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I walked him to the car, gave him a quick goodbye kiss, and rushed back to the patio to get the guys’ postmortem on how the meeting went. They all had nothing but good things to say about him. I couldn’t remember the last time my life had felt so on track in so many ways.
Chapter Fourteen
Dex
After I’d met Bennett’s friends, I knew I couldn’t keep the truth from him any longer. I’d spent the entire time worried someone would recognize me and tell him, and that he’d react badly because I’d kept it from him for so long. I was falling for him and I hoped he was falling for me. I didn’t want to lie to him about who I was any longer. I spent the following Monday at work, mostly distracted by the situation I’d gotten myself into and trying to decide how to tell him that gave me the best chance of keeping him in my life. Jude tried to keep me on track that day, but it was clear—to me, at least—that no actual work was getting done.
On Tuesday, Jude called my office a little after ten. “Sir, thePort Grandlin Dispatchis on the phone.”
My chest tightened, and I frowned. The biggest newspaper in the city was calling and that almost certainly meant something bad was happening. “Transfer them through.” A moment later, my phone rang again, and I answered the line. “Dex Thompson.”
“Mr. Thompson. Hi.” The voice on the other end was as smooth as butter. “My name is Jeana and I’m calling from theDispatchregarding your contributions to the Michaels Foundation.”
I suppressed a deep sigh, my throat tightening as she spoke. “What can I do for you, Jeana?”
“I’m running an article on the winners of this year’s grants and I’d love to do a profile on you as well.”
I saw several issues with her proposal—not the least of which was Bennett—but I swallowed and cleared my throat. “I’m happy to give you an interview—with some conditions in place to protect Webber Holdings, of course.”
“Name your price.”
We chatted for another few minutes about the conditions I had—namely, that she wasn’t going to identifymeas the primary donor for the foundation, but would keep Webber Holdings in the forefront of the profile, among other agreements we made. We set an appointment for later that afternoon for the interview, and I hung up.
The rest of my day passed swiftly, and the interview turned out to be relatively painless. I kept the conversation focused on what Webber Holdings was doing for the Port Grandlin community, no matter how hard Jeana pushed me to talk about my personal life and my reasons for working with the foundation. The article was scheduled to come out in Thursday’s special “charitable opportunities of Port Grandlin” insert.
Prior to leaving work, I texted Bennett and asked him if we could see each other that evening. He immediately agreed, and we made plans to meet at his house a little after our workdays ended. After a quick trip home to change, I arrived around six that evening, pizza in hand and nerves steeled to come clean… or at leasttryto. I had a plan, too. I was going to tell him about theinterview and take it from there. I just hoped he’d ask for more details, which would be my lead-in.
Bennett greeted me at the door wearing a warm smile with his tank top and jeans, his dark brown hair damp. As we kissed hello, I caught the scent of his soap, rich and spicy, and I couldn’t stop the little groan that escaped me.
“Well, hello there.” Bennett took the pizza from my hands and whisked it off into the kitchen. “I’m just going to put this in the oven to stay warm, okay?”
“Whatever you want.” I kicked off my shoes and took a seat on his couch, making myself comfortable. “How was your day?”
He leaned out of the kitchen and peered around the wall. “Oh, you know. Electrifying.” Bennett laughed at himself. “Mom has an appointment with the oncologist Friday. She’s asked me to come along.” He disappeared back into the kitchen after he finished speaking.
“That’s good. Will Tamara be going too?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan. Mom wants us there in case he has bad news or something, I guess.”
“When do I get to meet these leading ladies of yours, anyway?”
He returned to the living room, a frown on his face as he sat next to me. “You know the time’s not right, with Mom sick and everything.”
I nodded, trying not to let the disappointment show on my face. I hadn’t introduced him to anyone in my life yet, after all. Not that I really had anyone other than Jude and Frank. Maybe Ross counted. “I get it. I’m just looking forward to the day you’re ready to let us all get to know each other, that’s all.”
His voice was quiet when he spoke. “I know.” After a beat, he looked up at me with a smile, clearly ready to change the subject. “How wasyourday?”
“I’m glad you asked, actually.”
“Yeah? That good, huh?”
I nodded. “Yeah. The newspaper called. TheDispatch. They wanted an interview for an article they’re running about my company.”
“Did you rave about the perks?”
“Actually, it was…” I swallowed hard and nodded before turning my face a fraction and pulling him to meet my lips with his.
He pulled away and looked into my eyes. “It was what?”
