Chapter nine. The next phone call from Samantha didn't come until Thursday evening

THE NEXT PHONE call from Samantha didn't come until Thursday evening. When Melanie heard the familiar voice on the answering machine, she snatched up the receiver.

" Sam? "

" Hi, Mellie! "

" Where are you? "

" On our way to Vancouver. Can you believe it? " Her voice was positively giddy, and Melanie was immediately taken back to their childhood.

" Vancouver? Sam, Vancouver's on the other side of the continent. What are you thinking? You've got no clothes, nothing with you..."

" Melanie, we don't all have to have things planned out, you know, " her cousin scolded her. " Don't you ever want to just...I don't know...fly by the seat of your pants? "

Melanie made a face. " No. I don't. When are you coming home? You wanted me to look at the bookstore, remember? "

" Oh, that stupid thing. You know what? I really don't care what happens to it. Maybe you could just tell Daddy to sell it or something, okay? "

Melanie sighed. What Sam was really saying was, You don't mind doing my dirty work for me, do you? Thanks. So Samantha.

" Ooo. I gotta go, baby cousin. Hey, could you let Ben know that the rent may be a little late this month. I'm not sure when I'll be back. But stay as long as you want. Rob says hi. Bye."

" Tell Rob to kiss my ass." Melanie sneered at the dial tone in her ear. How the hell did Sam always manage to do that? She'd breeze in, say what she wanted to say, and breeze out before anybody could protest. She'd done it all her life. People were usually so stunned that they didn't realize what had been done or said until Samantha was already gone.

Shit.

She flopped herself down on the couch and pushed her hair behind her ear. The rent. Well, she wasn't going to stay here without taking care of that. She got right back up, and peeked out the window. Ben's Saab was parked in the driveway.

A minute later, she was knocking on the back door of the main house. Ben's face lit up when he opened the door.

" Melanie. Hi there. What a nice surprise. Come in, please." He moved aside, allowing her to enter the spacious kitchen.

" I'm sorry to disturb you, Ben."

" Nonsense." He waved her off. " Can I get you something to drink? I was just about to have a glass of wine myself." He winked at her. " Been a long day."

" I think I could use a glass right about now."

He motioned her to sit at the table, while he retrieved a bottle of Chardonnay from the refrigerator, then took two crystal glasses out of the glass-front hutch in the corner. Turning his sparkling eyes on her, he asked, " Everything okay? "

She sighed, not wanting to say too much about Samantha and her bad habits, especially to somebody to whom she owed money. She mentioned the unexpected trip and the most recent phone call, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

Ben pulled out the chair next to hers, handing her a glass, and sat. " She's quite the hostess, hmm? "

That got a chuckle from the redhead. " Oh, yeah. She's been great at showing me the sights, keeping me occupied..."

It was Ben's turn to chuckle. " What are you going to do? "

Melanie was silent for a long moment. Something about the bookstore had been scraping at the back of her mind since the first day she'd entered it. She shook the thought away. " I don't know. I'm enjoying myself, despite the absence of my irresponsible cousin, so...oh. Wait a minute." She slipped her checkbook out of the back pocket of her shorts where she'd stuck it on her way out the door. " Sam doesn't know when she's returning and she said the rent is due."

Ben held up a hand in protest. " No, no. Don't worry about that. She'll pay me when she gets back."

Melanie was having none of that. She ignored him, and continued filling in the blanks. " I refuse to stay here without paying for it.

If it makes you feel better, Sam can pay me when she gets back." She winked at him. " How much? "

Ben sighed in defeat, and gave Melanie the figure. She handed the check over with a smile. He liked the spunk of this woman, he realized with a start, noting the quiet confidence present in her blue eyes. The invitation popped out before he had time to think.

" Are you up for dinner? "

Melanie surprised herself by immediately accepting. " I'm starving, " she said with a grin.

" Great. Let's go."

He ushered Melanie to the door where she ran headlong into Taylor, who was on her way in. " Oh. Sorry... hey, you." She smiled when she recognized the face.

" Hey, yourself." Taylor grinned back, until she noticed her father standing behind the redhead.

" We're just heading to dinner, " he explained, the thought of inviting his daughter to join them coming and going.

The grin slid slowly away from her face, replaced by...what? Melanie wondered. " Would you like to join us? " she asked, hoping to bring the smile back.

" Um...no, " Taylor answered, slipping past them into the kitchen, needing to be further away from this woman who affected her so.

" Thanks. I had a late lunch. Have fun, though." She was gone from the kitchen in an instant, her footsteps echoing up the hardwood stairs, leaving Melanie standing in the doorway furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

Ben seemed not to notice his daughter's rapid exit. " Ready? "

" Hmm? Oh. Sure."

He held the door for her, his warm hand on her back, guiding her out.

" GOD, I AM so stupid, " Taylor mumbled to herself, changing out of her work clothes and into a comfortable pair of soft, cotton gym shorts and a white Nike T-shirt. " Why do I always let this happen to myself? " She flopped backwards onto the bed, and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. " Boy, good ol' Ben certainly moves fast, doesn't he? Not that I'm surprised." She punched her pillow. " Wonder how long before he gets her in the sack." That thought came unbidden, before she could block its entrance into her brain, and her stomach twisted in revulsion.

Okay, relax. You don't even know her. She's been in your life for— what? —five days, Rhodes. You really need to chill.

She steadied her nerves with a deep breath. So what if she ended up in bed with Ben? Who cares? " Means nothing to me, " she muttered. She got up, yanking the gold clip holding her hair back off, and tossed it onto the dresser. She headed down to the kitchen to find something to eat, her comment about the late lunch having been a lie to get her out of the impossibly awkward situation of dinner with her father and her latest crush ogling each other.

She poured herself a large glass of milk to go with her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. " I just need to stay away from her, " she said aloud. " That's all. Pretty simple and basic. If it's going to make me this crazy, I need to stay away." The thought of Melanie's limbs entwined with Ben's was still doing a number on her, despite her best attempts to clear her head. " I need to stay away, " she repeated.

She took her dinner into the living room, and popped in a Xena tape, not able to think about the situation for one more minute and still keep her sanity.

THEY STOPPED AT the door of the carriage house, and Melanie toyed with the idea of inviting Ben in, not sure she was ready for what might happen if she did. And there was something about Taylor in the back of her mind that wouldn't leave her alone.

Dinner had been very nice. The food was good and conversation had been steady and pleasant. It was comforting and familiar to be able to talk about the corporate world again, although the more she talked about it, the more Melanie realized she was happy to be out of it. This fact surprised her as much now as it had the other night when she'd admitted as much to Taylor. She'd been so afraid of being totally lost without her job, and she was shocked that she'd gotten along so well once it was gone. Ben was a great date, witty, charming, and fun to talk to, and the evening had been an agreeable one.

She turned to her companion, looking up at his handsome face. Faint lines of age were visible around his eyes, eyes that looked so much like his daughter's. " Thanks, Ben. I really had a nice time."

" Me, too." He smiled. " Thank you for indulging me. You're very good company."

There was a pause, and then Ben leaned his head down, softly capturing Melanie's lips with his own. The kiss was gentle, undemanding. Melanie could feel the roughness of his five o'clock shadow against her skin. He pulled back, and smiled at her, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. " Good night, " he said quietly, then turned and strode across the lawn to his own house.

Melanie stood in the doorway for several moments, nibbling on her bottom lip, before slipping through and into the little house.

WHEW. BENJAMIN, OLD boy, you're getting soft. When have you ever not pounced on the chance to be invited in?

He shook his head and chuckled to himself as he entered the back door of the dark house, and locked it behind him. Melanie was something else. It was so nice to have dinner with an attractive woman who could hold an intelligent conversation with him. How long had it been since that had happened?

He'd been attracted to her the minute he'd laid eyes on her last weekend, surprising even himself with his bold lunch invitation.

He noticed light seeping out from under Taylor's bedroom door, deciding she must be reading, as he passed to the bathroom. Lunch was so much safer than dinner. There were time constraints, so if things weren't going well, there was always the excuse of having to get back to work. Melanie had passed that test with flying colors. He'd been thinking of the right way to ask her to dinner when she'd shown up at his door that evening. What luck. He returned the towel to its rack, capping the toothpaste and heading to his own room.

Dinner was wonderful, he thought, as he stripped down to his boxers and slipped between the sheets, knowing he had an early meeting in the morning. Melanie had listened intently to his stories about work, sharing a few of her own. He was amazed that she'd actually left her job, as successful as she had been at it. This was a businesswoman who knew her shit, he could tell just by the tone of her voice. She could go head to head with any number of hard-core corporate guys he knew, and beat the pants off them.

She belonged in that world. However, she seemed strangely content with her decision, speaking about Sam's bookstore with a mixture of curiosity and possibility.

He sighed, reaching to click off the bedside lamp. There was something about her. His normal course of action would have been to figure a way to get into the carriage house, and then into her bed. But she was different, and he didn't want to take advantage of the situation. For some reason, he wanted to make sure that it would be her decision.

This admission momentarily stunned him. Since the death of his beloved Anna, he had dated several women. Never for very long, but several women, just the same. Sex was always the central focus of those relationships. Sex, physical attraction, blah, blah, blah. Emotion never once played a part. Not ever. That was the one thing he had had with Anna that he refused to share with anybody else. Besides, he'd never met anybody worth getting to know that well anyway.

Until now.

MELANIE LOST TRACK of how long she'd stood with her back against the inside of the door. She was surprised by two things.

One, Ben hadn't asked to come in. Two, she hadn't offered.

Why hadn't she offered?

God knew Ben was an incredibly handsome, charming man. God also knew it had been a very long time since she'd been with anybody. She scrunched up her face in concentration. Exactly how long had it been? The fact that she couldn't remember told her all she needed to know, and she rolled her eyes with a sigh.

She glanced at the clock in the kitchen. Nine-thirty. She wanted to get an early start in the morning painting the facade of the bookstore, so she decided that turning in early was a good idea.

Still smarting from Samantha's desertion, she decided to hell with the sofa bed, and dragged her bag into the bedroom. Thoughts of Sam and Rob assaulted her the second she stepped through the doorway, and she backtracked to the bathroom linen closet for fresh sheets.

Half an hour later, her nightly routine complete, crisp, clean sheets surrounding her, she lay in her cousin's bed staring at the ceiling. Sleep seemed as far away as it could possibly be.