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Lately, especially. Sometimes, he’d just be there, brainstorming story ideas for his next book, andDustywould creep her way in. Maybe it had something to do with her almost being killed with Nikki.
She’d changed after that night. Hell, they all had. He was still trying to figure out just exactly how. But Dusty had changed most of all.
She’d almost died because of her relationship with his only sister. Dusty was Nikki’s closest friend. He’d been looking out for her since she’d been a kid. He didn’t have any intention of stopping that anytime soon. No matter how often she snapped at him for it. A man had to do what a man had to do, after all.
He would watch over her as much as he possibly could—until she found a guy who could watch out for her instead. Then Ben’s duty, so to speak, would be done. He would pass on the Dusty-shaped baton and move on.
Ben followed his cousin Junie to a table at the back of the diner. She was hostessing tonight apparently, even though it wasn’t one of her regular nights at the diner. Sometimes she covered shifts for extra cash.
Especially after what had happened with Morris Preston.
Things still felt unsettled fromthat.They probably would for a long time. Ben wasn’t a fool. Tragedies and traumas shaped people. Changed them.
It was inevitable.
He followed Junie to the back booth, biting his tongue on what he wanted to ask her. She was still so fragile. She probably shouldn’t be back at the diner considering what had happened that night because of Preston—but there she was.
The back was usually where he wanted to sit—where he could watch each corner of the diner more easily. Tonight, he planned to grab a burger and sit his ass down and finish the second chunk of his next book. He had his laptop with him in his bag. He was going to attack that damned thing—as soon as he hadfood.
That book was getting finished. No matter how much it argued.
Things had gone sideways for his main character, good old Harrold Howard. Harry just kept getting distracted by a lady lately. Ben didn’t have time for Harry to go out on an unplanned romantic tangent with a woman just a little too young for him right now. Blond, green-eyed, snarky and beyond tempting—the woman just kept getting under Harry’s skin. Making things happen.
Things definitelynoton Ben’s outline.
Ben didn’t like it when Harry started doing whatever Harry wanted to do instead of what Ben wanted him to do. Things got complicated that way. Fast. Ben was in charge,notHarry. They had established that a long time ago.
Harry was just notcooperatingright now.
He checked on his cousin quickly. Ben’s blood burned every time he thought about what that bastard Morris Preston could have cost his family.
Ben wouldneverforgive.
But Junie had a will of iron. She was doing okay.
Ben looked up as the waitress walked in front of the tables by the window.
Blond. Green-eyed. Slightly taller than average. Hmmm.
There weren’t that many Talleys in here tonight, though. Dusty and Meyra and Marin. Three beautiful women he wasn’t related to that he absolutely adored—even if he’d never be crazy enough to tell them that. They terrified him, each and every one of them.
Talleys always terrified mere mortal men. It was kind of what theydid.
Everyone in Masterson County knew that.
Marin sashayed over—there was no other way to describe that woman’s walk—and took his order. “I’m glad you’re here tonight, handsome.”
There was something in her big blue eyes that had Ben’s focus sharpening on her. “What’s up, kid?”
“I don’t know. Just a chill across my spine mostly.” She looked over her shoulder at her cousin across the room now. Dusty.
“I’m just not too keen on leaving her here alone tonight. Either of them really. Meyra’s filling in for the cook who quit tonight.” Marin shrugged lightly, but Ben wasn’t stupid. “Just ghosts, I think.”
“I’m going to stay until close.” He’d just nurse a few cups of coffee, tap into the diner’s Wi-Fi, and work. Ben got extremely cranky when he fell behind his writing schedule. Extremely cranky. “I was feeling a bit hemmed in anyway.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
She was called away, leaving him with his coffee. Ben just sat there and watched the room around him. The women around him mostly.
