A Matter of Trust by Lorhainne Eckhart Page A

college
today.”
    Ben had to think for a minute. Kenny was her
kid—the youngest, he thought. “Maybe I should be asking if you’re
okay. Why don’t you take the day off, go home?”
    “And do what, worry? No thank you, sir. I
have work to do. Besides, that’s what kids do: They grow up and
they leave you.”
    “I thought you couldn’t wait for your kids
to leave home?” He wanted to laugh, but there was something about
mothers: One minute they wanted the kids grown up and moved out of
the house, starting their own lives, and the next they were nailing
the door shut to keep them home.
    “Don’t mind me. Besides, Mr. Stillwell was
in your office this morning when I got here.”
    Ben was actually standing up now. He
shivered and reached for the red tassled throw at the foot of the
bed, pulling it around himself. “Peter was in my office?” he said
in a low voice.
    “No, Rick. I asked him what he was doing,
because he was going through that drawer in the credenza behind
your desk, where all your reports and files are.”
    Ben didn’t like the sound of that. There was
no reason for Rick, of all people, to be in his office. “What did
he say?”
    “Told me to mind my own business, that he
doesn’t answer to me or you. Then he left with a file. I don’t know
what it was for sure, but I went back in there, and I think it was
for this pipeline project. I’m pretty sure it was the one with the
spec sheet from all the manufacturers, because I couldn’t find it,
and I don’t think you took it with you, did you?”
    Ben sat back on the bed, trying to figure
out what Rick was up to. During his conversation with Peter, he’d
been clear that they needed to show the residents that they weren’t
cutting corners on their equipment. Why hadn’t Rick called him if
he needed something? “I’ll call Rick and find out what he’s up to,
what he wants. You still have a key to my office?”
    “Yes, I do, but apparently so does Rick. I
know I locked it last night before I left.”
    There was a knock on the door.
    “Verna, there’s someone here,” Ben said.
“I’ve got to go. Listen, call a locksmith and get the locks changed
on the credenza, and don’t give anyone a copy of the key. Don’t
worry about Rick, either. I’ll deal with him.”
    “Okay,” she said, sounding as if she was
questioning his ability to actually deal with the boss’s son. Rick
was always walking around as if he owned the place, like an
unwelcome relative you had to keep around because they were family.
Rick wasn’t his family, though, not by a long shot.
    “Hey, Verna? After you do that, take the
rest of the day off. Go be with your family.”
    “We’ll see. Maybe. Let me know if you need
anything…and whoever this woman is, I hope it works out. You
deserve to be happy.”
    “Goodbye, Verna,” Ben said. He hung up
before she could say anything else, and someone knocked on the door
again. “Coming!” he called out, wrapping the blanket firmly around
himself and pulling the door open.
    Who was standing there but the woman
responsible for his miserable night?

Chapter Nineteen
    What had she been thinking? She was staring
into the face of the man who’d walked out on her the night before,
all because she’d never been with a man. It was humiliating, and
she had cried after he left as if her heart was splitting in two.
It had taken until this morning for her to realize that not only
did he want her, but also she needed to stop assuming that she knew
everything about people’s motives and instead find out why Ben had
pushed her away.
    The wild expression on his face now as he
held the door, the other hand clutching the blanket, made her
consider taking a step back, then another, until she was running
the other way, but she chalked it up to lack of sleep and
frustration. Everything she’d been unable to face for so long was
bursting from her, and she was at a point where she wanted—no, she
needed to throw caution to the wind and say