After dinner, Ben and Jamie got up and began clearing the table. Lane smiled and looked across the table at Mick. “Neither guests nor she who cooked has to do clean up. Shall we go into the family room?”
Mick had been in her house three times last month. Once to question her, once he took her home because of a debilitating headache. That time he’d sat on her bed and read while she slept, losing his sunglasses in the process so that he had to come back the next day and look for them. Of course, then he’d found the murder weapon under her bed and he’d had to take her to the station to answer questions. She’d called Ben to meet them at the station. That was the first time he’d seen the way her face lit up when she looked at Bellini. The day he came into the interview room to save her from the big bad detective.
He’d never been invited to sit in the family room and chat. She sat in a chair and motioned for him to have a seat on the adjacent sofa.
“During grace, your son said something about the wedding. When’s the big day?”
“We really aren’t sure. We had planned to have an intimate ceremony tomorrow, but then my daughter got a call from her agent. She has an audition tomorrow and it’s a pretty big opportunity. So she had to go back to L.A. early. After her audition, we’ll figure out when we can get her back here.”
Ben had joined them and sat in the chair next to Lane. “The marriage license is good for six months, so we have some time to figure it out.”
“We could always go back to the original plan and get married over her Christmas break.” Lane said.
A look passed between Ben and Lane. Mick wasn’t sure whose idea the accelerated timeline had been, but he wondered if it was Lane who was trying to get Ben to the altar before he changed his mind. Mick believed that time was definitely on his side. He’d been playing basketball in the same league with Ben for five years and he couldn’t remember Ben being serious with anyone, but he knew Ben had never lacked for female companionship either.
Jamie came into the family room. “I’m going to my room to study. Good night, Detective. Mom, Dad, good night. See you tomorrow.”
Lane smiled at her son. She thought he was going to wait until after the wedding to start calling Ben dad, but he’d done it twice tonight.
“Good night, Jamie. Love you.”
“Good night, Bambino, we’ll see you after the game if not before.”
Mick looked at his watch and said he really should be going. Both Lane and Ben walked him to the front door. “Thanks for dinner. It was kind of you, considering you had no notice.”
“Mick, it was my pleasure. And you were a real sport about the left overs. We’ll have to do it again when the menu is better.”
“I’d like that.” And he would. Maybe next time they could leave Bellini and the kid out of the picture.
Lane had barely closed the door after saying good-bye to Mick, when Ben had swept her in his arms and kissed her. “I’ve been waiting for hours to do that.”
“Me too, I love you,” she said running her hands through his hair.
“And I love you,” he said before kissing her again. He refused to think about the phone conversation he’d had with Jess. All he wanted to do was hold Lane in his arms and make love to her, but he knew it wasn’t going to happen tonight. Jamie was in his room and even if he hadn’t already put Ben on notice, it still wasn’t going to happen. Phillip Parker had made love to her and then he came out of the closet and walked out through front the door. No matter what happened in the next two days he wasn’t going to do what Phillip Parker had done to her.
It was crazy. Of course he could protect her. He would protect her even if he had to call in all of his family to form a 24/7 watch. He’d talk to Jess and make her see that everything was going to be all right.
They walked back to the family room and sat together on the sofa. Ben ran his fingers through her long strawberry blonde hair. “Has your fiancé told you today how beautiful you are?”
“I don’t believe he has,” she said as she leaned in to kiss him.
“He’s a fool.” He brushed her hair away from her face as she put her head on his shoulder.
“You know, it wouldn’t be so bad to wait until New Year’s Day.”
“If that’s what we have to do, then we’ll make it work. But if I have to wait that long, I really will have to have a talk with the Bambino. He’s calling me Dad. Where does he think dads sleep? They sleep with moms.”
And then he thought about the changes that would have to happen in their love making. Lane was a screamer and Jamie’s room was just across and down the hall. The kid would get an ear full. The thought of Lane screaming his name where Jamie could hear made him blush a little. But she was going to be his wife. He sure as hell wasn’t going to wait nine months until Jamie went off to college to make love to her again.
Until their engagement, they’d tried not to kiss in front of the kids. Apparently they weren’t really hiding anything. Apparently both of the boys suspected that he and Lane had already been having sex. Last month each of them wanted to be sure Ben was going to be spending the night on the sofa instead of in their mother’s bed when he’d stayed over.
He moved so they were laying on the sofa together. He loved holding her. Maybe they could just stay this way for a while.
Chapter 23
Game night
Ben was awakened by his buzzing cell phone. He was a little disoriented. He smiled realizing that he and Lane had fallen asleep on the sofa in her family room. He still held her in his arms and apparently Jamie had come in at some point and pulled a throw over them. Apparently he could spend the night and even sleep with his fiancée as long as he did it on the sofa. But he knew it wasn’t sleeping that Jamie was concerned with.
It was 5:30 a.m. and time for his run. He kissed her gently before disentangling himself. He stood and stretched. The sofa wasn’t the most comfortable place he’d ever slept, but he’d still prefer it to the most comfortable bed in the world as long as he could share it with Lane. She murmured as he picked up both her and the throw and carried them to her bedroom. He laid her on her bed and straightened the throw over her. He stood next to the bed, just looking down at her angelic face.
She had been born Angelique Lane Valle. He knew she had been raised by an aunt, after both of her parents died when she was four. He didn’t know why her aunt had started calling her Lane instead of Angelique. His uncles had met her when she was four years old and was still called Angelique. They still called her their little angel of the valley. He had to agree, watching her sleep, that she certainly had the face of an angel. She seemed at peace as she lay there. She stirred as he leaned down and kissed her again. “Shhh. Go back to sleep. I’m going home to change for my run. I’ll call you later.” He smoothed her hair away from her face. “I love you.”
It didn’t matter how much he wished he could lay next to her holding her in his arms for the rest of the day. He had jury selection starting this morning and arguments could start as early as this afternoon for his current trial.
Lane’s alarm went off at 7:30. She lay in bed and stretched. She was still wearing the clothes she’d changed into after work yesterday. The last thing she remembered was being on the sofa in the family room with Ben. She must have fallen asleep and Ben had carried her to bed.
She had a full day. The normal number of meetings dotted both her morning and her afternoon, but she was taking off over lunch to pick up her marriage license. Telco had instituted casual Fridays, but she wasn’t much of a khakis kind of person. It was so hard to find women’s slacks that were long enough, so she usually wore a suit just like the other four days of the week. Today though, she pulled out a black and cream sleeveless shift. She knew the calendar didn’t agree, but she always thought of Labor Day as being the end of summer, so she grabbed a black cardigan sweater and laid the dress and sweater on her bed as she walked toward the bathroom. She showered, dressed, and drove to the office.