“Hey, Teddy!” Dan called in kind, twice as jubilant.
“Hi, guys!” Finn came up behind Teddy to wave back.
“If they come over here,” Teddy muttered, “we are not letting them in.”
“Aww, it’s nice having them as neighbors. Imagine if they were staying in your guest room.”
“Touché.” Teddy blanched.
Rick and Dan did not come over but continued down the beach, leaving Teddy and Finn to make dinner and finally start enjoying their anniversary alone.
Even when the others returned to the city, Teddy knew their presence here would become a regular occurrence. Deep down, he was glad, not that he planned to tell them that.
Even his mother was considering a change, despite never having lived anywhere but the city. If she moved out to the beach, too, it would all be over.
He almost looked forward to it.
A glass of wine, dinner, a cupcake, Mark Wahlberg’s ’98 flickThe Big Hitabout a socially anxious hit man—it was ridiculous and perfect, though the most perfect moment may have been when Finn, clearing away the dishes later, hummed to himself as he mimed dance moves from Teddy’s class.
Although that was vying for most perfect moment with Finn’s hand slipping into Teddy’s pants during the movie credits, mouth latching onto his neck, with neither of them getting up from the sofa or managing to remove all their clothing before they’d finished panting and writhing on the cushions.
Hard call, but the best moment was definitely either the dancing or debauchery.
Afterward, they lay on Teddy’s beach chair under the stairs, a little squished to both fit, but Teddy’s hip didn’t protest.
“I think my dancing’s improving,” Finn said, head on Teddy’s shoulder, their hands entwined.
“Mm, you could almost be presentable one day, if I dedicated an entire class to you.”
“Jerk!” Finn bit lightly at his shoulder.
“Even Marvin dances circles around you.”
“Marvin can literally do circles in his wheelchair. That’s cheating!”
Teddy laughed and cuddled Finn closer to him, realizing as he did how much they’d come full circle, having started right there in his beach chair the day they met, and later that same night when Finn carried Teddy inside.
Even Nora diving into the sand was the same, though Smudge was a welcome addition, sitting on a towel Finn had set on the sand to coax him from the porch. So far, it wasn’t working, no matter how much Nora darted back and forth in front of Smudge, trying to get him to come play.
Fighting out of Teddy’s hold, Finn chuckled with a mixture of tiredness and contentment. His smile turned mischievous as he looked at their parody selves in Nora and Smudge and suddenly clasped Teddy’s wrist like he planned to yank him into the sand too.
“You will seriously injure me if you do what you’re thinking.”
“I know. That’s why you’re going to come willingly.” Finn gave a gentle tug but waited for Teddy to get up on his own.
Warily, Teddy did, following where Finn led him, off the porch and onto the beach. Nora followed a pace or two, but seeing that Smudge was still on his towel, she eventually trotted back to her friend.
Finn’s hold on Teddy moved down to clasp his hand, and they continued to the water’s edge, which had an ethereal silver sheen to it at night that Teddy had always found calming, even if he rarely went this close to the water, let alone into it.
“I don’t usually go in the water,” he said when Finn, barefoot like he was, tried leading him into the lapping waves.
“You realize you live in a beach house, right?”
“I’m aware, but—”
“But you’re a cat, I know.” Finn grinned.
“Don’t say it,” Teddy warned.
