The same could not be said for when Ben came to see me.
When Benny came to see me, it was definitely a visit. Not him coming home. Not natural. Not normal. Not anything but good to be with Benny.
I loved being with Benny any way I could be.
Still, I wanted more.
In order not to take advantage and make Manny or Vinnie work the kitchens on their busiest nights of the week, namely weekends, in the last month, Ben had attempted a two-day visit during the week.
This did not go great. Mostly because he showed in the morning when I was at work and all I could think about was coming home to him. While I worked, he putzed the days away at my place and hung with Cal, who was living in a house with his woman this close to having his baby, plus three females who were planning a wedding.
Ben was a reprieve for Cal.
For me, Ben was in Brownsburg and I was at work and I didn’t like that, the limited time we had, the fact that it felt like he barely got there and then he had to leave.
In other words, this wasn’t working for me.
The problem with that was, I didn’t need a résumé that said I jumped jobs every year. Possible employers needed to get the hint that they weren’t going to dump the money and time into a hiring and training process for someone who didn’t have staying power. So I felt I had at least another sixteen months with Wyler.
The other problem with that was, although Ben seemed just as disappointed to watch me leave or leave me, he hadn’t mentioned our future and what it might bring, or the fact we might need to plan to bring it to normalcy. That including being together more than a few days a month and then such impossible dreams as wedding, kids, and family.
I wasn’t exactly getting younger. In fact, my birthday was a few weeks away.
Ben wasn’t either.
I didn’t know how to bring it up. If Ben was good with what we had, after nearly f**king us up in the beginning, I wasn’t big on rocking that boat.
But this didn’t mean the fact that Ben hadn’t even mentioned it wasn’t beginning to worry me.
I did not include this in the text I sent back, which only read, Okay, honey, I’ll be leaving in a few.
I focused on getting as much of the last half a million things I needed to do done so I could get home and call my man, have a brief conversation with him that would leave me wanting more, and then eat alone, hang at my house alone, and go to bed.
Alone.
I was closing in on feeling I’d done what I needed to do when my phone rang and I saw the time on my computer said that it was after six. In other words, I’d lost track so it wasn’t the “few” I’d told Benny it would be.
He was probably worried and this was my thought when my eyes went to my cell.
My brows drew together when I saw the screen said, Keira Calling.
I grabbed the phone, took the call, and put it to my ear.
“Hey, honey.”
“Mom’s havin’ the baby!”
My heart thumped hard in my chest and I came right out of my seat.
“Right now?” I asked.
“Yeah!” she cried, then chanted. “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod.”
“Where are you?”
“At home. Kate is, like, freaking! Joe called. They were out pickin’ up dinner and it just happened. He took her right to the hospital. We gotta get her bag. We gotta get gas ’cause Kate says she’s almost out. And we gotta call everybody.”
“Stop right there,” I interrupted. “Kate’s in a state and she’s drivin’ you?”
“We gotta get going!” she shrieked. “And I got, like, seven million calls to make.”
Hurriedly, I went about turning off my computer. “Do not leave that house, Keirry. I’m comin’ and I’ll take you both.”
“You got a two-seater,” she pointed out.
“We’ll take Vi’s Mustang.”
“Oh, right,” she muttered.
I kept closing down and grabbing shit as I said, “Listen to me. Are you listening to me?”
She sounded like she was hyperventilating when she said, “I’m listening.”
“Get the keys to your mom’s car. Make sure she has everything she needs for her and Angela in her bag. Grab some waters, some pops, and some snacks ’cause we probably got a wait ahead of us. Make your calls. Deep breathe. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I was rushing through the mostly deserted floor on my way to the elevator when Keira replied, “It’ll take you forever to get here.”
“It takes a while to have a baby, honey. Just try to keep calm. I’ll get there as fast as I can and we’ll get to your mom and Cal.”
“Okay, Frankie.”
“Mawdy’s bag doesn’t have nightgowns!” I heard Kate screech from a distance through Keira’s phone.
I tagged the elevator and smiled.
With Ben in Chicago, and Cal, Violet, and the girls the only friends I had close, I spent time with them. Dinners at their place, dinners at mine, dinners at Frank’s Restaurant in town. They were the only things keeping me sane, being so far from Benny and everything I knew.
Doing it, I’d gotten to know the Winters–Callahan family.
And now I knew that Kate, who was normally level-headed, lost it when her mom was about to give her another sister.
“Well, get her one!” Keira yelled back.
“Keirry, honey?” I called.
“Yeah, Frankie?” she asked.
“Deep breathe. Calm. It’s all gonna be great. It’s gonna be amazing. Something beautiful is happening. Yeah?”
I heard the rush of breath come with her “Yeah.”
“Be there soon,” I promised.
“Okay. See you soon, Frankie.”
“’Bye, honey.”
“’Bye, Frankie.”
I disconnected. The elevator opened. I dashed in, hit the button to the parking garage, and as the doors were closing, I didn’t f**k around with Recents. I just dialed Ben’s number right into the phone.
“Hey, baby,” he greeted.
“Vi’s delivering Angela right now,” I told him.
There was a hesitation before he asked, “Come again?”
“Vi…is…delivering…Angela right now!” I was near on shrieking myself when I finished.
“Jesus, that’s f**kin’ great,” Ben replied.
“Uh…yeah,” I agreed. “I’m off to pick up the girls. They were driving themselves, but they were freaked. I don’t want them behind the wheel.”