Homecoming

Ben & Liana

"Your daddy's coming home." Ben heard Liana whisper to her belly, as he stood silently in the doorway to the bedroom.

"His daddy's here." He spoke the words quietly and deliberately.

"Ben!" Liana whirled around on the stool in front of her dressing table.

She ran into his arms, laughing and crying at the same time. "You told me it'd be tomorrow!"

"Wanted to surprise you, darlin'." He held her, running his hands up and down her back and over that soft, beautiful hair that he loved so much.

He'd been unsure of his welcome. They had never once spoken of what his 'business' in the States had been, but he'd known that she knew. She could read him the way no other woman ever had. Ben had always had a talent for reading other people, but the knowledge that someone could read him, especially a woman, had startled him, made him wary.

Now, as he held her away from him enough to look into her eyes, he saw the tears there. The worry she'd been feeling for him. And her loneliness.

Pulling her close again, he wondered at all of it. All this for him? Before Liana, Ben had never been close enough to another person to worry about them. His own concern for her had surprised him enough. He found her concern for him almost unbelievable.

Still holding his wife, he thought back to the other night--the blonde woman named Linda that he'd used to satisfy his needs. Couldn't imagine her, or any woman like her, crying this way for him.

Liana stepped back, wiping her eyes and laughing a little. "You must be exhausted. And hungry. I'll go down to the kitchen and make something for you."

Stopping her, Ben swept her up into his arms. "What I'm hungry for ain't in the kitchen, honey."

Laying her gently on the bed, he placed one large hand on her belly. She was six months along now. Beautiful as ever in his mind.

"It okay with you if your mama and I have a little reunion?" He spoke to her belly and she laughed.

"He says it's fine," Ben told her with a teasing look in his eyes.

"I'm glad he approves." Liana slid her arms around his neck, taking him with her to the mattress.

"He's learning to mind his daddy early." Ben kissed her thoroughly, already getting rid of her nightgown.

"Don't we all?" she murmured softly.