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  My eyes shot up when I realized he meant to beat a hasty retreat. Instead, I chased him to his car, and when he opened the door, I reached around him to close it. He turned around, but before he could say anything, I pushed him back against the car, leaned up on the tips of my toes, and then pressed my lips against his in an open-mouthed, passionate kiss.

  “Dinner, tomorrow,” I told him, backing away. “Exactly at seven. Don’t be late.”

  I turned my back to him and flounced into the house, feeling satisfied that I managed to stun him for once.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ben

  The day was setting into the evening, and I found myself pacing in my room. I stopped, facing my door, raising a hand to press fingers against my lips, still feeling that kiss from yesterday.

  Fuck, but Ginger still knew how to push my buttons.

  I picked up my phone, where I’d left it on the table, and checked the time.

  “Seven,” I murmured to myself. “I have a bit over an hour.”

  I still wasn’t sure it was the best idea that I went. Ginger lived with her mom, and I was a little afraid of running into the older woman because I’d abandoned her daughter when she was pregnant.

  But, I didn’t want to disappoint Ginger or miss a chance to get closer to my daughter, either.

  I hurried into my bedroom to pick out a change of clothes. Then I realized how my wardrobe was seriously lacking because all I had were jeans and t-shirts. I had some stuff from before I left shoved back in the tiny closet space in boxes, but they would hardly fit, considering my muscle mass had increased in the past four years. Even now that I was out of service since I didn’t have much to spend most of my day on anyway, when I wasn’t lazing around the house, I was working out to keep up my form.

  “Jeans and t-shirt it is,” I muttered.

  I dressed up quickly, threw a jacket over the t-shirt, and raced outside. My sister was at the reception desk and must have seen me go by, but I didn’t stop for a chat this time.

  By the time I got there, it was a bit early. I debated waiting out in the car, but decided that would seem too suspicious to anyone who happened to look out their windows and just went ahead. I knocked on the door, and Ginger opened it for me a minute later, grinning up at me.

  “Come on in,” she said, standing to the side. “And don’t worry. Mom is staying over at a friend’s. She does it every few weeks or so on Sunday night. I figured you’d be a bit awkward around her.”

  I smiled a little at her perceptiveness, but then, I’d always been a little afraid of her mom, or more importantly, disappointing her. And this time, I knew I must have, so I was going to put off that meeting for as long as possible.

  “Fern,” Ginger called out. “Look who came to join us for dinner!”

  We walked into the kitchen, where Fern was sitting at the table, scribbling on a coloring book with crayons spread on the table in front of us. She looked up at Ginger’s voice and saw me walk in behind her. I got a big grin and a wave.

  “Hey, mister! Are you joining us for dinner?”

  I nodded and swallowed the lump in my throat before replying. “Yes,” I said quietly. “I am.”

  “You’ll love Mom’s cooking them. It’s the best, even better than Grandma’s!”

  Both Ginger and I chuckled at her declaration, then gingerly pulled me into helping her finish the food.

  Afterwards, we ate at the table, all three of us, like a little family. It made my eyes sting a bit, watching how good Ginger was with Fern when I thought back to my mother, who’d passed away. It was why Dad didn’t live at the hotel, or work there when he could have been. It reminded him too much of our mom, so it hadn't really been a surprise to me when Scarlett told me he’d found someone, and gone off to live with her instead of staying at the hotel. Scarlett didn’t blame me for taking off, or the situation she wound up in after Dad and I both left her, but I did plenty of it myself.

  Dinner was amazing, and the food was as great as Fern said. But more than anything, I liked the atmosphere. By the time Ginger had to take Fern upstairs to tuck her into bed, I’d already declared my second ‘play date,’ as Ginger had referred to it earlier, with my daughter another great day.

  I followed the both of them upstairs hanging in the hallway as Ginger took Fern to bed. She showed up several minutes later and jumped a little to see me standing there.

  “Bedroom,” I muttered.

  She blinked at me, then headed for a different door, while I stalked her every step. We got to her room and closed the door behind us. My control was slipping, I whirled her around and pressed her against the door, taking her lips in a rough kiss. When I pulled back, I looked down at her, satisfied to see her stunned expression.

  “That was for last night,” I said cheekily, which had her scowling at me. I chuckled and ducked my head down lower. “This is because I want you.”

  I kissed her again, with more passion and need, and in no time, we were stripping each other off and stumbling over to the bed. It was a wonder we even made it because the lights got turned off sometime during the struggle. We fell on top of it, with Ginger underneath me. Her legs circled my hips, her arms groping my back, and I wrapped an arm around her, rolling my hips gently as I slid inside her. We fit together, just like we always had.

  We rocked together as we held each other. I kissed Ginger’s skin, wherever my lips could reach, arching my back so I could kiss down her chest to her breasts, sucking lightly on her nipples. She let out a muffled cry, clutching me when she hit the climax, and I moved gently against her as I hit my orgasm, burying my face in her neck as I groaned.

  Feeling tired, but sated, I rolled to the side, worried about crushing Ginger with my weight, not that she seemed to mind much as she kept clutching me.

  “I need to leave,” I murmured against her hair after a few minutes, knowing it would be bad if her mother—or worse, Fern—found us in the morning.

  Ginger’s arms tightened around me, and I couldn’t help reciprocating, tucking her head under my chin.

  “Just a five more minutes then,” I said, sighing, as my eyes slid closed.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ginger

  Neither of us meant for it to happen. When I called him over for dinner, I had every intention of kicking him out afterward. But then we made love in my bed, and I couldn’t bear to let him go.

  When I next opened my eyes, the room was a little brighter. I was lying on my side, with a heavy arm slung over my waist and a tall, hard body spooning against my back. For a moment, I savored the feeling, letting out a low moan as I snuggled back into the warm body holding me, a smile on my face. But then common sense started kicking in, and I frowned. When the situation finally hit me, my eyes snapped open as I gasped.

  I tried to get up, only for the arm still around my waist to hold me back. I tugged on it and slid out from under it, then rolled around, so I was facing Ben, holding the sheet up to my naked breasts.

  “Ben,” I called in a whisper, shaking his shoulder. “Ben, please, you need to wake up! Ben!”

  It took a few minutes to get him up, his eyes fluttering open to look up at me. When he caught sight of me, a slow smile grew on his face as a hand reached up to touch my cheek.

  “Ginger,” he murmured, stroking a finger down the side of my face. “Good morning.”

  I was lost in the moment for a second, but I came back to my senses quickly and grimaced as I gave his shoulder another shove.

  “You need to get your ass up quickly,” I growled at him. “Mom will probably be coming home late if she stops by here at all, but Fern can't see you here when she wakes up.”

  At the mention of Fern, he seemed to wake up a little. He sat up, raising his arms to stretch his body out, and I couldn’t help but stare. The first time we fucked, I had my back to him, and we were both more or less fully dressed anyway, so there wasn’t anything to see. Then last night, it was dark. Looking at him right then, I confirmed my theory that
he had gotten bigger, and my eyes, of their own accord, drifted down to his lap. I only snapped out of my preoccupation with a guilty jump when he spoke.

  “What time is it?”

  “I haven’t even checked, but the sun is probably about to come up.”

  I slid off the bed, hesitating a second before letting go of the sheet so it would stay around Ben’s naked body. I heard him make a rough sound behind my back, but I just walked confidently to the curtains and pulled it back just enough that I could peek outside.

  “It’s still pretty early,” I said, looking around. “It’s still too dark for the sun to be up, but it can't be that long.”

  After a second of hesitation, I turned back, to find him still sitting on the bed, staring at me. I was suddenly feeling shy and wanted to cover my breasts with my arms, at least, but I managed to walk back to the bed and raised the sheet to slide back under it again.

  “Ben,” I called his name, catching his attention. “Please, you need to leave. I can't have Fern wondering why you were in my room the whole night. Please?”

  He nodded slowly, moving to slide out of bed. I looked away before he could fully bare himself, and just listened as he put on his clothes. When the sound of clothes rustling stopped, I looked up to find him properly dressed.

  “Can you step outside and wait for a minute, please?”

  He hesitated, and I thought he was going to ask me why he had to do that when he’d already seen me naked. Thankfully, though, he just stepped out of the room, closing the door part way. I got off the bed and quickly put on my clothes. I left the undies on the floor, though, and pulled the jacket over the dress, crossing my arms over my chest as I left the bedroom.

  We were both silent as I walked him down the stairs and out of the house. We stopped where he’d parked his car, and he turned back to face me, but he didn’t say anything. It took a moment to realize he was waiting for me to speak first.

  “I think we’re maybe moving too fast,” I managed to say. “I can't have a day like today happening again. Not without giving both my mom and our daughter enough warning, so we don’t shock anybody in the morning.”

  That had him pulling a tiny smile.

  “I know,” he said agreeably. “I love you, Ginger. I never stopped loving you, not once in the four years I was gone.”

  I didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything. He already knew how much I cared for him, how much I never forgot him either. But this fiasco just reminded me that things were still different. A part of me was still scared, that I would end up with my heart broken once again and no one there to help me pick it up, this time with a child in tow.

  So I just watched as he got into his car and drove away, and I couldn’t help mourning the missed opportunity, just a little.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ben

  Two weeks after the near disaster at Ginger’s place, I sat at the hotel’s reception desk, hiding a yawn behind my hand. It wasn’t the best form to be showing potential guests, but then, there hadn't been any for the past few days. And still, I was forced to sit at the reception and wait for the off chance that there was someone that needed a room. I would have been in my apartment, but my sister had been out for the week, so I was taking on her reception desk duty.

  I was just glad I didn’t have to take over the cooking. That would have been a disaster.

  It was fucking boring, though, and I was tempted to just head up to my room and sleep, even knowing I couldn’t. I leaned my elbow against the counter and rested my hand on my palm, closing my eyes for a moment.

  “Are you sleeping on the job, big brother?”

  I blinked my eyes open to see my sister just walking into the hotel.

  “Oh,” I muttered disinterestedly. “You’re back.” She gave me a look of disapproval, but I just checked the time and smiled to myself. “That’s good. I get to go pick Fern up early.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “You mean, your daughter, and my niece, Fern?”

  I nodded, sitting upright and feeling a bit of excitement at the thought of my daughter.

  “Yeah. I’ve been picking her up from nursery school for the past couple weeks, on Tuesday and Friday. Ginger’s started taking her there more instead of taking Fern to work with her now that there’s someone to help her out.”

  “Look at you, suddenly bursting with excitement,” Scarlett said with a chuckle. “That’s the kind of face you’re supposed to be showing our customers.”

  I snorted. “If it’s like that, then you might as well keep the job because I’m reserving my excitement for Ginger and Fern.” I folded my arms on the desk and laid my chin on them. “You know I’ve never really been good with strangers and putting me here was a bad idea, right?”

  She just sighed. “I figured it was a way to make you more social, so why not try. Oh well. But at least you’re stepping up with Ginger, so I’m proud of you for that.”

  I gave her a quick smile, then looked at her a little more closely. While she looked fine, I thought she was trying just a bit too hard to look like she was fine.

  “Did something happen?” I asked cautiously, remembering Dan’s words about her being moody lately. “Where did you leave the kid?”

  She waved a vague hand over her shoulder. “I left him with Dan for today. I’ve been leaving him with Dan for a lot of days, lately. If he didn’t work from home, I’d be in some real trouble.”

  I hummed. “But something is up,” I guessed. “Because you look stressed out, sis. More than usual.”

  She sighed, then rounded the desk to sit on the seat beside me.

  “Is it that obvious?” she mused.

  “Pretty much. But, I’m your brother, and I know you well. Besides, your husband complained about it.”

  She frowned at me. “He did what?”

  I quickly changed the subject. “I’m your brother, so whatever it is that’s weighing on your mind, you can tell me.”

  It would be good if she could snap out of it. While I would have been all for her taking time off to deal with her shit, she’d made herself invaluable to the hotel for all the time she’d been there. I managed to hire a manager, but if she were going to take a break, we’d need to hire a few more people, only we couldn’t even do that without a plan because it would cause an increase in costs.

  “It’s about Dad,” she admitted after a minute.

  “Ah,” I muttered, already building a picture in my mind. “Did he do something, or did something happen to him?”

  I frowned at the thought of there being something wrong with my dad. Because I’d been so busy with Ginger and Fern lately, though Ginger and I hadn't had a chance to be alone after that night I spent at her place, I hadn't left much time to my dad. It hadn't even occurred to me that more than three weeks had passed since I last saw him.

  “Dad is sick,” she said, sighing. “Very sick, he’s been in and out of the hospital for a while, but only because he doesn’t want to be admitted. The medical bills are piling up, though.”

  “Why did I not know about this?” I asked, frowning.

  She shrugged. “Dad didn’t want me to tell you because he didn’t want you to worry—”

  “That was stupid,” I cut in to say.

  “I know that, but you know what he’s like. He doesn’t have any cash, so I’ve been helping him out, especially because his girlfriend has dumped him now that he`s sick. I know that she´s avoiding the medical bills. He kept insisting she’d come back, but I wanted to bring him back here or even to live with Dan and I. It’s why my moods have been so haywire lately. If Dan was worried enough to mention it to you, maybe I should apologize to him.”

  “What exactly is Dad sick with?”

  She gave another shrug. “Too many complicated words in the results we got back, and I wasn’t listening when the doctor explained because it was all so shocking.” Then she scoffed. “Fuck, I just wanted to leave him to his own devices. After he just abandoned us because it was convenient to him, I�
��d rather have nothing to do with him. But then I felt guilty about not helping, not paying anything. Because no matter what, he’s our dad.”

  The look she was giving me, all wide-eyed like she was silently asking me to tell her she did the right thing, made me ache for my sister and feel a little guilty myself for not knowing about this.

  “You did the right thing,” I said, both to appease my sister, and because I thought it. “No matter what, he’s still our dad, so we’ll pay whatever we need to.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ginger

  The bell above the salon’s door rang, and I looked up to see a new client coming in.

  “Can you take care of them, honey?” Mom said, busy with her client.

  I’d only just sent someone out and had sat down to take a quick break, but I heaved myself up with a quiet sigh to get to work.

  “Please take a seat,” I said politely, pointing the woman to a chair in front of the counter. Once she sat down, she told me what she wanted to be done, and I got to work.

  I’d been doing this for the past two years. There wasn’t much I could do during the pregnancy, and then afterward, I spent a lot of time looking after Fern. It took a while, and some beauty classes for Mom to even allow me to work in her salon, but I’d done just about everything once already, and at this point, it was all just routine.

  In no time at all, I was done, and the happy customer was leaving the salon, along with the woman Mom was working on, so we both got a moment to relax. Until the bell rang again, and I groaned.

  “I’ll get this one,” Mom said with a chuckle. “Just relax some more.”

  I sent her a grateful smile and watched as she greeted the customer. I didn’t get much time to relax, though, before the door opened up again.

  Before I could blow up in frustration, the man responsible for my restlessness walked inside, with his sister right behind him.

  “Ben, Scarlett,” I said, getting up, surprised. “What are you both doing here? I wasn’t expecting a visit.”

  Ben’s eyes shifted nervously over my shoulder, likely at my mom, and he probably didn’t notice the nervous look I gave him.