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“I love you too,” I murmured, before sleep pulled me under.
Chapter Twenty
Dex
Ilay in bed, watching Bennett nap for a while, before getting up to get some work done. About an hour after I slipped out of bed, Bennett came wandering into my home office, fully dressed, scratching the back of his neck and running his hand through his tousled hair. I looked up as he entered the room, smiling brightly at him.
“Sleep well?”
He nodded, a sleepy smile on his face. “Your bed is comfortable. I could get used to it.”
“I could get used to having you in it.” The idea of waking up to Bennett every day sent butterflies through me. I suppressed the slightly unhinged urge to invite him to quit his job, move in with me, and become my stay-at-home boyfriend. “What are you up to for the rest of today?”
“I need to get back to the hospital and check in on Mom. You could go with me if you wanted.”
Surprised, my eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure?”
“If you’re going to be in my life, I want you to meet my family.”
“Then, of course, I’ll go with you.”
A little while later, we walked into the hospital and Bennett led the way to the floor his mom was staying on and to her room. Outside her door, he stopped and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“You okay?”
He bit his lower lip briefly. “I didn’t tell her you were coming.”
“Oh. Well, I don’t have to come in. I can go downstairs and wait.” The door swung open and Bennett took a startled step back and a woman stepped out. She looked much like a female version of him. Without hesitation, I stepped forward and offered my hand. “Hi, I’m Dex.”
The woman shook my hand and looked to Bennett, a question in her raised eyebrows. He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded.
“Tam, Dex is my… boyfriend, I guess?” He looked at me to confirm.
I grinned and placed a hand on his lower back. “That’s me.”
His cheeks grew pink at the confirmation, his smile looking pleased. “This is my sister, Tamara.”
“Mom’s going to lose her mind. Go on in.”
I followed Bennett into the hospital room, where a woman with Bennett’s sharp, dark eyes and high cheekbones reclined on the bed, thumbing through a magazine. She didn’t look much older than I was, no more than ten years older, for sure. When we entered, she put the magazine on the table next to her.
“You’re back!”
Bennett cleared his throat. “Mom, I wanted you to meet Dex. My boyfriend.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “So, you’re the one who’s been getting my son so upset.”
“Yes ma’am. I apologize for that. I was pretty upset myself. We smoothed it out now, though.”
She turned to Bennett. “You didn’t tell me he’s practically my age.”
Bennett’s face flamed at that as he looked from his mom to me and back to his mom again. “I…”
With a laugh, she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter to me, as long as he makes you happy.”
“He does, Mom. He really does.”
The next few months flew by. Jaclyn accepted the offer to use my townhouse in DC for her to stay while she was receiving treatment at the hospital, and together we built a well-endowed scholarship fund for students at the high school Bennett had gone to. Bennett quit his job as an electrician and started college, with the hopes of eventually getting into vet school. Unfortunately for me, he regularly declined my repeated, half-serious offers to keep him as a stay-at-home boyfriend.
