Chapter Thirteen
Ben
Two weeks after the near disaster at Ginger’s place, I sat at the hotel’s reception desk, hiding a yawn behind my hand. It wasn’t the best form to be showing potential guests, but then, there hadn't been any for the past few days. And still, I was forced to sit at the reception and wait for the off chance that there was someone that needed a room. I would have been in my apartment, but my sister had been out for the week, so I was taking on her reception desk duty.
I was just glad I didn’t have to take over the cooking. That would have been a disaster.
It was fucking boring, though, and I was tempted to just head up to my room and sleep, even knowing I couldn’t. I leaned my elbow against the counter and rested my hand on my palm, closing my eyes for a moment.
“Are you sleeping on the job, big brother?”
I blinked my eyes open to see my sister just walking into the hotel.
“Oh,” I muttered disinterestedly. “You’re back.” She gave me a look of disapproval, but I just checked the time and smiled to myself. “That’s good. I get to go pick Fern up early.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You mean, your daughter, and my niece, Fern?”
I nodded, sitting upright and feeling a bit of excitement at the thought of my daughter.
“Yeah. I’ve been picking her up from nursery school for the past couple weeks, on Tuesday and Friday. Ginger’s started taking her there more instead of taking Fern to work with her now that there’s someone to help her out.”
“Look at you, suddenly bursting with excitement,” Scarlett said with a chuckle. “That’s the kind of face you’re supposed to be showing our customers.”
I snorted. “If it’s like that, then you might as well keep the job because I’m reserving my excitement for Ginger and Fern.” I folded my arms on the desk and laid my chin on them. “You know I’ve never really been good with strangers and putting me here was a bad idea, right?”
She just sighed. “I figured it was a way to make you more social, so why not try. Oh well. But at least you’re stepping up with Ginger, so I’m proud of you for that.”
I gave her a quick smile, then looked at her a little more closely. While she looked fine, I thought she was trying just a bit too hard to look like she was fine.
“Did something happen?” I asked cautiously, remembering Dan’s words about her being moody lately. “Where did you leave the kid?”
She waved a vague hand over her shoulder. “I left him with Dan for today. I’ve been leaving him with Dan for a lot of days, lately. If he didn’t work from home, I’d be in some real trouble.”
I hummed. “But something is up,” I guessed. “Because you look stressed out, sis. More than usual.”
She sighed, then rounded the desk to sit on the seat beside me.
“Is it that obvious?” she mused.
“Pretty much. But, I’m your brother, and I know you well. Besides, your husband complained about it.”
She frowned at me. “He did what?”
I quickly changed the subject. “I’m your brother, so whatever it is that’s weighing on your mind, you can tell me.”
It would be good if she could snap out of it. While I would have been all for her taking time off to deal with her shit, she’d made herself invaluable to the hotel for all the time she’d been there. I managed to hire a manager, but if she were going to take a break, we’d need to hire a few more people, only we couldn’t even do that without a plan because it would cause an increase in costs.
“It’s about Dad,” she admitted after a minute.
“Ah,” I muttered, already building a picture in my mind. “Did he do something, or did something happen to him?”
I frowned at the thought of there being something wrong with my dad. Because I’d been so busy with Ginger and Fern lately, though Ginger and I hadn't had a chance to be alone after that night I spent at her place, I hadn't left much time to my dad. It hadn't even occurred to me that more than three weeks had passed since I last saw him.
“Dad is sick,” she said, sighing. “Very sick, he’s been in and out of the hospital for a while, but only because he doesn’t want to be admitted. The medical bills are piling up, though.”
“Why did I not know about this?” I asked, frowning.
She shrugged. “Dad didn’t want me to tell you because he didn’t want you to worry—”
“That was stupid,” I cut in to say.
“I know that, but you know what he’s like. He doesn’t have any cash, so I’ve been helping him out, especially because his girlfriend has dumped him now that he`s sick. I know that she´s avoiding the medical bills. He kept insisting she’d come back, but I wanted to bring him back here or even to live with Dan and I. It’s why my moods have been so haywire lately. If Dan was worried enough to mention it to you, maybe I should apologize to him.”
“What exactly is Dad sick with?”
She gave another shrug. “Too many complicated words in the results we got back, and I wasn’t listening when the doctor explained because it was all so shocking.” Then she scoffed. “Fuck, I just wanted to leave him to his own devices. After he just abandoned us because it was convenient to him, I’d rather have nothing to do with him. But then I felt guilty about not helping, not paying anything. Because no matter what, he’s our dad.”
The look she was giving me, all wide-eyed like she was silently asking me to tell her she did the right thing, made me ache for my sister and feel a little guilty myself for not knowing about this.
“You did the right thing,” I said, both to appease my sister, and because I thought it. “No matter what, he’s still our dad, so we’ll pay whatever we need to.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ginger
The bell above the salon’s door rang, and I looked up to see a new client coming in.
“Can you take care of them, honey?” Mom said, busy with her client.
I’d only just sent someone out and had sat down to take a quick break, but I heaved myself up with a quiet sigh to get to work.
“Please take a seat,” I said politely, pointing the woman to a chair in front of the counter. Once she sat down, she told me what she wanted to be done, and I got to work.
I’d been doing this for the past two years. There wasn’t much I could do during the pregnancy, and then afterward, I spent a lot of time looking after Fern. It took a while, and some beauty classes for Mom to even allow me to work in her salon, but I’d done just about everything once already, and at this point, it was all just routine.
In no time at all, I was done, and the happy customer was leaving the salon, along with the woman Mom was working on, so we both got a moment to relax. Until the bell rang again, and I groaned.
“I’ll get this one,” Mom said with a chuckle. “Just relax some more.”
I sent her a grateful smile and watched as she greeted the customer. I didn’t get much time to relax, though, before the door opened up again.
Before I could blow up in frustration, the man responsible for my restlessness walked inside, with his sister right behind him.
“Ben, Scarlett,” I said, getting up, surprised. “What are you both doing here? I wasn’t expecting a visit.”
Ben’s eyes shifted nervously over my shoulder, likely at my mom, and he probably didn’t notice the nervous look I gave him.
“We’re sorry to bother you at work,” Scarlett said, giving me a small smile. “But we have something important to tell you.”
“I won’t be able to pick up Fern today,” Ben told me. “We got some news, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to be out of town for a while.”
My heart skipped a beat in a moment of terror. Almost immediately, I was making excuses in my head, because Ben hadn’t specifically said he was moving out of town. He wouldn’t just disappear on me for another four years. But despite that very real fear, seeing as he’d come with his sister and they both looked uncomfortable, I could tell it was something serious.
“What happened?” I asked, speaking quietly while moving them to the side so Mom and the client wouldn’t overhear the conversation.
“It’s about my dad,” Ben admitted, his expression grave. “He’s sick. Scarlett’s seen him a few times, and he needs some serious help. We were thinking of heading out to see him. We’ll have to stick around there to make sure he accepts the treatment.”
I bit down on my lip. On the one hand, he at least had a good reason to leave this time, and I was getting notice before he made the trip. But on the other hand, there was still that fear from before, that if I let him leave, I would never see him again.
Scarlett, as intuitive as ever, glanced between the two of us before backing away with a smile.
“I’ll leave the two of you to talk. Ben, I’ll be waiting in the car.”
He nodded at her and watched her go, but I kept my eyes on him until he turned to meet my gaze.
“I’m sorry about this, Ginger,” he said, taking a tentative step closer and holding onto me by the tops of my arms. “I promise I won’t be gone long. I’ll stick it out for at least a week and no more. Just apologize to Fern for me and let her know I won’t be around?”
“She’ll be sad to see you’re gone,” I murmured. “She’ll miss you.”
He gave me a shaky smile, and I knew he’d read between the lines. Fern wouldn’t be the only one that was sad, the only one that missed him.
“I’ll be back soon. And when I get back, we’re going to talk. I don’t like that I only get to pick Fern up for two days out of the week from the nursery. I’d like to raise that number up. There’s a lot of time I want to make up for, and we’re going to start when I come back from dealing with my dad, no more holding back.”
I nodded, sniffling a little and blinking back the sting in my eyes. In the past couple weeks, the only time we’d met up, was when he dropped Fern off with me after spending some time with her after he picked her up from the nursery. It was barely enough time for me, and it was nice to know that he felt the same way I did.
“We can do that,” I agreed. “And you don’t have to worry about proving yourself to me anymore; I can tell you’re sincere.” I smiled sadly up at him. “I don’t like that you’re going away, but I understand why you have to.”
A part of me couldn’t help but be proud of him, even. Before, he would probably have reacted to the situation by running away. He’d distanced himself from his dad even before he left, and I knew it had to do with his mom’s death and his dad going off the rails because of it.
But the Ben in front of me wasn’t running or hiding, or trying to escape responsibility. It was enough to prove to me that he was a changed man, whether he realized it or not.
“Go now,” I said, waving him off with my hand. “I can tell you’ve changed, and I don’t want to be what holds you back. You say you’ll be back in a week and… I trust you.”
I ignored the fearful beat in my heart, repeating the words to myself several times in my mind to hammer it in. I trusted Ben not to lie to me about this that he wouldn’t leave me and his daughter again.
Before he left, he leaned toward me with his arms opened wide, and I stepped into them willingly, holding him tight for a moment. Then he turned his back to me, and he was gone.