Emerson smiled, falling forward to rest his forehead against Luca’s neck.
“Come on.” With a deep breath, Luca pushed off the wall. “My mom made peanut butter brownies because they’re my favorite.”
“I love your mom.”
“Yeah, she knows. She’s very smug about it.”
Taking Emerson’s hand, Luca tugged him out the door. Even from the end of the hallway, the noise from downstairs echoed through the house: voices, laughter, the clatter of plates in the kitchen, the swish of the screen door as the family went in and out.
And when it hit Emerson’s ears now?—
Emerson had been honest with Luca about his relationship to his own family. There would always be the scars, the possibilities of triggers. It had taken a lot of time and work. Alot. But he didn’t feel haunted by them anymore.
What stung most now was the disappearance of Yulia and Graham. The lesson of Yulia and Graham should be making Emerson even more cautious in this moment. Sometimes found family didn’t last either. Just as Luca shouldn’t be throwing himself into Emerson’s failing farm as much as it was clear now that he was, Emerson shouldn’t be sinking so easilyinto this household, its photo albums and homemade meals and warm banter.
But maybe some hopes were more stubborn than others.
Because as they walked downstairs, as brownies were distributed chaotically over heads, across counters and in the midst of five different conversations at once, Emerson found himself with a familiar burning ache in his chest, unable to stop thinking about what Alexei had said, in that moment before his wedding.
I’m so grateful all these wild people are mine.
twenty-five
“Wait,”Emerson said as Luca turned off the 101.
“Hm?” Luca glanced at him before focusing back on the road. They were two minutes away from Short King Farms, and Luca was vibrating. He’d been vibrating ever since Emerson had pushed him against the wall of his childhood bedroom and promised him filthy things. He’d been vibrating ever since Emerson had danced with him in the old barn hours before, ever since he’d sucked Emerson off in the shower. Luca had never been so turned on in his life.
“You said you’d show me your cabin.”
They were almost at the turnoff for the farm.
Slowly, Luca pulled to the side of the road. When the car came to a stop, he dropped his forehead to the steering wheel with a groan.
“What? I want to see it!”
“I know, I just—”I was an idiot.“You promised you’d fuck me. I really, really want you to fuck me, Emerson.”
“And I will.Butyoupromised me I’d get to see your cabin.”
With another groan, Luca straightened and put the car back in drive.
When they got back to the stop sign at the highway, Emerson reached over and squeezed Luca’s thigh.Highon Luca’s thigh.
“Soon,” Emerson said. “Promise.”
“Nothelping,” Luca said, flicking off Emerson’s hand while he watched for oncoming traffic, and Emerson laughed.
And fuck Luca, but anything was still worth it to hear Emerson King laugh.
He drove the rest of the way on autopilot, the route to the cabin now engraved in his instincts, even if his mind was in a hundred different places at once. But by the time they drove down the short drive, the cabin in the bluffs coming into view, and Emerson’s breath caught in his throat just before he released an awe-filled, “Wow,” Luca’s mind and body started to focus. Started to calm. When he cut the engine and stared at his home through the windshield, he was filled with a bittersweetness he couldn’t put into words.
“I lucked into it, really,” he said. “I’d only been saving my own money for a few years, but the guy who was selling it knew my dad. Was moving away and just wanted to get rid of it, was happy to leave it in the hands of a Greyfin Bay family. My dad cosigned the loan to help me with the bank.”
“It’s beautiful, Luca,” Emerson said. “Show me the inside.”
It was quiet when they stepped onto the drive, like it was always quiet here. Not as quiet as the farm, though. Here, the sound of the ocean just beyond never left you.
Luca clicked on the light as they walked inside. He stopped at the kitchen island, where a note rested on the counter. Emerson walked ahead of him, examining everything closely, like he had in Luca’s old room: the contents of the kitchen, the view of the Pacific from the deck. The sun was almost down by now, the sky turning dark, but there was still a sliverof light at the horizon, grapefruit red.
