Bennett stood and pulled her into his embrace. Katie stiffened and pushed away slightly. Bennett followed her eyes to where Hunter watched them curiously. He’d hugged her instinctively and hadn’t realized that she might be hesitant about showing affection in front of the kids yet.
Hunter looked between them. “Are you my mom’s boyfriend?”
Katie’s little gasp of breath betrayed her surprise, but Bennett grinned. “Yes, I am,” he answered decisively.
Hunter pursed his lips. “Did you remember not to chew with your mouth open?”
Bennett glanced at Katie in amusement. “I did. Thanks for the tip, buddy. I’m pretty sure that was a major point in my favor.”
?
The rest of the week passed uneventfully. Now that they’d gotten the initial awkward, boyfriend conversation over with the kids, Bennett had started to spend some evenings with Katie at her house.
Katie had been worried that he’d find the kids’ noise and disruptions annoying. Bennett had to remind her that noise was what he’d grown up with. He laughed just thinking about it. His parents would get a kick out of that when he told them. Although just a few weeks ago he would have said that he preferred his solitude, now that he had someone to spend the evenings with, he could admit how lonely he’d been before. Bennett was quickly getting used to having people who were happy to see him when he arrived.
The kids had been understandably shy around him in the beginning but they’d quickly grown accustomed to his presence. Now they greeted him with the same effusive joy they showed toward their mother the times he waited with Katie to meet their bus. She told him that Matthew had decided he was “sick” because he wasn’t scared to pick up a bug with his bare hands.
Sick, he was told, meant that he was cool. Bennett held the compliment with the kind of esteem usually given to prestigious awards. He scored even further cool points when he showed them the rainwater collection device that was his first patented invention. It was the simplest of his patented designs, and the object of his old classmate’s derision, but it would always be his favorite.
Hunter had asked if he could help invent something. Bennett wasn’t sure how but he’d find something they could work on together. The surge of affection he’d felt explaining his design process to the little boy had taken him off guard. Children had always been something Bennett had hoped for one day but while talking with Hunter, it had hit him that he was looking at an image of what his own child might look like one day. If he was lucky, it wouldn’t be too long.
It had taken a lot of effort for him not to mention it to Katie. He didn’t want to scare her away talking about children too soon. What woman wouldn’t run away if she knew her boyfriend was excited to get her pregnant as soon as possible? But maybe after she’d had more time with him, time to trust him, they could discuss it. It was enough just to know the possibility was there. Everything he’d ever dreamed of was within reach.
By the time Friday afternoon arrived, Bennett figured he was ready to bring it up. He’d wait until she had the kids in bed and then he’d pour her a glass of wine. That was the right environment to have a rational discussion about their future, right?
Suddenly, the alarm on Katie’s phone went off. Bennett looked up from his notes at the grating noise. Katie sent him an apologetic glance.
“Sorry. I could have sworn I turned the sound off on my phone.”
Bennett smiled so she’d know he wasn’t upset. He had few rules in the lab but the ones he had revolved around technology. For some reason, he’d always found sudden sounds to be very distracting. He couldn’t even work to music.
Katie pulled her phone out of her pocket and then smiled. “Oh, I almost forgot. It’s Girls’ Night tonight. I’m supposed to bring the tequila.”
Bennett wrinkled his brow, his plans for a relaxing evening disappearing like smoke. “Girls’ Night?”
“You know, it’s when we all get together and complain about our men and drink margaritas.” She laughed but her smile fell when he didn’t laugh with her. “What’s the matter?”
Bennett swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly as dry as sawdust. “So you’re going to tell the others things about me?”
Katie looked confused. She probably had no clue why the possibility of her discussing their relationship would make him break out into a cold sweat. She was a social butterfly. Bennett’s experience with large groups was usually being the butt of the jokes.
Then suddenly her face softened.
“Bennett, anything I tell them would be good things. You know that, right?”
He looked up hesitantly. “It would be?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, I can’t tell them too much or I’d just be bragging.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “No one wants to hear about my brilliant boyfriend who gives me multiple orgasms over and over again.”
Bennett grinned. “You can definitely tell them that part.”
Katie’s dirty laugh wrapped around him like a hug. She comforted him, he realized as Katie went into the office to do any last minute organizing before the weekend.
He guessed he wouldn’t get to se
e her until tomorrow since she had plans with her girlfriends. The thought that he wouldn’t get to see her tonight bothered him.
Bennett finally understood why people would do such ridiculous things for love. It was addictive, this feeling. It was actually a bit of a miracle, carrying around the constant knowledge that someone out there in the world loved you, not because they were obligated to by familial connection or proximity, but just because they couldn’t help themselves.