Three years, and he could file for citizenship. Noah wasn’t sure he wanted that yet, but this place was home. Citizenship would mean itstayedhome, forever. The idea of giving up his own national identity for the privilege was daunting, but not anything he had to worry about in the immediate future.
It wasn’t quite as simple as just signing a form, but it wasn’tthatmuch more complicated. Not so complicated as to be impossible, which his current situation was.
Noah went back to the handover document he knew no one was ever going to read and put the final touches on it, listing every access password people might have use for and some they definitely wouldn’t. It wasn’t the world’s most secure way of handling things, but it was what his manager had asked him to do.
If he didn’t need the final paycheck, he would have walked away without bothering. It hurt to be thrown out of a company he’d given his best to from the word go with very little warning.
He didn’t want them to have that much control over him. They shouldn’t be able to put him in a position where he had to leave his friends and the life he’d built here just because they didn’t want him working there anymore. Not because he’d screwed up. Becausethey’dscrewed up and couldn’t afford to keep him.
Marrying Jace would solve that. It would solve it so neatly Noah could barely believe what he’d read.
Noah took out his phone. This was a bad idea. A terrible idea. If they got caught, Noah would be deported and maybe never allowed back.
But he wanted to stay, and Jace had offered. Jace was a smart man. He knew the risks, and was clearly willing to take them on. For Noah. It was stupid not to at least talk about it.
Hey, he typed.Were you serious about marrying me?
As a heart attack, Jace texted back.
Noah swallowed nervously. It was a plain and simple statement, one that made Jace’s feelings clear. This was a decision Noah would have to make, knowing Jace was already a hundred percent on board.
I think I was too quick to dismiss the idea, he sent. Part of his instant refusal was that hedidhave a little crush on Jace. Nothing serious, nothing he ever intended to mention, but it was hard not to like him. As far as Noah was concerned, everyone who met Jace ended up with a crush on him. Gay or straight.
He was a painfully sweet man, a pediatric nurse, and built like a very muscular teddy bear. No one could resist that. There was no reason for Noah to be embarrassed about it. If this was something Jace wanted to do for him, as a friend, then why was he refusing? It was the perfect solution.
I think you should reconsider. We can’t lose our captain. Plus, I’d miss you. Who’d watch my ass if you weren’t here?
Noah snorted. He’d done a lot of watching Jace’s ass, both literally and metaphorically.
Let’s… have dinner or something. Talk about it.
Awesome. I’ll pick you up ass seven, Jace texted back.*at, whatever.
Noah laughed, his dark mood lifting for the first time all day. Jace often had that effect on him.
The more he thought about it, the more sense it made for them to seriously consider the option of getting married. To look into it, at least, and see where they’d stand with each other and what they needed to do. It was better than having to drop his entire life just because the company he worked for couldn’t keep its head above water.
It still made him feel guilty to take advantage of Jace, but Jace was offering. If his offer was truly sincere, then there was no point in Noah knocking it back for Jace’s sake. He was a grown man, he could make his own life decisions.
Maybe this was what friends were supposed to do for each other in times like this. If the situation had been reversed, Noah would have made the same offer to Jace in a heartbeat. This was a normal reaction to the kind of problem they were facing, and Noah was just being stubborn about it.
He couldn’t afford stubbornness. They’d talk about it.
Chapter Four
Jace wasn’t sure what had made him dress up for dinner. Well, he knew what his thought process had been—he was trying to convince Noah to marry him, because he didn’t want Noah to leave. He’d put on his cleanest, darkest jeans and a button-down that he thought of as his first-date shirt when he’d gotten out of the shower.
He wasn’t trying to convince Noah to marry him because he was attractive, though. The thing he had to offer was having been born in the US. He could have turned up in his hospital scrubs and it wouldn’t have made any difference to his citizenship status.
The shirt hadn’t gotten a lot of use in a while. Jace liked to tell himself that was because he was too busy to date.
Still, it couldn’t hurt for Noah to see him as a sensible, grown-up adult. They were going to have to move in together anyway, so it wasn’t the worst idea to make a good impression. Or at least show Noah that he wouldn’t have to be embarrassed to be seen with him.
His palms were sweating as he rang Noah’s doorbell. He shouldn’t have been as nervous as he was—either Noah would agree, and he wouldn’t leave, or he’d decide he was better off going home. It wasn’t as though Jace was offering him his heart for real.
He breathed a sigh of relief when Noah opened the door, all the same. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself. You got a hot date after this?” Noah asked, nodding to Jace’s clothes. He stepped away from the door to let Jace in. Noah literally always looked good, his shirts crisp and fitted. Today, he had the sleeves rolled up, revealing toned forearms. Jace wished he looked half as good in a shirt as Noah did, but they didn’t make nice shirts in his particular waist-to-shoulder ratio, and paying for decent tailoring was out of his reach.
