Can't Stop the Feeling (Whispering Bay Romance 6)

“Her mom passed away a few years ago. Cindy’s dad is a trucker. He’s a good guy, but he’s always on the road. He visits her when he can, but he agrees Mom and I are the best solution here.”

“So, what you told Rachel at dinner, about moving to Miami? That’s all settled now?”

“My mom agreed to it just this afternoon.”

“And Cruella de Vil is really gone?”

A corner of his mouth twitched up. “Greta is on a plane back to Miami as we speak, and her agency is about to get a very nasty letter from me. They’re lucky I don’t sue them after what that bitch pulled tonight.”

“Good. But I have to say, Ben, even after everything she’s been through, Rachel is just so…so—”

“Completely and totally awesome?”

She smiled at the undisguised pride in his voice. “Yep.”

“She’s been seeing a counselor and that’s helped. But, I have my mom to thank for how well-adjusted she is.”

“No doubt, but I see the way Rachel looks at you. I’d say you’re pretty high up on her Most Terrific Persons list.”

“Never heard of that list.”

“Sure you have. Everyone’s got one.”

He shifted on the couch, causing them to move closer to one another. But the move wasn’t just physical. A subtle something occurred between them as well, reminding her of the way he’d looked at her earlier this evening. Mainly because he was looking at her that way again.

Uh-oh. This was quickly escalating into a Defcon four situation.

“So who’s on your Most Terrific Persons list?” he asked.

“Right now, I’d say Rachel is definitely on there. And there’s the usual suspects. My parents, Aunt Viola, Kate…she’s my—”

“I remember who Kate is.”

“Kate’s hard to forget.”

“So are you.”

Her breath caught in her throat. Say something! But all she could do was stare into those chocolate brown eyes of his.

“The other night at the restaurant I tried to apologize for that night in Miami. Jenna, you need to know—”

“No need for any explanations. It was years ago and— Let’s not go there, okay?” She had to get out of here. “I only stayed because I wanted to know more about Rachel, and now I do. So on that note—”

“The night we slept together Jake got arrested for stealing

a car in Destin.”

Ben Harrison did not fight fair. She couldn’t leave now. Not after he’d dropped that little bomb on her.

“A couple of hours after you fell asleep, Mom called to tell me that Jake had been arrested. I wanted to wake you up, but I didn’t know what to say.”

“How about telling me you had a family emergency?” she suggested not-too-gently.

“That night, you’d told me all about Thanksgiving with your family and decorating the Christmas tree. Remember?”

As if she could forget anything about that night. “Of course I remember.”

“My family consisted of me and my mom and my little brother. Period. No sweet old grandmother with a recipe for panettone. No aunts or uncles or cousins. I never knew my father, and Jake’s dad was the worse piece of scum you could ever imagine. Mom tried hard to make things okay, but…” He shook his head. “Let’s just say I wasn’t about to wake you up and tell you my twelve-year-old brother was in a juvie jail and I needed to go home to console my heartbroken mother at the trailer park.”