Read Online Every Last Breath by Jessica Gaffney - Free Book Online Page B

writer.”
    “Why does everyone say that?”
    Ben shrugged. “Curiosity, I’d guess.”
    Maggie realized that if she didn’t watch it, he could easily start asking about why she lived out here alone and where she came from. What type of mother traipses her son across the country away from family? Would he suspect she was running?
    Eli raced back into the kitchen. “I cleaned my room. Can Ben come see it?”
    “Why don’t you ask him?”
    She finished setting the table while the boys played in Eli’s room. This was going to be quite a night. She could feel it in the air.
    Ben stayed until Eli’s bedtime. By that hour, he had been at their house for four hours. That’s a long time. But she wished it was even longer.
    The man excused himself to make a phone call, she pointed to the back deck, it was quiet out there but she could still observe him. Body language explains a lot. She watched on and off while cleaning up the kitchen.
    “Everything all right?”
    “Yes. It’s all good.”
    She wanted to know who the call was from and if it impacted him from coming over again. Hell, if Eli wasn’t around she would have asked him to stay for a glass of wine. Wait, what was she thinking? She barely knew this man. She told Claire implicitly, she was not interested. Yet Ben was right here in her kitchen and the attraction seemed mutual.
    “Who’s going to read to me?” Eli’s little voice interrupted their kitchen cleaning. Buttoned up in his moose flannel pajamas he stood in his bare feet on the Alder floors and flashed a book to Ben. He paraded into the living and sat by the fire. He then patted the wood in front of the fireplace. “Come on Ben. No one else ever reads to me.”
    Ben caught Maggie’s eye. “Is it okay?”
    “Be my guest. He obviously wants you to do it.”
    Maggie left the kitchen a mess and retreated to her bedroom. She hadn’t checked her make up or even looked in the mirror since she got home. She made the bed, removed her journal and magazines, and turned on the lamp. She then checked Eli’s room, which actually was clean—normally his idea of a clean room was a space to walk from the closet to the door and back out again.
    Eli rushed into his room and dove beneath his covers. She knew he was showing off for Ben, all little boys liked to show their speed. “How was your story?”
    He shrugged, “Mr. Ben doesn’t read so good. And his hands are so big he covered up some of the pictures.”
    “I see.”
    “But he can read to me again if he comes over.”
    “Is he out by the fire?”
    “Yep, he said he was waiting for you.” Maggie’s heart fluttered.
    She shut off the light and finished their routine. Meanwhile, she returned to the kitchen to find Ben doing the dishes. The bubbly water covered his hands as he whooshed the sponge around the plates and stacked them on the dry rack. She leaned against the stucco wall. “We’ve got a dishwasher you know.”
    He smiled. “I didn’t think it was appropriate to snoop around the kitchen for the detergent. But no one in their right mind turns down clean dishes.” He dunked another plate into the water.
    “Would you like some fresh coffee? Or wine?”
    He looked at his watch. “Um, sure, as long as I’m not keeping you up.”
    “I’d like the company.”
    When the kitchen was clean, Maggie sat at the table which provided the right barrier for her and these hormones which seemed to flare up now that she and Ben were alone.
    “How about you, what’s your reason for being here?”
    “Well, I was living with someone, and she had kids. Things weren’t perfect but I moved out this past summer, and to ensure I didn’t go back, I moved back here with my aunt. I grew up here.”
    Maggie felt nervous. “I didn’t realize that.”
    “Yeah, my parents travel a lot, my sister has four boys and her husband is not my favorite person, so my aunt was the only family with a spare room.”
    “I see.”
    “Listen, not to change the subject on