“House keys,” I said again, my heart singing.
Franklin shrugged. “Might as well make it easier for our boy to come home,” he said with a smile.
I grinned. “Guys, that sounds amazing.”
“We know you wanted to make it on your own first…” Rory added.
I shook my head. “I’ve proven what I need to prove to myself. Anyway, none of us are alone. We’re a family, right?”
“Exactly,” Rory said with a confident nod.
I took in a deep breath, then blew it out slowly, shaking my head with a smile. “Hell yeah. Let’s move me in!”
The guys laughed, and Rory poured everyone a splash of wine for a toast. We raised our glasses, but I held my hand out when I realized something.
“What about the other gift?” I asked.
“That,” Franklin answered, “is for after desert.”
* * *
“I can’t believe you blindfolded me for this part,” I said as they led me forward on wobbly footsteps. I heard them whispering to someone else, and then something dinged before the floor started to shift beneath me.
I grunted and realized we were probably in an elevator.
“Believe it,” Franklin said, then leaned close to my ear for a whisper. “Although it’s hardly the first time we’ve blindfolded you.”
The floor buzzed under my feet, and Rory and Franklin each grabbed one of my hands, steadying me. I kept grinning like a fool, different ideas for where we might be going flashing through my mind, including one that I was scared to believe.
When the sound dinged above our heads again, they led me forward. I heard wind and the sound of voices, like there was a crowd around us. And then I felt a hand at the back of my head, and the blindfold fell away.
I blinked as I looked on Seattle and Lake Washington, spreading in the distance beneath us. The sky was dark, and the city shone with a million lights, from the cars passing below and the towering skyscrapers to the small boats, dotting the water.
“Space Needle,” I said with a grin. “I knew it.”
Rory turned my head to face him and captured me in his stare. His brown eyes were warm and clear, and the rest of the world disappeared around me as he squeezed my hand and Franklin stroked the back of my head.
“You’re so good to us, Asher,” Rory said. “You’re nothing like what we’ve ever looked for or ever expected in this life, but you are exactly who we needed.”
“These past two years have been amazing,” Franklin said. “And we want to show you that our commitment is serious.”
“That it’s real,” Rory added.
I gasped. If I wasn’t being held by them so carefully, I might have fallen over, suddenly so dizzy I almost forgot where I was.
Rory held out his fist, and when I tapped it, he and Franklin both dropped to one knee. Rory opened his hand and offered me a silver ring.
“Will you marry us, Asher?” Franklin asked.
“Be ours forever?” Rory added.
Tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I sucked in a ragged breath. “Yes, anything,” I said. “Yes.”
Some people started clapping around us, and Rory and Franklin stood. Rory placed the ring on my finger, then both pulled me in for a kiss. I felt their hands all over my body as I whispered into their mouths, against their ears, and into their beards. “I love you, thank you. I love you.
“I’m yours,” I said. “I’ll always be yours.”
“You’ll always be ours,” they repeated.
