Missing Grace(18)

"He kept you from your life, Jane. Don't you see? You had everything. You had m-"

"I don't remember that. I only remember the last three years and Hunter was the one by my side, not you."

Ben refused to look at her, and then went to the window. His forehead pressed against the glass, and she watched his pain grow.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she watched and waited.

Ben turned and matched his body language with hers, staring directly into her eyes. "I can take you to meet your parents. Wouldn't you want to have your parents at your wedding if you could?"

Hardball. He was playing hardball with her. He already knew the answer, so he dangled the carrot he knew would get him to his endgame. She just wished she knew what his endgame was. "I know their names. I can find them myself."

His body relaxed, and he tried to pull off casual. It wasn't working. It was obvious that casual wasn't a concept that existed between them. "Yes, that's true," Ben said, as he walked into the kitchen and got a beer out of the fridge. "But . . ." He took two long pulls, dragging this out. She suspected on purpose. He leaned against the counter and crossed his legs at the ankles while playing with the label on the bottle. Shifting with a huff, she impatiently waited for him to continue. "Would that be wise? Your dad has had some medical issues in recent years." He looked at her. "So wouldn't it be better to have someone help, you know, break them in with the news first? Someone they trust. Someone they care about? I mean for them and you."

Ben walked by her barely nudging her shoulder with his as he passed and sat on the couch. He propped his feet up on the coffee table while swigging more of the beer. "Oh, but I forgot, it's only you who has been affected by your disappearance. Not all of us. So, since you know what's best, all my inside information is useless here, like me having their email, phone number, and address. That would be of absolutely no use to you, so go ahead, Jane. Go reunite. Close the door on your way out." He waved his hand flippantly in the air in front of him. "Or maybe sit back and let another three years pass."

Jane pursed her lips in frustration. "I didn't let it pass."

"You stopped looking. That's the same thing."

She had searched. Somehow, Ben knew that. But when her searching made Hunter upset, she set her search aside. It wasn't going to be forever, just until Hunter would be okay. She didn't expect two years to pass though. Why had Hunter not wanted her to find out more about herself though? Surely he would want her to have answers to her past? To the dark holes where her history was trapped. But, she couldn't think about Hunter at this moment. She agreed with Ben that Grace would want to have her parents at the wedding. "Surely their information is online." Surely . . . Shoot. She wasn't sure at all. Her eyes narrowed, daggers hitting him. The smug bastard! He was right and she knew it. The worst part? He knew he was right.



       
         
       
        

She didn't want to hurt Pamela and John Stevens even if they were technically strangers to her at this point. This had already been so hard on her, and she was only three days in. It would be wise to have help, and he had a point. If John Stevens had been ill, she couldn't just show up out of the blue and risk him having a heart attack or worse, dying. So maybe it would be good to have someone who knew them, someone they felt comfortable around, to break the news and reintroduce them. Ben could support her and them during this process.

The only other alternative was to go to Hunter with the information and ask him to help her find them. A twisting took hold of her gut, making her realize that wasn't an option. With the demands of his job and the plans with the wedding, he wouldn't like anything else, especially something like this dumped on his plate. No, she couldn't go to him. And deep down, more than she cared to admit, she wanted Ben when it came to something so sensitive, so big, so life changing like this.

She watched as Ben lounged back with his arms across the back of the couch looking relaxed, a little too cocky, and much too gorgeous.

"You have one month, Jane. One month to decide what you're doing with the rest of your life. I'm sure, like me, you realize marriage is for life not just for now. It shouldn't be taken lightly."

"What are you saying, Ben?"

Ben sat forward and set his beer on the table in front of him. "Can you honestly marry Hunter when you have just discovered this new information? Information, I should remind you, that he doesn't want you to have."