Before brunch was over Catherine responded with a yes for pizza dinner, she’d pay, and an invite to let the ladies sleep at her place until they got their services running. He sent her a thank you.
“OK, we have dinner plans tonight at Catherine’s place. I hope you like pizza!” Ben smiled at the teens and they grinned with powdered sugar from their pancakes on their faces. Ben turned to Ashley. You also have a warm place to stay tonight with running water. Catherine will put you up until your husband arrives to resolve these issues. Her two oldest daughters are staying at the University so their rooms are available.”
He saw Ashley beginning to get teary eyed. “Please stop. No water works. This is just the hospitality you get when you move into our neighborhood. There are some really amazing people living there. I think you’ll like them.” Ashley pursed her lips together to stop her tears then smiled broadly at Ben. “That’s better!” he smiled.
“Gabriella will likely want a turn as well. Tomorrow I’m picking up a prototype I designed and probably on Thursday I’ll be flying down to Austin, Texas for a little work. I’ll likely be back on the weekend.” Madison’s and Savannah’s eyes lit up when he mentioned Austin. “Is that where you’re from?” he asked. They glanced at Ashley and she nodded.
“Savannah and I were born there but we moved to Houston where Momma died and Daddy met our new Momma.” Madison explained and Ben nodded with a smile but he felt a pang of sadness.
They finished up their meals and Ben paid. Then he drove them to the high school where Ashley registered the teens while Ben took care of Joshua.
When they were done Ben had one more stop for himself. He picked up his passport and the girls had a giggle at the bad photo of Ben inside. Then he drove everyone home. Ashley said they still needed to unload boxes so they would do that while they had daylight. He suggested that they pack some clothes and toiletries for a couple of days and meet at Catherine’s place at 6:30PM. Before he left he asked what they liked on their pizzas. He made gross, silly suggestions for toppings until he got the answers from the girl’s. He sent the order over to Catherine by text.
He went home and dropped himself in his chair in the living room. He wanted to punch someone. Specifically someone driving up from Houston, Texas.
Tina walked into the living room and sat on the ottoman by his feet. “Did you call Hannah?” she asked.
Ben smacked his forehead. “Sorry Tina, I completely forgot. I got some excellent news at the bank. I now own your house. I’ll pick up the keys from the bank tomorrow. It’s the house and the contents. So unless someone stole something the house should still have all of the stuff you had before.” She looked at him nervously. He caught on immediately. “No, I still want you here with me! Just if there was anything you wanted from it hopefully it will still be there. Do you know how to drive? What kind of car did James have?”
“A BMW.” she said relaxing a little.
“Ugh. I’ll be selling that immediately.” Ben growled.
“What you will do immediately is call Hannah!” Tina growled.
“Sorry! Dialing.” he said lifting his phone to his ear.
“Administrator Cooper.” she answered.
“Hi Hannah! It’s Ben.”
“You were supposed to call me this morning!” Hannah growled.
“There’s a lot of growling going on!” Ben replied.
“Tina has reason to growl if you don’t listen to her instructions!” Hannah complained.
“Sorry! It was a busy morning!” Ben explained.
“Well, you missed the opening I was able to get for you. You’ll just have to take it up with Dr. Granger on your session on Friday morning.”
“Yeah, about that. I need to travel down to Texas on business so I’m going to need to reschedule my Friday session.” he said expecting a blow up.
“Ben, you need to put your mental health ahead of everything else. You know that!” Hannah said gently, surprising him.
“Agreed, if there was something concrete to work with at this time. I had a momentary brain fart and a nightmare. That’s it. And I don’t even remember any details to discuss with the doctor. I have some people waiting on this solution I’ve designed and it will only take a few days to see if it works. Then I’m home and we will see if there are any further issues then. Thank you both for your concern but for now I’m ok. Can I ask you to reschedule me for next week? I’ll even do Monday if you want.” Ben asked.
“I’ll see if Dr. Granger has an opening early next week.” Hannah said but she didn’t sound happy.
“Thank you!” Ben replied.
“Call me when you get back from Texas!” she insisted.
“I will Number 4.” he grinned.
“Oh hush you!” Hannah huffed but Ben could hear the smile.
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Tina was still looking at him with sad eyes. “I’ll talk to the doctor. Next week. Hannah is setting it up. OK?” he touched her chin gently.
“OK.”
Ben pulled Tina onto his lap and she rested her head on his chest.
“We’re having pizza at Catherine’s with the new neighbors. Their services aren’t on yet so no power, no heat, no water. They’re staying with Catherine overnight or until her husband shows up to adjust her credit card to get the services running.”
“If you don’t mind I will stay home tonight.” Tina said as she ran a finger over his chest.
“You don’t like pizza!?!” Ben said incredulous.
“I don’t like pizza.” she said snuggling in.
“Fine.” Ben chuckled and wrapped his arms around the petite woman. This felt like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.