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It took Lucky’s words a moment to register. “Does… does that mean you’re saying yes?”
He was barely done nodding when I reached him and pulled him into my arms. “Love you,” I said as I kissed the top of his head. Xander was there a moment later, his big arms surrounding us both.
And fuck if it didn’t feel like I was finally exactly where I was meant to be for the first time in my life.
Chapter 37
Xander
Three weeks back in New York, and I was already going stir-crazy. I missed the fresh air and clean expanse of the mountains, and the feeling of pavement underneath my boots instead of dirt, rocks and grass felt wrong to me. But I’d been handsomely rewarded for giving up that part of my life, even for a little while.
Because I got to wake up in Bennett’s arms every morning, and the last thing I felt every night before I fell asleep was his warm body pressed up against my side.
Upon returning to New York, Bennett had started the ball rolling on getting temporary custody of Lucky. His previous work with Children’s Services through his company’s foundation had proven to be an asset in fast-tracking the process of removing Lucky and the other kids from their foster home. We’d been worried that Lucky would have to spend some time in a group home or another foster home and had prepared him for that. But we’d caught a break when Bennett had gotten temporary custody of him. We’d both taken the required foster parenting courses in case that was the route we’d end up needing to go if the adoption couldn’t be pushed through quickly, but Bennett was doing all the legal stuff on his own.
It wasn’t ideal, since I’d already started to think of Lucky as mine, but I knew we couldn’t rush into making our own relationship legal, because that could likely cause issues down the line. Additionally, we figured with me still legally living in Colorado, it would just slow things down if we both applied to adopt Lucky at the same time. Lucky himself had more say in his future since he was sixteen. He’d already met with representatives from Children’s Services twice— once to talk about what Ed Durant had done to him and the other kids, and once to assure them he was completely on board with the adoption.
While the adoption might only take a couple more months, Bennett and I had talked the night before about staying in New York through the following spring so Lucky could finish out his sophomore year. I couldn’t say I was thrilled about staying in the city for so long, but I’d decided to make use of my time by taking some courses in business management. Bennett and I had decided to purchase the lodge as well as the wilderness expedition business together. I’d balked at the idea of Bennett putting part of his savings towards buying Gary out, but he’d reminded me that it would be our business. We hadn’t ironed out all the details yet, but the bottom line was that Bennett and I would be working together to make the business everything it could be.
And I couldn’t wait.
For his part, Bennett was struggling with how to tell his parents both about our relationship and the fact that he wouldn’t be taking over his father’s company. His anger at his father for the role he’d played in splitting us up as kids had made him want to drive right out to Greenwich the moment we’d stepped off the plane, but I’d reminded him that he needed to deal with the foundation first. Knowing his father, the man would punish Bennett for his defection by taking it out on the kids Bennett loved so much.
The way Bennett had explained it, the foundation was currently more of a pet project for the investment firm. Bennett’s goal was to actually have the foundation become its own entity sponsored by several companies in addition to The Crawford Group. He wanted the foundation to stand on its own so it could get donations and support from multiple sources in the community and help even more at-risk kids. But to do that, he needed his father to throw in his support long enough to ink the deal with the other potential sponsors.
That deal was happening today.
At this very moment, my man was preparing to go before a group of thirty representatives from some of the most successful companies in the city to pitch them his idea. If he was successful, he’d get enough support to finally break free of the leverage his father continued to wield over him. In as little as a few days, my Benny could finally be loose of the chains he’d worn around his neck for so long.
