Blinking, Adam gave a shaky laugh.Guess we weren’t as adept at hiding our feelings as I’d thought. Then Adam realized it no longer mattered. He and Rico were out and together.
“Yeah. Everything’s cool.”
“Great. I got us a flight for today out of LaGuardia. We’ll leave from here.”
“Good. I’ll go back to my place, get my stuff together, and come right back.” He hopped out of bed. “I’ll take a quick shower first. You got me all sweaty last night.”
Rico flipped back the sheets, and Adam couldn’t help but admire the dips and planes of his chiseled torso. The night before, he’d spent considerable time worshiping those firm muscles and sweet skin with his tongue.
“I’m ready for a repeat performance, only this time you won’t get sweaty. We’ll already be in the shower.”
Laughing, he and Rico walked into the bathroom, where they first got very dirty before getting clean.
*
“I don’t knowwhy your mother had to call you. It’s nothing. A few days rest and I’ll be good as new.”
He and Rico had arrived in the early evening, and after a shower they finally had a chance to all sit around the kitchen table, taking their time over dinner. At first Adam tiptoed carefully around his father, not wishing to upset him or make him feel like an invalid. But when he acted like a stubborn mule, Adam gave it right back to him in spades.
“Don’t be foolish, Daddy. I spoke to the doctor. You need to take it easy, so that’s what you’re gonna do. You could use some help around here, so I’ve gone and spoken to Harley about expanding his duties.”
Ignoring his father’s death-glare, Adam continued to eat his dinner with Rico sitting silently beside him. His mother slid a plate of broiled salmon in front of his father, and Adam braced himself, knowing how much his father disliked fish.
“Grace.”
“Now you listen to me. You scared me to death, and I can’t think of losing you. There’s a lot to live for, you know. Look at Adam. How happy he is now. I’m thinking being here with Rico again means the two of them have something important of their own to tell us?”
Heat rose in his face, and Adam knew his fiery blush gave him away, but it was Rico who shocked him by answering.
“Yes. We’re together. When my store was shut down by water damage from a fire, Adam stepped in to help, and we reconnected. I realized I was pushing away the best man I’ve ever met.”
Across the table, his mother’s face glowed; then her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.
“Pushing away? What happened? I thought you were together.”
“Mama, I never said Rico and I were a couple when we were down here. I don’t know why you thought we were.”
The eye roll his mother gave him must’ve hurt, and he caught the gleam of Rico’s smile.
“Guess we were too busy fooling ourselves to think how it looked to everyone else. But we had some personal stuff to work out separately in our own heads before we could make it work together.”
“But you are, right? Together?”
His father scanned his face, and Adam knew his parents had waited so desperately for him to move on with his life. There was one thing left for him to do, but it had to wait until morning.
“Yeah, we are. It’s still a work in progress, though.”
“Aren’t we all?” His mother gave them a tender smile. “Your father and I have been married thirty-five years, yet he never ceases to amaze me.”
“Thank you, Grace.”
Her blue eyes danced with amusement. “I wasn’t meaning that fully as a compliment, Wes. You gotta know that.”
They all shared a laugh; then he and Rico took their plates and loaded the dishwasher. “Mama, let us clean up here, and you and Daddy can get a little downtime. You both have been running ragged.”
Giving him a grateful smile, his mother stood and placed her hands on his father’s shoulders. “That would be lovely. I know your father needs to get his rest, no matter how much he likes to pretend this heart attack was nothing more than a little hiccup.”
“I am a bit tired.”
