Chapter Ten
Creed walked into the kitchen and smiled when he saw his mate standing by the stove. Winter had his back turned to Creed, and even though his mate was gorgeous to look at, he enjoyed watching his mate’s ass every chance he got.
He’d woken up from their lovemaking to find his mate missing. Creed looked around the room noticing that Winter had taken a shower and all he had to do was follow the scent. He walked over to Winter and rested his hands on his hips, looking over his shoulder to see that his man was dipping potato chips into peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.
Okay, that’s a new snack. He’s been eating weird things lately.
“Are you feeling all right?”
“Yeah,” Winter answered looking at him over his shoulder. Creed smiled then leaned in and licked the peanut butter off the corner of his mouth. Winter turned fully in his arms, giving him full access to his lips. Creed moaned tasting sweet, salty, and Winter, a combination he was falling more in love with.
“You taste delicious. It makes me want to take you back upstairs and have you as my treat.”
“I would let you if I wasn’t hungry.”
“So, I guess I must have been a good boy to get a greeting like that earlier?” Creed asked when their lips separated.
“You were a very good boy.” Winter smiled. “But I got some good news today.”
“Really?” He raised an eyebrow eager to hear Winter’s news.
“Yup,” he answered but didn’t go any further.
“Are you planning on letting me in on the news?”
“I’m being offered a full-time position at the university I teach at during the summer.”
“Congratulations,” Creed said but also saw a bit of worry on his mate’s face. “I thought you said it was good news, why the long face? Especially, after the way we celebrated.”
“I am, it’s just that—” He stepped back from Creed’s arms. “Right about now, Caroline and I would be making plans to go out and celebrate. She knew how much I wanted to teach at a university after I got my Ph.D. and not having her here now feels...”
“Wrong to be happy,” Creed finished for him.
“Yeah.”
“I know how you feel, and it’s been the same way for me. Richard and I had plans to celebrate when I got out of the Navy, and now that I’m here and he’s not here I feel cheated of not having more time with him. I missed the important things in his life. I keep telling myself that I can't keep dwelling on the what ifs and focus on the here and now. That’s why we can’t stop living.”
“No, we can’t. But we haven’t been doing much living, have we?”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Creed stepped closer to him.
“No, we haven’t, Creed,” Winter said stepping back from him and walked over to the table and picked up the still unopened letter. “Sure we’ve been taking care of Connor, but we keep holding on to their ghosts at the same time. You haven’t opened this letter or been to their grave site. Hell, I can’t bear to be apart from Connor for more than a few hours or go in their home without seeing their ghosts. As hard as it is, we are going to have to figure out a way to move on with our lives and enjoy the good moments without thinking about how Richard and Caroline would feel. When they can’t feel anything.” Winter whispered the last words as if he was ashamed to say them out loud.
Gods, he’s right.
On the surface, they were functioning, but underneath it they were still holding on to their loved ones, refusing to let them go. They were always going to miss Richard and Caroline; their memories were ingrained in their hearts. But losing their loved ones shouldn’t stop them from moving forward.
Creed looked at the letter in Winter’s hand and knew that the longer he put off reading the letter, the longer he was letting Richard's ghost linger between them. But Creed also knew that once he read the letter, he was finally saying goodbye to his brother.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," Winter said as he sat in the chair.“Caroline used to say that I let my mouth get the best or worst of me.”
"No, you said what I needed to hear." He walked over to his mate taking the letter from his hand. "Stay with me while I read this."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I don't want to do this without you."
"Okay."
