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“As long as I get more cuddles than him before we kick the bucket, like.”

That was a thought. Twelve years of cuddling with Bren. They’d be twenty-nine by then. He tried to picture what that might look like, but the image wouldn’t settle.

Canada or Ireland? Just one of the questions they’d have to answer before they got anywhere near that part of life.

“So, what’s this place called again?” Bren asked, dragging A.J. back to Canada.

“Wakamow.”

“Bless you.”

“Don’t start the whole ‘your country has weird words’ game, you lose on scrúdaitheoir alone.”

Bren let out the sort of laugh that only someone who had lived most of their life as a straight dude could as they passed the playscape at the bottom of the hill. A.J. rolled his eyes but felt a stab of annoyance that there were a handful of other people within peeping distance. He’d missed that laugh so much.

“So, not planning an escape back to Ireland tomorrow?” A.J. asked after Bren had mastered his inner twelve-year-old.

“Ask me again once winter starts, I guess.”

“Sorry about my mom by the way. She kind of worries about everyone.”

Bren shrugged.

“Just weird she thinks I’m gonna be cold with you around.”

He pulled them to the side of the path and wrapped an arm around his waist.

“OK, I love you, but seriously, gay hugs don’t stop frostbite.”

“Good thing I’ve got all those Thermoses then.”

A.J. suppressed a sigh as the ground sloped up. He leaned into it and jogged ahead of Bren, deciding that it should be a race now. Bren didn’t seem to get the memo, but that just meant a free win.

“Hope you know where we’re going, ’cause I sure as fuck don’t.”

With the river sparkling in the final rays of sunlight some twenty feet beneath them and the trees rustling in the breeze throughout the valley, it was probably the most beautiful place in town, but Bren didn’t look too impressed. If he’d been using his head, A.J. should have realized nothing in Moose Jaw would move the needle for Bren. It was hard to compete with a country so beautiful that “Emerald Isle” didn’t quite do it justice. If nothing else, there weren’t any other people up here.

“Just thought you might like the view.”

Bren ignored the bounty of nature to his left and instead looked him up and down with the dopiest smile A.J. had ever seen.

“The other view, Romeo,” A.J. said, giving Bren a shove so he hopefully didn’t notice the blush he’d caused.

Bren laughed and did as he was told, scanning the whole of Wakamow, though he did shoot a quick glance back.

“This place is important to you, isn’t it?”

A.J. tried to sigh but it came out as a smile instead.

“I mean, kind of? But it’s for the dumbest reason.”

Bren kept his eyes fixed on the view but linked their hands and pulled A.J. close.

“Lucky for me you like dumb things, really.”

A.J. let the self-burn slide but made a mental note to show Bren what happened to his math grades after algebra had been introduced. He let his eyes rove over the scene again, not quite able to grasp the fact that he was looking at it next to Bren O’Shea.

“You gonna tell me about it?”