“I do.”
“Those are the things I already bought.”
“Snow boots?”
“We’re going to walk on a glacier! You think there’s no snow on aglacier?”
Colin clutched the list in his hand and lowered his head, shaking with laughter.
“Go on!” Joshua spluttered. “Yuck it up! But you mark my words, you’ll thank me later.”
Still laughing, Colin offered the list to his fuming husband. “I’m thanking younow,grá mo chroí.”
Joshua snatched the list from his hand. “Is that Irish for ‘paranoid over-thinker’?”
“No,” Colin told him. “It means ‘love of my heart’.” He rose and wandered to the chest of drawers, still drying himself. Then he tossed the towel in the general direction of the clothes hamper before grabbing a pair of briefs from the drawer. “And I do thank you,” he said, pulling on his underwear. “This took a lot of thought, and I appreciate it.”
“Uh-huh,” Joshua muttered, gathering items from the bed into his arms.
“I do! Honest!” Dressed only in his skimpy underwear, Colin wandered back to the bed and pulled Joshua down beside him. “But look. Do weneedTSA-approved luggage locks? Or a universal travel adapter? Honey, honest to god. We’re going to be on a ship that’s five times the size of the Titanic in a suite that’s swanky enough for the Obamas. I doubt we’ll need that stuff.”
Joshua stared at him, his expression petulant. His arms were overflowing with rain jackets, travel backpacks, and snow boots.
“C’mon, babe. Don’t pout.”
“I’m not pouting!”
“You’re pouting alittle,” Colin told him. “Can we go over this list together?” He held up one hand as if taking a vow. “I promise, anything youreallywant, we’ll take, and I won’t say a word.”
“Ha!” Joshua shot back, clearly dubious.
“I promise!”
Joshua rose, grabbed several other items from the bed, and moved to the closet, mumbling something indecipherable.
“Is that your version of the Colin Campbell growl?”
“It’s the Joshua Campbell-Abrams, growl,” Joshua muttered. “I have myowngrowl.” He stacked the Alaska items on top of each other in the closet, then stood for a moment, gazing at the pile of gear before turning to Colin with a sigh. “OK. Maybe I went alittleoverboard.”
“You want to know what I think?”
“I do.”
Colin patted the bed. “Then c’mere and sit beside me.”
Once Joshua was seated, Colin wrapped both arms around him and pulled him down on the bed until he was lying, snuggled close in his arms. “I think…” Colin began, then kissed him. “You’re nervous about this cruise, so you’re overcompensating a bit. Maybe you’re trying to gain a little control over the experience?”
Joshua leaned back and met his husband’s eyes. “And I think you’ve been hanging around with me too long. You’re starting to sound like a psychologist, and that’s really scary.”
“Bad enough, I sound like an attorney!”
Joshua snickered and nuzzled against Colin’s bare shoulder. “I don’t mind that so much. Your attorney talk is pretty damned hot.”
“Is that so!” Colin stated. “My ‘ladies and gentlemen of the jury’ turns you on, does it?”
“Notthatso much as your ‘may it please the court.’ That onealwaysgives me a hard-on.”
“I’ll remember that next time you’re in the spectator’s gallery and toss in a couple of extras.”
