“Is this some kind of ambush?”
“Absolutely not. Mr. McGovern is only here to visit his daughter who lives next door. He arrived early and she wasn’t home so I invited him to wait here. How could it have been an ambush? I had no expectation of you arriving today either,” Ben asked with a puzzled expression.
Scowling furiously Hargrave stepped closer to look up at Ben. “I’m going to order that the filter remain a secret which means you will not be able to patent the device outside of the United States. I’m going to ensure the device remains in our control. You’ll be hearing from me.”
“I’ll save you some trouble. I’ll give you the name of my lawyer, Walter Greyson. You can deal with him. The less I speak with you the happier I’ll be.”
The Colonel spun on his heel to march towards the front door. “Come on Kendricks!”
“I’ll be with you in a moment Colonel,” the First Lieutenant said, drawing a murderous glare from his boss who stiffly left the room.
When the door slammed Kendricks looked apologetically to Ben. “The filter aside, we do have our own engineering forum and there are some issues that we would greatly welcome your input on. Would you be willing to do this?”
“Sure!” Ben said with a shrug.
“I’ll have to send a tech over to set you up with military grade VPN and a security suite,” Kendricks said.
“I, uh, already have that,” Ben said and the man just looked at him blankly. “I have a very talented friend who may be ex-military. He set up my laptop.”
“Your ride just left,” Jack said from where he stood looking out the picture window. “Wait… one of the carriers is coming back around the loop.”
“I should go. I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can and I’ll try to smooth out the issue with the filter. We are still interested! Thank you, Mr. Shepherd!”
“Ben.”
Kendricks nodded with a smile and rushed off to slip his shoes on and left the house quickly. Ben walked over to the window to stand beside Jack as they watched the First Lieutenant climb into the back of the waiting personnel carrier.
“He’s going to get his ass chewed by Hargrave all the way back to Washington,” Jack sighed.
“Kendricks seems like a man who actually gets stuff done. He likely has the ear of people who matter,” Ben suggested.
“Let’s hope,” Jack nodded.
“Thanks for the assist.”
Jack looked at Ben with a smirk. “Like you needed one! What did he tell you downstairs that made you brush him off?”
“He claimed my filters would be a strategic advantage during a ‘limited exchange of nuclear weapons’ which would be survivable.”
“Damn,” Jack grunted with wide eyes. “The man is unhinged. He probably runs the scenarios through his mind all day depicting himself as the hero in each one.”
“You’re not talking war games again, are you?”
The men turned from the window and saw Lynda walking into the living room. Petite and lovely, Ben was once more amazed at how much Catherine looked like her mother only taller.
Jack smiled and shook his head. “Not at all. We just had a visit from some members of our armed forces who were interested in one of Ben’s inventions.”
“Oh, is that what you do?” she asked.
“I’m a mechanical engineer. I make stuff to solve engineering problems. The Army is interested in a filter I just designed for a uranium mining company in Melbourne, Australia.”
“Do you travel a lot in your job?” she asked as Tina, Lucy and Gretchen returned to the living room as well.
“No, I’m new to the whole travel thing. I’ve been to France and Costa Rica on vacation. I visited Milan, Italy to see Gabriella, she’s the neighbor on my south side. I made a stopover in Dubai on my way to Australia where I visited the mining company in Melbourne and went to Sydney to… see a friend. I met Gretchen in Sydney and invited her to come stay with me when her husband died.”
“Wait! You were in Paris with Cat when she shot that Kirian Rapava fellow?” Jack suddenly exclaimed.
Ben looked at the shocked expression on the man’s face. “Uh, yes.”
“And you were with her in Nice when she shot Rachid Shakir?” Jack said, his agitation growing.
Ben nodded wondering where the man was going with this.
“She called me after each shooting and I talked her down. We spoke for a long time on those calls and she told me about a man she was seeing. You’re that Ben aren’t you! Geezus, I must be losing my edge if my brain missed that connection!”
Lynda watched the big man nod to her husband then she looked to the women moving to the couch. She could tell, aside from the tall one, they acted like they were home. In Ben’s home. She looked at her husband in confusion.
“The relationship situation is complicated. Please have a seat,” Ben said with a sigh.
Jack and Lynda took the loveseat and focused their attention on Ben who filled them in on their daughter’s relationship with him and how his relationship with so many women just… evolved. It wasn’t his place to speak on it so he left out Catherine’s relationship with Chanel.
Jack and Lynda both looked a little shell shocked when he was done. The man cleared his throat and looked to their host. “Thank you for your honesty. I can’t say I understand how this all works but I can see with my own eyes that it seems to quite well. This falls well outside of my own personal experience of falling in love with my high school sweetheart and being with her my whole life.”
“That was the plan I originally had for myself too. Wendy, my ex, was a girl I was attracted to in high school and married after college. When she left me, my life… fell apart and lost all meaning. It was the love of Gabriella, Catherine, Trish and Tina that brought me back to living once more.”
Lynda looked at him uncomfortably. “Ben, I read the article in Peeps magazine. I’m ashamed to say I thought her story was true. I can see now it wasn’t. Why is she saying these things about you?”
“She needs money. Her lawyer says she is very ill and I believe it may be true. Her mother had a condition Wendy inherited. It’s not a pleasant way to end your days.”
“We do not know if Wendy is truly ill. Her lawyer is a very bad and dishonest man. He threatened Ben. Ben’s lawyer is dealing with him,” Tina blurted.
Ben looked to Tina and slowly nodded. He had to consider that possibility though his heart was telling him that it was true.
“Catherine’s car just pulled into her driveway,” Lucy said looking out the front window.
Ben smiled and dialed her cell number.
She picked up on the third ring. “Hi Ben!” she said happily.
“Hi Catherine! Your guests arrived early today so I invited them over to my place,” he said.
“They’re here?” Cat squealed in Ben’s ear.
“Yes! Come on over!” Ben replied with a chuckle and heard the phone click as Catherine hung up immediately.
He looked at his phone in amused surprise. “I guess she’s on her way over.”
Gretchen was looking at Ben nervously. She hadn’t met Catherine yet. This was one of the women Ben originally fell in love with so meeting her made Gretchen very anxious. If this woman disapproved of her maybe Ben would send her away?
“Ben?” Tina called to him and he looked her way. She directed his eyes to Gretchen who he saw was slipping into a panic once more. With a grateful nod to Tina, Ben stood and gestured for Gretchen to join him at the front door. She was immediately at his side and he put his arm around her as they left the living room.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly as they reached the door. No sign of Catherine yet.
“What if she doesn’t like me?” Gretchen squeaked out in her anxiety.
Ben turned and held Gretchen in his arms as she looked up at him with desperate eyes.
“Of course she will like you. I know Catherine. She is a wonderful person! Very loving! Why are you worried about that?”
“If she doesn’t like me maybe you’d send me away?” Her voice was almost a whisper.
“No! That’s not going to happen. Put that out of your mind right now!” Ben growled and she clung tighter to him. Ben kissed her and she moaned quietly.
The doorbell rang, startling them both. Ben chuckled and Gretchen smiled at him feeling a little better.
He released her and opened the front door. Catherine rushed inside and gave Ben a huge hug and kiss which went on a little longer than expected. She pulled back with a satisfied smile on her lips.
“Welcome back Ben!” she purred.
“It’s good to be back, Catherine!” he grinned. “May I introduce you,” he saw Chanel standing on his step and gestured for her to enter. “Hi Chanel! May I introduce you both to Gretchen Hahn. I brought her home with me from Sydney.”
Catherine immediately pulled the woman into her arms to give her a warm hug. Gretchen was beginning to look a little overwhelmed and tears pooled in her eyes. Catherine gave her a compassionate look. “I’m sorry. It’s all a little bit too much too soon?”
“No, I’m very happy to meet you and very relieved you are so nice!” Gretchen managed to squeak out of her tight throat.
Chanel smiled broadly and gave Ben a quick hug before stepping past to hug Gretchen as well. “Welcome to America! I’m Chanel, a recent immigrant myself. From France.”
Gretchen smiled at the two women and they saw her begin to relax.
“My parents are in the living room?” Catherine asked quietly.
“Yes, we just finished explaining my relationships to them. They are a little dazed,” Ben replied equally quiet.
Catherine smiled at Chanel who suddenly looked like she wanted to flee. Cat reached out and took her hand. “No you don’t. Come with me!”
Ben watched this with curiosity.