Chapter 55
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Lexi
I hear them just outside the door, before it suddenly comes rushing open. Camryn hurries in first, hugging me before darting off toward her room.
“New clothes my mom sewed for her babies,” Bennett says in explanation as I glance back at him.
With the door now closed, he tosses his keys on the table and starts walking toward me. When he is close enough he reaches out and cups my face, closing the distance his lips pressed to mine and I melt into him.
“How could you ever for a second consider that I would ever be with someone else?”
I’m going to kill Kendall.
“I’ve been talking classes to get my foster parent license.”
I pull back and look at him with my forehead wrinkled up in confusion. That was nowhere on my radar.
“I wanted to make it a surprise and not say anything until I finished all my required classes. I wanted to come to you and Camryn and ask you both to move into the new house with me. But the problem with wanting to surprise you is that I’m a terrible liar.
It killed me every time I came up with some shit ass excuse.
Should have just told you from the start. ”
“I get it,” I assure him still feeling incredibly raw from his confession.
He links his hand with mine and leads me toward the kitchen setting down the bag he originally carried in.
The smell of food lingers as he places it on the counter turning to face me once again.
“I have four hours left. So by the end of next week I should have all my classes complete. The house has a couple weeks tops before I can call in a crew for cleanup.”
I nod.
“I’d like to ask Rose to put in for a home inspection and then once that’s good, I’d like to ask Camryn and you to move in with me.”
“We have five months left on my lease,” I tell him and he chuckles.
“That won’t be a problem.” Right then I know he knows something I don’t. “Uncle Randy put a bid in on this entire complex last month. As of January first he owns the entire complex and plans to start renovating. So getting you out of that lease babe, won’t be a problem.”
“Are you serious?”
“You ladies belong with me anyway,” he says before hooking me around the waist and pulling me in close.
“I built that house for you, Lexi. Even before you decided to bring Camryn into our lives, I wanted you there. I fell in love with you and I fell in love with her. I want the both of you with me. I want us to start building our lives together, making memories and plans.”
“What plans?”
“Oh you know.” He shrugs kissing the corner of my mouth smiling. “Making you officially my mom’s daughter-in-law, working on adopting Cam, and then eventually giving her some brother and sisters, you know plans.”
I open my mouth to speak but he covers mine quickly with his, taking my thoughts and scrambling them.
“No need to argue, sweetheart, it’s all gonna happen. You should probably just accept it.”
My fingers curl into the sheet beneath me, my heels digging into the back of his thighs as I hold him close. My entire body hums with the aftermath as I tremble.
Being quiet, holding back my need to yell out his name, is incredibly difficult. But in the darkness of my bedroom, with his body pressed to mine I understand his love. I know he is in this with me and Camryn.
Bennett isn’t the kind of man to stray. He isn’t the kind of man you can’t trust. He doesn’t say something unless he means it. And he surely isn’t disloyal and unfaithful, he was raised better than that.
Rolling to the side, I turn my head and look over at him. His eyes are closed, his chest rising and falling as he attempts to regain his composure. One arm curled and covering his eyes, his leg still draped over mine.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper and instantly he looks at me with his brows furrowed. “I let my thoughts get away from me and Emily is still in town, we saw her at the store. It wasn’t fair to doubt you and I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.”
Grabbing my waist he shifts my body closer, turning on his side to face me. Dragging his fingers over the side of my face, he pushes back the hair and leans in to kiss me.
“You don’t need be sorry. But you do need to accept that I am here with you, one hundred percent in this with you. I am not going anywhere, I’m never going to hurt you or Cam and that I promise you. I love you and I love her. We’re a family.”
I nod, because my throat feels entirely too raw to attempt to speak.