Once in a Lifetime(40)

“Prove it,” he said.

“What?”

“If I’m not the Ben on your list, then who is?”

She just looked at him for a long moment. “You have a shovel?” she finally asked.

“In the back. Why?”

“Can you go back to the store?”

“Sure. On the drive there, you can tell me what your definition of ‘do me’ is.”

She blushed some more and ignored him. At the store, she was gone for less than five minutes, and then she climbed back into the truck a little breathlessly. “Head out on Route Ten,” she said.

“You should feel free to show me this bossy side of you in bed anytime.”

She sent him a baleful glance as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Route 10. The highway turned inland—not up into the mountains, but east, to the far end of the county. The houses out here were few and far between. There were a few ranches, but mostly these places were older and run-down.

“Turn right,” Aubrey said, looking down at her map app.

Ben followed her directions onto a dirt road, and then onto a dirty driveway. The mobile home there was a double-wide. Sitting on the porch was an old guy in a rocking chair.

Ben stopped the truck. “Is that…Mr. Wilford?”

“Ben Wilford,” Aubrey said smugly.

“The mean old science teacher?”

“He’s retired now, but yes. And mean is an understatement,” she muttered under her breath.

“This is the Ben on your list?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes, Mr. Egomaniac, this is the Ben on my list. Stay here,” she said, and started to slide out of the truck.

He caught her arm. At the touch, she went still as if prodded with an electrical current.

He knew exactly, because he felt it as well. And it told him something, something he hadn’t been prepared for. They weren’t done with each other.

Not by a long shot.

This wasn’t good news. Neither was the fact that he was playing with her. He’d tricked her into needing a ride from him and he’d justified it because he wanted to know what she was up to.



But the joke was on him, because he realized the truth—he just wanted to be with her.

That wasn’t good news, either.

“What?” she asked.

More than a little unhappy with his epiphany, he shook his head. “Nothing.” And then he let go of her, gesturing for her to have at it. Whatever “it” was.

She slid out of the truck and headed to the back to pull out his shovel. Then, carrying the shovel, she walked up to the double-wide in her fancy dress and coat, as though she belonged there.

Mr. Wilford stood, eyes narrowed and nearly hidden behind his white, bushy brows. Ben rolled down his window, but he still couldn’t catch any words. He didn’t have any trouble at all catching Mr. Wilford’s bad attitude, though. Ben braced to get out of the truck, but the old man got up, limped to his front door, and vanished inside—but not before slamming the door, practically on Aubrey’s nose.

Damn it, that pissed Ben off. But Aubrey merely squared her shoulders and vanished around the back of the trailer.

Ben waited a minute and then followed. He couldn’t help it if he wanted to make sure she was okay. And that Mr. Wilford didn’t shoot her for trespassing. He risked Aubrey clobbering him over the head with the shovel for not staying in the truck, but he’d deal with that when he got closer. He wasn’t actually too worried, but he’d discovered something about his odd relationship with Aubrey. He preferred kissing her to arguing with her.

Not that he was exactly comfortable with that…





Chapter 14



Twenty-five minutes later, Aubrey slid back into Ben’s truck. The ground had been frozen and was almost impossible to break apart, forcing her to work her ass off. As a result, she was hot and sweaty, but she felt good about the morning’s progress. Very good. Lowering the truck’s sun visor, she studied her reflection in the small mirror there. Not too bad. She swiped at her slightly smudged mascara. Then she pulled out her notebook and, with great ceremony for the man seated next to her, she crossed off BEN. “There,” she said to Ben. “All taken care of.”

“Uh-huh,” he said.

“Yep. Ben’s off my list.” It wasn’t the right Ben, of course. The right Ben was seated next to her, but he didn’t need to know that.

Nor did he need to know how much it was killing her, how she was sleeping less and less at night, worried about exactly that.

His being on her list.

Not to mention his reaction when he found out. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him, not yet. He’d walk away, and even knowing that’s what she deserved, she wasn’t ready for it.

“Well, if you’re righting your wrongs,” he said—clearly fishing but coming so uncomfortably close to the truth that she held her breath—“then don’t forget Kristan. Remember how mean you were to her in high school when she took your spot in the school play?”

Kristan wasn’t on Aubrey’s list. Nor would she be. “She tripped me at rehearsal, and I sprained my ankle so that I couldn’t dance the lead. If I were making a list of wrongs to right, which I’m not”—she paused when he snorted, and she sent him a glare—“then I should be on her list.” She swiped her sweaty brow and sat back, arms still trembling from exertion.