“Linc, the baby whisperer.” Jacob smiled and gestured at the other chair. “Sit.”
Linc dragged the chair closer to Jacob’s.
“Let’s offer to keep the kids overnight some weekend soon.”
“Boy, ask you to move in, and all of a sudden, you’re throwing parties?” Linc pretended to be put out, but probably didn’t do the best job of it. He’d been nervous that Jacob might not agree to move the trailer and the rest of his stuff. Some people might say it was a little too soon. But those people probably hadn’t waited as long as them. Or been through as much.
“Hey, you heard my mom. I’m your trouble now.” Jacob laughed, then sobered, turning toward him. “Seriously, though, you okay with sharing your place with me? You’ve worked so hard on it...”
“Not that hard.” Linc waved away the praise. “And...maybe the place needs you.”
“Oh? How do you figure?”
“It’s waited a long time to be a home again, not just a place to live or a collection of memories. I might have a lot of past with that house, but you give it a future.”
Cheeks darkening, Jacob nodded sharply before looking off into the fire. He was silent a good while before softly adding, “I can’t erase the past you had before me. The one you shared with Wyatt, especially. And I don’t want to. Not for anything. And I know I’m not him, and I’m never going to make up for his loss, but I’m not sorry that I get your future either.”
Linc sucked in a hard breath. They didn’t talk about Wyatt much at all, but he was always there, an uncomfortable conversation waiting to happen. But for once, Linc wasn’t going to shy away from the topic.
“You don’t have to make up for anything. You’re... This is different.”
“I know.” Jacob’s tone was sadder and more resigned than Linc liked, so he reached over, touched Jacob’s face.
“I never felt anything for him like what I feel for you. Not even remotely the same ballpark. He was my best friend, but you...you’re my...everything.”
“Thanks.” Tilting his head, Jacob kissed Linc’s fingers. “But you miss him.”
“Of course I do. We all do. But I’m done feeling guilty for choosing to be with you. I hid my feelings behind my friendship with him way too long. It almost cost me you. I’ve had a lot of time to think these last few months...”
“And?”
“I like to think that even if he was around, I would have found the courage to be with you. To stand up to him. Because you, what we have together, it’s important. Sure, the promises I made to him mattered. But the ones I want to make to you, maybe those matter a little more.”
“You want to make promises to me?” Jacob’s voice was little more than a puff of air, but the hope there was enough to prod Linc to keep going.
“I do.” Linc’s hand shook against Jacob’s skin, and he had to draw a shaky breath. “I mean, if you’re gonna talk me into that third dog, I guess I better make an honest man out of you at some point...”
“Well, when you put it that highly romantic way...”
“I love you.” Linc might not have many pretty, flowery words, but he had those and they meant something. “I love you, and I want to promise you forever. As long as I’ve got, I’m yours.”
“Okay, that’s more like it.” Jacob’s eyes were shiny, even in the dim firelight. He kissed Linc’s fingers again. “I love you too. And there’s no promise I wouldn’t make for you.”
“Same.” Linc tried to tell him with his eyes how much he meant that. He was well and truly done running from what they had. Too many years he’d spent hemming and hawing about what was the right thing to do, when really there was only one right thing. Love. It was the answer to every question and doubt he’d ever had, the reason for his biggest regrets and the cause of his greatest happiness. And maybe that, more than anything else, was the biggest change of the past months. He was happy. Genuinely, abundantly happy. And that, that was worth darn near everything. Promising forever seemed like a bargain if it meant keeping Jacob by his side, keeping that happiness he’d found. He was worth it. They both were.
* * *