“Oh, I know you felt good. Watching you feel good was even hotter than I remembered.” I kissed the top of his head. “And believe me, I spent a lot of time remembering how you looked when you felt like that.”
“Is that true?” Charlie looked up at me from underneath his lashes.
“What? That I fantasized about you?”
He shrugged.
“Yes, it’s true. And it wasn’t just sexual.” I cupped his cheek and rubbed my thumb over his jaw. “For years, I’d see something and it’d remind me of you. Clothes. A photograph. Certain food.”
“Me too,” he whispered. “I missed you so much, Scotty.” He raised his face and looked into my eyes. “So so much.” I pulled him into a hug and he clutched my shirt, clinging to me. “It hurt.”
I nodded and hoarsely said, “I know. For me too.” I cleared my throat. “But that’s all in the past. We’re all grown up now. No more being apart.” I took in a deep breath and gathered my nerves. “Which is why we brought you here.”
Charlie had always been intuitive, and he knew me and Adan better than anyone, so I wasn’t surprised when he darted his gaze toward the house and then back to me and said, “Did you two buy this place?”
“Yup.” I nodded. “We signed the contract yesterday, which means we have ten days to back out, no questions asked. If you don’t like it for any reason, tell us and we’ll find a different one.”
“What does it matter if I like it? It’s your house,” he said, sounding weak and shaky.
We both knew that wasn’t true and we both knew that was why he was nervous.
“It’s going to be our house. All five of us. That’s why we’re buying it. If you want to go house hunting to pick something else, great.”
“I don’t know anything about that stuff, and you know how much I hate making decisions.” He paused, shook his head, and said, “Besides, who said I’m moving?”
Knowing he didn’t actually expect an answer, I took his hand in mine, led him up the sidewalk to the house, and started the tour. “It has a two-car garage on the left and a one-car garage on the right, so all three of us have room to park.” I unlocked the door with the key the Realtor had given us and walked Charlie through the entryway, formal living room, formal dining room, open concept family room off the huge kitchen, two and a half bathrooms, master bedroom, and den downstairs, and the three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and loft upstairs. He didn’t say anything, but he listened carefully to my descriptions and examined every room, sometimes quickly and sometimes for longer. He ran his hand over countertops, touched molding, and sighed happily in front of the many huge windows.
We ended the tour in the family room, standing in front of the french doors overlooking the backyard. Charlie quietly watched Adan and the kids laughing and playing in the pool. I pressed my chest to his back, circled my arms around his waist, and nuzzled his neck.
“They’re having a great time,” I whispered. He nodded. “Want to tell me what you’re thinking?”
Charlie took in a deep breath and then said, “I’m thinking this house is amazing. It has everything we could ever want. The kids would love it. I’d love it. And we could be together all the time.”
“But?” I asked, because Charlie’s ramrod-straight posture and clenched fists told me there was more on his mind and that I probably wouldn’t like it.
“Do you know that I’ve never met Adan’s family?”
“I’m not surprised. We’ve been together going on six years now, and other than his sister, I’ve been around the rest of his family maybe a handful of times.”
“His parents live here, right?” Charlie asked.
“Uh-huh, in Reno. But they’re not close.” My response didn’t loosen Charlie’s tense muscles, so I kept talking. “Not every family is like our families. We got lucky.”
“My mother lives on the other side of the country, and I haven’t heard from my father in so long I have no idea if he’s alive or dead.”
Okay, so perhaps lucky was the wrong word choice.
“What I meant was that your mom loves you and supports you like you are. Same with my parents. Adan’s family isn’t like that, Charlie. They’re cold almost to the point of mean. They know we live together and they know why, but they’ll only refer to me as his roommate. They’ve never once come over to our place, and they tell him not to bring me around. The few times he has, they won’t even look at me, let alone talk to me, which isn’t as big a deal as it might seem because they’re distant with him too.” I moved my hand under his shirt and rubbed his belly. “Not introducing you to his family doesn’t mean anything except that they’re assholes and he doesn’t want to subject you or himself to them unless it’s absolutely necessary.”