“Well, stop me if I’m getting ahead of myself, but if you’re staying… there’s this little place I’ve been looking at.”
Felix pulled back to look at me again, eyes wide.
I stroked my palm up and down his leg, heart thumping in my ears. This was a lot—maybe too much, too soon, but…
“Little way out of town. Probably too far to walk, but I do own a functional people mover and we could get you a car. It’s a cabin, really. Trees all around. Space to run around outside. Just the two bedrooms.”
Now that I’d let myself imagine it, I wanted it more than anything. I also didn’t want Felix struggling his way through living in an upstairs apartment that kind of sucked any longer than he had to. It was my job now to take care of him.
“I can share with Benji.” Felix grinned. “I’ll even let him have the top bunk.”
I laughed, relief flooding through me. Maybe it wasn’t too much, after all.
“I think he’d unironically love that.”
I didn’t doubt Benji would be okay with this, or that Felix understood he had to be my priority.
I could have two priorities, though. If there wasn’t enough ofmeto go around, there was no hope for anyone.
“Cabin in the woods,” Felix said, reaching out to toy with one of my curls, twirling it between his fingers. “Tell me more?”
“It needs a little work,” I admitted. “Cosmetic, mostly, but that’d mean we could put our own stamp on it.”
“Our,” Felix repeated, as though he was feeling out the shape of the word in his mouth. “You know I dated Piotr for six years and he never evenhintedwe should move in together?”
“We’ve established he sucks, I think.”
I was normally the kind of man who wouldn’t start a fight, and was the first to back down, but I was starting to think I’d make an exception for that particular asshole. He’d definitely hear exactly what I thought of him if we ever crossed paths.
Felix smiled, snuggling closer again, nuzzling my collarbone. “Is there enough of a gap in these trees to see the stars?”
“It actually backs onto one of the cliffs around the bay,” I said, picturing the view I’d half-fallen in love with, the waves glittering in the sunlight. “I was imagining putting a little gazebo or something out there, for warm nights. There could even be wine. If you’re cool with teaching me about it.”
I’d need to put up some kind of fencing, too, for Benji’s sake. It could work, though. I’d been afraid to think too much about it before, because it’d seemed impossible.
A lot of impossible things had happened of late, though. Maybe I could swing another one.
“You’ve thought a lot about this.”
“I have,” I admitted. “I can’t live with Mom and Dad forever. Benji deserves to have a home he feels is his. Went and saw the place months ago. I’ve got some savings and it’s priced to sell. I was just scared to make a move on it.”
“Because it’d make all this permanent,” Felix said.
I remembered the talk we’d had about how he should probably be using a cane when he walked.
“If you’re really staying, then permanent doesn’t sound so scary anymore,” I admitted. “Permanent sounds like exactly what I want.”
Felix hummed. “Let’s go see it,” he said. “All three of us.”
“Yeah?” I asked, something warm and bright welling up in my chest.
“I’ve done the shoebox apartment,” Felix said. “And I’mnotstaying in this one. You can’t carry me up the stairs every time.”
“I could,” I offered. I would, if he wanted. I would if he’dletme, because I loved doing it. Having Felix in my arms was one of the best feelings I’d ever known.
“Okay, well, I can’t live a life where my boyfriend carries me up the stairs every time. Hot as it is that you can do that.”
Boyfriend.
