The Good Enough Husband (3 page)

“I’ll follow you, then?” she said, gathering up the dog’s leash.

Ben stepped in her path. He kept his arms at his sides, resisting the urge to touch her—one time. “Why don’t I take Cody? I have a harness and gated area set up in the back for carrying animals. He’ll be more stable this way, and less likely to get sick on the ride.” He looked at her dubious expression. “You okay with that?”

“I guess so.” She took out her phone, again, tapping the screen. The damned thing was encased in rhinestones. Nothing escaped her universe of bling. “Give me your number in case we get sep
arated.”

Ben held up his hands in supplication. “I don’t have a phone.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Twentieth Century.” Hannah held out her hand again in mock greeting. He clasped it, even though her gesture was rhetorical. She pulled back like he’d burned her. “I guess I’ll follow you then.” She stalked off to her car, hopped in and started the engine. The waistband of her cropped jacket and the cut low-rise pants revealed a strip of warm looking tawny skin that he watched rabidly before his eyes skidded lower. He snatched a baseball cap from the passenger side of the car and pulled the brim low. Why was he looking at her ass? Why was he thinking about her in any way other than a dog owner?

Ben strapped Cody in, careful to ensure the dog’s movement would be minimal in the car. He took a few seconds to massage the dog between the last few ribs, an acupressure point known to r
elieve nausea. Hannah had started her car, and was tapping incessantly at the phone again. This was why he didn’t have one of the blasted things anymore. It took over a person’s life.

A cell phone had put him at everyone’s beck and call, mostly Samara’s. He had received a never-ending stream of texts from his wife asking where he was, and what he was doing. It had been maddening. Then there were the assistants at his old Mill Valley office who viewed every flea and tick as life or death, and had to call him or text him about it. He was glad to be rid of the albatross.

He pulled out onto the road, signaling well before turns and making sure the BMW was always in his rearview mirror. It was hard to miss the car with the rhinestone license plate holder, glinting in the late afternoon sun. A few turns later, they’d passed through Redway, the last populated area before they reached the cove. Without much traffic going in either direction, he focused less on making sure Hannah was behind him. With nothing but open road and fifty minutes in front of him, Ben’s thoughts closed in on him.

Ben’s hand scraped against late afternoon stubble. Checking to make sure Hannah was behind him, he caught a glance at his forty-year-old face in the rearview mirror. Meeting his own eyes told him what he already knew. He was too old for this. Despite all his
vows of celibacy and abstinence, and his dedication to the solitary life, he was attracted to Hannah. Why, was what he needed to ask himself? What was he doing having this woman set up house less than a stone’s throw away from his fortress of solitude?

After his divorce from Samara, he’d quit the rat race. He’d sold the fancy house in Tiburon, and his share of the gold plated Marin County practice catering to the toy dogs of the wealthy. When his parents bought a retirement home in Shelter Cove, he followed right behind them, like a rudderless teenager. He never suspected they’d be gone a year later, missing the collegiality of Davis, where they’d lived for much of his life. But once he’d settled in, he found he craved, no needed the isolation that the Lost Coast pr
ovided.

Celibacy hadn’t been kind to Ben. As he steered into a brief straightaway, his hand drifted from the steering wheel toward his cock, already semi-hard with the thought of touching that smooth swath of skin Hannah had exposed. Just as he got close enough to his zipper to ease some of his suffering, he lost control of the truck, swerving into and out of a particularly curvy section of the road. Hannah slammed on her brakes, missing his chrome bumper by inches.

Great. The last thing he needed was a rollover. This could be a dangerous road, even to the familiar. He raised a hand in apology, and he focused on putting both hands back on the wheel for the duration of the drive. If Cody got sick all over his car, he’d look like an even bigger fool than he already felt.

With his mind focused solely on driving, the remainder of the trip went more smoothly. He pulled up to the driveway of his pa
rents’ wood-sided house, its blue paint weathered gray from constant sea exposure. Only a garage door and narrow front door faced the street. This side of the house was no more than an undignified entryway into a house dedicated to its view of the ocean. Hannah pulled up next to him. She swiped at her phone, making no move to get out. Ben shook his head in resignation. Maybe she really did need a vacation.

He leaned down and fumbled under the seat until he located the extra remote control and house keys. Squeaking and rumbling, the heavy wood door opened, revealing a large empty space. Hannah eased her SUV into the garage. She met him by the front door, no less alluring than she’d been an hour before. Only this time, i
nstead of being overwhelmed by the glitz and noise of her jewelry, he actually looked at her, trying to figure out what about her was making him crazy.

Hannah’s actual ethnic makeup was ambiguous, not that it ma
ttered. Her smooth skin was a lovely golden hue. She was tall and slender, her head reaching his shoulders. Her hair came a little past her own shoulders. It was light brown and curly with blond highlights. He suspected the color wasn’t real, but didn’t care. She was getting under his skin. Maybe if he touched her once, or kissed her twice, he would have enough to take to bed and fantasize about. Kissing or a little making out did not mean he’d have to walk down the aisle.

Ben’s problem was that he’d always taken dating and relatio
nships too seriously. After his divorce his friends had urged him to take advantage of the hot and cold running women who were impressed with the ‘Dr.’ before his name, no matter that his patients were of the four-legged variety. But he didn’t like casual sex and liked gold diggers even less. He had to admit his friends from college and vet school sure looked like they were having a lot more fun with a lot less heartache. Seeking solo satisfaction was boring him to death. Hannah was only here for a week at the most. Maybe he could get her to drop her phone long enough to consider a little fun. After all, a little bit of fun did not equal commitment.

***

“So, this is it,” Ben said gesturing at the nondescript house on Sea Court.

“Are you sure this will be okay with your parents?” Hannah asked. “When Cody feels a little better, he will be an energetic adolescent.”

Ben nodded, sorting through a few keys before finding the right one to open the front door. Chivalrously, he gestured for her to enter first. Being so near, and smelling the faint lingering odor of his soap and something else she was certain was unique to Ben, threw her for a loop. She urged Cody in first, and then stepped into the foyer. The street side of the house didn’t do it justice. There were few walls downstairs or up, and sunlight flooded in from the huge windows facing the ocean. The house was directly on the beach. The smallest strip of land separated the wood floors, glass windows, and teak deck from the churning waters of the Pacific Ocean.

“Wow, this is so cool. This is exactly what I need. Please let me know how much I’m going to owe your parents.”

“I’ll get your bags.”

Hannah hesitated, hating to use him like this without any r
ecompense. Vets weren’t supposed to be tipped, were they? “They’re in the back.”

The picture windows drew her to them. They set at forty-five degree angles to maximize the light spilling into the house. She lived very near the ocean in Newport, but it was nothing compared to this. Here the shore was all dark and imposing. The waves pounded their way to shore washing over the smooth rocks, before making their way back to the deeper ocean. It would be easy slee
ping with the constant drumbeat of the ocean to drown out her sorrows.

Hannah started when the door slammed, the ocean having lulled her into some sort of meditative state. Ben bustled in carr
ying her two duffel bags and her tote.

“You don’t travel light.”

“There is dog food in there. I didn’t know if they’d have his grain-free brand in Oregon, and I didn’t want Cody to get sick.”

“I’ll take these upstairs and show you the rest of the house.” She followed him up the staircase. The landing was all railing on one side, the cathedral ceiling soaring even up here. Three doors faced them. Ben opened the third, and plopped her bags on the bed. “This is the master.” He pointed to a richly stained wood door to the right of the bed. “That’s the bathroom. There’s a Jacuzzi in there.”

She opened one of the bags and took out a ceramic bowl and the large bag of dog food. He stopped moving and looked at her for a second. He came closer, blatant attraction in his eyes. Despite the fact that she was in a strange house with a man she’d only met hours ago, she wasn’t the least bit afraid of him. She was scared of herself. Frightened by the feelings he so quickly and easily roused in her. The kind of feelings a married woman should ignore.

He cupped her cheek with his open palm. If he leaned in to kiss her, she’d let him. She would. Why not? It wasn’t often in life that instant chemistry came along. It was too rare a feeling to dismiss. To her disappointment, his hand fell away and he took a step back.

“Should I put some food down?”

“No. Dogs are meant to fast every once in a while. He’ll be fine until tomorrow. Give him some time to get his system on an even keel.”

“What about us humans?” She didn’t want him to leave.

“Mom is careful to empty the fridge. You won’t be able to shop until tomorrow.”

“So?” she prompted.

“There are two restaurants in town, The Cove on Seal, and the Chart Room on Wave.”

Some developer had taken the cutesy names a little too far. “I’ve already forgotten what I saw on the street sign. Are we on Sea or Sail?”

His smile was reluctant. “We’re on Sea Court. Anyway, neither one is open every day.” He looked at his watch. “It’s Friday, The Cove is open. They have pretty good seafood.”

The phone almost vibrated itself out of Hannah’s jacket pocket. She ignored it. “Are you going to let me go alone?” Why beat around the bush? She wanted his company for a couple of hours more.

Hannah could see the vacillation in the way Ben’s jaw muscles worked. She was used to that push-pull with men, but she always got her way. Dr. Ben Cooper was no different. The power of the pussy, whether women admitted to it or not, worked nearly one hundred percent of the time. Men could never resist the idea that sex may be dessert.

He blew out a breath, then threw his keys up in the air and caught them. “I’ll drive.”

“Will the dog be okay here?”

“As long as he’s house trained, he should be fine. Do you have something for him to chew?”

Hannah fished through one of her bags and pulled out a bigger ceramic bowl, and a hard rubber chew toy. She trotted down the stairs into the kitchen as if she owned the place, and filled the bowl with water. Confidence was one of her greatest assets. Cody drank thirstily. She sprayed some kind of peanut butter concoction into the toy, and the Cody happily grabbed it and flopped down in front of one of the picture windows. He’d be fine.

With nothing more to do, she followed Ben to the front door. He opened the door of his car for her, and she hefted herself in as gracefully as was possible with a running board and high-heeled wedges involved.

It felt like they’d pulled into the inn’s parking lot before she’d finished buckling her seat belt. The town was miniscule.

“Wow, I didn’t realize it was so close. We could have walked.”

Helping her out of the car, he looked pointedly at the four inch sandals.

“I do have other shoes.” She looked at her hand. He hadn’t let go even as he awkwardly locked the car with the other hand. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to let go either.

“I thought nobody walked in Southern California.”

She looked in his eyes, and saw that he’d made a joke. Slowly but surely, he was thawing. “We don’t want to risk our lives walking along a six lane road to get from one strip mall to the next.”

A chuckle escaped his lips. He held the door open. An older gray-haired woman with a smart haircut greeted Ben warmly, and led them to an ocean side table. Their table was the quietest in the place. Ben watched the water beat against the rocks, though the view wasn’t very different from the one at his parent’s house. Ben spoke, eyes turned toward the foam on the jetty. “It’s always amazed me how water can wear out anything on earth. It’s abs
olutely necessary for animal physiology. Neither we nor our dogs or cats could survive without it. But it can take away life in a heartbeat.”

He finally tore his eyes away from a view he must have seen nearly every day of his life. “What are you running away from?”

The owner made a special trip to their table, leaning in, saving her from answering. She spoke softly. “Dr. Cooper, I’m sorry to say we’re putting out a fire in the kitchen.”

“Literally?”

“Yes. An actual fire.”

“Georgia,” Ben said, halfway out of his seat. “Anything I can do to help?” Georgia waved him down.