Jayne looked over his shoulder at Caleb, who slept soundly now that Jayne had stopped tormenting him. It felt a shame to leave, especially when his knees were weak from the way Caleb had screwed him into the mattress, but there were things Jayne needed to tend to before he went to sleep.
On his way out of the room, Jayne stopped by the side of the bed and kissed Caleb’s shoulder. Caleb smiled in his sleep, and Jayne’s heart melted a touch more. Without humor to hide behind, Caleb was a teddy bear, and Jayne wanted nothing more than to slip into bed and cuddle up against his chest to take advantage of his sweetness. Instead, he left the room and made a call. If he didn’t take too long with Simon, he could still get some cuddles in with a sleeping Caleb before he passed out from exhaustion.
“Hey, little brother,” Jayne said as he closed the bedroom door and headed for the kitchen. “Don’t freak out—nothing bad has happened. In fact, I’m calling with good news.”
“Are you serious?” Simon’s voice was every bit as mousy as Jayne remembered, and hearing it did his soul good. “Did you find a place to stay?”
“Not yet,” Jayne admitted. He leaned against the counter and looked across the darkened kitchen at the condo he’d come to know as if it were his own. “I’m still here in the condo, but something has changed.”
“Okay, you’re gonna need to be a little more forward than that.” Jayne imagined the creases in Simon’s brow and the quizzical slant of his eyes. “What exactly are you talking about?”
“I’m in love.” It was so absurd that Jayne had to laugh. “I’m in love with the guys I’m staying with, and I’m pretty sure they’ve fallen in love with me, and it’s the most magical, frightening, incredible thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“And they’re not like…” Simon trailed off, but Jayne knew what he meant.
“They’re not like Bastian,” Jayne confirmed. “They’ve done everything they can to help me, Shep, and Parker, but not so they can hold it over my head. What they do, they do because they care—because they’ve got big hearts.” Jayne’s smile wobbled, and he found himself unexpectedly close to tears. “They’ve given me hope I never thought I’d have, and I wanted you to know that even with everything going on here, we’re going to be okay. All of us are going to be okay.”
“I didn’t doubt it.” Simon’s smile lit up his voice. “I’m happy for you, Jayne. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will.” Jayne squeezed his eyes shut as elation tore through him, making him want to laugh and cry all at once.
It was a powerful thing to be in love. It could blind men, bind them, give them strength, or leave them helpless. Jayne had suffered at its hands once, but now, he was bolstered by it.
Whatever would happen in the years still to come—whether love left him, or continued to lend him its strength—Jayne would never forget this feeling, or the lesson it had taught him. No matter how bleak a situation, there was always a chance for happiness.
* * *
Smack!
Something warm and meaty plopped unceremoniously onto Jayne’s face, startling him from his sleep. Gasping for breath, he swatted the thing in the hopes he could make it go away only to find it wasn’t so easy to move.
The thing, he discovered as he tried to lift it from his face, was Caleb’s arm.
In his sleep, Caleb had rolled over, and his arm had decided to make Jayne’s face its bitch.
At least it wasn’t his dick.
Unable to move Caleb’s arm to a satisfactory position, Jayne grunted and rolled away, but the damage was already done—he was awake, and he got the feeling that if he made an attempt to go back to sleep, he’d no sooner drift off than his alarm would ring.
“Stupid arm,” Jayne muttered from Everett’s empty side of the bed. He tugged one of Everett’s pillows to his chest and buried his face in its softness. “You should be glad I don’t bite… much.”
While Jayne cuddled Everett’s pillow, the en suite toilet flushed, and the bathroom door opened. Light spilled across the room, turning the space behind Jayne’s eyelids crimson. Since Shep would rather urinate out the guest bedroom window than enter the bedroom where his potentially sex-glazed older brother was sleeping, and since Parker had never successfully operated a doorknob in his life, the logical conclusion was that Everett had come home from work and was getting ready to join them in bed. Jayne opened his eyes the tiniest bit to peer at him, and was delighted to see that what he’d thought was true—Everett was on the way to the bedside, using the flashlight app on his phone to help him navigate. He was naked.
To give him space to lie down, Jayne returned the pillow to where it belonged and scooted back. It meant he had to lie on the arm that had so rudely woken him from his sleep, but the slight discomfort proved worth it—a second later, Everett slipped between the sheets and wrapped his arms around Jayne, pulling him close. His skin was still warm from the shower.
“I didn’t expect to find you awake,” Everett admitted in a whisper. He kissed the top of Jayne’s head. “Lucky me.”
“Your boyfriend decided that my face was a great place to drop his arm,” Jayne whispered back. “What time is it?”
“A little past four. And he’s your boyfriend, too.”
Jayne grinned. “Yeah, but right now I’m pissed that his fine ass would steal an hour of my precious sleep, so right now, he’s yours.”
In response, Everett crowned his head with another kiss.
“How was work?” Jayne asked. He wove his arms around Everett, enjoying that he was able to leech his body heat. While outside temperatures soared, the central air kept the condo pleasantly cool. “Neither of us got any texts, so I guess Bastian didn’t fly the coop and come to cause trouble?”
“Nope. We did have someone wander in off the streets earlier in the evening convinced that we were a religious bookstore, but I think once she got a look through the door, she changed her mind. That was about as exciting as it got. Although…” Everett trailed off.
