I chuckle as my phone chimes. “We will, Raf. Promise.”
“That him?” he asks, nodding down to my phone.
“Yep.”
My uncle stands as I do, clasping me on the neck and squeezing once. “I’m happy for you.”
My chest floods with warmth. “Yeah. I’m happy for me, too.”
I find Isaac’s car waiting behind the tattoo shop. Todd waves exuberantly from the back as I round the vehicle and climb into the front passenger side.
“Did Isaac call shotgun for me?” I ask, directing my question at Lumi, who’s sitting in the back next to Todd.
She feigns offense. “I’ll have you know it wasmyidea to save the front for you. It’s an hour-long drive, and you’re…”
“Big,” Todd fills in.
“That,” Lumi agrees.
“Well, my legs thank you,” I say honestly, turning my attention to Isaac. He’s biting his lip, looking both happy to see me and borderline shy, like he’s still unsure of what’s allowed in these moments when we first meet again, however short our parting was.
I don’t mind reminding him.
I grasp his chin gently, tilting his face up to place a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he responds, his shoulders coming down, the red beneath his freckles a welcome sight. “Um. Ready to go?”
“Oh, he’s ready,” Lumi says, her tone overtly playful.
Isaac’s eyes flick to hers in the back seat, a warning there. “Behave.”
Lumi bats her eyelashes. “Todd, darling. Am I misbehaving?”
Todd looks between the three of us, a furrow in his brow. “Um. I feel like I’m missing some context here.”
Lumi pats Todd’s thigh as I buckle in. With a check of the mirrors, Isaac backs out and pulls onto the road.
His mom’s house is in a residential neighborhood a decent ways outside of Las Vegas. Isaac parks in the driveway, a white two-story home greeting us with neatly maintained hedges forming a fence of sorts around the property. Lumi and Toddhop right out, clearly comfortable heading for the door without Isaac along.
“Anything I should know?” I ask once we’re alone.
“My mom is nice,” Isaac answers. “She knows I’m gay and is supportive. I haven’t brought a boyfriend around in a while, though. She’ll like you, Trevor. Just be yourself.”
“So…tell her I make porn in my spare time?”
He sputters. “Lead withanythingbut that.”
I huff a laugh, tugging Isaac close to kiss him properly now that we don’t have an audience. He’s warm, the curve of his lips familiar, the two of us slotting together in a way I no longer have to think about. It’s instinct, a push and pull as natural as the tide.
A rather loud whistle has us splitting apart. So much forno audience.
Lumi looks unrepentant as we get out of the car, but her attention quickly turns toward the opening front door. A woman Isaac’s height is standing inside the house, a warm smile on her face as she hugs first Lumi and then a very happy Todd. She rubs circles over Todd’s back as her eyes ping to Isaac and me approaching.
After kissing Todd’s cheek, she waves us in. “Look at you,” she says to her son, taking his shoulders in her hands before giving him a hearty hug. “And oh my goodness, he’s so tall, isn’t he?”
Isaac snorts as he’s let go, his mom’s regard on me now. “Just a bit.”
“Would you like a hug?” she asks me, her hair not Isaac’s startling red, but a dark brown. Her eyes, however, are the same ringed blue. “You can say no and I won’t take offense, promise.”
