* * *
By the timeAileen and Nora called everyone for dinner, Colin claimed he felt better.
“You sure you want to sit in the dining room?” Joshua asked him as they moved away from the couch. “I could bring you a tray.”
Colin turned to face his husband and laid both hands on his shoulders. “I’m fine. I want to eat with my family.” He pressed a kiss to Joshua’s temple.
Joshua eyed him skeptically. “You’re not fine, Colin. You’re still feeling ill. I can see it in your eyes.”
Colin bent close to him. “Maybe so,” he replied, his voice muted. “But keep it to yourself, please. I don’t want to worry my aunts.” Joshua nodded, and they entered the dining room arm-in-arm. “I’m ready to eat,” Colin announced, then he glanced at the many dishes his aunts had set out for their dinner and reared back in surprise. “My god, is there any foodleftin Killarney?”
“This table is a slice of heaven,” David said, then patted Colin’s back. “How you feeling, big guy? You recovered from your ordeal?”
“I can only say ‘I’m fine’ so many times before I start to sound boring and redundant.”
David laughed. “Well, we wouldn’t wantthat.”
Once everyone was seated, Colin lifted his glass. “I want to thank everyone for helping me today.”
“And we want to thankyoufor saving our lives,” Nate replied.
“It wouldn’t have come to that,” Colin told him. “The two Garda were five seconds behind me.”
“You don’tknowit wouldn’t have come to that, Colin,” David said, then leaned close to his friend. “As you have pointed out many times, a lot can happen in five seconds. Shut up and take the win!”
Colin smirked, then placed his hand over his heart and bowed in Nate’s direction. “You’re welcome.”
* * *
In their room that night,they lay in bed dressed only in their briefs. Joshua nestled against Colin’s side, his head resting on his husband’s chest, his thigh crossed over Colin’s. He drew in a deep breath and let it out, sinking into the comforting warmth of his husband’s body and the feeling of absolute peace that always filled his heart when Colin’s arms were tight around him. He could hear his husband’s heartbeat against his ear, the blood-slow cadence invoking a profound contentment that seeped through his veins like a sedative, scalding his eyes with grateful tears.
His fingers moved in a mindless caress over Colin’s chest and side, then slid lower to caress his thigh. “I never want to move,” he murmured, turning his head to brush his lips across the curve of Colin’s pectoral.
“Then don’t.”
“I love being this close to you,” Joshua whispered and heard Colin’s soft chuckle.
“And what kind of intimacy isthis?” he teased, his voice low. “Not sexual. Not unless you move your hand a little to the right.”
Joshua’s breathy laugh brought a smile to Colin’s face. “Well, I’m happy to do so if that’s what you have in mind,” he replied.
“It’s not,” Colin told him, his fingers gliding up and down Joshua’s bare arm.
After a few minutes, Joshua leaned up on an elbow and met Colin’s eyes. “You didn’t eat much tonight. You just picked at your food. That’s not like you.”
“Hard to eat when you feel like crap and aren’t sure your food is going to stay down.”
“Does every cop feel like this when they’re involved in a shooting?”
Colin’s jaw tightened. “They do if the gun goes off an inch from their ear.” He caressed Joshua’s cheek. “The Garda at the station today told me he intended to kill the shop owner. It’s his brother-in-law, and he was there to settle a family dispute.”
“By killingus?” Joshua blurted.
Colin shrugged and drew Joshua’s head to his shoulder. “I doubt he intended to kill us, though he surecouldhave. He wasn’t exactly in his right mind at the time.”
“I’m still ashamed of myself for ragging on you the way I did.”
Colin pressed a kiss to his dark hair. “Josh, let it go. I’m choosing to go with David’s interpretation of events: everyone was doing their best.” He lifted Joshua’s hand and stared at it, frowning, then he slid his fingers between Joshua’s and tightened his hand around them. “It was just…” He exhaled a long breath, “abadday.”
