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“We’re in this together. If something’s wrong, we work on it together. Even when it relates to business.”
“I can do that.” Warmth was spreading from where our hands were joined, up my arms and to my chest, where my heart was stuttering.
He tipped his head to the side. “Yeah?”
I turned my mouth to kiss his palm, then took his face in my hands. “I love you and want to be with you. I trust you.”
I’d already said it, but it was important that I say it again.
For a moment, we sat in silence, taking in each other’s closeness and our love. Finally, Ben stood, holding out a hand to help me up.
Walking back inside, Cammie looked from the TV to us. “Are you okay, Miss Brooke?”
It took me a second to realize she was talking about the damage to my store and not what had transpired between Ben and me.
I sat next to her; Ben sat on the other side. “It will be.”
“There’s something we’d like to talk to you about,” Ben said seriously.
“Yeah?” Cammie asked, focusing her attention on Ben.
“If I wanted to date Brooke, what would you say?” His voice shook a little.
Was he worried about what would happen if she wasn’t okay with it?
Cammie shrugged. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”
Ben chuckled. “We weren’t sure if you’d be okay with it if we made it official.”
Cammie turned to me. “Are you going to be my mom?”
Ben and exchanged a look. We hadn’t anticipated that question. Not yet. “I’ll never replace your mom.”
Cammie rolled her eyes. “Well, duh.”
I smiled. “But I’d like to be another mother to you. The one on earth. Because your mom is in heaven, looking down on you. She wants you to be happy.”
Cammie smiled. “I’d like to have two moms.”
Then she turned her attention back to the TV, and I breathed a sigh of relief. That went better than I’d hoped, even though I hadn’t anticipated her bringing up her mother.
Ben winked at me over her head, and we settled onto the couch with her between us.
Eventually, we ordered pizza from Giovanni’s and watchedA League of Their Own. At some point, Cammie nestled between us and fell asleep with her head in my lap and her feet in his. It reminded me of that night we’d camped outside, except it was just the three of us, and we felt like a unit. A family.
My heart was full because everything I’d ever wanted was in my living room.
I walked with Ben while he carried Cammie, who was still asleep, out to his car. She looked so serene nestled against his chest.
Once he’d buckled her into her car seat, he gently closed the door. “I wish we had more time together.”
It wasn’t how I wanted the night to end, either. “You have to get her home.”
Ben brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “I want to go to sleep with you at the end of the night and wake up with you in the morning. I want you to be at our morning breakfasts.”
My heart contracted because I knew how special those were to him. “I’d love that, too.”
“We close on the house in a month.”
