“Yep. Your prescription hasn’t changed, and while there is some obvious low vision in your periphery, your lightperception is fine, so I think your neurologist is right. It’s just a matter of waiting for the damage to heal all the way.”
I wanted to laugh. Or maybe cry. Or run into the waiting room and kiss the shit out of Jonah. Instead, I smiled and took the piece of paper he’d given me with what I needed to order my new contacts.
“I’ll see you in a year,” he told me as I stood up and headed for the door. I threw on my shades before opening it, though it didn’t help much.
The concussion was making me more sensitive to everything, but we didn’t have jack shit to do after this. Jonah’s friends were planning a get-together in a few days, but since it was summer and we had no responsibilities until camp, we could do nothing.
Which was everything.
“I’m finished,” I said, coming up behind him. I set a hand on his shoulder and kissed his temple before he stood up and navigated around the chairs to find my arm.
We had to take a ride since I still wasn’t cleared to drive. My dizzy spells were getting better, but they weren’t all the way gone, and I didn’t want to risk my life or anyone else’s by getting behind the wheel.
Luckily, it was a gorgeous day, and there was a string of restaurants nearby that looked good.
“I’m starving,” I said as we hit the pavement.
Jonah laughed, trailing his fingers down my arm to squeeze my wrist. “Yeah. Gotta get all that good food in us before the season starts again.”
I wasn’t really much of a diet guy. I was way too Cypriot for that. My mom would have had a heart attack if she knew I had ever limited myself. But it had never affected my gameplay, so what the fuck did I care.
And speaking of my mom…
“So my sister-in-law and mom are going to be back in the city next week,” I told him.
He stiffened beside me, his cane catching on a crack in the pavement, and the handle jabbed him in the ribs. “Ow, fuck. I…okay. Okay. So, I’m going to meet them, right?”
I lifted his hand and kissed his knuckles. “I’d like it if you did. I told my mom all about you. She’s excited.”
“Oh god, you set her expectations? What if she sees me and thinks I’m a literal goblin and then tells you that you can’t possibly marry some asshole like me who?—”
Something in me shifted—like a thread snapping. I took Jonah by the waist and eased him against the wall, holding his jaw as I kissed him.
“Oh,” he murmured against my lips. “Thank you? But also, why?”
“Because I love you. I fucking love you so much. And Idowant to marry you.”
He frowned, then immediately paled. “Oh. Oh god, I said—I mean, I didn’t mean…well. Well, I think Ididmean it. But that’s…I wasn’t proposing. Or expecting you to propose, or?—”
I kissed his panic quiet until his body relaxed against me.
“You’re really good at that,” he murmured.
I grinned at him, then lifted his left hand and ran my thumb over his ring finger. “It’ll be silicone. We can’t really play with gold. I mean, I suppose we can, but it sounds like a terrible idea.”
Jonah reached forward, into my pocket, and pulled out my coin. “Can we have both? One for in season, and one for off-season. And the gold one, can it look something like this?”
I looked down at the coin, then back into his face. “Yeah. Yeah, it can look like that. Maybe your brother could make something for us.”
His face fell. He had repaired some of his relationship with Micah, but he still wasn’t speaking to Caleb much. “It might be a good olive branch.”
“I think maybe he’s just waiting until he knows it’s okay to you know, be open about how the whole thing with your dad made him feel.” Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say, but Jonah didn’t look upset.
Things with Peter had plateaued. Now that he was on a new treatment, his symptoms had lessened a bit. He still didn’t remember Jonah most of the time, and Jonah was in no hurry to visit him, but we stopped by once a week.
He told me once that Micah thought that made him weak, but he was wrong. I thought it was part of Jonah’s strength, and I made sure to tell him that often. And with vigor and dick-stroking.
“We can talk to him later. I mean, we’re not in a rush, right?” He slipped the coin into my pocket, and I felt the weight of it, but it wasn’t as heavy as before.
