Jake didn’t move, which wasn’t surprising, since he certainly couldn’t read Rye’s mind, even if it seemed sometimes like he could. So Rye lifted his hand up and touched Jake’s cheek and then stretched up just enough to brush his lips—very lightly—against Jake’s. Lightly and briefly. A sweet, soft, tender kiss that didn’t push for more this time.
And it was perfect exactly like that, because it felt just as he expected it to. It felt like a promise.
Five months later . . .
Chapter Sixty-Three
Jake
“Anywhereintheworld?”
“Yep. Anywhere.”
Jake lowered himself to sit on the large rock at the half-mile point on their morning walk, the early summer sun warming his back as he looked out at the sparkling ocean and contemplated Rye’s question. Rye stepped up behind him, his hands sliding up Jake’s back, and Jake closed his eyes and hummed with contentment.
“Mmm, right here, wherever you are,” Jake said, tilting his head back and to the side. He felt Rye laugh, then lips pressed against his cheek.
“That’s not what I meant. SayI’m with you, andwe’reon a vacation.Together. Anywhere in the world. Where would it be?”
“Hmm.”
Rye continued distracting Jake, peppering little kisses along his cheek and jaw, and Jake sighed with pleasure. Only after Rye pulled back and straightened up was Jake able to actually think about his answer. And it really wasn’t too hard to decide.
“Queensland.”
“Queensland?”
“Australia. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have a friend there, she’s a university professor, and she studies symbiotic relationships of different species that live on the Great Barrier Reef. She works at a research station on a small island on the reef. That’s where I’d want to go. And then, um”—Jake paused and opened his eyes to gaze at the ocean—“out onto the reef, in the water. I want to... see it.”
Even as he said the last words out loud, Jake knew it wouldn’t happen. He’d overcome his fear of going down the stairs to his beach months back, thanks to Rye helping him through it. But being on a boat again wasn’t something he expected to be able to handle, ever.
Yet when Rye’s arms looped around his midsection and Rye breathed another kiss on his cheek as he said, “That sounds incredible,” Jake had to wonder if he was wrong. Again.
“Mmm. And what about you?” Jake asked, leaning back against his boyfriend.
Rye was quiet for a few minutes, and then Jake felt him breathe in and out a long, slow breath. “I actually don’t know,” he admitted, and he let his arms drop from around Jake, then moved to sit on the rock. Jake slipped his arm up around Rye’s shoulders as Rye leaned into him. After a moment, Rye continued. “It’s so perfect right here, you know?”
Warmth spread up into Jake’s cheeks, and he turned and buried his face into Rye’s hair, breathing in deeply. “Mmm, you wouldn’t let me get away with that answer. I’m gonna need more than that,” he teased.
Rye straightened and tilted his head back, looking up at Jake with a silly half-smile. Jake’s heart stuttered, and he bent down slowly, touching his lips to Rye’s in a gentle kiss. When he pulled back, Rye’s eyes were closed, and he was still smiling.
“So, where is your dream vacation taking us?” Jake asked softly, but before Rye could answer, Jake lowered his head again and fluttered a series of light kisses along Rye’s jawline. With a quiet “mmm,” Rye’s hand settled on Jake’s thigh, and Jake paused and sucked in a breath as heat flushed through him.
“Maybe... maybe Paris?” Rye said, though he didn’t seem terribly invested in the idea. His hand crept up a little higher. “Yeah, maybe. Paris for the arts and culture. Or maybe Rome. Or Milan. Oh, and Scotland. But then there’s also closer places that I want to see. Yellowstone, Alaska, the Grand Canyon.”
“Mmm, yeah,” Jake agreed, still quite distracted by the pressure of Rye’s hand on his thigh.
“Have you been?”
“Hmm? Where?”
Rye laughed. “To any of those places, silly.” He then pushed away from Jake and took his hand, tugging gently. “Come on, we should head back so I’m not late for work.”
“Ah, yeah, sorry.” Jake stood, glad when his leg didn’t complain, and started back along the beach, Rye walking next to him at exactly the right pace. He let his gaze lift up toward the water, not surprised to see a group of kayakers out some ways from the shore, the summer season in full swing.
“So, you didn’t answer my question,” Rye said as they skirted the water’s edge.
“Ah, yeah, hmm. Of those places, I’ve only been to Yellowstone. My dad took me and Kris there when I was maybe six. I don’t really remember it much. But I did travel a little before my accident. All up and down the West Coast. I also wentto New York and Boston. And Vancouver. Oh, and I went to Ecuador with Steve and a bunch of other students one summer when we were in undergrad. It was a university-sponsored trip. We got to travel out to the Galapagos Islands. That was incredible.”
