That Rick Springfield song played through Mick’s mind… Jessie’s Girl … “And she's watching him with those eyes … And she's lovin' him with that body, I just know it … you know I wish I had Jessie’s girl.”  Yeah, he wished he had Bellini’s girl. He gave his head a shake.  God what was wrong with him?  He was 52 not some hormone enraged teenager.

“Yeah, he’s okay with holding off on doing her interview until after we talk to Paulson.”

“Great, give me a call as soon as you guys are able to talk with him.  I need this finished before her kids get back Saturday.”

Mick cringed as he hung up.  He was breaking all of the rules for a woman who barely knew he was alive probably because she was in love with another man.  He shook his head.  He was too old for this shit.

Chapter 14

Trust me

Friday morning began much as Thursday had.  Ben was up before dawn feeling less than rested.  On the one hand, he could get used to waking up with this woman in his arms and on the other hand, it would be better if she were naked and he wasn’t frustrated.  He dressed for his run, kissed Lane on the cheek, and headed out the door.

As he ran, he thought about how he was going to convince Lane and the Parker Kids to stay with him until the killer was safely behind bars.  Moreover, he wondered how, once he had them all under his roof, he would convince Lane to stay in his bed.  He laughed.  They weren’t even having sex and he was trying to figure out how to break things to her kids.

He’d had “the sex talk” with both Jake and Jamie years ago.  Jake had approached him three years ago shortly after he’d moved to Kansas.  It was Jake, who had told Ben the truth about Phillip Parker.  Lane had wanted all three kids to have a relationship with their father, but the three of them each had handled their father’s sexual orientation and his departure from the family differently.  Jake hadn’t felt he could have a talk about girls and sexual urges with a gay man and he had talked with Ben.  How Jake had made it through high school and his first three years of college still a virgin was beyond Ben.  Jake was a good-looking guy, he’d been an athlete in high school.  In Ben’s experience, girls were attracted to jocks.  From the discussion, Ben gathered that Jake had dated but actually had been too afraid to seal the deal.  Ben had talked about urges, how easy it was to confuse lust with love.  He’d told Jake that, ‘stop means stop’, ‘no means no, not maybe’, ‘sometimes maybe means no’ and most importantly, never have sex with a woman who was too impaired to say no or stop, and above all, never, never, never have unprotected sex because there are rules. Much to his own surprise, he’d repeated Fr. O’Connor’s speech about men wanting to marry virgins.  It was a year or so later when he sat Jamie down and a similar conversation had taken place.

However, there was a difference between talking to the Parker boys about their sex lives and talking to them about him and their mother.  Then there was Jess.  Jess was 5’ 4” of intense.  She’d called him after Memorial Day and told him in clear concise terms what she would do to him if he ever hurt her mother.  She knew where he worked and where he lived.  She’d reminded him that she knew the codes to his garage and alarm systems.  There would be no place where he could be safe. Then she said that when he least expected it, she would castrate him.  That’s exactly what she’d said; castrate him.  The only down side for her she had said was that she’d have to find someone else to act as her defense attorney.

Ben remembered the first time Jess had called him for help.  It was about six months after she’d come to Kansas. There was a guy that she’d gone out with who didn’t want to let her go.  She’d gone out with the guy only a couple of times and quickly decided he wasn’t anyone she wanted in her life.  He would wait near their house and follow her to school.  He’d wait outside school and follow her home.  He’d sit down the block and just stare at the house.  Either he wasn’t good at hiding or he wasn’t trying to hide.  The first day she let it go, but the second day when she saw his car waiting in the neighborhood, she’d called Ben.  He’d told her he’d take care of it.

He’d called the scrawny kid whose name was Nate.  He had invited the kid to have lunch at Bellini’s.  The whole city believes Bellini’s is a mob hang out and Ben wasn’t above using that to his advantage.  He met the kid in the parking lot and was greeted at the door by Enzo who addressed Ben as Mr. Bellini before escorting them to the Board Room.  Nate was about five feet seven inches tall, and might have weighed in at 130 lbs.  Ben was six feet four inches tall and weighed 210.  His size alone was intimidating to the kid.  After they sat, Ben explained that Jess was a close friend and he’d take it personally if anything happened to make Jess upset.  Just to be sure that Nate got the full idea, Ben made sure his father had come by the table.  Ben had stood and kissed his father on both cheeks being sure the kid knew that this was owner of Bellini’s and that Ben called him Papa.  There were no threats.  It was all accomplished by intimidation, but Nate never bothered Jess again.  Shortly afterward, Ben had talked with Lane about enrolling Jess in self-defense classes.

He laughed, if Jess castrated him, he’d have only himself to blame, first because he’d done something stupid enough to hurt her mother and second because it had been his idea to be sure she had the ability to do it.

He returned home, swam, showered, and dressed.  Lane still slept.  He stood watching her for a few minutes.  She looked so safe, so peaceful, so, well, right sleeping in his bed.  Ben bent and kissed her forehead and left for the office.

Lane slept in a little late even for her.  It was 9:15 a.m. when she awoke to the buzzing of her iPhone.

“Hello?”

“Lane? It’s Meg.  How are you?”

Lane sat up in bed and smiled.  “I’m fine, Meg.  How are you?”

“Good, I’m good.  I called your house first and didn’t get an answer.  I was a little worried that tall, dark and handsome had arrested you.  But then I remembered tall, dark and oh my God and knew that he would never let that happen.”

Lane laughed.  “No, Mick hasn’t arrested me.  And, you’re right, even if he does, Ben will never let anything happen to me.  So, what’s going on?”

“A package was delivered here from Evelyn.”

Evelyn Parker was Lane’s friend and ex-mother-in-law who was still living in Omaha.

“It’s probably for your birthday.  You know that she likes to send packages to the office so she can be sure there’s someone to receive them.  I could bring it by your house after work if you want.”

“No, that’s okay.  I’ll drop by the office later today and pick it up.  Meg, I have some things to do today, so I might not be there until after five o’clock. Would you lock it in my office?”

Lane called Babs Edwards’ office and was pleasantly surprised to find that she could see Babs at eleven o’clock.

Lane got up, showered, and dressed in jeans, a sleeveless cotton blouse, and sandals.  She called Ben to let him know that she was able to get in to see Babs.

Babs’ office was less than ten minutes from Ben’s house and Lane was there in plenty of time.  She was prepared to sit and wait.  After she’d given the receptionist her name, she took out her iPhone and opened her e-reader app.  She hadn’t even read three pages when Babs approached her.  Babs who was in her mid-fifties was five feet nothing in her bare feet, so she had a tendency to wear very high heels.  Today she was wearing a vivid red suit and platform pumps that had 5” heels.  She was still almost half a foot shorter than Lane.

When they were in Babs’ office, Lane hugged her and offered best wishes on her marriage.