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“More than anything.”
The fire in his eyes had her pulse pounding hard, her throat tightening and the urge to drag him up to her room would have overtaken her, if her father hadn’t appeared.
“Hello Ben, pleased to meet you. I’m Albert,” he said, sticking his hand out. Her dad believed a man who was worth his salt had a firm handshake but didn’t try to intimidate the person whose hand he was shaking. Kayleigh watched as Ben gripped her father’s hand and shook once, twice and she held her breath as she looked to her dad for his verdict. Albert smiled and nodded at Kayleigh and her breath released in a quietwhoosh.Proud of Ben for passing a test he didn’t know he had just faced, she fetched him a drink and returned to the living room to find him and her father chatting.
“Kayleigh tells me you like blues music?”
Ben sat forward in his seat. “Yeah, and Motown. Not traditional for someone my age but I spent a lot of time with my grandma when I was a kid. She was always playing it and I just loved it. I have great memories of the two of us going through her old records. When she passed, she left them all to me.”
“I’m sorry to hear she passed, she sounds like a great lady with good taste.”
Kayleigh watched as Ben seemed to disappear into a memory and her heart ached for his loss. He had mentioned his grandma a few times in the last couple of weeks, but she hadn’t realized just how close they had been.
He came back to himself a moment later, fixing his gaze back on her father. “What about you?”
“I’m a blues and soul man myself. Love me some B.B King, Etta James and of course, Elvis. You like Elvis?” Albert said, focusing on Ben.
Ben began to rub his palms over his thighs. “Yeah of course, I mean, who doesn’t like Elvis?”
Her father nodded, a reminiscent smile on his lips. “You know, you kinda remind me of him. I met him once when I was a kid.”
A garbled sound left Ben, and Kayleigh fixed him with a strange look as he cleared his throat.
“What was he like?” Awe dripped from Ben’s tone and Kayleigh watched as he leaned even closer, getting drawn into the conversation.Her father began describing every moment of meeting Elvis. He had only been eight so Kayleigh was surprised he could remember so much but he always said,You never forget meeting a man like that. Looking over at Ben, taking in the shape of his body, the curves that made up his face and reflecting on the way he made her feel, she had a vague idea of what her father meant.
She watched as Ben stared at her father, drinking in every detail, every crumb her father gave him with rapt fascination. A thrill shot through her at how well they were getting on and she was almost disappointed when her mom called them all to dinner.
She and Ben sat next to each other at the table, and she tried to keep the smile off her face when he pressed his thigh to hers, keeping them connected. When they went around the table and stated what they were thankful for, a lump formed in her throat when Ben announced, loud and proud, “I’m thankful for meeting your wonderful daughter, Kayleigh. So incredibly thankful.”
“Oh, Albert,” her mom sighed, gripping her father’s hand.
“That’s a good answer, son,” her father replied gruffly.
*
“I wanna see your computer…” Ben whispered in her ear when her parents weren’t looking.
“Oh yeah?” she murmured, a sly look in her eye that drove Ben wild.
“Yeah, then I’ll show you my hard drive.” He waggled his eyebrows, and she cupped a hand over her mouth, muffling a snort.
“Lame jokes are my thing!” she hissed.
“I know,” he replied and then her brows dipped in and she stared at him. He realized his goof, she hadn’t done ‘lame’ jokes withBen, she’d done them with GreenEyedKing96.
He took her hand, trying to distract himself from his guilt. “Come on.”
She threw a glance over her shoulder and saw her parents lost in conversation in the kitchen. When she turned back to him that smirk lifted her lips again and he knew he was in trouble.
She giggled as she dragged him up the stairs and into her room, closing the door softly before she turned to face him. He glanced around her room, taking in the patterned wallpaper in soft gentle tones and warm colored furnishings. The room felt like home, it felt likeher.
His gaze landed on her computer. White monitor with a light pink keyboard and mouse, multicolored lights flashing from the base unit underneath, and he just knew if he typed on the keyboard it would light up.
To see the place where she sat nearly every night talking to him, where they exchanged so many messages, so many jokes, deep conversations and so much love, not that she knew it, did something funny to his insides.
“Wanna know my hard drive capacity?” she spoke softly as she stared at him.
“Not right now,” he grunted and whirled around, lifting her off her feet and burying his face in her neck, needing to breathe her in. To assure himself that she was real, that he was really here, with her.
