Page 121 of Give My Everything
Because thisdoeslook like a family home, like something bought with the intention of filling it with people, a spouse and kids.
But it certainly doesn’tfeellike a family home, at least not on the inside.
Even Ben’s bedroom…as beautiful as it is, it was definitely designed by someone who was trying to create a show-stopping space, not someone trying to set up a comfortable room with the owner’s personality and life in mind.
I want to change that for Ben, want to fill his home with the same kind of warmth I want to bring to his heart and his mind. Make it a place we both feel safe and happy.
Rugs. Throw blankets. A dog bed. Family pictures, posed as they may be.
Ben might be a neat and ordered kind of guy—everything has its place, everything put away until needed, beauty over function—but everything is going to change for both of us. I think our home should reflect that.
Of course that idea makes me want to shit my pants when I hear Ben walking through the front door.
He freezes when he sees me sitting at the kitchen counter, eating a bowl of cereal.
“Hey.” I grin.
“Hey yourself.” He looks at his watch, probably seeing that it’s a little after eight. “Were we supposed to do something tonight?”
I shake my head. “Not together, but I did something tonight.”
He doesn’t say anything, just patiently waits for me to say whatever it is I want to say.
That’s something I really appreciate about Ben.
His patience.
I slip off the stool at the counter and take him by the hand, pulling him through the house and up the stairs, enjoying his light chuckling.
But it cuts off when we walk into his bedroom.
When he sees my empty suitcase in the corner, he eyes me curiously before taking the lead and moving over to the walk-in closet, flipping on the light and finding clothes that belong to me hanging on the right.
Ben turns to look at me.
“You moved in?” he asks, his voice quiet.
I nod. “I hope that’s okay?”
He doesn’t say anything, and I have a brief moment of panic where I wonder if I really fucked up by overstepping. He might have given me a key and asked me to move in, but I never agreed and told him a date. I just showed up.
But my panic dissipates when I see the disbelief on his face, like he couldn’t have imagined anything more perfect to come home to. He rushes at me and wraps me up in his arms.
“Welcome home, Remmy.”
CHAPTER22
BEN
When I first spoke with Remmy about this whole marriage thing, I envisioned us being friendly roommates with a child, two people helping each other out.
I never envisioned long nights of sex all over the house, or sitting in our underwear on my balcony with coffee in the mornings, decaf for her and regular for me, talking about the day. I didn’t ever imagine she would want to come with me to the gym or visit me at work or that I’d start to regulate my hours at Bennie’s so I could get home faster, sooner, be at her side more often.
I find myself laughing more. Smiling more. Enjoying my days more.
She goes with me to visit my sister every day as Ivy slowly recovers from the infection and cold that caused her to faint.
What feels crazy to me is that as soon as we stopped trying to put on a show for everyone else about this relationship, our horrible attempt at trying to convince people we were dating, that’s the exact time when people started asking us what’s going on.
