Battling Ben: Love in Little River Book Seven Page 2

  Another laughing emoji popped up. Sorry to lead you on.

  Before you go, are you really from Laramie? He’d gone to the University of Wyoming, so he couldn’t help wondering if she’d put that to get matches in Wyoming for her research or if it was real.

  The slim details in my profile are legit. I’m not out to catfish anyone by accident. But I haven’t lived in Laramie for a long time.

  Ben should stop chatting with someone if this was going nowhere. She wasn’t looking for a real match. Beautiful country down there.

  Agreed. Same to you.

  You’ve been to Little River? Ben couldn’t help the little swell of pride.

  Yep. You’ll think I’m just saying this to get on your good side, but I’ve been eyeing Little River. I’d love to retire there.

  Retire? Ben tapped back over to her profile. She’d said the details there were real, but had he missed that he was chatting with a sixty-year-old woman? Nope, her age was listed as 29.

  Exactly what kind of research are you doing on this site? he asked.

  Lol. Don’t worry. Like I said, I’m not out to catfish anyone. I really am 29 … or close to it. ;) I got lucky early in life.

  Was he chatting with someone from a rival app? A developer like that would explain why she might have the income to retire this early in life. Well, he typed back, if you hadn’t made it clear up front that you’re not in this to find love, I might have thought you were just saying what I want to hear. Although I’ve made that easy for women to do, considering it says, “Staying in Little River my entire life—nonnegotiable” on MY profile page.

  A new message didn’t pop up right away, so Ben went back to watching the game. He even heated up some wings he’d brought home from the diner and settled in with that and some other snacks before he heard from “Jane” again.

  I guess since you’re still on this app, you haven’t found someone willing to settle down in the cutest little town in Wyoming?

  I’ve found a few women willing, but in the end, things didn’t work out. I don’t think it was the fact that I’m unmovable on where I live. Other differences, I suppose.

  Again, it took several minutes for a new message to come through, though Ben was trying not to care. It would be just like him to hit it off with someone who didn’t want anything to come of it. Hit it off, though? That seemed like a stretch, given that their conversation was a lot of meaningless back-and-forth. Ben was only invested because there was no pressure to say all the right things. In dating, he felt like he was walking a fine line. Even in his life at the diner, he had to consider everything he said to Addy and to Marissa. Ben was no dummy. Marissa was more than a waitress, and he wondered how long it would be before she coerced Addy into selling her share of the diner. Who wouldn’t want an investment in Little River? The tourist industry was thriving as well as ever, especially lately thanks to Addy’s marriage.

  I admire that you’re honest and up front about your relationship goals. Trust me, you’re in the minority on this app.

  Ben smiled. Thanks. I don’t see a point in dancing around what I’m hoping for out of a relationship. But I think we agree that honesty on here is the best policy, right, Ms. Smith?

  She sent back laughing emojis right away. Yes, we do.

  Just my luck. Someone who already wants to live in Little River *doesn’t* want a match. He added an emoji with a tear but hesitated before sending. This was a veiled shot at hoping this woman would want a connection anyway. He shrugged. What could it hurt? She’d told him up front it was research. He pressed the post button.

  Like with his sister earlier, the dots indicating that Jane was typing bounced for several seconds. Then stopped. Then bounced more. He could strangle the phone, the tension climbing with every second that she spent on this answer.

  This app was dumb.

  It was when he set it aside and turned his concentration to the game and his wings that his phone dinged.

  If I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know.

  Ben smiled. So there was a chance …

  CHAPTER THREE

  Marissa picked up her phone again as she brushed her teeth, narrowing her eyes at the chat conversation from LoveHunt. Ben had sounded … nice. She scowled at her reflection in the mirror. That guy had been a little flirty, fun, easygoing, and even trusting.

  So it was true. It was just her he hated, not the whole world.

  She’d gone back into the app last night after their conversation ended and studied Ben’s profile. She would have never pegged him for the dating app type of guy, but she supposed that June’s no-nonsense approach to matchmaking would appeal to someone like him if they were looking to get on a dating app.

  She had been surprised by his straightforwardness in his profile. Marriage was listed as his five-year plan on his dating résumé, and he’d been clear that he wanted to stay in Little River and run the family diner.

  What made someone like Ben Mayes so serious about finding love?

  Unknowable … depths. Yeah, maybe it was that instead of darkness. Quiet, brooding, sexy glares and secrets. Marissa could turn anything into a novel. Except, it seemed, the novel she was currently trying to write.

  She frowned again and finished up on her teeth, grabbing a hoodie on her way back through her bedroom and then heading out to the deck for the three hours of writing she tried to get in before heading to the diner.

  Although Mrs. Davis had listed the rental as a cottage, it was more of a cabin, and that’s what had drawn Marissa in. It had reminded her of the little place she had gone to with her mom several years ago for a girls’ weekend. She’d been writing on her first book off and on all through high school, but when they’d gone to the little cabins in the Snowy Mountain Range near Laramie, something had erupted inside Marissa while she’d sat on the little front porch smelling the nearby pine trees. She’d finished it that weekend.

  That book had never been published, but she’d gotten an idea from it that went on to become her first bestseller—but her fifth published book. When Marissa had seen the pictures of the pine trees surrounding this house, she’d known it was the place to conquer her writer’s block.

  She settled into the comfy deck chair she’d ordered for this place and pulled her computer into her lap. She opened her journal document to start her morning pages. She’d been able to get her last few thousand words by opening her brain with free journaling.

  It didn’t surprise Marissa that speculation about why Ben was on a dating app spilled into her free writing—a whole page of reasons and an entire paragraph detailing her evidence that Ben was probably a serial killer. It was always the good-looking ones.

  Or would his brooding be too obvious? Weren’t they usually charming or something?

  She closed out the free writing and reluctantly opened her manuscript, which was not about a dating website. Her response to Ben that she was on the app for research was loose. Character profiles had never been a problem for her in the past. Her characters were people that sprang to life in her mind, and imagining their lives, their quirks, their jobs, and their pet peeves came naturally.

  The fact that she’d had to resort to a dating app to get some inspiration testified to the fact that her brain was broken.

  She looked over the notes she’d left herself the day before and got out a good five hundred words before she got stuck. The writing coach she’d hired last year said that when that happened, she had to get up and do something different, even if it left her with less actual writing time. “Stop sitting at that computer, staring at it in frustration. It’s not helping anything,” Jolene had said.

  Marissa put on the slip-on tennis shoes she’d brought out with her and struck off on the path behind the house. In a mile or so, it met up with one of the trails up the mountain. A couple times she’d gone all the way there and farther up that trail, but today she didn’t have time. She prayed inspiration would strike within half a mile.

  It was not to be.


  Marissa might need a different walk to take. She’d already added three forest scenes to a manuscript that was only six thousand words long so far, and another couldn’t be in the cards.

  She sat on a rock and then leaned back so she was lying over it, her back curved in a way that was probably unhealthy. She stared up at the tops of the trees and the blue sky. “What’s next?” she asked the wind.

  She woke up an hour later with a start and a bruise in her side. Despite the fact that she’d put a permanent curve into her back, she had to sprint back to the house and try for at least another hour of writing before she went into the diner.

  Maybe someone would say something at the diner to spark her next scene. That had been known to happen before. She slumped back into her writing chair, plugging out another couple hundred words about her main character falling asleep in the closet she was hiding in from the evil barons searching her father’s mansion. The words were torturous and awful. No doubt she’d delete them someday after she finished the book.

  She closed her laptop and stared into the trees behind the cottage. “Is my writing career over?” she asked. The usual forest sounds answered, but they didn’t bring any more clarity than they had in the hundred times she’d asked that question in the last year.

  I got lucky early in life. That’s what she’d told Ben last night when she’d talked about retiring. And she could. She could retire. She’d made a lot of money, and she’d taken care of it, increasing her wealth. She didn’t need to write another book—at least monetarily.

  Maybe her publisher would insist. Sue her for it or something.

  As she drove to the diner, she tried to convince herself that she had to write a book so she didn’t get sued. Like all her other scare tactics on her brain, this one didn’t work either. No bouts of inspiration came before she pulled into one of the employee spots behind the diner, next to Ben’s car.

  She only had a minute to spare, so she hurried inside, grabbing her tablet from its slot and checking in just as the time clicked over to eleven o’clock. She couldn’t help glancing at Ben, studying him as she moved toward the door that led out to the dining room. If I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know. That had been the first lie she’d typed that whole conversation.

  Marissa was up for dating. She was up for finding love here in Little River. It was practically a given, wasn’t it? Since Marissa was rich and had plopped herself here for a random reason. She wasn’t on the app for a date, but she wasn’t opposed to dates either. So what had compelled her to say that to Ben, who she would never, ever, ever go on a date with? He hated her. And he might be good-looking with his dark hair and broody eyes that held unknowable depths, but he and Marissa would never click. He’d have to listen to her if they went on a date. And he’d shut down every idea she had for a date.

  We can’t go to a movie. That would be too dark.

  “You need something?” Ben asked, snapping Marissa out of her inner turmoil. She was staring at him. Oh my gosh, he was going to think she liked him … romantically … or something.

  “No. Sorry. Just …” What? Trying to decide why I told you I’d let you know if I changed my mind about dating? “Didn’t sleep well last night.” She backed quickly through the door into the dining room, scanning for anyone who looked like they might need help.

  Kim Thomas, who waited tables in the morning until Marissa came in, looked up from across the room, where she was tapping something into her tablet. A few seconds later, she crossed over to Marissa. “Everyone in here either has an order in or has their meal. I need to run over to Bellemont to pick up a chicken coop. I know it’s creeping up on the lunch rush, but the seller says he won’t hold it and has a couple people interested behind me. I’ll be as quick as I can. Is that okay?”

  Technically, Marissa should tell her to ask Ben. Marissa was a manager, but she wasn’t head honcho until Ben clocked out. “Totally fine. I’m sure I can handle it.”

  “Thank you.” Kim grinned. “It’s the cutest little thing painted like a small-town main street. Hallie’s gonna love it.” She gave Marissa a squeeze on the shoulder and then hurried into the kitchen to slip out the back.

  Marissa glanced around the room again, waiting for someone to need her. Addy often spent time in the kitchen with her brother while waiting for customers, but even on Marissa’s best days, time in the kitchen with Ben was awkward at best. She did slip back in to grab a pitcher of water but didn’t make eye contact.

  Chatting with Ben last night on the dating app had thrown everything off, and Marissa wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Ben’s phone had dinged with a message fifteen minutes before, but his first chance to check it came after sending out three orders with Marissa. Though he could hear the dining room starting to fill up with lunch customers, Marissa hadn’t brought anything new back yet, so while he kept one eye on a couple burgers on the grill, he slipped his phone out of his pocket.

  The message was from his mom. Sorry I haven’t called lately. Service here has been terrible. I’m going to try to check in tonight. We’re driving into Loveland for dinner. She ended it with a kissing emoji.

  His parents were in Colorado right now, exploring Rocky Mountain National Park as they made their way home. They’d be spending about a month in town when they came, so they’d been slowly heading this direction for the last couple months.

  “Good! You’re here.”

  Ben jumped and whirled to see his sister coming in through the back way, looking as polished and put together as she always did. He wondered if she ever missed the days when she could throw on a pair of sweats and T-shirt if she needed to come down here for something before her shift started. He missed the more laid-back woman she’d been then. Maybe that woman would have understood why Marissa trying to buy their diner from them would be a bad thing.

  He stopped himself. She was happy, polished or whatever. He could see that in her eyes, and he felt bad for all the time he’d doubted it before.

  “What’s up?” he asked, slipping his phone into his back pocket. Mom didn’t need a reply—wouldn’t get one, by the sounds of it—and she was planning on calling later.

  “We need to talk about Mom and Dad’s anniversary party next month. It’s their fortieth, so we need to do something more than a family-and-friends get-together.” She set her black leather tote bag on a stool and then settled on the one next to it, leaning forward and resting her elbows against a counter. She may look like a polished royal, but her relaxation in his kitchen said everything about how much of Addy was still behind that façade.

  He sighed at the sparkle in her eyes, the same one she’d always gotten when she had an event to plan for the diner. Then he couldn’t help smiling. “Okay,” he said, checking on the burgers. “What do you have in mind?”

  He’d turned his back to her while he prepped the burgers to plate them and heard her draw in a long breath. Furrowing his brows, he turned around, eyeing her.

  “I want Marissa to plan it,” Addy said in a rush.

  Ben blinked and didn’t react. Why should Marissa be planning his parents’ anniversary party? Their fortieth was a big deal, if Addy was to be believed. He turned back to the burgers. “I thought you liked planning these things,” he said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

  “Tristan and I have to go back to Ladraux for a couple weeks—there’s a fundraiser and some other events, and Alice is getting back from her retreat …” That’s what the royal family was calling Tristan’s sister’s stay in a mental health treatment facility. He wanted to laugh every time it came up. It had taken months to convince her, and he couldn’t help but wonder how much good it would do if no one was honest about why she was there. “Anyway, Tristan wants to see her and check in, you know.”

  “See if it worked,” Ben said.

  “Ben,” Addy hissed. He turned to see her looking around. “Seriously, you never know when someone is listening.
”

  “You’re paranoid.” He huffed and then felt bad. Addy had been through her share of lies and gossip, comments lifted from places where she should be safe. She and Tristan even had to get new phones at one point because a reporter had somehow planted spyware on theirs.

  “The point is, Marissa has planned plenty of spectacular events for the diner that have been popular and everyone raves about, and I don’t want to fight with you on this. Can you plan something amazing for Mom and Dad?” she shot at him.

  He didn’t answer. He hated when she was right. Marissa had brought in even more customers than Ben could have on his own, without Addy. And … maybe more than he and Addy could have too. She was imaginative and brought to life things that made the diner shine. Her party in honor of Addy’s wedding had been talked about for months. The Facebook page had gotten over a hundred thousand likes in one day alone after she’d posted pictures from the event. The heart she put into this place said she wanted more from it than the night shift. Why else would she go to so much work for it?

  “It seems weird to have her planning our family event,” he said, tapping a button on his screen that would buzz Marissa’s tablet and let her know the burgers were ready.

  Addy raised an eyebrow. “If Marissa doesn’t do it, I’d hire someone. You think someone from Casper or Billings would be better?”

  He huffed again. Why did she always have to be right? “Fine. Whatever.”

  Addy popped off the stool, beaming, as Marissa strode into the kitchen.

  “Hey!” she said, hugging Addy before moving to take the plates. “What are you doing here?”

  “Diner business. Come back in here to talk to me after you drop those off, okay?”

  “No problem.” Marissa grinned and bumped back through the door, never once meeting Ben’s eye. She and Ben weren’t chummy by any stretch, but she’d been more awkward around him than usual this morning. Had Addy already said something to her? That would explain it. It wouldn’t be the first time Addy and Marissa had gone behind his back for diner stuff. How long would it be before Addy sold Marissa her half without even talking to Ben about it?