“Me, too.” But she couldn’t and she felt anxious suddenly, unsure of how to go about the leaving part. “But I really should go.”
“Mmm.” He nuzzled her neck. “Five more minutes.”
“I have groceries in the back of the truck. I haveRosie’sgroceries in the back of the truck, which is even worse.”
“Yeah, we should probably get dressed.”
It felt awkward, putting her clothes back on in front of him in the light of the afternoon, even though it hadn’t felt weird at all taking them off.
It wasn’t until they were climbing into Andy’s truck that she realized the house next to the garage belonged to his parents. And there was a car in the driveway. Her cheeks felt hot and Ben must have figured out why because he chuckled.
“They’re not home right now. They were driving into the city to visit some friends of theirs.”
It was silly, since they were both adults, but she was relieved. She knew that Rosie knew Ben’s parents—which wasn’t a surprise in Whitford—and the last she needed was his mom calling the lodge to gossip about her.
It wasn’t long before she was pulling up to the fire station. By some miracle, there were three empty spaces in a row, so she just pulled the truck in and put it in Park.
Ben hesitated before getting out. “I feel like I should have asked this a long time ago, but can I have your number?”
“Wow, my number? Next thing you know, you’ll be asking me out on a date.”
“Hey, I went grocery shopping with you. It’s not an awesome date, but...”
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had in a food store, so I guess it counts.” When he handed her his phone, open to a new contact page, she typed in her cell phone number.
“Thanks,” he said. “There are times I can’t show up for things when I say I will, if I show up at all, so being able to call you or just shoot you a quick text message would be nice. And I’ll text you my number in a bit, so you’ll have it.”
“Sounds good.” It was tempting to kiss him again, but she was afraid if she did, it would lead to making out in the cab of Andy’s truck. One, it was Andy’s truck and, two, they were in public. And she wasn’t sure how long ice lasted in a cooler in the back of a pickup in July. “I’ll see you soon.”
“I hope so.”
After he got out and walked around the front of the truck, she gave him a wave and then put the truck in gear. It wasn’t until she’d gotten through town and was on the road back to the lodge that she allowed herself to really think about what she’d done.
She didn’t regret the sex. It had been amazing and she wasn’t going to let herself be sorry it happened. But the cell phone number exchange. The hope to see her soon. That was going to cost her some sleep.
Ben wanted more than she could give him. He’d made it sound otherwise—that he’d only give her what she wanted—but she knew he wanted a family. A wife. Laney had wanted to surrender to some pleasure with the man she couldn’t stop thinking about. But the last thing she wanted right now was a husband. Or to hurt him.
