RUIN(6)

"No." He hangs his head down. "I never said your name when we were at the bar. He didn't know it was you."

It's obvious that at some point the two of them realized my connection to them both. "When did Ben know I was the woman you were talking about?"

"I'd say about a week after that."

"A week?" I throw the question at him sharply. "I don't understand how you went from talking about me at a bar to agreeing to take money from him to stay away from me."

"It wasn't like that." His hand trails a path across his lap before it stops short of my knee. I'm grateful that he doesn't try and touch me. I don't know that I could resist the urge to pull back at this point.

"What was it like?"

"Kayla, please try and understand where my mind was back then." His voice is no louder than a whisper. "I just wanted to ask you to marry me so we could start all over. So I could forget what a fucking idiot I'd been before you moved back to New York."

I see the vulnerability in his eyes. I know he's in pain. I know that he wishes that he could undo what happened between us but that's not possible anymore. Life has changed. I've changed. "I want to understand, Parker. I really need to."

His gaze drops to his lap. I watch his shoulders surge forward. "Ben offered to help me that first night at the bar. He didn't know me, Kayla, and he just up and helped me."

"Helped you?" I tilt my chin down hoping he'll catch a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye. "How did Ben help you?"

He pulls his body back until he's facing me directly. "I told Ben that I wanted to ask the love of my life to marry me."

I work hard to not react to the words. "What did Ben say?"

His palm etches a path over his lips. "It's not what he said, Kayla. It's what he did."

I'm stuck. I want to know. I need to know but I'm scared that Parker is about to tell me that Ben concocted a plan to keep Parker from me because of his selfish agenda to get Noah back. I honestly don't know if I would have taken Parker back if he would have showed up at my apartment door with the beautiful ring I longed for, in his hand, and a marriage proposal on his lips. The idealistic part of me wants to believe I would have turned him down, but the romantic parts of my heart, know better.

"What did he do, Parker?" I ask for clarity, not for me, but for Parker. I want him to know that I need to know this. It is instrumental to my moving forward with my life. I have to sort out what happened between these two men before I can even think about talking to Noah and Alexa about this.

"He told me he believed in true love." He cocks his head to the side. "He said young love was worth fighting for."

It sounds like something Ben would say. His soul is soft and hopeful. I saw it myself when he cared for me after my fall. The man that tended to my wounds and nursed me back to health is so opposite of the man who I heard talking to Parker hours ago. They don't fit together, regardless of what my heart is still hoping for.

"I told him I had to go back to my hotel to sleep before I went to see my girl." His index finger taps my knee. "He told me we needed to make a stop first. He was feeling good too but he wasn't as drunk as me."

I look away to steel my emotions. Knowing that the man that I loved for years was getting drunk in a bar with the man I was beginning to fall for is already a lot to absorb. "Where did he take you?"

"To the bank, Kayla," he says in a rush. "We went to the automated teller machine."

"What? Why?" I spit the questions out so quickly they are almost indistinguishable from one another.

"He took out three thousand dollars and handed it all to me," he says hoarsely. "He said it was for the ring. He wanted me to get it so I could ask the woman I love to marry me."

My emotions swing to the side as if they've been slapped. "Ben just handed you the money to buy that ring?"

He drops his head into his hands. "I took it. I took his number too so I could pay him back but he told me it was his gift. He said he wanted to help make Elsie's dreams come true."





Chapter 4




This is what it must feel like to be driving in the middle of a fog patch. You know that you're headed in the right direction but beyond that, everything is murky and hard to place. I need Parker to explain more to me but hearing him tell me that Ben gave him the money for the ring has stalled everything in my mind.

"You said that Ben told you to make Elsie's dreams come true?" I want Parker to repeat it back to me. It doesn't add up.

He scrubs his hand over his face. "I didn't realize he used her name until the next morning when I woke up and thought about what had happened. I sent him a text message telling him I'd pay him back when I could and he replied saying that knowing Elsie would be happy was enough for him."