“This ass?” His hands drop lower and squeeze.
I squirm against him, laughing. “I feel like that should be weirder. You squeezing my ass.”
He squeezes again, green eyes darkening. “Because it was always meant to turn out like this. Part of me just wishes I’d figured out how I felt sooner because then I could’ve been squeezing your ass all along.”
I snort. “I guarantee, I wouldn’t have lost any sleep wondering what Jake Palmeri thought your ex-girlfriend had that I didn’t.”
Laughing, Robbie slides his hand down the back of my pants. “Going out on a limb, I’m gonna say it wasboobs, baby,” he teases. “Carrie had really nice ones, as I recall.”
I roll my eyes. “Carli. Her name wasCarli. And I’d like to point out that you have now committed yourself to a future withnoboobs. None whatsoever. Because I’m just the tiniest bit possessive, and I do not share?—”
In one smooth movement, Robbie manages to sit up and flip our positions, taking care with my collarbone. When I’m lying flat on the sofa cushions, he lifts my shirt and lowers his mouth to my chest, his tongue and teeth worrying my nipple.
“Poor, poor me.” His breath against my wet skin makes my nipple tighten, and a bolt of arousal skitters down my spine. “For me, attraction has always been about the person underneath the skin. And you… youaremy person. My missing piece, who’s never really been missing.” He lifts his head so our gazes lock. “Getting to have you like this and keep you… it’s everything I’ve ever wanted too, Ames. Even if I didn’t have the language for it before.”
I cup his face in my left hand, and he looks down at me with so much open, unguarded love, my chest feels like it’s cracking open… in a good way. In thebestway.
I can see our future laid out before us. Camping trips and kids and door-slamming arguments. Pancakes and family dinners and endless teasing. Sweet good-morning kisses that taste like Robbie’s coffee, family to love, and fires to fight. Getting to do it all with my favorite human on Earth.
“Hey, Amesie, remind me again about Rule Number One,” Robbie teases as his mouth finds its way back to mychest and then lower… and lower still. “Something about not assuming every gay boy is in love with me?”
I laugh. “I never said there weren’t exceptions,” I say, tugging his hair gently. “Because this gay boy is definitely, irrevocably, absolutely in love with you.”
The soft smile on his face is filled with affection, and I realize it has always been this way. Robbie loves Ames, and Ames loves Robbie.
The way it was always meant to be.
He teases me a little longer with kisses and nips before glancing up at me with dancing eyes. “I need you to know I’m always in your corner, Ames. And now, I’ll also suck your dick.”
I nearly choke on outraged laughter, then flip us both over to pin him underneath me—a move I probably couldn’t have executed in my injured state, except that Robbie curls himself protectively around me and rollswithme once he realizes what I’m doing. “I can’t believe you just said that!” I say, sucking a deep bruise into his neck I hope the guys at the station tease him about later.
“You saying that’s not what you want, Amesie?”
I never did answer him with words, but I showed him with my fingertips, my lips, and the languid stretch of my body on his that it was everything I’d ever wanted. And so much more.
EPILOGUE
ROBBIE
One month later
By the timeAmes and I make it downtown, the Spring Fling’s in full swing, and Winsome’s outdone itself.
Paper lanterns in soft pastels hang from every lamppost on Main Street, swaying gently in the warm May breeze. Chapel Creek Park’s been transformed into a maze of white tents and colorful booths—local artists selling paintings and pottery, the Gardening Club hosting their seedling station, Mrs. Chen’s dumpling cart sending up clouds of fragrant steam. Kids run past us with balloon animals, their faces painted like butterflies and their shrieks of laughter filling the air.
It’s perfect. Really.
Better than I can ever remember…
At least, I’m pretty sure.
The truth is, I’m a little too busy looking at the gorgeous man beside me to take in the details.
Ames is wearing dark jeans and a soft gray T-shirt thatsays Winsome FD. The jeans show off the firm muscles of his thighs and ass, and the shirt shows off his toned arms—which are both almost fully functional since Ames is fully committed to his physical therapy. Best of all, the sleeves of the shirt are short enough to show off the tattoo on his right arm, which brushes up against my left arm as we walk. A perfect,visiblesign that we’re a unit.
I mean, not that anyone in Winsome has any doubts. Not after the past month.
“You’re doing it again,” Ames murmurs without looking at me.
