Caleb was waiting outside Elizabeth's room. He figured Ben would surface at some point and he had reached the point where he could no longer ignore how sad Elizabeth was. Caleb missed Lukas too but this ran far deeper.
He didn't need to wait long as Ben left the room only a few minutes later. When Ben saw Caleb, his cheeks flushed and he looked at his friend curiously.
"You weren't listening?" Ben asked almost too cautiously.
"No," Caleb responded. "What's going on between you and my cousin is between the two of you. But I just wanted to know if there is anything we can do." Ben nodded and then indicated for Caleb to walk with him away from Elizabeth's door.
"How did you do that?" Ben asked Caleb.
"Do what?" Caleb returned.
"Get her to open up like that," Ben answered and paused. "My father was right." Caleb raised an eyebrow at Ben.
"Right about what?"
"My father said that she wouldn't be the same as when we left and I knew that seeing her but he also said the only way we could help her was by being patient and helping her together," Ben told him.
"Well, he wasn't wrong," Caleb observed. "So what are ya going to do?" Ben blushed a little.
"I was worried it may be going too far and would scare her away…" he thought aloud. He pulled out a small box he had been concealing. When they were in Setauket he had made a quick visit to his childhood home to retrieve something special.
A few weeks after his mother had died, his father had given him the wedding ring that his mother had worn.
"Give it to the right person," his father had advised.
"I don't know if that will ever happen," Ben had answered.
"I think maybe it already has," the Reverend said. Ben pondered what he said. "Be patient," was his father's advice.
He hadn't made the connection immediately but he knew that if he was going to propose to Elizabeth, it was going to be with his mother's ring.
"Oh, Benny Boy, it's perfect," Caleb laughed.
"It was my mother's," Ben added.
"She will love it," Caleb assured his friend.
"Do you think she's ready?" Ben asked. He had worried so much about what her response would be.
"I think only you can know that," Caleb said sounding rather philosophical. Ben nodded in agreement.