He runs a hand through his hair. “I know in the real world we’ve only known each other for like a day, but I know how I feel about you, Cam, and I don’t want to waste any time. What do you think about moving in with me?”
My eyes flutter closed for a second because I must have misheard him.
When he senses my hesitation, he starts talking again. “We don’t have to, obviously, I know it’s early, and if you still need time—”
I cut him off with a kiss. “I would love to live with you, Ben.”
“Yeah?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“I love you, sweetheart.”
“I love you too.”
We resume our walk, our pace leisurely, our hands linked.
“I hope you know I’m not exactly an easy person to live with.”
Ben barks out a laugh. “You don’t have to tell me that. Ithink at this point, Campbell Marie, I know you better than you know yourself.”
And he loves me anyway. That part doesn’t need repeating, because I know it, deep in my bones.
“I don’t know, babe, I think right now, I know myself pretty damn well.”
Epilogue
Eighteen months later
“Do we really need to walk all the way to Rockefeller Center again?”
“It’s two blocks away, and you know it makes me happy.”
“It’s just a Christmas tree, sweetheart.”
“First of all, how dare you. Second of all, you know you love it just as much as I do.” I loop my arm through Ben’s, tugging him in the direction he already knows we’re going to end up going. Because if I don’t see the tree at least once a day, the holiday spirit just seeps right out of me and we start catching glimpses of the old Cam.
Okay, not really, the old Cam is well and truly buried at this point, but you definitely don’t want to mess with me before I’ve had my morning peppermint mocha.
“How are things going with the case?” Ben pulls his scarf up, burrowing down into the cashmere. My grandmother gifted him the scarf last Christmas and it became his instant favorite.
When we got back from Heart Springs and I told my grandmother I didn’t want to work for her anymore, she took it a lot better than I thought she would. Or at least, she did after she had some time to calm down. While she will never fully understand why I wanted to give up my stake in a multimillion-dollar law firm, the one thing she understands better than most is the need to make something for myself.
Also, I find it way easier to get along with not just her but the rest of my family, when we’re not all working together. Our relationships are still a work in progress, but at least we’re working on them.
And speaking of working on them, after I had my come-to-Jesus moment with Grandmother, I made a phone call I never expected to make: to my mom. I opened the conversation by letting her know I was leaving the firm, and well, I guess you could say that opened the floodgates. I always blamed my mom for leaving, but there was much more to her relationship with Grandmother, things I never witnessed and never knew. Our relationship is far from perfectly settled, but I’m set on finding space for her in this new life I’m creating.
It didn’t take long for me to decide to open my own law firm. We specialize in helping the little guy (metaphorically, the majority of our clients are women and nonbinary folks) take down the man (not metaphorical, pretty much all of our opponents are straight white dudes). We’ve only officially been in business for about a year, but already the job is making me happier than just about anything in my life.
At least happier than anything aside from the man walking next to me.
Ben is everything he was to me in Heart Springs, and more. Despite both of us working demanding, time-consuming jobs, we always make time for each other. Ben makes us dinner at least twice a week and I plan our date nights, sometimes at fancy restaurants, sometimes at smaller cafés. He’s the first person I call when I have something to celebrate and I’m the one he turns to when the stress of his job starts to take a toll. We’re both there to pull the other one back when the temptation to become completely absorbed in our jobs strikes. He knows me better than just about anyone, and he accepts me and loves me just the way I am. He did even when I couldn’t accept and love myself.
But I don’t have any issues with that anymore, the lessons I learned in Heart Springs still ingrained in me.
“Want a gingerbread latte before we get to the tree?”
“Do you even need to ask me that question?”
