Chapter 14
Ginger.
The bell above the salon’s door rang, and I looked up to see a new client coming in.
“Can you take care of them, honey?” Mom said, busy with her client.
I’d only just sent someone out and had sat down to take a quick break, but I heaved myself up with a quiet sigh to get to work.
“Please take a seat,” I said politely, pointing the woman to a chair in front of the counter. Once she sat down, she told me what she wanted to be done, and I got to work.
I’d been doing this for the past two years. There wasn’t much I could do during the pregnancy, and then afterward, I spent a lot of time looking after Fern. It took a while, and some beauty classes for Mom to even allow me to work in her salon, but I’d done just about everything once already, and at this point, it was all just routine.
In no time at all, I was done, and the happy customer was leaving the salon, along with the woman Mom was working on, so we both got a moment to relax. Until the bell rang again, and I groaned.
“I’ll get this one,” Mom said with a chuckle. “Just relax some more.”
I sent her a grateful smile and watched as she greeted the customer. I didn’t get much time to relax, though, before the door opened up again.
Before I could blow up in frustration, the man responsible for my restlessness walked inside, with his sister right behind him.
“Ben, Scarlett,” I said, getting up, surprised. “What are you both doing here? I wasn’t expecting a visit.”
Ben’s eyes shifted nervously over my shoulder, likely at my mom, and he probably didn’t notice the nervous look I gave him.
“We’re sorry to bother you at work,” Scarlett said, giving me a small smile. “But we have something important to tell you.”
“I won’t be able to pick up Fern today,” Ben told me. “We got some news, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to be out of town for a while.”
My heart skipped a beat in a moment of terror. Almost immediately, I was making excuses in my head, because Ben hadn’t specifically said he was moving out of town. He wouldn’t just disappear on me for another four years. But despite that very real fear, seeing as he’d come with his sister and they both looked uncomfortable, I could tell it was something serious.
“What happened?” I asked, speaking quietly while moving them to the side so Mom and the client wouldn’t overhear the conversation.
“It’s about my dad,” Ben admitted, his expression grave. “He’s sick. Scarlett’s seen him a few times, and he needs some serious help. We were thinking of heading out to see him. We’ll have to stick around there to make sure he accepts the treatment.”
I bit down on my lip. On the one hand, he at least had a good reason to leave this time, and I was getting notice before he made the trip. But on the other hand, there was still that fear from before, that if I let him leave, I would never see him again.
Scarlett, as intuitive as ever, glanced between the two of us before backing away with a smile.
“I’ll leave the two of you to talk. Ben, I’ll be waiting in the car.”
He nodded at her and watched her go, but I kept my eyes on him until he turned to meet my gaze.
“I’m sorry about this, Ginger,” he said, taking a tentative step closer and holding onto me by the tops of my arms. “I promise I won’t be gone long. I’ll stick it out for at least a week and no more. Just apologize to Fern for me and let her know I won’t be around?”
“She’ll be sad to see you’re gone,” I murmured. “She’ll miss you.”
He gave me a shaky smile, and I knew he’d read between the lines. Fern wouldn’t be the only one that was sad, the only one that missed him.
“I’ll be back soon. And when I get back, we’re going to talk. I don’t like that I only get to pick Fern up for two days out of the week from the nursery. I’d like to raise that number up. There’s a lot of time I want to make up for, and we’re going to start when I come back from dealing with my dad, no more holding back.”
I nodded, sniffling a little and blinking back the sting in my eyes. In the past couple weeks, the only time we’d met up, was when he dropped Fern off with me after spending some time with her after he picked her up from the nursery. It was barely enough time for me, and it was nice to know that he felt the same way I did.
“We can do that,” I agreed. “And you don’t have to worry about proving yourself to me anymore; I can tell you’re sincere.” I smiled sadly up at him. “I don’t like that you’re going away, but I understand why you have to.”
A part of me couldn’t help but be proud of him, even. Before, he would probably have reacted to the situation by running away. He’d distanced himself from his dad even before he left, and I knew it had to do with his mom’s death and his dad going off the rails because of it.
But the Ben in front of me wasn’t running or hiding, or trying to escape responsibility. It was enough to prove to me that he was a changed man, whether he realized it or not.
“Go now,” I said, waving him off with my hand. “I can tell you’ve changed, and I don’t want to be what holds you back. You say you’ll be back in a week and… I trust you.”
I ignored the fearful beat in my heart, repeating the words to myself several times in my mind to hammer it in. I trusted Ben not to lie to me about this that he wouldn’t leave me and his daughter again.
Before he left, he leaned toward me with his arms opened wide, and I stepped into them willingly, holding him tight for a moment. Then he turned his back to me, and he was gone.