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“No stress on this trip.” Ben’s fingertips unintentionally graze my thigh as he moves in his seat, his frame too big even for the first-class sized one. “Just two friends having a great time in Hawaii.”
Friends. The word makes memories swirl through my mind. Like the summer before we started seventh grade, when my family took a ten-day road trip. Ben and Owen took care of my cat, Penelope. When Owen left our back door open after checking on her one afternoon and she got out, they looked for her for a couple of hours before Owen gave up and went to play football with some neighborhood boys. But Ben stayed up until after midnight, not giving up until he found my cat in a neighbor’s bushes.
“You’re more than a friend to me,” I say softly.
There’s something I can’t read in his gaze when he looks at me. “You mean I’m like a brother?”
“Blankets and pillows?”
Our flight attendant is back, and I take the pillow and blanket she offers me. I have the window seat, and she takes advantage of her close proximity to Ben by placing a pillow behind his head for him.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” he says as she unfolds a blanket over him.
“I don’t mind.” She practically squeezes his bicep as she tucks the blanket in.
I have no right to feel a flare of jealousy, but I do. Ben is everything any woman could ever want, and this flight attendant isn’t worthy of him. Any woman who would flirt with a man she believes is married isn’t good enough. I don’t know if it’s because of what happened between me and Owen or if it’s really about Ben, but without a second thought, I snuggle into Ben’s side, putting my head on his shoulder and my arm across his chest, making sure the attentive blond sees the ring on my finger.
Ben stiffens for a split second and then relaxes. The flight attendant ignores me and moves on to the people across the aisle, but I don’t move. If she looks back over here, this is where she’ll find me.
“I wanted to get rid of her,” I whisper to Ben.
He hums with amusement. “I figured.”
His chest is rock solid beneath my hand. I close my eyes and breathe in his light soap and pine-tree scent, likely a mix of his body wash and cologne.
“You can sleep on me if you want,” he offers.
It’s the last thing I hear before I drift back into a deep sleep, finally catching up on all the rest I’ve missed since catching Owen with his assistant.
Chapter Six
Ben
* * *
I glance over at Stella and can’t help smiling. She’s got dark sunglasses on, a straw bag slung over her shoulder. The sun is shining bright outside and ukulele music is streaming through the speakers at the airport, where we just picked up our bags.
I’m in fucking Maui with Stella. And we’ve both got wedding wings on. I didn’t have any of this on my bingo card for this year, but it’s a hell of a nice way to spend part of my offseason. I know when I turn my phone back on, I’ll have lots of pissed off texts from my brother, so I’m leaving if off because fuck him. Owen made his bed; he doesn’t get to complain about the consequences.
“Oh wow,” Stella says. “I read an article on the plane about your honeymoon being a time for saying yes.” She elbows me lightly. “Heh heh. But seriously, my first yes is going to be to one of those.”
I follow her gaze to a vendor with a cart just outside the airport doors. He’s selling drinks in half pineapples, each one garnished with a tropical flower and a slice of pineapple.
“Let’s do it.” I put the strap on one of the bags I’m carrying over my shoulder and carry the other one by its handle.
“Ben, I can get one of those,” Stella says for the third time since I got the bags from the luggage claim.
I shake my head. “I’ve got it.”
The man at the cart smiles at us as we approach. Stella eyes the colorful leis hanging from one side of his cart.
“Hi, we’ll take two of those gorgeous drinks,” she says.
I take out my wallet and pass a credit card to him. “And two of the leis, too.”
“Do you want alcohol?” the man asks.
Stella laughs lightly. “So much.” She leans in to read the nametag he’s wearing. “Be generous with the alcohol, Akamu.”
He laughs as he prepares the drinks. “Newlyweds,” he says, pointing at me and then Stella. “You are a lucky man, my friend.”
“Yes, I am.”
When he passes me the leis, I put one over Stella’s head, resting it gently on her chest.
“Let me do yours,” she says.
