Cherish & Blessed (23 page)

The panic turned to relief so quickly Griffin felt a little dizzy. He folded down, laid his head on Jim’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he whispered as Jim stroked his back.

“On one condition,” Jim added and Griffin shifted slightly. He assumed it would be that they had to spend part of the year in Seattle or even Tacoma, at the house Ed Kelley had left for them.

“Okay.”

Jim nudged him, pushed him to sit up so they were looking at each other.

“The condition is—we have to get married.”

E
VAN
GOT
off the phone with Elizabeth, tucked it back into his pocket. Matt, Shane, and Helena were playing a Frisbee game that involved tackling and a great deal of swearing. Bennett kept putting his hands over Sadie’s ears, much to Daisy’s delight.

“How are the kids?” Daisy asked, shifting over to sit near Evan. Her big straw hat cast a shadow on his knees, reminding him to grab the tube of sunscreen.

“Good. The little ones are with their aunt and uncle in
Woodstock.” Evan laughed at his description of the kids. “Little ones—they’d be pissed if they heard me. They start their last year of middle school next week.”

“Oh my gosh.” Daisy pressed her hands over her face, shaking her head. “I can’t even imagine Sadie at that age.”

“And I’ve got one at college and another living with her boyfriend.” Evan squirted some sunscreen on his hand. “They don’t know I know, but I, uh—I know.”

Daisy giggled. “Do you still look at them and see helpless little babies?”

That struck Evan as incredibly perceptive; he kept forgetting Daisy was a regular person and not just someone he’d seen on movie screens or cable television. “All the time. Every time we pass another milestone birthday. Every time a voice changes or they get taller.” He rubbed the liquid on his skin, casting another look at Sadie sleeping quietly under the umbrella.

“Do you ever want more?”

Evan pulled his attention back to Daisy. “More kids? Oh God.” He laughed as he shook his head. “No. I think that ship is sailed.”

“I wonder if Matt is sorry he missed the whole package, you know? Babies to adults and all that,” Daisy mused. “He came in in the middle.”

“Skipped diapers. That’s always a plus,” Evan joked, even as his thoughts drifted to places more serious. Sometimes it felt strange to touch the dividing line between the segments of his life. Before Sherri died. After Matt came into his life. When he and Sherri raised the kids; when he and Matt did the job.

When Sherri shouldered the bulk of home life because Evan was a workaholic.

When Matt did the same.

One didn’t exist without the other in the time line of his life.

“Very true. Not to mention teething and temper tantrums,” Daisy laughed, unaware of Evan’s thoughts. “He might have gotten the better end of the deal.”

“Agreed,” Evan said, but he felt a certain contemplation as he rubbed more sunscreen into his overheated skin.

“Y
OU
LOSE
!”
Shane yelled, throwing his arms around Helena’s waist and pulling her to the sand. She screamed and giggled as they flopped around. Matt shook his head fondly. They literally took any excuse to grope the hell out of each other.

He admired that, he really did.

“Are you commenting on the game or her choice in men?” Matt teased, dusting sand off his legs and the seat of his shorts.

“Mean!” Helena snorted as she struggled out of Shane’s grasp.

“Who?”

“Both of you. Boys suck.” She wrestled herself up off the sand, shaking some of it out of her bikini bottom.

If Matt still liked girls…. “Well, in my case, that’s certainly true,” Matt deadpanned.

Helena flashed him a saucy look. “I don’t want to hear about your sex life, Haight. It’s bad enough I heard plenty last night.”

Matt shrugged—and didn’t bother to deny it. “You did it under a blanket, which I hope you are having dry-cleaned,” Matt said primly.

That earned him a blush. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said as Shane laughed uproariously from his spot on the sand.

“He knows.”

“Boys suck!”

“Again? This is not new.” Matt looked around. “Especially with this crowd.”

Shane nearly choked on his own tongue as he rolled around.

“Okay, I’m done with this conversation. I need a wine spritzer,” Helena announced. She tried to walk gracefully over to the blankets, but the bikini bottom full of sand disrupted her fabulous exit.

Matt gave Shane a hand up off the ground, slapping him on the back as they made their way to their friends.

In the distance Matt spotted Griffin and Jim, hand in hand, walking toward them. The smiles they were both sporting were hard to miss.

“Well, I guess the argument is over,” Shane murmured, but Matt saw something beyond just settling a tiff.

Griffin was shining, and Jim looked utterly content.

“Oh ho, we’re getting some news,” Matt hooted. He pushed Shane to walk faster.

E
VAN
CAUGHT
sight of Griffin and Jim traipsing over to them, and much like Griffin’s baby fever, it was hard to miss the joyful expression on his face right now.

Good news.

Very good news.

“Oh hey, could we, uh, get everyone over here,” Griffin called out, his voice breaking a little.

Daisy stood as the others made it to the little colony of blankets and umbrellas. “Everything okay?” she asked.

“Everything’s amazing.”

Evan felt a hand slide into his—Matt dropping down next to him, a grin lighting his face.

“So, Jim and I have some announcements,” Griffin said, breathless and grinning as Jim put his arm around his waist. “We’re—we’re moving to New York.”

Daisy squeaked, her joy evident as she clapped her hands.

“And we’re, uh—we’re sort of getting married.”

Evan couldn’t contain his smile as pandemonium erupted. He and Matt were the last to stand up to offer their congratulations. He remembered the first time they all met. Evan had been rude and jealous, uncomfortable with his own envy and anger. Jim was gorgeous; he and Griffin were in love and so comfortable in their feelings for each other—Evan hadn’t wanted to like either of them.

But then he got a reminder that life is too short—to be afraid, to keep people at arm’s length.

Evan slipped his arm around Matt’s body and pulled him close.

M
ATT
PULLED
Jim into a tight hug once they made it past a delirious Daisy. All the commotion woke Sadie, who demanded Mommy’s attention more than Griffin needed it right now.

“Well, that’s a surprise,” he whispered as Jim returned the embrace.

“I made up my mind about ten seconds before I found him,” Jim whispered back. “And then it was the most logical thing in the world.”

“Sap,” Matt said loudly, separating their bodies slowly. He looked over at Griffin getting a slightly less affectionate embrace from Evan. “Another prime bachelor off the market,” he teased.

Jim shoved him off. “Prime? Are you including yourself in that group?”

Matt didn’t hesitate; he smirked and said, “I haven’t been a bachelor in years.”

“N
OT
A
bachelor, huh?” Evan murmured as they floated in the pool. It was late, hours past the champagne and huge crab feast that was dinner, the celebration over Griffin and Jim’s joyful news. Hours past the happy toasting around the fire pit and second dinner, as everyone was tipsy and hungry at half past eleven.

Grilled cheese never tasted so good.

“Huh?” Matt leaned on the side of the pool, kicking his feet lazily next to Evan’s.

“You told Jim you weren’t a bachelor.”

Matt blinked in the moonlight, in the faint glow from the tiki torches burning in a circular pattern around the patio. He looked hazy and mellow, hair curling from the wind and the pool and the late hour.

Evan thought he might be falling that much more in love with him.

He wondered if there was a ceiling to his feelings for this man.

“I’m not. I’m shacked up with you.” Matt wrinkled his nose. “You remember that, right?”

Floating closer, Evan laid his head on Matt’s shoulder. They were alone, everyone already in bed. “I remember.”

“We raise kids and pay taxes,” Matt said sleepily. Under the water, Matt touched his hand to the center of Evan’s back. “We cut coupons.”

Evan pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“We complain about the kids across the street playing hockey too late on school nights.”

“I love you,” Evan murmured, licking at the salty curve of Matt’s neck. “I’m glad you’re the one I do all those things with.”

“Hmmm… what else do you like that we do together?”

With a snort, Evan reached under the warm, dark water and pinched Matt’s naked ass.

“Skinny-dipping. I’ve never actually done this,” Evan whispered, brushing against Matt’s side.

The delight in Matt’s smile made Evan’s skin prickle with want. “Seriously? At our advanced ages, it’s tough to find new things,” he said, all teasing and mirth. “Glad I’m your first skinny-dip, then.”

“Only.” Evan moved, rearranging limbs and bodies in the soft splish splash of the water, the pool’s filter lapping in the background. They wound around each other, pressed against the cool rock wall of the pool to keep from floating away.

“Only?” Matt repeated as they brushed noses, lips.

“I love you,” Evan said, brushing a kiss to the corner of Matt’s mouth. “I’m glad you’re my only.”
Like Sherri was my only
, he thought, and like that line he touched earlier in that day, he felt the emotional swell in his heart as the truth settled in.

Sherri was his only wife.

Matt was his only… Matt.

Something bright and vivid shifted in Matt’s eyes. He tilted his head, then broke into a wide, warm smile.

“Thank you,” he whispered, holding his hands into Evan’s back, bringing their bodies closer until Evan could only feel Matt surrounding him like the water. “Thank you for being my only,” Matt said.

Evan surged forward, catching Matt’s mouth for a kiss.

T
HEY
TWISTED
together, tongues and hands touching as everything grew more heated. Matt felt the edge of the pool wall at his back and Evan’s strong body driving against him. It wasn’t lust, it was connection, and Matt hadn’t felt this level of it since that first night at his apartment, when all the walls crashed down around them.

And they were helpless against the need that pulled them together.

Evan’s cock grew long and hard against his stomach; he reached down to grasp Evan’s thighs, pulling him closer. The water made it easy, pulling and pushing them into a lazy rhythm. Dick to dick and mouth to mouth.

Years ago they didn’t know what they were doing.

Matt didn’t know how to be in love, how to be part of a family. He didn’t know how to live.

Evan was his partner in the darkness—and then he was the only one who made all the light possible.

Something broke in Matt’s chest. He rubbed their bodies together in an intense rush, the orgasm taking him by surprise, almost an aftereffect of what he felt growing between them.

A few more thrusts and Evan stiffened against Matt’s chest. The water lapped around them, the night swallowing the sounds of their voices.