Page 43 of Bluebell Promises

“Wow,” he said.

Wren blinked away tears and continued. “I met someone in Greece. It was all very spontaneous. But right before I found out about the baby, he died in a sailing accident.”

Ben’s mouth hung crookedly. A gust of wind swept between them, but Ben remained solid before her. “Wren, I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe that happened to you.”

Wren bowed her head. There was nothing left to say, really. Except for this.

“The thing is,” Wren continued, “that you’ve been on my mind a lot recently. I know I asked if we could be friends. But I also know that, at the time, I didn’t want to complicate your life with someone else’s baby. I didn’t want to ask you to take all that on, especially when we didn’t know each other very well.” She smiled. “We still don’t know each other very well. I know that.”

Ben was quiet for a moment, thoughtful, as though he didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“You don’t have to say yes,” Wren continued. “But I’d love to go on that date, sometime. It can be now, or six months from now, or a year from now. It’s up to you. But know it isn’t just me anymore. It’s a baby and me.”

Wren knew that most men would not go for that, that it was a heaviness most couldn’t carry.

At this, Ben reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers. A shiver went down Wren’s spine. Was he going to let her down easily? Or—more complicatedly—was he going to say yes?

Instead, what he told her surprised her most of all. “I need to be honest about something, too,” he said.

22

Thirteen Years Ago

At the age of twenty-five, Ben Brooks met Rina at a little music bar in the neighborhood of Back Bay in Boston. Ben was in veterinary school, and Rina had just dropped out of eye doctor school. The two of them shared a pitcher of beer and laughed about lab reports, difficult scientific theories, and how desperate you had to be to make a career in the sciences work.

Rina was beautiful, with shiny black hair that she wore all the way to the curve of her back. She had on a leather dress and a pair of boots, and every time a heavy metal song came on the speaker, she bobbed her head in time to the music, as though she knew them all.

Something important about Ben was that, up until he’d met Rina, he’d had a very difficult time with women. He’d only had one girlfriend in high school, and they’d only kissed twice, making him feel like a high school pariah who couldn’t wait to get out of Bluebell Cove. In undergrad, he’d had another girlfriend who’d eventually cheated on him with his roommate, which had caused him to go through a painful rigamarole of finding somewhere new to live.

His older brother, Landon, had tried to give him all the tricks of the dating trade. But the truth was, Ben was slightly awkward and overly emotional. He wore his heart on his sleeve.

But that first night at the bar with Rina, Ben watched himself come to life. He heard himself make jokes he never assumed he’d come up with. He watched Rina throw her head back and laugh, as though he were the funniest guy in the room. Maybe this was how his life was going to be from now on. Perhaps if it didn’t work out with Rina, he could go on a string of dates with funny, beautiful women and build his confidence. He pictured himself calling Landon in a few months and telling him, “My bad luck streak is over! I figured it out.”

As it happened, he got Rina’s number that night and called her a few days later. Rina sounded reticent over the phone, and he thought she was going to turn him down.

“Listen, you should know something about me,” Rina said.

Ben was glad they weren’t speaking in person. He was glad she couldn’t see his shock and fear.

“The thing is,” Rina said, “I have a one-year-old baby.”

Ben’s head rang with surprise. Rina was twenty-three and beautiful and very thin. She didn’t look like she’d just had a baby. Then again, life happened to people all around you. He knew you couldn’t always see that life written on their faces.

“Is that a problem for you?” Rina asked.

Ben asked himself if it was. He’d never had much experience with babies, but he rather liked Rina and didn’t want to seem like a bad guy. So he said, “A baby! Wow. No, that’s great. I love babies.”

Rina still sounded fearful. “I’m not ready for you to meet him.”

“Of course not,” Ben said.

“But we could get another round of beers, I guess,” Rina said. “Pick me up at eight?”

For their second date, Ben had to bite his tongue not to ask all the questions that came to his mind, like, who was the father? And where was the father? And how was she making ends meet? He told himself to be the charming version of himself he’d been the other night. For whatever reason, it worked, and by the end of the evening, he and Rina were making out in his car.

That night, right before Rina got out of the car to relieve the babysitter, she looked at him, her lips glistening from kissing, and said, “I have to think about my baby above everything.”

“I know,” he said.