoni-girl look. Grab a seat by your mom and I’ll get you a slice.”

Emma sat down in the chair on the far end, next to Casey, who was sitting in the middle still watching the exchange. “Can I have two slices?” she said as Ben opened up the box.

“You can, but…only if you tell me a secret.”

Ben put two slices of pepperoni on a plate and turned to face Emma.

“What kind of secret?” she asked.

“That’s up to you.”

Emma tapped her index finger against her chin and looked up to the sky, as if she were mimicking someone she’d seen on television deep in thought. Then she blurted out. “I kissed a boy at school today.”

Casey literally almost fell out of her chair as Ben handed her the pizza. “You did?” Ben said, giving Casey a little squeeze on the leg to try and calm her. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

Emma pulled off a piece of pepperoni and ate it. “Mhmm.”

Casey’s mouth was still wide open in absolute shock. Ben lifted his hand off her leg and tapped the bottom of her chin playfully. She looked down at him like he was a great magician that had just performed the best trick of the century.
How did he get her to say that?

“Does this boy have a name?” Ben said.

Emma shook her head yes as she took a bite of pizza.

Ben handed Casey a plate with one slice of pepperoni and one slice of cheese. Then he put three slices of cheese on his plate and sat down next to her. “Let me guess,” he said. “Was his name Rover?”

Emma shook her head again.

“Hmmm, what about Spot?”

“Those are dog names,” she said laughing.

“Okay, what about Biscuit?”

“That’s not a boy’s name either.”

“Well, I don’t know then. I’m all out of ideas.”

“It was Joe.”

“Joe Clemmons?” Casey said quickly. Her tone changed, “Emma, you know you’re too young to be kissing boys, right?”

“It was just a game.”

Ben put the half-eaten pizza down on his plate. “Speaking of games. I have a game we can all play. My uncle and I used to sit out by the road in lawn chairs around the time people got off work and watch the cars go by. I always liked to try and guess the color of the next car, so he made it into a little game. We’d each pick a color and the first person to five wins.”

“Sounds fun, doesn’t it, Emma?” Casey said.

Emma nodded, but appeared to be more concerned with licking the cheese and sauce off her fingers than anything else.

“Okay, I’ll pick red,” Casey said.

“I want blue,” Emma said.

“Perfect, I will take purple,” Ben added.

Casey smiled. Red and blue make purple, she thought.

It was just a few seconds before the first car turned down their street and drove by. “First car,” Ben said excited. “And…it’s …white. Boo.”

Two more cars drove past. One was a light blue Honda that looked like it might breakdown at any moment and the other was a blue Ranger. “Two points for Emma,” Ben said.

There was a minute of silence between all three of them as they watched patiently for the next car to drive by. Then Emma spoke. “This is weird.”

Ben leaned forward in his chair so he could look over at Emma. “But it’s fun, right?”

Emma giggled, “Yeah.”

Casey couldn’t have said it better herself. The fact that they were sitting in her driveway, in the back of a pickup truck, in beach chairs, eating pizza was a little weird. But, it was also fun and strangely peaceful. A lot of the time dinner inside is filled with so much noise that can’t escape the walls around you. Out here though, the world seemed to absorb everything, until there was a stillness internally.

Casey looked over at Ben, who was mid-bite of his second piece of pizza. He stopped with the pizza half in his mouth, “Wha—?”

Casey laughed. “Are you throwing this game?”

He finished his bite. “What do you mean?”

“Purple?”

“What’s wrong with purple? I love purple.”

“Another car is coming,” Emma said.

They both turned and looked. It was red.

“Woohoo. One point for me. That’s two for Emma, one for me, and a big fat zero for Ben,” Casey said.

“Hey, it’s not over yet,” Ben defended.

“Name even one thing that’s purple.”

“Emma’s chair is purple,” he said with a big grin.

“That doesn’t count.”

“Okay, fine. Eggplants are purple, cabbage can be purple, butterflies are purple, Barney is purple, sapphires are purple. There’s purple people eaters, according to Sheb Wooley, soldiers can receive a purple heart, relish is purple, Lavender is purple, and…being a doctor and all you’ll especially like this one…mitochondria is purple.”

“That’s an odd amount of knowledge about purple, but that doesn’t change the fact that a single purple car isn’t going to drive by tonight.”

“It sounds like somebody wants to make a friendly bet.”

“It’s not betting if you know you’re going to win,” Casey said.

“Okay, okay. Then how about this.” Ben pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was 7:37 p.m. He had about twenty minutes until sunset and then maybe fifteen minutes more until it was dark. “If a purple car doesn’t drive down this street by eight, then you win.”

“And what do I win?”

Ben winked. “That’s up to you.”

Casey thought about it for a moment. “Fine. If a purple car doesn’t drive past us by eight
tonight
,” she said, thinking he might be trying to pull a fast one. “Then you have to clean my garage.”