Tina busied herself in the kitchen making breakfast for Ben, Lucy, and Gretchen. She could faintly hear Ben in the basement as he worked out on the exercise machine. She was so glad he was feeling better this morning. He’d had a bit of a rough night even with her and Lucy cuddling up to him.
She was also so grateful for Catherine’s father coming to Ben’s rescue last night. She had been so frightened when Ben reacted badly to the news of the man’s death. Catherine had known what to do and sent her father in to talk to him when he just… froze on them. He wouldn’t respond to their voices at all but Mr. McGovern just had to say one word and Ben was back. They’d talked for a long time as the rest of the party went downstairs to run through the ceremony for this afternoon. Catherine assured everyone that her father knew what he was doing as he’d done it before.
Jayden had been so upset he’d mentioned the fight to Ben as he said that seemed to have started everything. They assured him he had nothing to apologize for. They gave Hannah hugs as she felt bad too.
When the group was almost finished the rehearsal Jack and Ben joined them and they were quickly shown what was expected of them. They both felt they would have no problems with their duties. Ben announced then that he was going home and got kisses and hugs from everyone. He hugged Jayden and the young man had tears in his eyes but a smile on his face when they left. Ben carried Christopher home in his arms and seemed to take great comfort from doing that.
When they’d gotten inside Ben looked to Tina and smiled. “I’m not him,” he’d said quietly as he gently passed her yawning son into Lucy’s arms.
Tina didn’t know who ‘he’ was but intuitively knew Ben needed her to acknowledge this significant fact. She rushed forward to hug Ben. She’d felt him relax in her arms and once more offered a silent thanks to Catherine’s father in her mind. She would try to get the story from him or Hannah if Ben couldn’t tell her.
This morning Tina was so relieved to be able to move around without the cast and she barely needed to use the cane. In the kitchen she had the counters to lean on. Making a meal for her family felt so good!
Ben walked into the kitchen and she smiled appreciatively as she eyed his glistening muscles which looked so big after he worked out. He walked over and bent down to give her a kiss. She felt the heat radiating from his body and a tingle shot through her. His kiss was sweet and she smiled up at him.
“Breakfast is almost ready. Go get cleaned up and dressed. And wake Lucy lazy bones if she is still asleep!” she grinned.
Ben smiled and made his way down the hall. He heard noises from Gretchen’s room so he knocked. Moments later she opened the door and her eyes flew wide as she looked at his sweaty muscles.
“Good morning!” he said and glanced over her shoulder to the paused video on the screen of her new computer. She was watching a tutorial for her drawing application. He smiled in satisfaction.
“Good morning Ben! Why are you all… shiny?” she said with a pleased look as her eyes roamed over his chest.
“I just worked out. Are you ready for breakfast? Tina said it’s almost ready.”
She didn’t appear to be listening as she reached out and ran a fingertip over his chest.
“Ah ah, Tina didn’t say there was time for that!” he said and moved back.
She grinned at him as he moved into the master bedroom.
Lucy was still sleeping as Tina had suspected. He pulled the blanket gently back to expose her head and kissed her cheek. She stirred and opened one eye.
“Mmmm, that’s a nice sight for sleepy eyes,” she murmured.
“Tina made breakfast.”
Lucy frowned and shook her head. She wasn’t up to it.
“I’ll let her know,” he said and put the blanket back over her head.
He took his shower and pulled on a t-shirt, socks, and some track pants. They were just going to relax around the house until they had to attend the wedding in the late afternoon.
When he got to the kitchen Gretchen was sitting at the table with Christopher on her knee. He was talking to her a mile a minute and she was smiling as she tried to make heads or tails of what he was saying. Ben dipped down and kissed his cheek and he squealed happily.
“DADA!” Arms were raised as he wanted to be picked up. Ben scooped him up and flew him in a circle before sitting down and seating the boy on his lap. He hugged the child and for just a moment the boy hugged him back. Then the chattering started up again. He began talking about the games he played with the other kids in the daycare.
Tina set the plates on the table and picked up Christopher to put him in his own seat. She was glowing happily as she sat beside Ben.
“Lucy is not feeling well this morning?” she asked.
“Yeah, she won’t be joining us for breakfast,” Ben said.
They ate together, enjoying each other’s company in silence. Aside from Christopher’s happy chatter.
When they were done Ben cleaned up and Lucy shuffled into the kitchen. She sat at the table and Tina placed a plate with lightly buttered toast in front of her.
Lucy looked at the toast and looked up at the petite Korean. “Could I have some jam?”
Tina smiled happily and nodded. She turned and accepted the jar of jam and butter knife from Ben’s hands. She added some jam to the toast as Lucy leaned her head against Tina’s arm affectionately. “You’re too good to me,” she murmured. Tina kissed her forehead and put the jam away.
Ben was finished so he walked out into the living room, settled down on his chair and flipped open his laptop. He checked his mail and answered a few.
He was just signing into the Engineering bulletin board when the doorbell rang. He got up to answer it and saw Daniel standing on the doorstep.
He let the boy inside and looked at him curiously. “Good morning Daniel! What’s up?”
“Hi Ben! I was wondering if it would be possible to do the shopping for the consoles today as I’ve been invited to Rick’s place tomorrow for a game tournament with a bunch of friends from school. If not, it’s cool. You asked first.”
Ben quickly thought about the timing and realized today worked for him as well. “No, we can go now if you like.”
Daniel’s serious expression broke into a relieved smile. He’d been hoping Ben would say yes as he really wanted to go to Rick’s tomorrow. “That would be great!”
“Hang on, I’ll get my wallet and keys,” Ben said.
He headed down to Gretchen’s room and looked in her open door. “I’m going to the store to get some game consoles and a TV. Do you need anything for your computer?”
She beamed him a big smile over her shoulder but shook her head. She did rush over to get a kiss. He grinned at her as she rushed back to the computer.
Ben grabbed his wallet and stopped in the kitchen with Daniel. “Tina, Lucy, we’re heading off to get the game consoles for Karen and Penny. Do you two need anything?”
“No, I am good. Thank you,” Tina said with a smile. Lucy just shook her head and smiled. Ben gave them both a quick kiss, kissed Christopher’s head and led Daniel into the garage to his truck to get them on their way.
They were among the few early bird customers in the electronics store. Ben grabbed a cart and followed Daniel who led them immediately to the game consoles. He showed Ben the new models and explained the benefits the new units had over previous models, primarily their ability to handle the higher resolution screens. Ben put two boxes in the cart and they determined that they needed four additional controllers. They chose different colors and these went into the cart as well. He suggested a separate charging station for the controllers so Ben got two of those too.
Daniel took him over to the games. He explained the benefits of the games he selected for Karen and Penny. He included the ones they’d played at the parties and got a few new ones that he thought they’d like.
Then Daniel froze and pulled a game off the shelf and appeared to be reading the cover feverishly.
“What is it?” Ben asked.
“It’s the latest release of ‘Omnichron Specialist’! This wasn’t supposed to be released until next month! None of my friends have this yet!” Daniel gasped.
“So… is it one we should get?” Ben asked curiously.
Daniel looked at Ben with an almost pained expression. He shook his head. “No, I don’t think they’d like this one.”
Ben saw it was difficult for Daniel to put it back on the shelf and smiled. He reached over and plucked it off and put it in the cart. Daniel just looked at him blankly.
“Compensation for your time and effort today helping me pick out these items,” Ben said.
“No-”
“Ah! I won’t hear it! Come help me pick out a TV,” Ben said and pushed the cart in the direction of the TV’s.
Ben stopped in front of a set which was identical in size and look of the one the girls already had on their wall. He felt Daniel lean against his side and looked down to see the young man looking up at him with a small smile on his face.
“Thank you Ben,” Daniel said quietly.
He gave Daniel a one-armed hug against his hip and smiled at him. “You deserve it.” He looked back at the TV. “Do you think this one is a close enough match to the one they have?”
Daniel smiled then walked over to look at the TV’s spec sheet. “You don’t want this one. It won’t display the games well.” He led him down the aisle and pointed out a better model. Ben nodded and flagged down the salesman. He left to check their stock and returned to say they had two and one would be brought out to the cashier station momentarily. He helped them pick out a wall mount for it and Ben thanked him before they went to make their purchases.