“It’s like you don’t understand how much I need you,” Logan said, his voice fraying at the edges, his thumb catching a tear before it could fall. “How much I want you. If this—if this is what we have to go through to be together, then so be it.”
Adrian could only nod. He didn’t trust his voice. Didn’t trust the flood behind it. But Logan wasn’t done. He reached out, fingers curling under Adrian’s chin, lifting his face with a tenderness that made something in Adrian’s chest shatter. Their eyes met—molten whisky and aching silver—and Logan’s voice broke as he whispered, “Tell me you didn’t mean it. The part about not wanting the treatments. Tell me you want them. Tell me they’re going to give us a future together.”
His voice cracked on the last word, and Adrian saw it, saw the shimmer in Logan’s eyes, the tears clinging there, refusing to fall. “A future with a house,” Logan whispered, barely breathing now. “With kids. With surfingand sitting on the beach at night. With going to sleep together, waking up next to each other. Old and gray. Tell me.”
And Adrian let out a sound that barely escaped his throat—small, cracked, helpless—and nodded, another tear slipping down his cheek. “I want it,” he muttered, and his voice was nothing more than breath. “I want all of it.”
Logan exhaled and pressed his forehead to Adrian’s, their skin burning with shared heat, shared fear, shared everything. His hands trembled slightly as he cupped Adrian’s face, thumbs brushing against damp cheeks.
“Ad…” Logan breathed.
Adrian lifted one hand, weak but certain, and laid it flat against Logan’s chest, right over the heart that had carried him through the worst of this. The beat was strong, steady, real. “Of course you’re my equal,” Logan murmured, as if it were the simplest truth in the world. “I love you so damn much, Adrian.”
Adrian swallowed, his throat thick, his eyes closing against the pressure behind them. “I love you too,” he said, his voice tender, small. And then, softer still—”You are the best thing in my life.”
Something in Logan’s face changed. A flicker of light, of breath, of release. Adrian watched it happen—watched the weight lift from his shoulders, watched the shadows leave his eyes. And for that moment, for that breath, Adrian understood exactly why he had said yes to the treatments. Not for himself. Forhim. For Logan, who deserved all of it—life, love, a future. Even if Adrian didn’t know how much of it he could give, he would give every second he had left.
So he pulled him closer. Pressed their foreheads together, then their lips. The kiss was slow. Gentle. Nothing frantic or desperate—just them. Softand sure. The kind of kiss you fall into, not because you’re trying to fix anything, but because it’s the only way to be close.
“How are you feeling?” Logan whispered, his lips brushing over Adrian’s.
“Fine,” Adrian lied, and let his head fall against Logan’s shoulder, the weight of exhaustion tugging at his body again.
“Liar,” Logan murmured, pressing a kiss to his cheek. The words were playful, but soft, woven through with care, with knowing. He didn’t pull away.
Instead, Logan helped him shift toward the small half-couch tucked beside the bed. Adrian’s limbs were heavy, muscles aching from the weight of standing too long in one emotional place. But he didn’t want to let go of Logan. Not even for a second. So when Logan sat beside him, Adrian curled into him instinctively, resting his head on Logan’s chest, letting the steady rise and fall anchor him. Letting the warmth sink deep into his bones.
Then Logan reached out and plucked Adrian’s gray knit cap from his head. Before Adrian could protest, Logan tugged it over his own head, pulling it down until it hugged his curls snugly.
“How do I look?” Logan asked, lips twitching, trying for cocky but landing somewhere between adorable and utterly transparent.
Adrian just stared. “Sinfully hot,” he whispered, voice soft, gaze open in a way it hadn’t been in days. “It complements your eyes.”
Logan chuckled. His nose brushed Adrian’s cheek, followed by a kiss so sweet it made Adrian’s heart squeeze. “I’ve heard it before,” he muttered, trying to sound smug, but Adrian could hear the love beneath the teasing, the relief threading every word.
And for the first time in days, Adrian felt safe.
He leaned into Logan, his body finally relaxing, his breathing evening out. Logan began to talk about his work, about deals he’d closed, people he’d met, boardroom politics, and stubborn executives and late-night hotel check-ins, and Adrian just listened. Not to the words so much as the voice. That familiar, steady cadence. That quiet strength. He let it wash over him like warm water.
His eyes were half-lidded now, his fingers curled lightly around Logan’s hand, not gripping—just resting. Anchoring. “You’re so damn smart,” Adrian murmured, a small smile playing on his lips. “It’s kind of unfair, really.”
Logan smirked, gently squeezing his hand. “Oh, I know.”
Adrian laughed and lovingly smacked Logan’s chest. And for a moment, it felt like before. Before hospitals. Before fear. Before the world had shrunk to a bed and an IV drip. For just one moment, it was him and Logan. A couch. A kiss. A quiet night.
And then Logan’s phone rang.
The sound shattered the moment, sharp and sudden, slicing through the soft cocoon of their closeness like a crack in glass.
“Sorry,” Logan muttered, already reaching for his pocket. “Forgot to turn it off when I got here.”
Adrian didn’t think anything of it at first. Another call, another meeting, another echo of the outside world trying to reach in and pull Logan away. But then Logan glanced at the screen and something in him stiffened. His whole body held tension. And Adrian saw the flicker of something across Logan’s face. Not fear. Not guilt. Not quite. But something close enough to both. His fingers hovered, uncertain, twitching with hesitation, likehe didn’t know whether to decline the call or throw the phone out the window.
And then, without a word, Logan turned the screen toward Adrian.
Zack.
It landed with a sting, bitter on Adrian’s tongue even before he said it. “Zack?”
