Chapter Thirteen
Ben rolled onto his belly, but instead of finding a warm Darcy, he found cool sateen sheets. The last two weeks had been a series of juggling acts. Between Darcy’s schedule and his own, they had barely enough energy to snuggle into bed together. Sometimes they came together in a fiery passion in the middle of the night, sometimes it was a sweet, whisper-filled dance of skin.
But it was just skin and light small talk.
They were too tired for anything more than that.
The college kids were home for break and today was the last day for Brit’s class so he’d been doing double time on shop duty and Uncle Ben duty to keep the kiddo out of trouble. Today was the first day he and Darcy actually had off at the same time.
Which was why he was sleeping in her tiny queen-sized bed instead of dragging her over to his much more comfortable one last night. She’d promised him a little breakfast in bed and an entire day without plans.
He rolled onto his side, groaning at the clock. Six in the morning was only good for one thing—a long night of partying and going to bed when the sun was rising. He caught a flash of something in the hallway. He scooped up his jeans off the floor and half zipped them on his way through the door.
“I know, Jaime. Are you sure there’s—? Right. No, don’t call the Black Widow. No, I’ll be there.”
He crossed his arms with a sigh. There went their day off. She turned around and saw him, hunching up her shoulders. He knew it wasn’t her fault. Being a manager in training, or even a head supervisor like she still was for Blackstone’s meant that her time wasn’t exactly her own.
Didn’t make it suck any less.
She stuffed her phone in her robe pocket. “I’m sorry, Ben.”
“It’s okay.” He opened his arms and she quickly moved into them. He rubbed his cheek against her hair. “Darcy emergency?”
“Tom called in sick.”
“Is he really sick?”
“He better be,” she said into his chest with a growl. “He better be on death’s door, or at the least have the flu.”
“It is going around.”
“I know.” She sagged against him. “And I certainly don’t want him to drag that into the store and get every single one of my cashiers sick. Four days, just four more days.”
He rubbed her back. “When do you need to go in?” He could feel her face scrunch up against his skin and he sucked back a sigh. “Now, huh?”
“I could make you breakfast.”
He hooked his arms around her shoulders and pressed his forehead to hers. “Nah. I’ll just head back to my house and go back to bed.”
“You can sleep here.”
He laughed. “My feet hang off your bed.”
She laughed. “Do I need to buy a bigger bed?”
“Unless you want to keep sleeping in mine.”
She kissed the center of his chest. “I do like yours.”
“Good, then come to my place when you get out. I’ve got Britzilla. Her dad has to work.” As soon as it came out of his mouth, he wanted to drag the words back. What the hell was he thinking? When John picked up Brittany, Darcy would recognize his brother.
“Yeah? You’re okay with me meeting some of your family?”
“Of course I am.”
She peered up at him in the dim light of the hall. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. Just text me when you get close and we’ll figure out dinner.”