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  Saving Ben

  ASHLEY H. FARLEY

  Copyright

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 Ashley Farley

  All rights reserved.

  Dedication

  For Neal

  Ashley H. Farley

  Ashley Farley was born and raised in South Carolina. She currently lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and two teenage children. This is her first novel.

  Visit Ashley’s website and blog at www.ashleyfarley.net

  One

  New Year’s Day

  I saw them from my upstairs bedroom window. A single set of footprints in the snow, leading to Emma’s car in the driveway and then around the house toward the cove. Other than a family of deer munching on the evergreen shrubs out by the road, the only sign of life was a cardinal nestled in the holly tree in front of me, his blood-red feathers a sharp contrast to the white landscape.

  I stumbled down the hall and up the stairs to my parents’ room. I tapped on the door and peeked in, expecting to find my brother curled up with his more-off-than-on-again girlfriend in our parents’ king-size bed.

  I shook him. “Ben, Ben, wake up.”

  He peeked at me through one eye. “Go away, Kitty,” he said, pulling the covers up over his head.

  “Gladly. But first tell me where Emma is.”

  An arm appeared from beneath the blanket and patted the empty bed beside him. He scrambled into a sitting position. “What’s going on?” he asked, surveying the room.

  “I’m not sure, but you’d better come look.”

  He untangled his body from the sheets and followed me over to the bank of windows that offered a panoramic view of Carter’s Creek. “I didn’t know it was supposed to snow,” he said, holding his hand in front of his eyes to shield them from the glare of the early-morning sun.

  “It was snowing at midnight. Don’t you remember?”

  He shook his head, his expression blank. The memory was dim for me as well, but I wasn’t ready to admit that just yet.

  “Look.” I pointed at the footprints leading across the snow-covered lawn and down the hill to the deserted dock.

  “Damn.” He blinked several times. “Whoever went out on that dock did not come back.”

  “Duh, Ben. And I’d be willing to bet those footprints belong to Emma.”

  Ben rubbed his eyes as if to clear the haze of last night’s drink. “I can’t remember anything that happened after midnight. Did she come to bed when I did?”

  Biting back the tears, I shrugged. I had long since exceeded the limits of what most sane people would do to protect their siblings. The experience of a missing girlfriend was just another episode in our continuing drama.

  Two

  Sixteen Months Earlier

  With barely a glance in the rearview mirror, Ben whipped his Land Cruiser across two lanes of interstate traffic and sped down the exit ramp toward Route 250. He came to a rolling stop at a red light before peeling out in front of a stream of oncoming cars.

  “Damnit, Ben.” I braced myself against the dashboard. “If you’re going to drive like a maniac, pull over and let me out.”

  “Why are you in such a bad mood today?” His arm shot out toward me, and before I could defend myself, he gave me a noogie, grinding his knuckles on top of my head. “Are you still upset with Mom and Dad for not coming with us?”

  “Hardly. What really upsets me is that they trusted their daughter’s life to a lunatic. Will you please slow down? I’d rather not die before I’ve had a chance to spend at least one night as a college student.”

  Grinning, he flipped me the bird.

  “Right back at you, pal.”

  “Seriously, though, have you ever known our parents to miss out on a social event for our benefit?” When I shook my head, he added, “We’ve always done fine without them. the only thing that’s changed is the venue.”

  “Exactly. Nothing has changed. That’s what worries me,” I admitted. “In your mind, Ben, there’s a fine line between watching my back and being my bodyguard.”

  “Hold on a minute,” he said, lifting his hands off the steering wheel in surrender. “I thought we were talking about Mom and Dad. Why are you attacking me?”

  “Because you need to back off a little and let me have some fun.”

  “Since when have I ruined your fun?” he asked.

  “Every time a guy comes within a hundred yards of me.”

  “Oh . . . I see how it is. We’re talking about Jack Briscoe again. That guy was a punk, Kitty. You should thank me for saving you from social embarrassment.”

  “Maybe so. But what about Brad Miller? He’s your friend.”

  “Which is why I didn’t want you to go out with him.” Ben smiled his gotcha grin at me, but dropped it when he saw I was serious. “Okay, look. Lighten up. I get your point.”

  “Then I’m counting on you to give me some space. I’m in college now. You need to respect that.”

  He let out a deep breath of resignation, giving in another fraction of an inch in our long-standing battle over my freedom.

  We turned onto Emmet Street and entered the main part of the University of Virginia campus. We stopped at a crossing walk and waited while a mob of people passed in front of us. Most were parents out exploring with their first-year students, helping them locate the bookstore and Alderman Library and the student center at Newcomb Hall. I envied them their perfect families.

  I cast a nervous glance at Ben and he winked back at me, reassuring me everything would be okay. Despite my apprehension I wanted to believe him. The past few years had been difficult for me, and while I’d learned to be resilient, the toughness was only as deep as my skin. And even that was fragile like the shell of a bird’s egg protecting the soft gooey center that made up my core.

  As the last of the herd of people in front of us approached the sidewalk, a woman turned and waited for her daughter to catch up. The daughter towered over her mother by at least four inches, but she was her clone in every other way, dark hair and skinny frame. The woman grabbed the girl’s hand and squeezed, her face softening with love for her daughter. I imagined the tearful parting between the two of them, in a few hours, when the mother left to go home alone without her baby girl.

  Meanwhile, my mother was spending the day on the golf course.

  But I didn’t need my mother to hold my hand and offer me a guided tour of the university. I already knew my way around. I’d visited Ben several times during the past two years for football games and lacrosse games and once to hear Kenny Chesney at the John Paul Jones Arena.

  The University of Virginia had never been my first choice of colleges. My primary objective in looking at schools was to get as far away as possible from my mother and anything that resembled my life in Richmond. Not that my first choice, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was on the other side of the planet; it was at least in a different state, and the anonymity of existing on a campus with nearly thirty thousand other students appealed to me. Unfortunately, my application to their nursing program didn’t appeal to their admissions counselors.

  I’d taken my brother’s advice and requested to live in Fairfield Hall where he’d lived as a freshman. One of ten dorms available to first-year students in the McCormick Road Residence Area, Fairfield was an antiquated building that made up for in popularity and location wha
t it lacked in modern conveniences. But unlike my brother, instead of living with a friend, or a friend of a friend, I’d taken my chances on the roommate lottery. And it appeared as though I’d hit the jackpot, at least as far as I could tell from a social network page.

  I’d friended Emma Stone on Facebook the minute I received my assignment. She appeared to possess the qualities that would make her a good roommate. She was a community volunteer and the salutatorian of her graduating class, she had 587 friends, and she was pretty in a way that rendered Ben clumsy and me speechless the first time we set our eyes on her.

  She was in our dorm room, unpacking, wearing a pair of soft-pink Soffe shorts and tennis shoes with a cropped white T-shirt that exposed a good portion of her tanned belly. Her hair was blonde, nearly white from the sun, and her eyes were clear blue like the Caribbean Sea. She had a tiny diamond stud in her nose, so small at first glance I thought it was a blackhead.

  “Um . . . hi. I’m Katherine,” I managed, grinning and waving like a kindergartner on our first day of school. When Ben stumbled over his own feet and spilled a plastic container of towels and linens across the floor, I added, “And that klutz is my brother Ben.”

  Emma dumped an armload of clothes on the bed and drew me into a warm embrace. Despite the intense heat in our room, she smelled fresh, like a summer rose garden at dawn. “Welcome to our new home,” she said softly in my ear.

  “This isn’t a home. It’s an inferno,” I said, pulling away from her before she could get a whiff of my sweaty T-shirt. “Do you have allergies? Because the school will provide an air conditioner if you do.”

  Emma shook her head. “Does hay fever count?”

  Ben, the authority on all things UVA, offered his hand to Emma. “Nope. Allergies, asthma, and migraines are the only legitimate reasons to have an air conditioner.”

  “Well, fortunately,” Emma said, smiling, “or I guess unfortunately in this case, none of those apply to me.”

  Ben shrugged. “Then it’s lucky for y’all that we’re in the mountains. It’ll start to get cool here at night in a few weeks. In the meantime, take lots of cold showers and stand in front of your fan.”

  “Naked?” Emma asked, batting her mascaraed eyelashes at him.

  A smile crept across Ben’s lips. “Now we’re talking. Be sure to invite me to the viewing.”

  “Too bad I forgot to bring a fan,” Emma said, winking at me.

  “No worries. Kitty brought at least one of everything.”

  “Kitty?” Emma asked.

  I glared at Ben and he backpedaled. “Oh shit, I forgot. Sorry. She doesn’t like to be called that.”

  Emma flashed a sympathetic smile at me. “And who can blame her? I’m a dog person myself.”

  “It’s not that I dislike the name—all of my friends call me that—I just prefer Katherine.”

  “And I like Katherine,” she said. “The name is strong, like a leader. Catherine the Great.”

  Ben unscrewed the cap from his bottle and swallowed half the Gatorade in one gulp. “Katherine the bitchy boss would be more accurate in my sister’s case.”

  “You’re right, big brother. And this bitchy kitty is going to run you up a tree if you don’t finish helping me unpack.”

  Our room was tiny, like a jail cell with cinderblock walls and a tiled floor, but with Emma and Ben sharing the same space, it seemed even smaller. After every load he hauled up to the room, he lingered longer and longer to check his text messages or offer helpful hints for surviving life in the freshman dorm. Emma couldn’t take her eyes off his six-pack abs when he pulled his shirttail up to wipe the sweat from his forehead any more than he could keep from staring at her long tanned legs when she bent over to tuck the fitted sheet under her mattress. Their chemistry, thick and funky with their scents, charged the air.

  It was close to five o’clock when Ben dropped the minifridge at the foot of my bed and announced, “Thank God, that’s the last of it. I hear a cold beer calling my name.”

  I glanced around the room for my purse. “If you give me a minute, I’ll come with you to help you unload your stuff.”

  Ben waved me off. “Forget about it, Kitty. I’ll get some of the guys at the KO house to help me unload.”

  “Now we’re talking.” Emma arched her back and pressed her perky breasts front and center. “Cold beer and fraternity boys. What more could one want?”

  Ben ogled her breasts in a way that left little doubt about what he wanted. “Yep, and we’re having a party tonight, if you’re interested,” he offered. “Great band. Citizen Cope. Everyone’s invited.”

  I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him across the room. “Thanks for the invitation, but if we don’t get busy unpacking, we won’t make it to any party tonight—not yours or any of the other gazillion I’ve gotten e-mails about.” I opened the door and shoved him out. “Bye now.”

  Emma began folding T-shirts and placing them neatly inside her bottom drawer. “If you ask me, I’d say it’s pretty convenient to have a brother in the hottest fraternity on campus. I’m an only child. I’d give anything to have a brother. Any brother really, but especially one who’s so adorable. Just think of all the guys he can introduce you to.”

  “Ha. In Ben’s mind there’s not a guy in his fraternity, or anywhere on this planet, that is good enough for me.”

  Emma kicked her drawer shut. “So he’s overprotective, is he? I think that’s sweet.”

  “It is sweet.” In one quick sweep, I raked all the junk piled on my bed to the floor “As long as he can be open-minded if and when I meet a guy I really like.”

  “Must be nice to have someone care about you like that,” she mumbled loud enough for me to hear.

  An awkward silence filled the room. “Anyway. Enough about Ben. We need to decide what we’re going to do with all this mess.”

  Emma leaned back against her dresser and crossed her arms, the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “In case you haven’t noticed, new roomie, most of this so-called mess is yours.”

  My eyes followed hers around the room. In addition to the mountain of pillows and comforters I’d just swept to the floor, a stack of hanging clothes was draped over my dresser and my desk was piled high with binders and packages of pens, a printer, my laptop, and my iHome. Emma’s side of the room, on the other hand, was empty except for a patchwork quilt on her bed and a digital alarm clock on her desk.

  “I guess I got a little carried away. I had a hard time deciding what to bring, so I just brought it all.”

  Emma let out a little laugh and I joined her.

  “I would’ve brought more stuff too if there’d been enough room in the car,” she said. “The guy I rode with drives a Mini Cooper, if you can believe that?”

  “Not only do I believe that, I applaud him for saving our planet’s natural resources. Where I come from, any car that has fewer than seven seats and gets more than fifteen miles per gallon is considered worthless.” I spread my arms wide. “Clearly I have enough to decorate three dorm rooms. Why don’t we share?”

  Her smile faded a little, enough to make me worry I’d offended her, but she quickly composed herself. “I think that’s a great idea,” she said, rummaging through my mountain of PB teen accessories.

  “But before we do anything, we need to cool it down some in here.” I opened the door and placed my box fan in the window to allow for circulation. “That’s better. The air is still hot, but at least it’s moving.”

  Emma joined me at the window and together we stared down at the people moving around on the sidewalks below. “I’m not sure any excuse is reason to miss out on your daughter’s first day of college. But my father is an English professor. His classes started this morning.”

  She didn’t ask outright, but the question regarding my parents’ whereabouts hung in the air between us like the humidity. No way was I going to admit my parents were playing golf. “I didn’t realize there was a college in Altoona,” I said instead.


  She nodded. “Penn State, Altoona.”

  “Wow. So I’m guessing your father started building your vocabulary at birth. Did you get a perfect score on your SAT?”

  “Not quite but almost.” Emma’s cheeks reddened and she quickly changed the subject. “Just look at them.” She pointed at the sidewalk below. “How embarrassing for those poor parents to be hugging and slobbering all over their little darlings.”

  “You know they’re dreading the long journey home to face their empty nests.” I jabbed my elbow in her side. “Think of all the pain and heartache we saved our rents.”

  “Yeah. Besides, mine are old-fashioned. They would never have left me here to live in the same building with men.”

  I pointed my thumb at my chest. “My parents have a special talent for blowing hot air, which is the last thing we need in this hundred-degree heat.”

  “At least your parents blow something. Mine are as cold as icebergs,” she said, the bitter tone in her voice contradicting her smile.

  “Our parents are the ones who missed out.” I draped my arm loosely across my roommate’s shoulders. “And if we don’t get started on this room, we’re going to miss out too—on our first night of college.”

  For the next two hours, we scattered rugs and hung curtains and strung strands of white icicle lights along the perimeter of the ceiling. We were hot and sweaty and in desperate need of a shower, but by the time we finished, we had transformed our room into a cozy and inviting home.

  “Now for the difficult decision.” I opened the door to my closet. “What does one wear to a fraternity party?”

  Emma joined me and together we flipped through my clothes. “Ooh . . . this is pretty.” She removed a black sleeveless top with a low-cut ruffled neck. “I’m digging your taste.”

  “My mother’s taste, actually.”