Hometown Boy

Chapter 7

Alex Roe as Coulter! Careful you don't get lost in those blue eyes. I am a sucker for guys with eyes that hue.

​Coulter stared down at the little boy and slowly knelt down so that they were eyelevel. "Hi there, Benji," he said gruffly, his voice cracking slightly.

Benji stared at him a moment and then walked over to Eliza and held out his arms. When he was settled on her hip, his head tucked into her neck, but his eyes still glued to Coulter, Eliza asked, "You remember Coulter right, baby?"

Benji stared at her but then managed a small nod. Eliza felt her heart soar. He rarely gave any indication he had ever even heard her, so the few times he responded, she made sure to praise him for it. "Good!" she exclaimed, "Well, he came to check on us."

Benji seemed satisfied with that explanation and wiggled in her arms to be put down. Without a backwards glance, he took Eliza's hands and tugged her to the living room. Coulter trailed behind them, looking lost, and confused. Benji climbed on the couch, pulling on Eliza until she sat down so he could climb on her lap and cuddle up. Coulter looked at the pillow fort, a small smile appearing on his face. "Pillow fort?" he asked, pulling the blanket off the armchair.

Lightening flashed outside and both Benji and Coulter jumped as the sound of thunder rolled across the air. "He likes to cuddle before he falls asleep," said Eliza softly, gently stroking Benji's hair.

Coulter nodded, his arms aching to hold the little mute child as he watched him fall asleep on Eliza's chest. Rain settled in as the two sat quietly talking until Eliza felt satisfied that Benji was fast asleep. "Can I?" asked Coulter, when Eliza started to move.

"Sure," hesitated Eliza, hating to say no to the simple request.

With two strides, Coulter was across the room and gently lifting Benji into his arms. Slowly, with Eliza guiding him, they made their way up the stairs and into Benji's room. Coulter took note of the calming blue walls with sailboats painted on them. It was a simple room with a neat little twin white-bedframe bed underneath the small window. The room itself was fairly neat and Eliza was thankful she had picked up his toys and put them away earlier. She had anticipated the power outage and knew all too well the pain of stepping on a lego, or worse the metal Tow-mater that Ken had gifted Benji for his birthday.

After setting up the baby monitor that she still kept for when she was downstairs, Eliza quietly made her way out of the room, beckoning Coulter to follow her, the receiver in her hand. He looked questioningly and she held up the monitor and said, "He has bad nightmares. Besides it's storming really badly tonight."

Coulter winced. "I feel his pain," he murmured.

A particularly strong gust of wind shook the house and a branch of the oak tree out back scraped eerily against the back roof. Once in the living room, Coulter stood awkwardly looking around fidgeting with his keys in his pocket of the borrowed pair of her men's shorts she had once long ago stolen from her brother. The lost look on his face didn't go unnoticed either as Eliza observed him from where she was slowly putting the room back together. He shuffled his feet and then spoke. "I guess I should go."

"You don't have to," she answered matter-of-factly, "It's really bad weather outside and the air mattress should give you a good enough place to sleep."

He ran one hand over his head in a move Eliza expected he made when he had longer hair and could tug on it when he was thinking about something. "Are you sure?" he finally asked.

Eliza shrugged, her heart pounding. He absolutely should not stay the way her eyes couldn't stay off of him, but there was no way she was turning him loose on the roads with the weather acting up like it was. He would never make it home. With the amount of rain they were experiencing it wouldn't be long and the river would be flooding and there would be no way to get into town anyway. "I think you should. There's no way anyone should be driving as nasty as it is outside."