23 – Second Impressions

Felicity got out of the car and stared up at the beautiful house with its pond and backdrop of evergreens. "Wow. This Riley knows how to live."

"Yeah," Ben agreed, coming around the car and taking her hand. They ascended the porch steps. Ben's knock on the door was answered by a great WWWOOOF! from within the house.

The door opened on a dark-haired young man hauling on the collar of the biggest German Shepherd Felicity had ever seen. The dog barked again, and the sound blasted out into the yard, echoing in the air. "DOWN, Max!" the man hollered.

The dog glanced at his owner, whined, and gave another half-hearted "Wuff" before backing away from the door.

The man held the door open with a chuckle. "Sorry. He gets a little excited and forgets his manners when company comes. I don't get many visitors out here in the sticks."

"Sure," Ben responded, stepping into the house with a cautious look at the huge dog. Felicity entered the house, and the man shut the door behind them.

Max wagged his tail furiously, every muscle twitching to come forward and greet the guests. "Sit," the man ordered. The dog gave him an impatient look and complied. The man held out his hand to Felicity, who stood nearer. "Riley Donagher. It's nice to meet you. Welcome to my place."

Felicity shook his hand. "Felicity Porter. It's nice to meet you, too. Thanks for having us over."

The man gave her a grin. His sky-blue eyes sparkled with humor. "Miss the chance to try my cooking on someone who cares? Never." He shook Ben's hand. "You must be Ben Covington. Nice to put a face to the name."

"Hey, how you doing?" Ben responded automatically. "This is some house."

"Thanks," Riley responded. "It's a rental. Comes with the job. I'm basically planning to work here forever, just so I can keep it."

Max gave a desperate whine, looking from his master to the visitors and back again. "All right, you big oaf. Be nice," Riley said.

The dog inched forward and shoved his nose under Ben's hand. Ben smiled and scratched him behind the ears. The dog's tail thumped on the hardwood floor and he closed his eyes in a look of sheer joy.

"I warn you. He's an attention hog," Riley added as Felicity came forward to pet the dog. "Why don't you guys come in and get comfortable? Dinner's almost ready."

Max trotted ahead into the large eat-in kitchen. The table was already set, and candles burned at either end. Caitlin stood at the counter putting the finishing touches on a salad. "Hi, guys. I'm glad you could come."

"Hey," Felicity and Ben said together. They gave each other a smile of amusement and sat down.

"What do you two like to drink?" Riley asked, moving to the fridge. "We've got water, milk, wine, just about every conceivable kind of soda…"

"Water's fine," Felicity said, petting the dog as he put his head on her knee. Max's tail swept the air. She looked down at the dog and laughed. "He's really sweet."

Riley pulled a pitcher of ice water from the fridge and brought it to the table to fill her glass. "Don't let him kid you. He can be a right pain in the posterior when he wants to, but he'll sit there all night if you keep petting him."

Felicity giggled at the dog's blissful expression and smiled up at Riley. "I don't mind. It's kind of sad living in a dorm where you can't have a pet."

Caitlin came to the table and set the salad bowl down. "I hope you two are hungry. There's enough food here for a small country. Riley's a firm believer in the 'more is better' theory."

Ben smiled and poured himself a glass of water. "It smells great. Do you need help getting anything on the table?"

"You just sit there and be your charming self," Caitlin ordered. "You're a guest." She moved back to the kitchen to get the chicken from the oven. The mouth-watering smell of roasted chicken wafted across the kitchen as she transferred the food to a platter.

"So…what have you been up to all this time?" Ben asked.

Caitlin brought the platter to the table, while Riley set the remaining dishes down. "Well," she said thoughtfully, "I finished up my high schooling, and went to university here in America for Parks and Rec, much like my accomplished cousin." She grinned at Riley. "He was very convincing about how exciting it is."

"Are you going to work here in Yellowstone?" Felicity wondered.

Caitlin shook her head. "Olympic National Park in Washington State. If you've never seen it, you have to go. It's breathtaking."

Riley started carving the chicken. "Tuck in, you two. We don't stand on ceremony."

Dishes passed around the table. Max laid at Felicity's feet in the hopes of further attention, which made her smile. Conversation and laughter flowed freely. When Ben offered to drive home, Felicity decided to have a glass of wine, after all. Coupled with the roasted chicken, it tasted wonderful. The chicken melted in her mouth. "Riley, your cooking is amazing. I wish I could say I cook this good."

"Uh-oh," Caitlin grinned, rolling her eyes.

Riley lit up. "Well, thank you. It's nice to have someone over who appreciates it," he added with an amused smirk at Caitlin.

"My cousin, the amateur chef. Why didn't you go to cooking school?" Caitlin groaned.

"I was a hair's breadth from it," admitted the man to his guests. "I've always juggled between a career in the outdoors and one as a chef."

"Sounds like me with art and medicine," commented Felicity, helping herself to some salad.

"Oh, you're an artist?" asked Riley, looking interested. "My mother used to paint. I have some of her work hanging in the den, if you'd like to see it."

"Yeah, I'd love that."

Caitlin propped an elbow on the table. "So, Ben. What have you been up to since high school? Do you see Kelly at all?"

Ben hunched his shoulders. "No. Not really, no."

Caitlin looked surprised. "Really? She used to talk about you all the time. I'd have thought you two would have dated—"

"Yeah, for a little while."

Felicity raised her eyebrows at Ben's obvious discomfort. "Who's Kelly?"

"Just this girl from high school we used to hang out with," Ben said, stabbing a forkful of chicken and shoveling it into his mouth.

Riley must have noticed Ben's reticence. "What medium do you work in, Felicity?"

Eager to change the subject and spare Ben whatever uneasiness he was having, Felicity answered, "Pastels, paints, graphite. Pretty much anything that can be done on flatwork."

"Well, if you get the chance to paint while you're at Yellowstone, you should definitely take it. Lots of artists come here. This place is made for painting."

"I'm noticing that. We probably won't have the time for it while we're here, but I've taken about a million pictures so that I can use them to paint from later," Felicity beamed.

- - - - -

After dinner, Caitlin got up to clear away the dishes. Ben offered to help while Riley led Felicity off to the den to see the artwork. Ben watched them go with a suspicious eye. He thought he'd picked up on a vibe from Riley of interest in Felicity. I could be wrong.

Then again, he could be right. It didn't sit with him any better than did the discomfort of spending an evening in close quarters with Caitlin. He'd liked her from the minute they met senior year in high school. Putting some dishes in the sink, he risked a glance at her. She still looked great. He felt his stomach tighten with residual attraction when she caught him looking and dimpled at him. Is this the way Felicity felt about me all that time? And I didn't give her the time of day? Nice going, Covington. What a jerk. He shook himself out of it and went to finish clearing away the table.

As he turned to go back to the sink with the last of the dishes, he was stopped dead by Caitlin standing right in front of him. "Hi," she smiled, taking hold of the stack of dishes in his hands.

Ben didn't let go.

She didn't, either. Her lips curled upward. "I, uh…I can take that."

"Sorry." He released them.

Her smile expanded into a grin. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He looked out the window over the sink. The setting sun cast a reddish-gold glow on the tops of the evergreens behind the house. "This place is incredible."

Caitlin set the dishes on the counter. "Why don't I give you the five-cent tour while they're talking art? Come on."

She led him through the sliding door to the back deck. Max, not to be denied a trip outdoors, darted through the open door with a "Wuff" and galloped down the deck steps into the huge yard. He shot across the lawn and into the woods.

"Don't worry about him. He stays close to home," Caitlin said when Ben gave the darkening woods a look of concern. "He's just being nosy out there."

The air was growing cool with the coming evening. Ben inhaled the scent of pine and cedar. "How can you not want to live here?"

She laughed and waved him along as they descended the deck and crossed the lawn. "I'm here enough that I ought to start renting a room," she admitted. They crossed the lawn and reached the edge of the trees. "My cousin's property runs from the pond on that side over to the unmowed field on the other, there. It goes back into the trees until it gets to a creek. It's nice for him, because he hates living on top of other people."

Max's excited barking distracted them from further conversation. "We better see what he's up to," the redhead laughed.

Ben followed her into the woods along a well-trodden path. The dog's barking got progressively louder until they saw him dancing around a tangle of bushes at the edge of the creek. The dog looked up at them and whined.

"What have you got?" Caitlin wondered, pulling the dog back from the shrubbery. "Sit. Stay." Max whined, but obeyed. Caitlin ducked to look into the bushes.

A second later she yelped and jumped back as a pair of grouse burst out of the bushes into the air. She barreled laughing into Ben, who grabbed her by the elbow to steady her. Max barked again and raced after the birds, disappearing once more.

"Sorry," she hooted. "I should have known better. Max has a bit of a bird problem." When Ben didn't let go of her elbow, she looked up at him.

Ben saw her eyes go soft in the dimming light filtering through the treetops. He dropped her elbow and shoved his hands in his back pockets. She'd never looked at him like that before. Is she…?

Caitlin smiled. "It's good to see you again, Ben." She glanced away with a quiet laugh, then back up to him. "Kelly was lucky to have dated you."

Kelly was a substitute for you, Ben thought. Then he thought about how things had ended up with Kelly. I was a complete jerk to her. He scuffed the ground with his sneaker. "I don't know about that."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I was just…stupid. I shouldn't have gone out with her. She was—She was nice, and I was just an idiot."

"I'm sure you didn't mean it," Caitlin frowned, putting a hand on his arm.

Ben shrugged awkwardly. "Can we just not talk about Kelly?"

Caitlin nodded. "Sure." She let her hand drop away from his arm and sighed. "You know, I missed you. I didn't realize how much I missed you."

Ben looked back at her. Her eyes were still soft with concern and affection. A whole slew of old emotions swept through him. Angry with himself, he cleared his throat. "I, um… Caitlin, I'm with Felicity."

The redhead's eyebrows shot up. He saw her blush. "Felicity? Oh… Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I'm such a dope. I should have known."

Still fighting with old guilts and attractions, Ben shook his head. "It's okay. I—I like you, Caitlin. I always did. I just…"

"Don't explain. I don't want you to explain," Caitlin interrupted, shaking her head and breaking into a smile at last. "Why don't we…just go back to the house and have a cup of coffee?"

"Sure," Ben smiled back, glancing through the trees toward the house.

"Well, she's really lucky, Ben Covington." Caitlin reached up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek at the exact moment Ben turned his head to look back at her, and their lips met. Surprised, and a little ashamed at the sudden rush of temptation, Ben froze in place and just let it happen. Caitlin stiffened with astonishment at first, but then he felt her relax and press forward against him. She raised her hand to his cheek, and for a few seconds Ben felt everything they might have had in high school, if he'd just gotten the nerve to ask her out.

Then she stepped back and let her hand fall. She searched his face for a moment, and then gave him a smiling, pensive look. "You know what? I think I kind of like being someone's missed opportunity." She hooked her thumbs in her pockets with an amiable grin. "How about that coffee?"

And then Ben realized just how important that kiss had been. He was transported back, not to high school, but to Sean's loft and the day Felicity had argued with him about going on the road trip. He felt her slipping away from him with every excuse she gave. No. Come with me. Don't back out on this! She kept talking, giving him explanations, putting words between them. Recklessly, Ben lunged forward out of his chair and kissed her. That kiss had blown through him like wildfire. Afterward, he'd felt stunned by it, by what he'd done in a single brash moment of action.

Of any of the chances that had come and gone in his life so far, that would have been the one he regretted missing the most. Ben smiled. Some choices were better left unmade. Others…well, he was glad he hadn't missed them.