Forest Point Ben And Izzy Pt 03

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and it was created solely by me as the author. All characters are over the age of 18. Any similarities to characters, businesses, places, or things are all happenstance, though my appreciation to those who have

inspired

my works is immense.

Author's Note:

This is the third part of more to come in a series I believe many of you will enjoy. It's a nice buildup into the hot and heavy scenes, but, as usual, my stories are STORIES, so many details make for fun, exciting, and interesting plot lines. Please remain calm in awaiting the next installment, but I assure you, it'll be worth it.

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Recap

: "I'm not sure what's going on, but I have to go make sure they're alright," Ben explained. Izzy stared down at the bed. She couldn't look at him or she'd break down for sure. "I'll, um, I'll text Brad to keep you all updated."

He'll text Brad? Not me?

she thought incredulously and scoffed quietly. She wanted to ask a million questions, but she nodded instead. He hesitated before leaning down to kiss the top of her head and out the door he flew. She was baffled.

Forest Point: Ben & Izzy - pt. 03

The feelings Izzy had at that very moment were incomprehensible, but they were definitive at the same time. She could not process how quickly he'd abandoned her, and it wasn't even about her! Sure, there was concern about his grandparents, and Izzy worried greatly for them, but he'd abandoned her! Did he even for one second consider having her accompany him? Izzy took a deep breath and let it out. She got up and put some clothes on until she was ready to handle the ideas swarming through her head.

She collected her things and began packing them. If she stayed, she'd be depressed and have the worst time, so she decided the best course of action was to find a way to get to town to rent a car to drive home. The sooner she could get out of there, the better. She packed and gathered all the towels and sheets needing to be washed left in a pile as had been instructed by Carol from the beginning. When she was sure the room was empty of everything of hers, she put her bag on her shoulder, picked up her suitcase with one hand, and grabbed the gift basket with all the collected candles and flower petals tossed into it as well.

Once Carol had confirmed that she could have Izzy taken to town to get a rental, Izzy texted Emma and told her she had to go due to an emergency. She assured her that she was going to be fine and wished them a great remainder of their vacation. She then texted Brad telling him there was an envelope in his top drawer which she needed him to give to Ben. She requested that he not ask questions or tell Emma (she felt awful asking him to keep that secret from her) and to please just give it to him and leave well enough alone.

Izzy wrote Ben a note and placed the ring she'd received the day before in an envelope with the note before sticking it where she'd told Brad it would be.

Just before 9AM, she was on the road. By 9:05AM, she was sobbing profusely. She had a good eight hours of driving ahead of her, so she took each mile as it came and prayed God would get her home safely. Her heart was broken, and she could not grasp how so much had changed in a few short hours, let alone after one phone call from his sister.

***

Ben walked into the hospital and straight to the room as directed once he'd gathered what information he could get about where his grandparents were located. When he saw that there were only a few scrapes and an arm in a sling, he thanked God that his grandparents were alive and fine. But then it hit him. Why were they still in the hospital?

"Well! Bennett, the third, what

are

you doing here?" his grandmother asked as she got up to hug him. She kept looking past where he was standing and then tilted her head. "Why isn't your Izabella with you? Didn't she want to come?" But then it hit her. "Oh, Ben," she stated sadly. "You left her there, didn't you?"

Ben watched his grandma as she processed everything as she spoke it aloud.

What?

Why would Izzy have come with him?

"Ben," his grandfather called to him as he sat in the bed, though fully dressed, "why are you here?"

"Carolyn called me this morning and told me you'd been in a car accident," Ben explained. "She didn't know details, but she knew that since I was the closest to you, that I was the one who should come make sure you got home safely. I wish she would have called when this happened. Why are you guys still here if you're only three hours away from where we met up?"

"We could have been discharged last night," Grandad admitted.

"Not that we were ever

ad

mitted," Gram clarified. "It's just a few bumps and bruises. He kept trying to use his arm which is sprained, so the nurse finally made him wear the sling to keep it in place." Gram rolled her eyes as she said it. "They let us just stay the night and said we could leave today. Our car hardly has any damage, but it was the hit that bumped

us

up more than the car."

When Gram's phone rang, she quickly answered it. "Well, hello, Carolyn. Yes, he's here. Well, that was nice of you, I suppose, but you know he was on vacation. Well, that's unfortunate because we won't be needing him to drive us home. We're fine. It was a minor thing which is why we didn't call you. No, we are sending him right back to finish out his week. What do you mean? Carolyn Michelle, what did you do?"

"Uh-oh," Grandad muttered and shook his head. "I think we know what's coming next."

"Well, shame on you. No,

you

listen. You had no right to do that. Carolyn! Stop it right now. You didn't see it. You should not be meddling where you don't belong. He is an adult, and while you claim to think that you had good intentions, you knew... you

knew

that he would drop everything, especially at that time of the day with little to no information, and run to make things right. I've watched you behave similarly to this before, but having witnessed something that I believe you may have just botched up completely, well, I just can't stand by and watch anymore. I am very disappointed in you. You have crossed a line, and there is no going back. I'm sorry. I can't listen to you anymore. Good-bye."

When Gram pushed the red button on her screen, she let out a huff and shook her head. "Headstrong, stubborn, pig-headed, mean,

mean

one, that Carolyn is," she announced to the men in the room. "Excuse me," she offered and walked out most likely to collect her bearings.

Ben gave his grandfather an odd look and shook his head. "What was that about? What do you know?"

"Well, we told your father where we were going as we usually do when we make these short trips," Bennett explained. "Your grandmother excitedly told him that she'd been asked to bring the ring. She promised to get a good glimpse of your Izzy and to make sure that she seemed to be a good fit for you. Sure, not everything is easy to see from a short interaction, but the evidence was clear from the moment we sat behind you at Mass."

"I didn't even know you were there until the sign of peace," Ben admitted.

"Yes, but we watched you two carefully," Ben informed him. "I knew as I watched you putting your arm around her and the way she leaned into you that what you two had was one for the books. I can't tell you how utterly pleased I was when I saw that it was her, too. Gosh, what a beautiful surprise."

"She's amazing," Ben answered sincerely. "It's been an unbelievable five days."

"Yeah, about that," Bennett answered cautiously. "Um, the thing is, at least from what I could gather from your grandmother's phone conversation, Carolyn is playing her protective big sister role again as usual. I'm guessing that she caught wind from your father that you had intentions to give a girl you'd just met your grandmother's ring, and, naturally, Carolyn didn't take that news too well.

"Just as I would suspect from her, because your father never seems to see it, and you just know this is how she is in her protective ways, Carolyn waited to notify you until your most vulnerable time which was early in the morning, probably waking you from a sound sleep. When she gave you the news, even though the accident had been nearly 24 hours earlier, it only processed in your head that there had been an accident, and it was your responsibility to take care of us. She also knew that you'd panic and run alone rather than invite your special new friend to join you. And had you suggested it

to

Carolyn, she would have shot that down by claiming that this was a family matter and needed your immediately attention as soon as possible."

Ben sat and listened to his grandfather and then realized that everything he was saying was dead on. Even worse, he

had

simply walked out and hadn't even taken the time to explain or invite her or kiss her properly before he left. Wow, he had a lot of making up to do and fast.

"Are you sure you're OK to drive home?" Ben asked. "What about your arm?"

"Oh, it's fine," Bennett answered and waved off his concerns. "Gram would like to drive, actually, and I think I'm going to let her do half of it, especially if the arm gets to be too painful." Bennett shook his head. "I hope it's not too late, Ben. You packed up all your stuff, I imagine, since you planned to drive us home? How do you think that looked to her? Even with the news of our accident, vague as the details were, she wasn't going to want to stay there and wonder why you chose to abandon her. My guess is she's working on a way to go home. I'm sure that was Carolyn's plan all along."

"It was," Gram answered when she walked back in. "She admitted to it. But Ben, sweetheart. What were

you

thinking? Why didn't you invite her to come along? You know how we took to her and spoke so familiarly from just that one conversation. I'm sure she's worried sick about us."

"Here, I'll call her now and make sure to tell her the news," Ben offered as a means to fix things right there in front of them. He found her name and clicked on it to begin the call."

"Hi! You've reached Izzy Flowers. Please leave a message at the tone. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a blessed day!" her recording announced. Ben ended the call without leaving a message.

"Alright, if you guys promise to be safe and let me know when you get home," Ben requested, "I'm going to go back and fix things with her. I'm glad you're OK. I'll keep you posted."

"Good luck, son," Bennett offered and winced as Ben tried to carefully hug him.

"Go and get your girl," Gram encouraged and hugged him tightly.

Ben drove back to the resort figuring he could return the car with Izzy once things were fixed with her. He tried calling Izzy twice more, but it kept going straight to voicemail. "Dang it," he said aloud and banged on the steering wheel as he felt himself getting angry at himself for hurting her by just leaving that morning.

It was 1:30PM when Ben pulled up next to Carol's car at the resort. He ran inside without even grabbing his bags and flew past a few people standing just inside the door to head up to the room he shared with Izzy. It hadn't even occurred to him to check to see if she was one of the people down in the living room. When he opened the door to their room, he stopped dead in his tracks and gasped.

"She's gone," Emma informed him quietly as she stood in the doorway about 15 seconds later. "She texted that she'd had an emergency and had to leave. What happened, Ben?"

"Um, here," Brad told Ben as he stood behind Emma. "She left this for you." Ben's heart sank when he felt the ring inside the envelope.

"What's that?" Emma whispered and then turned to look back at Ben. "Where'd that come from?"

"She left it in my top drawer and texted to ask me to give it to him," Brad explained. "Come on. Let's leave him alone."

"But Brad!" Emma argued as they walked away from the room down the stairs. "What if it tells what the emergency was?"

Ben opened the envelope and read the note which had been left for him. He shook the ring out of the envelope for it to land in his hand. "Dammit." He'd really hoped it wasn't the ring. He read the message and watched with each word confirmation of his stupidity and neglect coming to fruition.

"I'm sorry you felt you had to leave me. Gosh, I would have loved to be there for you. I realize now that I'm not what you need in your life. Take care, Ben. I will always remember our time together fondly. - Izzy"

Ben brought his numb self down to the main floor and found Emma. "Let me know if you need any more money to offset the rest of the vacation costs. I'm going to catch up to my grandparents and bring them home." He turned to Brad. "I can't talk about it, but if you want the details, contact my dad. He'll fill you in."

"You got it, buddy," Brad assured him and patted his back. "Are you sure, though. Maybe just..."

"I'll see you guys later," Ben interrupted and then looked around. "It really was the best vacation. Thanks for everything, Emma." With that, Ben walked out the door and headed for the car. He didn't look around at the surroundings which had been the backdrop for the best time he'd ever had in his life until that morning. He didn't want to look at the firepit they hadn't used yet or at the hot tub where he'd last made love to Izzy. He didn't look down at the lake to see the raft where he and Izzy had laid out in the sun and made out heartily that first full day they'd been there.

He got into the car and called his grandparents. "Any chance you guys haven't left yet?"

When Ben pulled up to the hospital, it was 5PM. He was exhausted, and both his grandparents saw it. They had thought they were going to leave sooner too, but paperwork and some miscommunication caused them to be delayed as well. They chose to stay in a hotel for the night and agreed to allow Ben to follow them all the way home as long as he got some good sleep. He was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

***

At 5PM, Izzy stood outside the car rental place and waited for her dad to pick her up to take her home. She had made good time on the road, but she was exhausted and planned to sleep as soon as she got home until whenever she woke up the next day. Other than making the call, she didn't check texts or messages at all. She simply turned on her phone, called her dad, and then turned it off again.

"Well, hello there, Busy," Izzy's dad greeted her when he got out of the car to help her load her luggage. He had regularly teasingly called her that because she was always, well...

busy

, and, of course, it went with Izzy. When he had heard that she was going to be gone for ten days on vacation, he told her he hoped he'd have a new nickname for her. Coming home on day six didn't help that matter any.

"Hi, Dad," Izzy greeted him and set her bag in the back with the luggage. "Thanks for this."

"Oh, it was nothing," her dad promised her and hugged her before letting her get into the car. "Listen," her dad addressed her as they drove out of the lot, "Emma called saying she was worried that you weren't answering her messages." When Izzy began to try to explain, he put up his hand. "I didn't say anything, and I'm not going to tell you what to do or ask what is going on. I just want to have your permission to let her know you made it home safely." Izzy nodded and stared out the window for the duration of the drive to her house. When he brought her luggage inside, he simply hugged her, asked her if she needed anything else, and left her to her things. She closed and locked the front door and went to bed.

***

On Tuesday morning, while Bennett was getting ready, Gram asked to see any pictures Ben had on his phone of Izzy. He saw the first one and got emotional, so he cleared his throat, handed the phone to her, and told her he needed a minute. She scrolled through all the pictures and begged him not to erase them.

Once back in Illinois, and upon Ben's assurance that his grandparents were fine, he left their home, turned in the rental car, and had the rental company drop him off at his place. He unpacked, checked messages, went through work emails, checked his fridge, groaned, and slammed the door. He gave up trying to function and went to bed justifying to himself that he was tired from all the driving.

In the next town over, on that same day, Izzy ate only one meal which she'd had delivered since she didn't feel like going out and remained in bed for most of the day. At 10PM, she finally gave in and turned on her phone. She had to listen to 13 VM, most being from Emma, and read 27 texts, most also being from Emma. Ben had not left a voicemail and only texted once to say he was on his way back to the house. She looked through pictures until they made her cry and then turned it back off.

On Wednesday morning, Izzy woke up with a renewed spirit. She cleaned her house top to bottom, went grocery shopping, and turned on her phone though she basically let most calls go to voicemail.

In Diverton, Ben went back to work on Wednesday morning but couldn't focus on meetings or calls. Eventually, he did the work which didn't require interaction with anyone. His secretary, Brenda, noticed and helped him avoid personal contact with anyone. Ben kept thinking about Izzy and how easily she'd left him. He knew Carolyn only wanted to protect him. Surely, she wouldn't have done that if she'd have seen them together or known their grandma's story. He decided that if Izzy couldn't handle him helping his family in their time of need, he obviously didn't know her the way he thought he did. Even as he told himself this, he knew in his heart it was all a lie.

On Thursday morning, Ben got a call from Carolyn. She had heard he was back in town already and wanted to know if he'd have lunch with her. He went. She asked nonchalantly how the vacation was for him. He didn't want to talk about it. She pushed which was the wrong move. He asked why she waited to call until she did to tell him about their grandparents' accident and was sure she knew that they weren't as badly hurt as she'd let on with her urgency. She stuttered through her response.

He then questioned her reasoning for upending his vacation the way she did. She claimed she did it to protect him. She got really defensive once she'd said this. It was like a switch had been flipped, but she wasn't the only one who had felt it. She asked how he could just give a family ring to a 'rando' after only five days. What was he thinking? He asked her calmly if she knew the story of how their grandparents had met. She didn't know it, so he told it as it had been shared with him up in Wisconsin. Did she know Gram gave her blessing? Did she know Grandad had met Izzy four years earlier? Does she even know what real love feels like? He left a one-hundred-dollar bill on the table and told her to stay the (curse) out of his business,

any

of his business, from now on.

That day, Izzy hesitantly took a call from Joanne Graham. Joanne did most of the talking, and while Izzy listened, she cried silently as she heard what had happened from Joanne's point of view and the true reason of why he was called away. She promised that she didn't blame Izzy for leaving when she did. Joanne offered her sincerest condolences for the loss of her love, begged her to please not give up on her grandson, and shared that she wished she could help in some way. Ben's grandmother was just so sorry. Izzy, too, was so sorry, she assured her. They wished each other well and hung up. Izzy continued to cry silently as she opened her pictures and looked at the images of Ben and herself looking so incredibly happy. She wanted that happiness again.