Jonathan turned his hand around and their palms made an electric cave.
“I know it’s not . . .”
It wasn’t his bedroom becoming theirs, co-teaching ballroom at the studio, parenting Savvy through the teens together. It wasn’t Ben coming and going from their home whenever he wanted, or sheltering other kids who needed it. But as long as David kept coming back . . .
Jonathan steadied his gaze on him. It was too easy to give in to the fear that any visit might be their last. That was the final challenge—their biggest challenge—all along.
He flipped his hand and unstrapped his watch. It came off with a ticklish slide, air shifting over the naked spot.
David’s breath stilled and his head shot up. He searched Jonathan’s face.
“We’ll figure it out, David.” Jonathan wrapped the watch around his lean wrist, fingers lingering at the buckle, then slowly widening to a cuff.
He recalled, many years ago, sitting in his parent’s bedroom and trying it on while his mum had been showering. Recalled her finding him with it and smiling. Her gentle voice as he’d stared at it on his wrist. “Your dad gave me that. It’s very special.”
He’d watched the delicate hands ticking around the golden face.
“He gave this to me instead of an engagement ring. I never wanted anything else. It ticks for me like his heart does.”
Jonathan met wide green eyes. Knowing eyes. You had Nash, I had Savvy.
He’d strapped it on David before, in the dinghy . . . he hadn’t looked at him when he returned it. Jonathan had basically strapped the weight of all his feelings around him and . . . of course David had run away.
But he’d come back.
Jonathan held on, and his heart pounded one, two, three beats—
He released.
David kissed him.
The delicate taste of it swept through Jonathan with a roar. He hadn’t anticipated how different it would feel. How warm. Soothing and addictive, ticking against his heart.
David drew back a half inch, the watchstrap cool against Jonathan’s nape. His smile wrapped around them, and Jonathan was smiling back.
He climbed down the tree and David slipped into his arms, another kiss. A shiver. Jonathan took David’s hand and pulled, only to meet sharp resistance.
David reeled him back in, his smile soft and gentle. Their breaths tangled. Jonathan rested his hand over David’s pounding heart as nimble fingers latched the wristband around Jonathan, the D + J against the pulse in his wrist. “Take me home.”
Chapter Twenty
Soulmate Island
Goodbye was only a matter of hours away, but he would not think about that, or the waiting that would torture him between fleeting visits.
He had David asleep in his arms. A mess of wild hair and slackened lips and shallow, even breaths that skated to the base of his neck.
This. He needed to keep this every night. Forever. How? A librarian’s wage, even with the extra his dancing earned, wouldn’t contribute much to such a mortgage.
And the deposit for a loan in the first place . . .
He turned it around in his mind all night, and with the rising sun, it dawned on him.
He whispered his plan to David, who was suddenly very much awake, and within the hour they were knocking at Mr Cranky’s door.
He answered with a glower. “Took you long enough.”
David laughed, and Jonathan caught a twinkle in Mr Cranky’s eyes before it was swiftly repressed.
A brilliant purple sky, fringed with a golden sunrise, surrounded the three of them as Jonathan rowed over calm pink water toward Soulmate Island.
Mr Cranky smiled under his tricorn hat. “True treasure awaits. You’ll see.”
David grinned from his seat atop a pile of warm blankets and cradled their brunch. Jonathan pulled more water, murmuring. “I truly hope so.”
Mr Cranky eyed him shrewdly. “You’re up to something. What is it?”
Jonathan didn’t reply. He smiled as he tied the dinghy to a tree and laid a tarp out on the damp sand, covering it in layers of warm blankets to sit on and wrap up in.
The view from their little nest was beautiful, gilded waters meeting a golden horizon.
They spread out breakfast and poured hot tea from the thermos while Mr Cranky regaled them with stories of his wife. “Blessed by Aphrodite,” he said. “Beautiful.”
His eyes glazed over and the air grew tight with emotion, and Jonathan pulled David to his feet, wristband and watch bumping as they crowded close.
Sunrise threaded through the trees above and blotched over them like a kaleidoscope. They danced across the sand, until David laughed as Jonathan held him tightly in a dip.
Mr Cranky applauded their performance, and Jonathan clutched David’s hand. There was every chance he would say no. He may have won the lottery but he’d never liked the idea of being frivolous with money . . .
Jonathan had to try.
He looked Mr Cranky in the eye. “I wanted to ask for other treasure. Can we, can David and I, get a personal loan from you? It’s for—”