Page 120 of Ship Happens

“I love you too.” Jacob reaches down, tracing Owen’s jaw with his finger before it comes to rest at his chin, forcing Owen to look up at him. Jacob’s lips capture Owen’s; Owen’s hands trace up Jacob’s belly, his touch gentle enough that it makes him giggle. “Ticklish.”

Owen smiles against his kiss, relaxing deeper into his touch.

And for the first time in a long time, it feels like he’s home.

Epilogue

Four Years Later

“How far away are they?” Owen asks Kevin as he pulls the skillet out of the oven.

“Uhhh . . .” Kevin slips his phone out of his back pocket. “Thirty minutes? No . . . Twenty. Twenty-five?”

“Kevin . . . dude.” Owen glares.

“Sorry!” He holds his phone out to show Owen the screen. “It was updating! I don’t know what to tell you.”

“It’s fine.” Owen shakes his head, grabbing his oven mitt to slip the brownies out. Because of course he couldn’t just stop at the cobbler. No, of course not. Everyone’s just lucky he forgot to get more flour at Grocery Outlet. “Any updates on the food, Hailey?”

“Yeah.” She turns to Owen from the couch, her phone sandwiched between her ear and her shoulder as she rips pieces of tape to hang up Jacob’s sign. “Ravi’s on the way; he made it halfway back before he realized he left a bag at the restaurant.”

“Any chance he could pick up the pace?”

“He’s going as fast as he can, Owen,” she says in a clearly frustrated tone.

He knows he’s being annoying; he knows it.

He just wants to get this right.

“Sorry, sorry.” Owen holds his hands up defensively, turning the oven off. It’s absolutely boiling in his kitchen.

“Just relax, O-dog.” Kevin slides into the kitchen to join Owen. “What can I do to help?”

“Grab the plates from down there.” Owen nods to the cabinet under the sink. “And then we’ll probably want to use these soup bowls for the food, so go ahead and get those out too.”

“Got it!” Kevin salutes, doing exactly as he’s told.

“Yeah, okay, yeah . . . I think like twenty minutes?” Owen hears Hailey say to Ravi on the other end of the line. “But who knows, this time of day, it might take them an hour to get through GGP.” She snorts, Pari following her mother to the wall with the tape dispenser.

Out of the corner of his eye, Owen sees Kevin stand, patting his butt to look for his phone before he pulls it out, reading something quickly before he turns. “Kaitlyn says to check your phone.”

Owen huffs, wiping his flour-coated hands on his apron before he pulls up his text messages.

Kaitlyn: almost there!!!!!!

Kaitlyn: how are things looking??

Kaitlyn: owennnnnnnnnnn

Kaitlyn: are you there????

Kaitlyn: we just got past the park, so like . . . fifteen minutes?

“Shit,” he sings, typing out a quick reply.

“Uncle Owen has to put a dollar in the swear jar!” Pari calls out, ripping another piece of tape for her mother.

“I keep meaning to talk to you about starting a credit line,” Owen tells her, sending several replies to Kaitlyn all at once. The apartment is nowhere near ready for this homecoming party. Owen thought he had time, he really did. He’d woken up totally prepared to spend his entire day getting ready for Jacob’s grand return to the Bay. That was before he’d gotten several messages about the security alarm at the shop going off, so he’d rushed down to Full Metal to sort everything out. Then he’d been forced to spend hours on the phone with the security company to try and get someone out there to fix the issue they’d promised they were going to come fix weeks ago.