“I have Joe,” she answered, and I smiled. She had Cal. Cal had her. And obviously, that was all she needed.
“You’re good for him,” I told her.
“He’s good for me,” she told me.
Excellent response.
“He loves your girls,” I told her.
“They adore him,” she told me.
Another excellent response.
“Thanks for making him happy,” I whispered.
“That, honey, is not a hardship,” she whispered back.
We smiled at each other again. Then, being women and thus, prone to do crazy shit for no reason whatsoever, we burst out laughing.
***
Hours later, when everyone was gone, I walked out of the bathroom in another one of Gina’s sexy-cute nightgowns to see Benny with bare feet, in his t-shirt and jeans, stretched out on the bed.
His eyes came to me, dropped to my body, and he muttered, “Jesus.”
That made me feel awesome and irked me at the same time.
“You could avoid the torture by watchin’ TV downstairs,” I remarked.
His eyes lifted to mine. “I could.”
That was all he said.
I sighed, went to the robe at the foot of the bed, shrugged it on, tied the belt, and climbed into bed.
Benny was in that bed and I should be throwing a conniption about it, but I needed to climb in. It had been a big day with lots of hugging, moving around, and sitting up. It felt good to do it. It felt better I made it through. It wasn’t too much too soon, but that didn’t mean I didn’t need to take a load off.
I turned my eyes to the TV to see Benny scrolling through the guide like a man would stand in front of a refrigerator—that was, not paying a whole lot of attention, not knowing what he wanted, not liking what he saw, and willing to do it for the next half an hour, thinking something would magically appear that would ease a craving.
“What’d you talk about with Cal?” I asked.
“He wanted to make sure you were good,” Ben answered, eyes to the TV.
“He could have asked me,” I pointed out, eyes to Ben.
“He didn’t. He asked me,” Ben told me what I already knew.
“Did this require you being on the front stoop where no one could hear?” I pushed.
“Yep, since it happened on the front stoop where no one could hear,” Ben stated, and that didn’t feel awesome. It just irked me.
“Benny!” I snapped, and he looked at me.
“Ask what you wanna ask, baby,” he said gently, reading me and knowing I was beating around the bush.
So I quit beating around the bush.
“Cal doesn’t seem to have a problem with the idea of you and me,” I noted.
“He doesn’t, since he’s told me, repeatedly, after that shit went down with Hart, to get my head outta my ass and sort out you and me.”
My mouth dropped open.
I snapped it shut to declare, “There isn’t a ‘you and me.’”
His eyes did a sweep of me in his bed, they came to rest on mine, and he said quietly, “Babe.”
Shit.
“We’re talkin’ about this tomorrow,” he reminded me. “Right now, I can tell you had a big day and you need to kick back.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. What he was was attentive, noticing it.
Another good thing about Benny.
“Come here,” he ordered.
“I’m good here,” I said, turning my eyes to the TV.
“Frankie, come here,” he repeated.
I looked to him. “I’m good here, Benny.”
“Babe,” he stated firmly, but said no more.
“I’m comfy.”
“Come here,” he said yet again.
“Ben, I’m fine where I am.”
“Come here.”
My eyes narrowed. “Seriously?”
“Francesca, come…here.”
“Are you gonna repeat it until I do it?” I snapped.
“Yes,” he replied.
“You’re annoying,” I told him.
“Come here.”
“Now you’re more annoying.”
“Come here.”
I glared at him as I informed him, “I really wanna hit you with a pillow right now.”
“Come here.”
“Benny!” I shouted.
Then I was no longer reclining on my side of the bed.
I was tucked tight to Benny’s side on his side of the bed.
It felt good. Natural. Right.
I clenched my teeth.
Then I unclenched them to say, “You’re totally freaking annoying.”
“And you’re all kinds of cute.”
I clenched my teeth again.
Ben settled on some television show set in a prison.
“I don’t watch prison shows,” I declared.
Ben said nothing but didn’t change the channel.
“Or war shows,” I went on inanely.
Ben didn’t move and the channel remained the same.
“Ben, find something else,” I ordered.
“Please?” he said that one word as a demand.
I tipped my head from its place on his chest to glare at him.
He grinned at me.
Then he offered me the remote.
Yes, Benny Bianchi, a man who was all man handed me the remote.
To the TV!
Yet another good thing about Benny.
Tentatively, like the woman I was, a woman who was entering previously uncharted territory and needing to do it cautiously, I took it.
Even more tentatively, I found a cooking show I liked.
Benny said not a word and I marveled as he lay there watching a cooking show with me, not saying a word.
And again, he showed me another good thing.
The problem with that was that I was thinking, when it came to Benito Bianchi, it was all a good thing.
Chapter Six
Love Is Never Wrong
“Thanks, babe, and again, don’t worry about comin’ tomorrow.”
It was the next morning. I was standing at Benny’s door, Asheeka out on the stoop. I was showered, ready to face the day, and letting her off shower duty.
“You sure?” she asked.
“I was good yesterday, better today,” I reminded her.
“Yeah,” she said. “Still, you need me, just call.”
My Asheeka. So awesome.
“What I need to do is buy you tickets to Usher the next time he’s in Chicago.”
Her eyes went huge. “Girl, you know it would not be good, that boy and me in the same building, even if that building is a stadium.”
What I knew was that Asheeka had a thing for a baby face. And a bigger thing for a man who could move.
“Right. In order to avoid Usher taking a restraining order out on you, I’ll find something else,” I told her.
This time her eyes went sweet before she replied, “I know it’d be a fool waste of time, tryin’ to talk you outta doin’ something. But I’m also gonna make it clear, you don’t have to do anything.”
“I do,” I returned.
“I know,” she whispered.
My Asheeka. So awesome.
I refrained from hugging her because that would probably make me cry and I’d just done my makeup.
She grinned at me. “You keep me in the know about what’s happenin’ with all that,” she ordered, jerking her chin to the hall behind me, meaning Benny.
“I get my phone back, I will,” I promised.
She kept grinning and said, “Later, babe.”
“Later, Asheeka.”
She aimed her eyes beyond me and shouted, “’Bye, Benny!”
“Later!” Ben’s deep voice shouted back from where he was in the kitchen.
She let out a little chuckle, shook her head once, and I watched her walk down to her Land Rover and get in. I closed the door when she was pulling out.
I turned, looked down the hall, straightened my shoulders, and walked that way.