Dinner was delicious, and the conversation flowed easily. Unfortunately, once they all moved to the couch and James began decorating for Valentine’s Day, the inquisition began. The streaming service they used had commercials, and each time an ad came on, Howard and Linda would ask him about Leon, what they were doing that weekend, or what their Valentine’s Day plans were the following week. His mom subtly steered the conversation until suddenly he was confessing to twomorepeople who weren’t Leon that he did, in fact, love his boyfriend.
“That’s wonderful, James!” Linda said, holding up the next piece of wall art in the set of five that his mom wanted him to hang over the couch. She, Howard, and his mom were taking turns getting up from the couch so James could stand on it to hang the canvases.
This had been another recent addition to the house. Growing up, there had been a generic forest scene split across five canvases hanging above the couch. Now his mom had managed to find wall hangings for every season and holiday, and they rotated them throughout the year.
“Young love is truly a beautiful thing. Joan and I said I love you on our third date and never stopped saying it over our forty years together,” Howard said.
Linda nodded sagely, and out of the corner of his eye, James could see his mom smiling.
He was never quite sure how to respond when Howard spoke about his late wife. He and his mom did their best not to bring up James’ dad, but that was because he was a grade A bastard, not because he was dead. James didn’t have a lot of experience with death, outside of the constant fear he’d lived in for years with his mom’s cancer.
He finished hanging the painting and offered his mom a hand back onto her seat on the sofa.
“Do you think you’re going to use the baskets after all?” she asked.
“I might,” he said, although he really wasn’t sure. Part of him felt like he was going to burst any moment if he didn’t immediately do something unhinged like drive to Leon’s place and declare his love for the man.
Another part of him thought he could probably stand waiting another ten to fifteen business weeks.
“I think you can always try for a grand gesture, but sometimes it just happens naturally. I told your mother I loved her over toast,” Linda said, smiling at his mom so sweetly, it sort of made his teeth ache.
“What were you toasting to?” Howard asked, his eyes semi-focused on an ad for topsoil.
“We weren’t doing a toast; we were eating toast.”
“Actually, we hadn’t even gotten to eat it yet. I was standing at the counter buttering toast,” his mom said, casting a similarly sappy look back at Linda.
“I told your mom over a candlelit dinner, and then on a walk down by the river, and again right before Christmas,” Howard said.
“The last one is when I said it back. We were holding hands in front of that little Christmas tree you had on the kitchen island, and the time just felt right,” his mom said, casting a different but equally sweet look at Howard.
It was funny how their relationship as a trio seemed completely unified, yet their relationships with each other were so distinct.
“What about you two?” James asked.
Linda and Howard turned to grin at each other.
“We were playing tennis at the community center right after Thanksgiving, and I was winning quite handily. Kept calling out the score, fifteen-love, thirty-love, forty-love, and he said–”
“‘Is one of those love’s going to be for me, and not for my score?’” Howard said with a hearty chuckle. “She didn’t even pause before lobbing the ball at me and shouting that yes, in fact, she did love me. I said it back immediately, of course, because I would be a fool not to love this woman.”
James’ mom laughed, and he tried to laugh along with her, but that ball in his belly glowed like a hot ember.
He would be a fool not to love Leon.
That one thought stayed with him all the way through work the next day. Leon stayed home to give his brain a break, and James wandered around the office, discussing deadlines, refilling his coffee, and eating leftover curry in a daze.
When he got home, all he could focus on was how badly he wanted to be in Leon’s arms. He changed out of his work pants and, for some reason, found himself taking off his packer, washing it and himself, before placing it in his bag.
His brain–or maybe his dick, or possibly even that ball of warmth in his core–seemed to have a plan. He put on a pair of clingy, heather green joggers that Leon had complimented him on before, along with a dark V-neck that made him feel sexy. He kept his overnight bag packed at the bottom of his closet. All he had to do was add a clean outfit for Saturday, and he was ready to go.
The drive over passed in a blur, and he could feel an atypical, cheek-splitting grin settle on his face as he knocked on Leon’s door. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to get his lips under control, so instead he chose to bury his face in Leon’s chest the second he answered the door.
“Hi, darlin’... I missed you, too.”
Chapter Four
LEON
