Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ben
L ater that afternoon, in the lull between lunch and dinner, I’m behind the bar taking inventory of our liquor bottles when Jeremy waltzes in, an hour before he’s supposed to be here. I was hoping he would be early because telling him and Hallie are the last pieces of my puzzle, and then I can put this whole situation to rest.
“What’s up, man?” He comes behind the bar and stands next to me.
“I was hoping you would be here early. I have news.”
“So, you finally decided we’re turning down the Stonegate deal?”
I just stare at him. “How did you know?”
“Seriously, Ben? You rarely sweat anything. You put your head down and do what needs to be done. In the entire time I’ve known you, you have agonized over exactly two things. One is Hallie and the other is this deal. Since you and Hallie looked extra cozy at the lake and you smile like an idiot every time you hear her name, I assume it’s not her. So, it must be the deal.”
“Yeah, but how did you know I was turning it down?”
Jeremy just snorts. “Jesus Christ, Ben. You are the poster child for Pittsburgh Boy. You don’t want to go national. You want to be here.” He waves his hand around the bar we created. “I knew you would turn it down the second we got the offer. You just had to figure it out for yourself.”
Fuck if he isn’t exactly right. “Thanks for that, Jer. And thanks for letting me make the choice. I know you said you didn’t care, but just…thanks.”
“Ben, you’re my best friend. We built this business together. You gave me your family when you found out I don’t have one of my own. I would do fucking anything for you. But also, the idea of traveling all over the country to look at restaurants? Yeah, no thanks.”
“No kidding,” I mutter. “So, now I just have to tell Hallie the news. I’m taking her out tonight, so I’ll fill her in then.”
“Oh, I think you might get to do it sooner than tonight.” He nods towards the front of the bar where the door is swinging open.
I turn around just as Hallie flies through it. She storms around the bar and straight to me. She fists my t-shirt in both hands and yanks me down to her, crashing her mouth to mine. My hands go to her hips, holding her against me as our mouths move together. Whatever it is that has gotten into Hallie, I am here for it. She breaks the kiss, panting a little, and grins at me.
“Hi.”
“Hey, Hal. What brings you here?”
“I need to talk to you about my meeting. I couldn’t wait until tonight.” Her green eyes are glowing, and her cheeks are flushed. She looks fucking gorgeous and so elated that I can’t help myself. I bring my hands up to cup her face and lay my lips on hers one more time to taste all that happiness. Something important clearly happened at her meeting, and she ran here. To me. To give me the thoughts in her head that she rarely gives to anyone. When we break apart, my heart is drumming out a beat that sounds a whole lot like mine .
“Well, hey there, Hal. Whatcha doing here?”
Shit. I forgot all about Jeremy. I turn around, and he is looking at us with a shit eating grin on his face.
“Just need to steal my guy here for a couple minutes. Got some big news.”
My guy . My heart speeds right up at the sound of that.
“Seems to be going around. You guys go to the office. I’ll take care of things out here.”
“Thanks, Jer.” Hallie takes my hand and leads me back to the office, shutting the door behind us. She starts talking before the door is even closed. Like the words have been building up in her brain and she can’t keep them all from tumbling out.
“Charlie Callahan is retiring at the end of the year, and he wants me to take over his adoption practice.”
“Hallie, that’s incredible. I am so damn proud of you.” I have a million questions, but I stay quiet, hoping she’ll keep talking. I fucking love the sound of her voice.
“There’s more. He knows about the firm, obviously. And he assumed that I wouldn’t want to leave it, so he figured it all out for me. He wants me to move his current clients to our firm and build my adoption practice under our name. He has already spoken to all of them and also to the various family court judges involved in the cases. He got everyone’s approval, so all that would be left is to formalize the change of counsel and have the clients sign engagement letters with us once our firm is up and running. He knows this would give Julie a bigger burden since she would eventually have to take over my estate planning clients, so he wants to pay the salary for a year for an extra associate for us to relieve that burden. I still have to contact all my clients to make sure they’re okay going with Julie. But with an additional lawyer, I can focus on my new practice while also helping Julie with my estate planning clients until we get everyone fully transitioned and get the distribution of work right. I still have to talk to Jules and the girls. It’s not exactly what we had planned, so they might not want to do it. But Charlie thinks it will work. And, Ben, I really think he’s right.”
I thought I knew how heavily this decision was weighing on her. I thought I understood how hard it has been for her to live in this limbo, making a choice between two things she wants, thinking she can only have one. But it turns out I didn’t have a clue. Her smile is pure sunshine. The kind of smile that comes from deep inside her. She is all lit up, and it hits me right in the chest. It’s been so long since I’ve seen this kind of happy on her. I wrap her in a hug and kiss the top of her head. Then I lead her to the small two-seater couch along the back wall of the office, pulling her down next to me, not letting go of her hand.
“Fucking yes, he’s right, Hallie. This may not be exactly what you planned, but sometimes plans change. Jules, Emma, and Molly will be fine, and the four of you will figure out how it’s all going to work. They want you to be happy. And so do I. Hallie, I want you to be so happy. Outrageously happy. And this makes you happy. I can see it all over you. You can do this. You were meant to do this.”
She takes a deep breath and looks up at me. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
I turn and bring one leg up on the couch so that my whole body is facing her, and I take her other hand in mine. “I believe it with every single part of me. I believe in you . I always have. I will never not be your biggest fan. I can’t wait to watch you help all those kids find their families. You’re my fucking hero, Hallie.”
Her eyes fill with tears then. One escapes, and I reach up and catch it with my thumb, wiping it away and holding her face in my hand.
“I didn’t think I would figure it out,” she whispers. “I really thought I would have to leave the friends I love to do the thing I love. I didn’t want to make that choice. But now, I think I can have both.”
I pull her to me then. I wrap my arms around her and settle her on my lap. She curls right into me. I guide her head to rest against my chest and stroke a hand down her hair.
“You’ve been through a lot this past year. I wish I had known how much you were struggling. I would have helped you sooner.” It kills me that she went through so much of this on her own, without anyone to lean on.
“You’re helping me now. More than you can possibly imagine. Ben, I…” She trails off, and I wait her out, knowing there’s more. “This. You and me. It feels…right. Is that weird to say?”
I lean down and kiss her hair. “No, Hal, it’s not weird to say. It feels right to me, too. It has since the first night at the lake.”
She sits up then and looks at me. “So, are you, like, my boyfriend?”
My heart fucking leaps at her taking this next step first. I have to fight to keep my cool and not maul her on my office couch.
“Hallie, that’s all I want. To be yours, and for you to be mine. So, what do you think, Hal? Do you want to be my girlfriend?”
She smiles. “I would really like that.”
I do maul her then. I push her back on the couch and fall on top of her, peppering kisses all over her face until she is laughing hysterically and slapping me away. But I can’t help it. Until she said the words, I didn’t realize how badly I needed to slap a label on what we have. To claim her for the whole world to see. It’s caveman thinking, but hell, I guess I’m not really that evolved after all.
My hands press into the couch on either side of her head, and I claim her mouth with mine. The kiss is needy and heated. She moans into my mouth and raises her head up off the couch to take it deeper. I groan as I tear my mouth away from hers. If I let this kiss go on any longer, I’ll be fucking her on my office couch, and my staff really doesn’t need to hear that. I rest my forehead against hers for a second, trying to get myself together. As my brain re-engages, I realize I never told her about my talk with my dad. No time like the present I guess.
“As much as I would love to keep doing exactly this until the end of time, I have to get back to work. But before we go, I actually have news, too.”
“Tell me.”
“I, um, talked to my dad today.”
Hallie gives me a shove until I’m sitting upright, and she follows me. “Ben! That’s really big news. Tell me everything.”
“I went over to my parents’ house after you left this morning since I knew my dad would be home. I told him everything. How I didn’t want to take the Stonegate deal. How I want the life that I have now. This bar. My friends and family. You.”
“Me?” She smirks at me.
“You, Hallie girl. You’re my girlfriend now. You just said so. That means you are a part of my life.” I reach out and twine my fingers with hers. “Hell, Hal, you are my life.”
A blush spreads over her cheeks, and she looks down at our joined hands, a smile spreading over her face. “God, you can’t say stuff like that, or we’ll never get out of this room. Tell me the rest.” She tries to tug her hand away, but I hold tight.
“My dad was pretty offended that I thought he would feel some kind of way about me turning down the deal because of his big, successful business. He said he wants me to be happy. He said…” I trail off and try and get myself together because even replaying the next part makes the lump rise in my throat. Hallie’s hand tightens around mine. She doesn’t say anything, just waits for me to continue. “He said I’m a good man who knows my own mind. And that if the deal doesn’t give me the life I want, then I should turn it down.”
Hallie leans forward and wraps her arms around me. My arms go around her waist. I bury my face in her hair and breathe in her cherry vanilla shampoo. Everything inside me settles. She is my fucking rock. The calm in all my storms.
“I’m so damn proud of you,” she whispers into my ear. “I won’t even say I told you so.”
I let her go, chuckling. “No need to worry about that; my mom already beat you to it.”
Hallie laughs, standing up from the couch and reaching out to pull me up after her.
“I mean it though, Ben. I’m so proud of you for making this choice. It can’t be easy turning down such a massive deal and so much money.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Hal. I’ve got you, which means it wasn’t hard at all.”
Hallie wraps her arms around my waist and lays her head on my chest. “Your dad is right. You are a good man, Benji. The best man I know.”
I drop a kiss on the top of her head, and she lets go, moving past me to open the office door. We walk through the bar, and I lead her outside to the street. I turn to her, propping one shoulder against the side of the bar.
“So, what do you have going on for the rest of the day?”
“I’m going to head home. Everyone thinks I’m at Callahan all day anyway. I need to get my head together to talk to the girls about my plan and hope that they see it the way I do. I need to, like, write a speech or something.”
“There’s no way they won’t. And you can practice that speech for me later tonight. I promised you a date, Hallie girl, and you are getting one.”
She grins at me. “Oh, I’m counting on it. Where are we going?”
I grab her face in both of my hands and kiss her nose. “It’s a surprise.”
“But what if I need to know what to wear?”
“Be casual.”
“That could mean all kinds of things. Is it outside? Inside? Are we walking? Are we…”
I cut her off with my mouth on hers. “Outside. There will be some walking. I’ll pick you up at five.”
“I hate surprises,” she grumbles.
I smirk at her. “I know.”
“Then why not just tell me?”
“It’s more fun this way.”
“For you maybe.”
She is so damn cute when she gets all irritated that I pull her into me and kiss her one more time, quick and hard.
“Everything with you is fun for me. Now get out of here so I can go back to work.”
“You’re lucky you’re so damn hot, Benji. Because even when you’re irritating as shit, I still want to jump you.”
I hope it will always be that way. “I’m lucky, Hal, but it’s not because of how I look. And feel free to jump me all you want later tonight.”
She sweeps her gaze down my body and back up again, meeting my eyes with a look so full of heat that all the blood in my body instantly rushes south.
“Oh, I will. Many, many times. All night long. Later, Benji.”
Knowing exactly what she just did, she tosses me a grin and heads down the street to her car. I collapse against the side of the bar. I will my cock to deflate and count the hours until I get to see Hallie again and let her make good on that promise.