The Hardest Cut by Jamie Bennett (book club recommendations .TXT) 📕

by nodding in answer to my questions, that Mrs. Haberman had been dead to the world for most of the time she’d been at their house.  “I’m happy to show Tessa the ropes in Michigan.  You, too,” I invited, but that made Ben frown.  “Not that I’m suggesting we fraternize,” I added.  “Just, you know, what I used to do for my real estate clients.  I would tell them about where to grocery shop, the best things to do with kids, coming to get milkshakes at the Hummingbird Café.  Stuff like that.”

The waitress arrived with my salad and Marley’s cheeseburger and onion rings, and promised to hurry back with the rest of the food.  I moved the bottles of vinegar and oil out of reach so I wouldn’t be tempted and caught Ben’s eye.

“Go ahead and start,” he said, so I crunched a piece of dry lettuce.  Nice and crispy, I told myself.  Delicious.

“Help yourself,” Marley invited, and put her big plate of fragrant, golden onion rings in the middle of the table.  Ben took one to share with Tessa but I reminded myself of all the spandex in my future.  I definitely couldn’t have anything fried, no way.  “Gaby?” she asked.  “Don’t you love these?”

“No, not really,” I lied.  “I’m not a fan.  I’m definitely a football fan, though,” I continued, because I preferred talking about the Woodsmen over discussing the foods I couldn’t eat.  “What’s your opinion of the draft picks?” I asked Ben.

“Seems like a good group,” he answered.  “They had some luck.”

“They were really fortunate to get McClellan in the second round,” I agreed.  “I thought he’d go much higher.  But why did they pass over Spitz for Paoli?  Do we really need that much depth in the secondary?”

Ben stared at me for a moment.  “I probably shouldn’t say this, now that I’m on the staff, but I would have picked Spitz, too.”

“Right?” I agreed.  I had a lot more to say and to ask Ben about the collegiate draft, and he was happy to go through it player by player.  Even Marley chimed in, and Tessa was content to eat her tiny burger and the onion rings and color on her placemat, which I also enjoyed.  Marley drew some pictures too, and they weren’t even inappropriate.

All in all, it was a great night.  Right up until the end of it.

Chapter 5

“I can finish that for you.”

“Go for it.”  Marley slid the rest of her dinner over and Ben dug in and cleaned her plate.  It was a lot like eating with her dad, whom we affectionately called the Human Food Vacuum.  Ben insisted on paying when the check arrived and Tessa walked and held my hand instead of burrowing in her dad’s neck as we left, making me grin.  In fact, the whole evening had been so relaxed and happy, I wasn’t at all prepared.  Not at all.

“Gaby, go!” Marley said, pushing me in the back to propel me through the front door of the restaurant, but I had stopped dead.  I couldn’t take another step.

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked me, and that made me snap out of it.  I couldn’t fall apart in front of him, the guy who was not only my new employer, but also someone who could report back to the Woodsmen organization on me.  “Gaby?”

Don’t cry.  Don’t cry!  Smile.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I said, and I managed to show my teeth.  “Marley, you go first.”

She did and cleared a path and I put my attention on Tessa to make it to the parking lot.  Marley and I said goodbye to them and went to my scrunched car, and I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice when she got into the driver’s side.

I woke up a little when a horn blared behind us as our car jumped backwards into the street.  “Oops!  I forgot to look,” Marley apologized, but I just nodded.  “Gaby?  I almost caused a huge accident and wrecked the other end of your car.  You aren’t going to scream or something?”

“Be careful,” I said automatically, and she backed up again, much more slowly and checking over both shoulders.

We had gone a few miles toward her house when she said, “I recognized that guy.”

I knew who she meant, but I replied, “Ben?  Right, he had come into the store with Tessa.”

“No, the other one.  The old one we saw when we were leaving the restaurant, the guy with all the grey hair.”

“Silver hair,” I corrected automatically.

“He came into the bookstore once, too, and Hallie yelled at him,” she continued.

I knew that.  As my best friend, Hallie wasn’t Shep’s biggest fan.  At all.  “He and I were…we used to know each other.”

“Is that why you got so pale and looked like somebody backhanded you when you saw him?”

“Backhanded?” I repeated.

“Like you were in pain,” she explained.  “Getting hit like that really hurts.”  I remembered some of the sad reasons that Marley had ended up in foster care.  “Wait, are you crying?”

“I’m fine,” I said, and tried to stop myself from being so emotional.  “Marley, look out!”

She spun the wheel and narrowly avoided finishing off my loaner car with another front-end collision.  I screamed a little and she was gasping by the time we were straightened back out.  “Gaby, I’m sorry!  He had his signal on like he was going to turn right!  I had no idea that he was going to go the other way.  I’m sorry,” she apologized again.

“That’s ok,” I soothed, and peeled my fingers from the door handle, which I had almost pulled off in fright.  “Driving’s really hard and you have to be aware all the time.  You never really know what other people are going to do.”  They acted in ways that were totally contrary to what they signaled to you, and how were you supposed to predict that they’d turn left and veer off the road when they had told you, time and again, that they were