Page 107 of Let Me Love You (Excess All Areas 5)

At the end of her shift, she drove to the garage and wondered whether the ever-malleable Ben was bending too much for her. She’d given up a lot to be with him, her family being one. But he was the one who’d need to make changes to his life on a daily basis to support her.

When she pulled up, Ben was in there, but so was someone else. Ben waved when he saw her.

“Hey, babe,” he said when she stepped out of the car.

“Umm. You might need to shower before we go to Jase’s house,” she said when she saw the grease up his arms and down his jeans.

“Meh. Maybe. Chay, this is Shawn. Shawn, this is my girlfriend, Chaya.”

“Hey, Shawn,” she said, but the teen blushed and muttered a hello.

“Shawn’s helping me strip the engine.”

“Great. Sorry to break up the engine stripping party, but we have places we’re supposed to be. We’re due at Jase’s in an hour.”

Ben grabbed his wallet from his pocket and pulled out twenty-five pounds. “Apprentice minimum wage, right?”

Shawn’s eyes went wide as he took the money. “Sweet. Yeah.”

“You did good, Shawn. We’ll have that engine stripped in no time.”

Shawn grabbed his bike from the entrance and pedalled off down the street. They both watched him go.

“You know what else I could have stripped in no time?” His eyes roved up and down her body.

“You? Because you smell and are covered in grease.”

“Funny. But no. Although. I just got inspired. Let’s go to my place and shower.” Ben looked down at his grease-covered hands. “I really want to manhandle you right now. Do you know how many times I’ve looked over at that Beetle today, thought about the conversation we had in the barn, and gotten a boner thinking what I could do to you on it?”

Chaya grinned. “I know it’s probably the neanderthal brain or something, but while I love watching you play guitar onstage, I love your dirty hands holding a wrench, better.”

“Yeah, well, dirty hands can’t go where mine need to, right now. I walked over because I was only staying for an hour.” Ben began to lower the roller shutter doors.

“Want to stop by your place and grab some clothes, then come to mine and we’ll shower together before we go to Jase’s? Or I can grab something from mine, and we can go to yours. Or we could just move in with each other and stop…” The words spilled out. For a moment, she questioned herself. Had she meant them?

Ben stopped rolling the shutter down. “You mean that, babe?”

Chaya took a deep breath. “Yeah. I do. We’ve had the big conversations. Kids and when we have them. How we integrate our beliefs. Committing to do the work on ourselves.”

“I didn’t want to push you.”

“I know. And I wondered on the way over here if you weren’t just being malleable around me like you are with everyone else.”

Ben sighed. “I guess I wanted reassurance you don’t regret not being with someone Jewish. And I really want to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I really want us. Together. How we’re meant to be.”

“I don’t regret a single thing. I just want to get on with the rest of our lives, Ben.”

Not giving a shit about the dirty hands, Ben rushed over to her and swept her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him as he kissed her soundly. “Yes. I want that. Waiting was killing me. You can’t know how many times I’ve wanted to tell you to just move in with me, but I needed you to come to the conclusion on your own. I’m in, Chay. All the way in. We’re going to have the best fucking life together. We’ll stay true to our roots, homegrown here, in Manchester. We’ll create a life for ourselves that’s a wealth of experiences, not things. We’ll stay humble and grow. You’ll be a strong confident woman of faith and a kick-ass surgeon or registrar. I’ll be a rock star who fixes cars with delinquent teens in his spare time. We’ll eat homemade food with our friends and take private jets to London for the night and eat at Michelin star restaurants. And I’ll love you, so fucking hard, that you’ll not once regret this decision.”

“And I promise to love you just as much, Ben. Loving you has always been the easiest part of my life.”

Ben kissed her ear. “We’re moving in together. Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow I start a run of five days on call.”

“I’ll move your stuff. I’ll pay a removal firm.”

“Ben,” she said, playfully exasperated. “I’ll start to pack up my stuff next weekend.”

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