“Yeah?” I asked.
From my seat, I looked out the window and saw headlights fill the driveway. Then Russell’s black SUV slowly came into view. Stanley’s hand patted my arm. I stood and saw the interior cabin lights turn on. I needed to touch him.
“I’ll go see if he needs help carrying anything inside,” I said and hurried out of the kitchen into the entryway.
I didn’t even bother with a fucking coat. During the past hour, my mind I had gone through the motions of losing Russell. Fuck the coat. I jogged along the damp walkway toward his SUV as he rounded the front of the Mercedes. My feet crunched in some of the snow that was sticking. I ran toward him and threw my arms around him, burying my face against his warm neck.
“Ryan. My boy, what’s wrong?” Russell asked as he held me tightly against him. “Where is your coat?”
“I didn’t care about the coat.”
“Clearly. My boy, what’s wrong?”
“You texted a long time ago. I’m used to you being home in five or ten minutes when you text me at home that you’re on the way. I got worried. It had been an hour, then I saw it was snowing. And even though you have a safe SUV, it’s still no match for a semi-truck. And then I started to get really worried, and I didn’t know—”
Emotions spilled out of me as fear had seized me. It was something I knew would eventually happen, but I wasn’t ready for it.
“Ryan—”
“I didn’t know how I could live without you.” I clamped my mouth tightly shut and tried to take a deep breath. “I’m not ready to have to figure out how to live without you.”
I felt his arms tighten around me.
“Ryan.” Russell turned his head and kissed my cheek. He moved his hands up and down my back. “You don’t have to figure anything out right now. You let your mind run away, my boy.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m sorry for the delay. I sent the text before I left the mall and then traffic was a nightmare.”
“That’s what Lily said too.”
“And by the time I got to the edge of Indianapolis, I saw the time and thought about dinner. I stopped into the pizza place and picked up an early dinner for us.”
I laughed against his neck.
“You have pizza in the car?”
“I do.”
“I guess we can go inside. I wouldn’t want it to get cold.”
Before I moved out of our embrace, Russell squeezed me against him.
“I love you, Ryan.”
“I love you too.”
“Now, let’s get inside and warm you up. You’re shivering.” I noticed I was shivering. It was fucking cold out here. “You come outside without a coat on again, and I’ll take you out around back and redden that ass of yours,” Russell teased. I smiled against his neck.
“Need help carrying anything? Like presents?” I offered and stood on my tiptoes, pretending to look in the SUV.
“You may carry the pizza box. I will carry the presents.”
Russell swatted my ass and then told me to get the pizza box off the front seat while he went to get the bags in the back of the SUV. As we walked toward the house, I saw Lily and Stanley standing side by side at the window. Both of them were smiling.
