Forever (Always & Forever 2)

“I’m good with whatever you decide.” Those six words had grown to grate on his nerves, because Landon used them often. Robert mashed his lips together and furrowed his brow. If he could shoot laser beams with his eyes, he’d have singed Landon where he sat on the commode.

A gut feeling had Robert glancing over to Landon’s edge of the table. His cell phone was nowhere to be seen. He narrowed his eyes and stood, going for the bathroom door, shoving it open with enough force to give a slight bang. Landon looked up, startled. Sure, he did in fact sit on the toilet, but he was fully clothed with his phone resting between his palms. His thumbs poised over the screen.

“Are you playing a game?” Robert asked in all his outrage.

“What? No.” Landon immediately shook his head and sat back on the seat, his phone held protectively in his hand. “I’m on Reddit.”

Hurt knifed through him. Robert had worked hard on their plans, and their itinerary needed to be decided so he could book tours and reserve hotel rooms for their stay. Anger rose like bile, because this trip meant something to Robert. He’d stayed up well past his scheduled time to sleep to pull this information together. He wanted Landon to have the trip of his lifetime to remember forever. All the sadness this last year had been hard on Robert. He’d hidden his loneliness, trying to stay positive and focused on their future, but it was a constant companion, there with him all the time.

“Stop looking like that,” Landon said, getting to his feet. “I saw pieces of Star Wars Solo yesterday. I wanted to see what Reddit had to say about it.”

Robert took a step back out of the small room, doing a quick shake of his head in shock. “We were supposed to watch that together.”

“Babe…” Landon came toward him, tucking his phone in his back pocket as Robert continued to back away. “I maybe watched twenty minutes then turned it off so we could watch together. You know I really want to see it. We should watch it tonight.”

Robert’s ass hit the table and Landon stepped into him.

“Don’t be mad.” Landon shook his head, seemingly trying to guide Robert’s thoughts. “I know you watched Game of Thrones without me. I turned on the app and saw the episodes were watched. I didn’t get mad…”

“The only reason you’d see such a thing was because you tried to watch them without me too!” Robert accused. He did see the hypocrisy of his claim, but he wasn’t willing to let go of his hurt feelings or this argument.

“I’m sorry. I did listen to you about all that.” Landon swept a hand over the table. “You just take care of everything, and whatever you decide is great with me because you know best.”

“You hurt my feelings,” Robert started and tried to move out of the cage Landon held him in.

“No…” Landon stepped all the way into Robert, locking his arms around Robert’s waist. “I was listening. Cinque Terre and Tuscany for a week and a half. Florence sounds amazing. Rome for an entire week. Then the rest of the time we’re touring from the Amalfi Coast to Venice. I wanted to see Naples, definitely Pompei. See, I was paying attention.”

Landon appeased him. Maybe more the glint in Landon’s dark eyes or the possessive hold his strong arms had, but whatever the reason, Robert lifted his hands to those brawny biceps and caressed his way across Landon’s defined pecs.

“You did listen.”

“I did. I always listen to you.”

Robert let Landon’s little white lie slide by.

“It’s been hard on me being away from you.” He couldn’t meet Landon’s concerned gaze under the heavy weight of his confession. “I don’t tell you because I don’t want to add pressure to an already hard situation.”

“We’ve done pretty good so far. Don’t think about it. It’ll be over soon. Tell me about Autumn.” Good diversion. His pregnant sister was due to give birth any minute there in DC. Another reason Robert had chosen to spend the entire week there with her and his little niece, Kylie.

Autumn, in her firestorm of constant activity, had become the poster child of progress for the country. In today’s social media world, he’d watched her regularly celebrated as well as crucified, all at the same time, even in the same thread. He couldn’t stand any of it, but she seemed to thrive, flourishing in her growing popularity.

“I haven’t checked in today. Let me text her.” This time, when Robert tried to move, Landon let him go. He went for his cell phone. He’d only been home for about twelve hours. Like normal, all those hours were spent catching up with the love of his life. Neither had checked on the restaurant since he had arrived. Robert saw he hadn’t missed a call then checked text messages to find a long list of unread messages. He opened Lee’s first and quickly read the update.