Fall by Winter

Mason came back with beverages and snacks for all of us, and I could’ve kissed his feet for adding a shot of espresso to my chai latte.

“God, I love you.” I took a slow sip and felt the hot sweetness and the kick of the coffee slither into my system.

“Was that to me or the beverage?” He smirked faintly.

“Both.” I folded one leg over the other and took another sip. “What do you want for dinner tomorrow? I’m making a mental grocery list.”

Tristan and Katie were finally moving home before Halloween this week. They’d spent a fair share of their free time at the house across the street from us, but it wasn’t until now that they were giving up Vancouver entirely. Tristan would commute, and Katie would work from home until she went on maternity leave again. Anyway, they’d need their kitchen restocked, so I’d shop for them too.

“I’ve gone without your cooking for over two weeks,” he said. “Whatever you make, I’ll inhale. Greek food in all its glory, but there’s only so much souvlaki I can handle before I start fantasizing about pork chops and mashed potatoes in the shower.”

I laughed softly and patted his thigh. “Then that’s what I’ll make tomorrow.”

He grinned and ducked down for a kiss to my neck.

“Look alive, lovebirds!” we heard Kelly holler.

There weren’t many departures left in the day, so it was easy to pick out William and Kelly from the bypassing travelers.

“Hey, you two.” I smiled tiredly.

Mason got comfortable with his arm around my shoulders and grabbed his coffee.

“Evening. Nice tans.” William smiled back and sat down across from us. “I don’t need to have seen the pictures online to know you’ve had a pleasant vacation.”

“It was wonderful.” I sent Mason a quick grin, and he winked at me.

So many dirty memories.

“And now it’s your turn!” I returned my attention to the guys, and I was happy they were finally venturing outside of the country together. After years of extremely hard work, Kelly’s business had taken off, and he could slow down a little. “You’ll have to send us pictures every day. Ireland is high up on our list too.”

“Definitely,” Mason agreed. “Next spring, I wanna take the missus around every distillery I can find.”

I laughed into my cup.

“We’re doing a whiskey tour,” William said, facing Kelly. “How many did we look into?”

“Dozens, but we settled for seven,” Kelly replied. “Will’s looking forward to Tullamore, and I’m itching for some Bushmills.”

William leaned back in his seat and rubbed Kelly’s neck affectionately. “I think we’ll discover something local that we can’t find here at home, and it’s going to suck.”

Mason laughed quietly. “I was just gonna say.”

“We checked an extra bag for a reason.” Kelly smirked at William, who chuckled.

“When’s your flight?” I wondered. They had a red-eye to New York, where they’d stop for a day and a half before continuing to Dublin.

Kelly checked his watch. “We start boarding in half an hour.”

“Thank God we upgraded for this trip, at least,” William muttered. “Kelly wanted to fly economy the whole way.”

I snickered. For me, it was a treat to fly business because of free wine and comfy seats. For the men, especially the Calvert men who were over six foot three—four, in Mason’s case—it was a matter of height.

“With extra legroom,” Kelly defended. “It’s insane to spend thousands of dollars extra just to be able to fuckin’ tap-dance in your seat.”

Mason and I cracked up at that.

William shook his head in amusement and kissed his hubby.

Then Mason pressed a kiss to the side of my head and indicated it was time for us to get a move on. We had to pick up our luggage and make our way to the parking lot. Ugh, then a two-hour drive home. Yeah, we had to get going.

“Well, I hope you will have an amazing few weeks in Europe, gentlemen,” I said. “And we will see you before…Thanksgiving, right?”

“Of course.” William nodded. “Dinner at our house as usual. But maybe you can check in with our son if he’s still bringing a plus-one. He’s been posting some cryptic things on his Instagram.”

Mason and I had noticed the posts too.

“I’ll talk to him,” I promised.The next morning, Mason and I stepped into the future and got a glimpse of what it would be like to turn eighty. We were so damn tired. We took turns going to the bathroom, and then we mustered all our strength for a joint effort in scrambling together some breakfast we could have in bed. He found bread in the freezer that I slathered in butter and threw in a skillet while he got the paper. He made bacon—his one and only specialty in the kitchen, but damn, it was bacon worthy of the Queen’s approval. If she ate bacon. I didn’t know if she ate bacon.