Montana Cherries Read Online Free Page B

figure.”
    With those words, she headed out of the room. Ben caught Jenna’s fork shaking as she reached up and placed it on her plate, and Haley had slunk back in her seat, identical to her new friend. Gabe apologized to the room, his voice low and strained.
    “Well.” Max cleared his throat. He scratched at his neck, then cleared his throat again. “Before we lose anyone else, Gloria and I had something we wanted to say tonight.”
    Dani paused in her movements. She turned back to the table, and Gloria—who had to be well into her sixties—blushed. She took Max’s proffered hand.
    “No sense beating around the bush,” the elder Wilde stated. “Gloria and I are getting married.”
    Dani appeared speechless, while Gabe barked out a chuckle and a hearty “Congrats!” He slapped his dad on the back.
    “Congratulations,” Ben said from the opposite end of the table. “You’re a lucky man.”
    “Please.” Gloria let the word roll out as she smiled up at Max. Love shone across her face. “I’m the lucky one. I’ve been trying to tie this man down for years.”
    “Well, you finally caught me, darlin’.” Max kissed her hand, and she blushed again.
    Laughter and chatter filled the room, and Ben couldn’t help but keep an eye on Dani. She was laughing now, saying all the right things, but her expression had gone blank. Did she not like Gloria? The older woman certainly wasn’t like Michelle. She’d been nothing but pleasant company all evening. And she seemed to genuinely care for Max.
    “How about we do dessert and coffee in the family room?” Dani suggested. She quickly lined the saucers up on a serving tray while the rest of the adults filed into the connecting room. Ben, Jenna, and Haley remained sitting at the table.
    “Can I go back to Jenna’s room now?” Haley asked hesitantly.
    Dani looked around at the question, and at Ben’s seeking glance, she answered, “Don’t you want dessert?”
    Haley shook her head.
    “I don’t either,” Jenna mumbled. She didn’t look up from her plate.
    “Me either,” Ben decided on the spot. There were some weird dynamics going on in this household, and he hoped to help ease at least one of them. “How about you and I”—he spoke to Haley—“help Miss Dani clean up the dishes instead?” He’d heard other people refer to adults as “Miss” whoever around their kids. He hoped it was the right thing to do.
    Jenna nodded. “Can I help too? I like doing dishes.”
    “Of course,” Dani answered.
    She glanced at Ben, her gaze hanging on his for several seconds. The look in her eyes reminded him of the summer they’d first met. And the word he’d often thought to himself to describe it. Broken. It had been a year and a half since she’d lost her mother, and from everything he’d learned, the woman had walked on water. She and her daughter had been close, and Dani had taken the loss particularly hard.
    “Thanks,” she murmured now.
    He gave a small nod, wondering if she was remembering all the nights he’d stuck around back then to help clean up after dinner. He hadn’t done so at first, instead heading into town with Gabe each evening. But during the last week of that first summer, he’d been hit with the realization that Dani always cleaned up after them. By herself. And that hadn’t seemed fair.
    Their time in the kitchen had been the beginning of many conversations between them. Not that first week. He didn’t think anyone had ever offered to help, and she’d tried her best to send him out of the room each evening. But by the time he’d returned for Christmas, insisting once again that he would stick around for cleanup, the air in the room had eased.
    They’d talked while doing the dishes. And laughed. About mundane things at first, but by the next summer they’d been onto topics with more substance. Their hopes and dreams. College. Careers. Eventually, their mothers.
    He’d also started following her down to the small stretch of