Page 85 of Because of You
“You left a light on for me last night.”
“I told you I would.”
“I know you did, but when I came in at three in the morning and saw it, it made me realize that I never want to come home late again to a quiet house where no one has left any lights on for me. I never want to come home again without knowing that you’re here. I know it hasn’t been that long, and maybe this is too much, too soon. But I want to live with you. All the time.”
“Yes,” Ben says quickly.
“That’s it? Just, yes?”
“Hallie, I’ve been waiting eleven years for you to be mine. It’s not too soon. Just, yes. One hundred percent yes.”
“Okay, well, I know how much you love your loft, so it doesn’t have to be at my house. The key is more of a symbolic thing.”
He chuckles. “Hallie, I love my loft, but it was never meant to be permanent for me. I stayed there all these years because it was easy. I want to build a life with you, right here. In this house you bought and made a home. This is your place, and now it will be our place.”
“You’re sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I want this with you. I want everything with you. You’re my forever, Hallie girl. And I’m yours.”
Ben cups my face in his hands and lays his lips to mine. The kiss says things like, “I love you,” and “I promise,” and “I’m yours,” and “forever.” It is the best kiss of my life, and when Ben pulls away and wraps his arms around me in a tight hug, I’m home.
Ben is my home.
And I will do my damnedest to make sure that I am his.
“I love you, Hallie girl,” he whispers in my ear.
“I love you too, Benji. So, so much. When you move in here, can you bring your couch?”
He laughs then, untangling us from each other. “Anything you want, Hal. Now go sit down. I have breakfast to make. Gotta feed my girl.”
I take my seat back at the counter and watch Ben make breakfast. I fill him in on last night with Julie, and he tells me about some plans he has for the bar now that he officially turned down the Stonegate deal. We fill each other in on our plans for the day and little bits and pieces of our lives, and it is extraordinary in its ordinariness.
When breakfast is ready, Ben puts a plate in front of me and kisses me on the forehead before taking the seat next to me with a plate of his own. I sit in my kitchen over breakfast and the perfect cup of coffee with the man I love straight down to the very bottom of my soul. The one who loves me just exactly as I am.
And there is nowhere in the world I would rather be.
Epilogue
Ben
Five Months Later
“Busy, Hal?” I stroll through the doorway of Hallie’s office and grin at what I see.
Hallie sits at her desk, surrounded by files, a laptop, and four different drinks. The firm officially opened for business about a month ago, with Hallie working almost exclusively on her adoption cases, and she is wildly happy. She looks up, and her face lights in a smile.
“Hey! What are you doing here? Strangely, I’m not busy at all. All three of my clients on the schedule for today cancelled. Actually, my clients tomorrow and Friday cancelled too. It’s a weird week.”
“I’m here to kidnap you for a secret mission.”
“Oooo, sounds mysterious. Is it a sexy secret mission?”
I laugh. “If you play your cards right.”
“I always play my cards right, Benji. And you don’t even have to kidnap me. I’ll come willingly. Am I coming back here today?”
“You’re not, so grab whatever you might need for the night.”
