Chapter Twenty-Three
After a mostly-silent drive to Sunny’s hometown, Grant’s stomach bottomed out as he pulled up in front of the house Sunny pointed out.
It looked more or less like the rest of the street, with a single light on in the window and a little red flag on the mailbox. It looked like a home, like any other.
It was weird to think of Sunny as a normal human being, with normal parents who lived in a normal house. He always seemed like he’d have to be more special than that. He was the kind of person who, in Grant’s mind, needed an origin story.
That was probably because he was hopelessly in love with him and had been since the day they met. Sunny had improved his life from minute one, and he’d never stopped.
And now…
Now, this was starting to feel like goodbye.
Grant’s chest hurt at the thought, but he knew he shouldn’t have expected to keep Sunny. Not really.
He wasn’t entirely sure what had changed, but he couldfeelit. Something was wrong. Different.
He’d screwed up. That wasn’t anything new. Even having Sunny to look out for him couldn’t change that.
“Hey, uh,” Grant said as Sunny unbuckled his seatbelt. “You take as much time off as you want, okay?”
He didn’t want to fire Sunny. He wanted Sunny to come back to work for him, even if it was going to be weird for a while, even if he was hurting from the loss.
But he also wanted Sunny to have a way out, if that was what he wanted. A few weeks to find something else.
He hoped it went without saying that he’d get a glowing reference, whatever he chose to do.
“Thank you,” Sunny said, finally turning to look at him. Grant had barely been aware of Sunny looking at him the whole trip. “And thank you for a wonderful Christmas. I’m honored to have met your family.”
Grant swallowed around a lump in his throat.
He’d wanted Sunny to bepartof his family, the way he was part of his life. A big part. Animportantpart.
A part he had no idea how he was going to live without.
“Thanks for making it happen.” Grant shrugged, forcing his voice to be as even as possible. “I couldn’t have done any of that without you.”
“Yeah, you could.” Sunny smiled a tiny, fond smile at him, but there was a hint of sadness to it. A hint ofgoodbyethat made Grant’s heart pound in his chest. “You don’t give yourself nearly enough credit.”
That definitely sounded like goodbye. Likeyou’ll be fine without me.
A wave of nausea hit Grant hard, but he fought not to show it. He’d be okay. He just needed to get Sunny inside, and then get the car around the corner, and he could cry and scream and whatever else he needed to do.
Not in front of Sunny. Sunny deserved better than that.
He deserved better than Grant. It was stupid to think that he would have wanted what Grant wanted.
“Yeah, well… oh,” Grant said, reaching over to the glovebox in front of Sunny and extracting a small, wrapped box. “This is for you. I forgot to get it out of the car on the way in, and then there was snow, and I forgot entirely, but…”
He offered Sunny the package, his skin tingling as their fingertips brushed together when Sunny accepted it.
“Merry Christmas.” Grant forced himself to smile, even though there were tears stinging at his eyes. He wasn’t going to cry. Sunny didn’t deserve to have to deal with his tears.
“Can I open this?” Sunny asked, turning the box over in his hands.
Grant nodded. “It’s got your name on it,” he said, repeating Sunny’s response from before.
Sunny smiled a tiny, more genuine smile, and tore the paper off eagerly, making a soft, happy noise as he saw what it was. “This is beautiful,” he said.
