“Of course, I did. It even works on humans, watch this. Lori, come!”
Laughing and playing along, I took a few steps toward Ben until we were face to face, then I reached up and kissed him on the lips. “Wow, you’re good.”
Ben’s smile was gone.
I pointed to his face. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“Yes, there is. You made that exact same face after we kissed at the animal center yesterday.” I blew into my hand and smelled it. “Is it my breath?”
“No . . .” Ben hesitated. “That was the sixth time we kissed and—”
“You’ve been counting our kisses?”
Ben shrugged. “Well, yeah . . . Anyway, this is going to sound completely ridiculous, but I want to initiate a kiss. Just once. Soon.”
I hadn’t realized I had initiated every single kiss between us.
I laughed. “Is this one of those macho-man things? Does it matter who kisses who?”
“No, it doesn’t, but just let me get one in there on my own, okay?”
I sighed. “Fine, but maybe we should be more worried about Kyle than who kisses who first.”
Ben shook his head. “I told you . . . he won’t be able to say anything if our ratings keep going up and our listeners love us. Let’s not worry about that right now. Come in.” He waved me in. “Mi casa es tu casa.”
I smirked. “Gracias.” I walked by him and stopped in the living room.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Ben asked. “I’m having orange juice, but I’ve got everything.”
I nodded. “OJ sounds great—thank you.”
“Coming right up.”
I plopped myself down on the comfy sofa and set my purse on the table, watching as Ben went to the kitchen with Bob Barker right at his side.
“Wow, he really likes you. You’re like the pack leader.”
Ben pulled the juice out of the refrigerator and grabbed two glasses from the cupboard, setting them both on the counter. “He’s been like that since he got here yesterday. Wherever I go, he goes.” Ben reached down and scratched Bob Barker on the head.
There was something about seeing the gentler side of Ben that made my heart melt even more. It was so endearing the way Ben looked at the dog.
Crazy, but it was the same way he looked at me.
Ben came back to the living room and handed me the glass of juice, clinking his glass with mine. “Cheers.”
I smiled. “Cheers.” I took a sip of the juice.
Ben slid onto the loveseat across from me, and Bob Barker immediately jumped on his lap. “This is ridiculous. I have a sixty-five-pound lap dog.”
The dog laid his head on Ben’s lap.
“What’s Bob’s story?” I asked.
“His owner moved to Europe, couldn’t take him along. That’s it.”
I smiled. “Now, he’s got you. Have you had dogs before?”
Ben nodded. “Just one. My ex has him now.”
It was never fun or recommended to talk about your exes, but technically we were talking about the dog, not the former woman in his life.
“Oh . . . that must have been hard.”
“The breakup with the dog was a hundred times harder than the breakup with the woman.” He chuckled as Bob Barker rolled over and sprawled out across the loveseat and Ben’s lap. “Can you believe this? Make yourself at home.” He grinned. “I guess he likes it here.”
I glanced around Ben’s house. “How long have you lived here?”
“Almost ten years. I bought the place from my Grandpa Wayne after my grandma died.”
I nodded. “And it was already yellow when you moved in?”
“No. I painted it yellow.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
I took another sip of my orange juice and set it down on the table. “I don’t know . . . it’s just . . . you keep surprising me. Don’t get me wrong, I mean that in a good way.” I stood and walked over to the shelves that lined the wall from the floor to the ceiling.
Ben had so many books, DVDs, and—
I pointed to the three shelves of albums. “What are those?”
“You know what they are.”
“Does this mean you have a record player?”
“That I don’t have.” Ben shrugged. “It broke many years ago.”
I thought about it for a moment. “So, why don’t you get rid of the albums then?”
“I don’t know. They’re cool. They’re a part of history. The world’s history. My history.”
I nodded and flipped through the albums, suddenly stopping. “Wait a minute!” I pulled out a Righteous Brothers album and turned it in his direction. “You always give me a hard time about my love songs and you have the Righteous Brothers on your shelf?”
Ben pointed to the album. “Hey—there’s nothing silly about that album. That’s a classic.”
My phone sounded in my purse, letting me know I got a text.
A few seconds later, Ben’s phone on the counter beeped, too.
He glanced at me. “That was scary. Do you think that was a coincidence?”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
“Off,” Ben commanded.
Bob Barker jumped off his lap to the floor and waited.
Ben hopped up and grabbed his phone from the counter, checked it, nodding. “Interesting.”
“What?”
“It’s from Kyle. He got the Weeklies in.”
I held my breath. “And?”
Ben looked up and grinned. “We have the number one morning show in San Diego!”
“That’s amazing!” I lunged forward and hugged Ben, kissing him hard on the lips.” I pulled back, remembering that he wanted to kiss me first. “Oops. Sorry about that.”
Ben grabbed my waist with both hands and pulled me tight against his body. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll have plenty of time to work on that since Kyle won’t be able to do a thing now. What is he going to do? Fire the number one radio show in San Diego just because we like each other? Not gonna happen.”
Both of our phones sounded again.
I arched an eyebrow. “Another text from Kyle?”
“Most likely.” Ben glanced down at his phone again. “Nope. This one is from Randall, the general manager. There’s a mandatory staff meeting tomorrow morning. Steve is flying in from Dallas.”
“What’s the meeting for?”
“He didn’t say, but Steve only comes to town when there’s something big happening.”
His phone sounded with another text, but mine didn’t.
“Randall again?”
He shook his head. “No, this one is from Dan.” He continued to stare at the message, his forehead creased.
“Anything important?”
“Huh?” He looked up and shook his head. “Oh. No. It’s just Dan.” He glanced at the phone again, and then slid it into his pocket. “Bob Barker has to pee. How about a little walk?”
I nodded. “Sounds nice.”
Along our walk around the block, I thought about how my life had pretty much done a one-eighty over the course of just a couple weeks. I went from having the number one radio show at night to the number one show in the morning. I said goodbye to a man who didn’t give a squat about me, and hello to someone who was one of the most generous people I have ever met.