“You and me,” Morgan said. “Get this old feed and grain straightened out so maybe we can sell it in the spring. In the meantime, we can get the three old geezers on a regular coffee-and-donut schedule so they’ll leave me the hell alone, and get Mabel to tell me what kind of trap I should use for that damn raccoon. Except there’s no raccoon?—”
“You said you and me,” Jack interrupted. “Can we get back to that part?”
“You and me,” Morgan confirmed with a hopeful smile. “Huddled in front of this cast-iron stove, waiting for spring. Waiting for Plowy McPlowface to clear the roads so we can swing by the coffee shop before doing our shopping at the only grocerystore in town. Our lives slowing way down to the point where we don’t ever have to be apart. So we can just be together always.”
“Me in your arms,” Jack said, as though that was his stipulation in a long-running discussion about what he was willing to compromise. “You in my bed. And all the windows replaced.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, as if that last was the most important part.
“Yes, yes, ofcourse.” Morgan was smiling, but his mouth quivered like he was afraid to say the wrong thing and break some kind of spell. “So you’ll stay? And be with me.”
“If you’ll be with me,” Jack said, just to be stubborn. “And if you say that thing again.”
“About loving you?” Morgan asked, and when Jack nodded, Morgan moved close. Took Jack’s face in his hands and kissed him gently. Morgan’s eyes were right there, happy lights in them, surrounded by smile crinkles. Jack leaned in and kissed Morgan right back.
“I’ll say it all the time if you want,” Morgan said, his breath whispering across Jack’s mouth.
Jack’s heart was jumping, painful slams against the inside of his breastbone. Their foreheads came together, warmth building between them.
“What if your knee hurts,” he whispered. “What if you get mad and push me away again.”
They weren’t questions; they were statements, wanting to be answered and soothed.
“I was scared.” Morgan pulled away, taking a bit of warmth with him, though his eyes never left Jack’s. “And a fool. I didn’t want to stay—this stupid town—but it caught me and held me down until I gave in. Same with you. You pulled and pulled, probably didn’t even know you were doing it. And now all I want—” He paused to kiss Jack quickly. “—is you. If you’ll put up with me while I get better.”
“Yeah.” Jack breathed the word and moved into Morgan’s arms. “As long as you do those damn exercises every day instead of only one time and calling it good. Take your meds when you should.”
“Stop being my nursemaid.”
“Then stop being a jackass.”
Morgan flushed and shook his head. “Yes,” he said, “that is on me. I’m a grown man, and I should know better.”
“And for now,” Jack said, “you can shut up and kiss me.”
“Okay.”
Morgan’s smile deepened, and his arms tightened around Jack. As the room grew still around them, the cold air soaking through the thin windows, Jack felt warm inside.
Jack gently tumbled Morgan onto the futon, Morgan landing with a loudoofand a furrow between his brows, looking up at Jack as though Jack had just jumped him in a back alley somewhere. A second later and Jack was on him, straddling his hips, mock-pinning his wrists to the mattress.
“You—” Morgan began, then stopped, and whether he was pretending to try and get away or whether he really was, the friction against the insides of Jack’s thighs, his groin, was delicious.
“I what?” Jack asked, giving Morgan a warning look.
“You scalawag,” Morgan said, and now he was laughing, attempting to free himself to clutch at Jack. “Reprobate.” Then he bared his teeth and hissed, “Delinquent!”
“Wrong, wrong, wrong.” Jack bent forward to kiss him hard and fast with each word. “I’m yours. I’m your Jack. Now be quiet.”
To make his point, Jack let go of Morgan’s wrists and spread himself on top of Morgan’s body, covering him. Holding himstill. In the glow of the small fire in the stove, he kissed Morgan’s forehead and the tip of his nose. Each of his cheeks, then his mouth. Slowly. Their breaths warm. Morgan’s chest rising and falling beneath him.
“I can’t, um—” Morgan tilted his head in a way that somehow indicated his knee.
Jack nodded. “We’ll take it slow and easy.” He licked along Morgan’s mouth, dipping in when Morgan’s lips parted, and sighed as Morgan’s arms tightened around his waist. “And when you’re ready, we’ll flip a coin to see who fucks who.”
“Who fuckswhom,” Morgan corrected with a grin.
Jack snorted and buried his face in Morgan’s neck to tug at the collar of his T-shirt with his teeth, inhaling Morgan’s warm scent. Then he reached between them, sliding his fingers beneath the waistband of Morgan’s briefs and down to his cock.
