Lia had fallen asleep on the couch after lunch, and when she awoke the pain in her cheek and eye was intense. She stumbled to the kitchen and found some pain meds to take, and she felt like crying as she moved back to lay on the couch. She had no clue where Ben was because he hadn't said he was leaving.

She turned on a movie in hopes that it would distract her and take her mind off the pain, and with Huck snoring next to her, she had just started to drift off again when the back door opened. She managed to lift herself up and look towards the door.

"Nooo!" she wailed and at the sound of her scream, Huck lifted up his head and looked towards the door. He didn't like what he saw any better than Lia had, and he jumped up and started to bark and growl, putting himself in front of Lia.

When Ben called his name in a sharp reprimand, he stopped barking but was still giving little growls as Ben moved across the kitchen towards them.

"Why?" Lia wailed again, tears streaming down her face. She knew she was overreacting, but she couldn't help it, she hurt physically and seeing Ben clean shaven with a haircut hurt her emotionally. She wasn't prepared for it.

"I warned you it was going to happen, Lia," Ben said in an attempt to calm her as he let Huck smell him so he would settle down.

"But why now? Your tour isn't for another few weeks, why couldn't I keep you a little bit longer?" She didn't understand what she was saying until she had said it, but as she said it she realized that his cleaning himself up felt like she had lost him. He had to be the famous writer, Benjamin Emerson now, not her grumpy neighbor Ben. He was going to leave and there was a good chance he wouldn't come back.

With the completion of this book, he had to re-enter his old world, and it was a world that she knew nothing about.

"You're so worried about me changing you, but I didn't do this, you did." She shook her head and he reached out to her as she stood with her arms wrapped around herself.

"I had to shave and cut my hair because I am having the photo taken for the book cover, Lia. It's only hair, I haven't changed." He placed his hands on her shoulders.

She reached up and ran her hand down his naked cheek, tracing his jaw, and then reaching around to his bare neck where his hair was trimmed neatly and no longer brushed his collar. The waves had been cut into a controlled pattern and he looked like every other rich man in Savannah.

He had been handsome with this beard, but without it he was devastating.

Lia had never been overly harsh on herself, she wasn't beautiful nor was she plain, she was somewhere in between, but Ben now made her feel plain. He made her feel as if he belonged with someone beautiful and put together like Kimberly or even Chloe. It definitely didn't help that her face was one giant swollen bruise.

"No wonder you don't want me," Lia voiced her thoughts aloud before she could control herself, and she turned away in embarrassment as soon as they left her lips.

He grabbed her spinning her around. "I never said I didn't want you, Lia, in fact, I think I've made it pretty clear just how much I do want you," he growled.

Lia pulled away, and he made no attempt to hold her. "Physically sure, but not all of me, forever." She shook her head. Her face and head hurt, and now her heart did too. She knew she was overreacting, but she couldn't help it. Why did he have to be so handsome, and how could Ilianna have ever wanted to change him? There were plenty of women in the world who would take all the bad stuff to have a man who looked like he did.

Which must make Lia one in a million, because she wanted him the way he had been. His beauty hidden from the world, she'd take the bearded man with all his moodiness and grumbling over the handsome charming one any day.

"You know what's ironic? You don't want me because you're afraid of how I might change you, but I don't want you if you do change." She was still crying.

"Lia, I haven't changed, damn it! You're upset and overreacting because you hurt." He grabbed her and pulled her towards him. "I would kiss you to shut you up, but there is nowhere to kiss you because your dumbass forgot to duck!"

Lia immediately stopped sobbing and changed to sniffling. "Why do you have to go, why can't you stay? I'm jealous of the time you get to spend with Kimberly. She wants you, and now that she knows you're ready to move on she's going to make her move, and you'll be alone with her, looking like you do, with an available hotel room...I don't want you to go!"

"What the hell kind of med are you on? You have created this entire scenario that is never going to happen," Ben said, sitting her down on the couch next to him and tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"You're too good looking for your own good!" Lia cried.

"I have had this face for well over thirty years and it doesn't impress me all that much," he said drily.

"Well, I've never seen it before and it impresses the hell out of me, it even scares me a little. Why would someone as handsome as you, who could have a beautiful woman like Kimberly, Chloe or River, ever want a woman like me?"

*******

Ben froze, looking at her. She hid her pain well, acting like it didn't matter, but what Chance had done to her had hurt her more than she realized, and her use of River's name proved it.

He pulled her into his arms and held her close. He hadn't been around to soothe her hurt when it had happened, and she hadn't been there to help him through his pain. Is that what they were doing now, helping each other?

"I'm working on it Peaches. I'm trying to figure my way out of the messed-up space in my head. I'm not ready for any woman yet, but if I was, it would be a sassy, stubborn little blond, who saves lives, fixes roofs without permission, and is honest to a fault. One who smells like peaches and vanilla, worries about her friends before herself, and has a crazy ass dog who is a borderline stalker and has no respect for personal boundaries."

Lia couldn't help but give a watery laugh at his description of Huck. She felt good in his arms.

"I will only say this once, and I will not continue to defend myself on this matter. I do not want Kimberly, I never have. If I did, I would have had that affair already, and that is all it ever would have been, an affair. We'll go on this tour together, and I won't want her because I never have. I also don't believe in mixing my business life with my personal life."

He took a deep breath. "We've both been wronged in the past, we can't change that, but I like having you in my life, and I'm working on how exactly to move forward with that knowledge." He felt her take a shaky breath as his words hit home.

"I'll do my best to use my time on this tour to try to figure out the mess in my head. What you need to work on is knowing that I'm not Chance. Even when Ilianna and I were at our worst I never cheated on her, and I never would have. It's not who I am."

Lia nodded. "I know that in my heart Ben, but my head is maybe messed up a little bit too."

He gave her a squeeze then looked down at her and kissed her gently on the side up her mouth that wasn't swollen. "And now I have to go get my photo taken." He rubbed his bare face. He missed the beard just as much as Lia did, maybe more. It had been his shield against the world, but it was time for him to come out of hiding. "I'll pick us up some dinner on the way home, and we can watch the move for which you named Huck. I have to admit to being curious. What is so great about the movie that you decided to name your dog after it?"

Lia sniffed. "He's not named after the entire movie only one line in it," she defended.

Ben's arms felt empty as he stood. "I still have a feeling that I won't get your reasoning," he said with a smile.

*******

Lia watched him move away from her. She missed the warmth of his arms. His words had been beautiful, and they had relieved some of her fear, but they hadn't relieved all of it. There were only three words that would do that, and he hadn't said those.

When he emerged from the guest room in his expensive and beautifully tailored suit she had to fight the tears once more. It made him feel even more like a stranger to her, and she felt like she was losing him.

Lia held the tears in check but as soon as he left she didn't fight them anymore. She hadn't realized that Chance had hurt her as badly as he had.

She was going to have to learn to trust her heart and Ben. She was the one who needed time now.