Whitney in Charge (5 page)

She laughed. “I was never a celebrity, but I did love producing the news. Never a dull moment.”

“Why did you leave?”

“I quit almost two years ago because my mom became ill. I decided to come home to take care of her. She died three weeks ago.”

He gave her a startled glance. “I’m so sorry.”

“You would have liked her. She was a special person.”

“Do you plan on returning to New York?”

“I’m going to stay in Cornett. Actually my sisters and I are thinking of starting a business together.”

“What kind of business?” Ben asked.

She laughed. “That’s a good question. We’re still in the discussing stage. We talked about everything from a lake resort to a catering business.”

“I think that’s great you have sisters to start a business with instead of going it alone.”

“I’m excited.”

“Good luck with your decisions. Hope you find the perfect fit for the three of you.”

She glanced at her watch. “Thanks. I better go. Shannon and Regan are coming over. We’re actually going to chat more about our business options.”

* * *

The zoo wasn’t too crowded for a Saturday, and the spring breeze felt good. Ben glanced at his son. “I think we picked a great day for the zoo.”

“I want to see the monkeys,” Adam said.

Ben smiled, knowing they’d spend the most time at the zoo watching the monkeys. Adam loved them the best of all the animals. After they walked to the monkeys’ habitat, Ben recognized Regan, so he stopped to stand by her. “Hi. I guess we had the same idea today.”

“Hey,” she said with a smile, looking between Ben and Adam. “I guess we did.”

“And who is this?” Ben asked, looking past Regan to the little girl beside her who stared wide-eyed at the monkeys.

“I’d like you two to meet my daughter, Lily.” She glanced down at her little girl with auburn hair. “Lily loves the zoo. Lily, remember I told you about Aunt Whitney’s new neighbors. This is Mr. Spencer.”

“Hi. Do you like monkeys?” Lily asked Adam.

“Yes, I do a lot.” Adam stared at one, and pointed. “That monkey never stops swinging.”

Lily smiled. “The monkey’s name is Leo.”

“I didn’t know his name was Leo,” Adam said.

Regan grinned. “Lily likes to name her favorite animals.”

With an excited look on his face, Adam said, “Let’s name all the monkeys.”

While the children discussed names for the other monkeys, Regan asked, “Are you getting settled into your house?”

“Pretty much.” Ben crossed his arms and watched the kids, debating whether he should ask Regan about her sister or not. Finally, after several moments of comfortable silence between the adults while the kids picked names like Joe-Joe and Brittany, he took the chance. “I have something to ask you.”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I got the impression you were playing matchmaker the other day when you dragged Whitney to meet me.”

“I wanted to meet you too.”

He grinned. “Okay, but your main agenda was for me to see your sister. I saw her wedding ring when she brought over a casserole for us last night. I’m wondering why she didn’t mention being divorced when I told my marital status.”

“She’s not divorced. She’s a widow.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Ben grimaced, immediately regretting his question.

“We all are.” Regan sighed. “She was married to Rob Benson. He was a correspondent in Iraq and was killed there. Right after he died, she came home to take care of our mother.”

Ben squinted his eyes, trying to put a face to the name. “Rob Benson. I remember him. He was a great reporter. I watched him a lot on the news. It’s so tragic what happened to him. I didn’t think about whether he was married, let alone whether he left behind a widow.”

“Well, now you know. I’m glad you asked me.”

Ben paused to listen for a moment to Adam’s happy chatter. “Those two are hitting it off.”

“I’m glad. We’ll have to get them together to play.” Regan turned from watching the kids to look at Ben. “How was the casserole?”

“It was delicious. Enough for two meals so I won’t have to cook tonight either.”

“Whitney hates to cook for herself and eat alone. She wants us to go into some kind of business…like catering or a bed and breakfast, so she’ll have home cooked meals.”

He got Regan’s point. She was hinting that he could’ve invited Whitney to eat dinner with them, so she wouldn’t have to eat alone. He shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “I asked her to join us but she had other plans.”

Lily pulled on Regan’s arm. “Mommy, I’m hungry.”

“How about some ice cream? My treat,” Ben said.

“We love ice cream, don’t we?” Regan glanced at Lily.

“Daddy does too. He’s looking at us. He doesn’t look happy.”

Regan turned to look at a group of men. “After we got here, my husband Casey saw his firefighter friends so he left us to watch the monkeys while he talked to them.”

Before Ben could comment, a man appeared by them, lifting Lily in his arms. He asked, “What are my girls talking about now?”

Lily declared loudly, “Ice cream.” She put her arm around Casey’s neck. “Mr. Spencer is going to buy us some.”

Casey ignored Ben. “That’s not necessary. Now that I’m here, I can buy ice cream.”

Regan gave Casey a stern look. “This is Ben Spencer and his son Adam. They’re Whitney’s new neighbors.”

After a brief unfriendly stare at Ben, Casey said, “Oh yeah, I
heard
all about you and Adam.”

Regan shook her head, and said to Ben, “I guess you realized this guy happens to be my husband, Casey.”

“Hey, I recognize you from TV.” Ben raised his eyebrows. “You were one of the trapped firefighters at the house in my old neighborhood. I’m glad you survived. That was scary seeing the fire and knowing some of you might not make it.”

Casey said to Lily, “Let’s get that ice cream.”

What the hell is Casey’s problem?
He saw Regan’s puzzled look at her husband. She obviously wondered about Casey’s rudeness to him. He might not have liked him mentioning the dangerous fire situation in front of Lily, but still Casey’s whole demeanor had been uncalled for. How could such a gorgeous and sweet woman be married to such a jerk?

The phone rang, waking Ben up from a light sleep. He rolled over and picked up the phone, reading Meredith’s name on the LCD screen. His ex-wife probably didn’t consider the fact that West Coast time was three hours behind him. He sat up in bed and grabbed the ringing phone.

“Hi, Meredith. You’re calling late.”

“Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“Yes, but it’s okay. You know I fall asleep pretty quick.” She’d always complained how she couldn’t go back to sleep after he woke her up during the night which had never happened that often. How could rolling over in bed wake her up, for crying out loud? If he snored, he might have understood her bitching, but he wasn’t a noisy sleeper. Maybe if she’d been less tense about her job, she’d have slept better.

“I heard you have a girlfriend. How’s Lily?”

He chuckled. “Lily’s not my girlfriend.”

Irritation laced her voice when she said, “Adam said you three went to the zoo together.”

For a lawyer, Meredith’s listening skills were poor when it came to family conversations. Her mind seemed to be focused on her cases and not on them. Obviously, she hadn’t improved in this area. “I took Adam to the zoo. We happened to see Regan and her husband with their little daughter, Lily. Adam and I had met Regan when she visited her sister in our new neighborhood. Any more questions?”

“Ben, I’m just concerned because you haven’t moved on with your life since our divorce. It’s been a year now. I’ve remarried but you haven’t gone out with anyone.”

“I’ve been busy raising our son.”

She sighed. “I know. I’m a terrible mother. I told you we shouldn’t have any kids. But you thought we needed to have a child together. Well, you got what you wanted.”

He heard the sarcasm in her voice. What he’d wanted was for all three of them to be happy together. He’d seen firsthand how happy his sister Pam was after she had children. She’d been on the fast track, but had cut her hours down as a pediatrician. Pam never seemed to have trouble juggling her career and motherhood. She’d said both kept her balanced. But Meredith hadn’t wanted to be a mother. He’d talked her into having Adam.

“I’m sorry you wish we hadn’t had Adam. I don’t regret having him. He’s what makes my life so worthwhile.”

“I know you think I’m not normal for not wanting children.”

“It’s not that at all, Meredith,” Ben said. “I assumed you also wanted kids. We should’ve discussed our views about having children before we married. But I’m grateful to you for having Adam. He’s a great kid.”

“He is. And in my own way, I do love him. I guess that’s why I keep telling you to date. I know he needs a full-time mother.”

An alarm went off in his head and he sat up straighter in bed. Something must be wrong. Was she ill? Meredith had never mentioned wanting Adam to have a stepmother. “Are you okay? Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“I’m fine but I’m afraid I can’t take Adam for two weeks this summer.”

“You can’t cancel on him. He’s so excited about flying to Seattle to see you.”
How can I tell Adam that his own mother can’t spare two weeks to see him?

“Jim and I have a chance to go to Italy and other places in Europe this summer.”

“You’re taking off that much time to go abroad?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Meredith said. “You know I’ve always wanted to go to Europe. I thought Adam could come over Memorial Day weekend and maybe another long weekend this summer.”

“He’s already had to leave his old neighborhood. He doesn’t need another disappointment right now.”

“You didn’t need to uproot Adam. You could’ve stayed in our house.”

They’d lived in a beautiful neighborhood and it’d been hard to move because when he’d bought the house with Meredith, he’d looked forward to filling it with lots of kids.
But that was before our divorce.
“It became too expensive with just one income.” He exhaled a deep breath. “I hate to break it to him now. I think we should wait a month before we tell him.”

In a firm voice, she said, “I was hoping you’d tell him soon. And he might be excited about coming already in May for a long weekend. I doubt if he’ll care about not being here for two weeks this summer. He’d miss you a lot anyhow.”

“I’ll tell him sometime,” he muttered. “Remember how I wanted us to go to Europe, but you were too busy at the law firm to leave?”

“I was busy,” she refuted defensively. “Things are different now.”

“Fine, Meredith. I need to get up early in the morning so I’ll call you when I tell Adam about the change in plans. Bye, Meredith.”

He hung up without waiting for her reply. He flopped down in the bed again and tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. Restless now, he threw the covers off and climbed out of bed. He walked down the hallway to his son’s bedroom. The aquarium shone enough light for him to see Adam’s sweet face. His little man. He could never regret marrying Meredith when she’d given him this incredible child.

Meredith had never spent much time with Adam even when they were married. How could a mother give up precious time with her son to go to Italy? Man, Adam had gotten shortchanged in the mother department, but he intended to make up for it. It was hard being a single parent, but he wouldn’t change his life for anything. A child gave such purpose and meaning to life.

Adam had kicked the bedspread down to the foot of the bed. Ben leaned down, straightening the covers over Adam. Geez, when had his hair grown so long? He better take Adam to get a haircut over the weekend before he started looking like a girl.

On the way back to his room, he wondered if Whitney was still up. He’d enjoyed their conversation when she’d brought over the casserole, and had a new respect for her after learning what she’d done for her mother. It couldn’t have been easy leaving a highly rated morning show. He couldn’t imagine Meredith quitting her job to take care of a dying mother. She was not the nurturing type when it came to children or elderly parents. Or first husbands.

He looked out one of his windows facing Whitney’s house. He saw the light on behind the French doors, but didn’t see Whitney. Was she by herself or did she have friends over? Or maybe a boyfriend? He didn’t think a boyfriend was in the picture though since Regan and Whitney had seemed eager to meet him. Regan had reminded him of his own sister, Pam, trying to play matchmaker. At the zoo, Regan had made a point of telling him how Whitney hated to eat alone.

He’d been surprised to learn that Rob Benson had been Whitney’s husband. He remembered how Benson had made him feel like he was right there experiencing some of the things the soldiers felt. Even though he hadn’t know the reporter personally, he’d felt sad when Benson had died.

And now he lived next door to the well-known reporter’s widow. Hard to believe.