Page 136

Cass’s arms tightened around Ash, and without another word, the two leaned in together, their lips touching in a gentle kiss that seemed to say everything Cass hoped it would. He smiled against Ash’s lips before kissing him again and then once more, his heart suddenly feeling so full. Ash laughed lightly and pulled back, but his eyes sparkled and his smile lit up.

Absolutely beautiful.

Cass lifted his free hand and ran the backs of his fingers along Ash’s jawline, his heart rate speeding up at the roughness of the faint hint of stubble.

“Mmm.” He watched his fingers caress across Ash’s skin, and he swallowed and then lifted his eyes again.

Ash’s smile softened. “I’m really glad you’re here,” he said.

Cass’s stomach swooped again. “Me too.” He quickly dipped back in for another kiss, which deepened briefly. When they parted, they tipped their foreheads together, and Cass closed his eyes. “I—”

“Rawrrrrr!” Bri yelled, and there was another loud crash as she once again destroyed the neat line of toys.

Cass barely held back a laugh. He opened his eyes and straightened up slightly, grinning as he met Ash’s gaze. Ash also seemed to be on the verge of laughing, though he was obviously much more used to Bri’s shenanigans than Cass was. With a silly eye roll, Ash tipped his head toward Bri and mouthed, “Three . . . two . . . one . . .”

“Oh no!” Bri squealed. “Man-tee rawrrrr!”

Cass snorted a laugh and then dropped his arms from around Ash’s waist and turned to Bri. “Rawrrrrrr!” he echoed, picking her up. He swung her around in the air above him, and she giggled and squealed more and kicked her legs.

“Cass rawrrrrr!” she said, her laughter filling the room. He brought her back down and set her gently on the ground, and she was still giggling as she looked up at him and said, “Yay, Cass, again! Up!”

He glanced over at Ash for permission, and when Ash nodded with a shrug, Cass did it again, lifting Bri up with a playful “rawrrrrr!” and then swinging her around in a big circle over his head while she squealed gleefully. After another few rounds, Cass settled on the couch, Ash joining him, and Bri went back to playing her manatee attack game, sometimes switching out for “orca rawrrrrr!” or “shark rawrrrrr!” She gradually became less interested in making Cass and Ash line up the toys, and it wasn’t more than fifteen minutes or so later that she worked her way around to the other side of the coffee table, plopped down, and started stacking blocks instead.

When it was clear she was going to keep occupying herself, Cass settled back into the couch cushions, slipped his arm up and around Ash’s shoulders, and turned to his boyfriend with a smile. “She’s adorable, I’m sure you know that.”

Ash laughed. “I think she knows it.”

They sort of stayed there like that for a moment, staring at each other. Cass felt his cheeks heating up, but he didn’t want to look away or move away or put any distance between them.

There’d been too much distance between them for too many months already now.

“I missed you,” he admitted, his voice low and soft, and he reached up and touched Ash’s cheek again, then tilted his head and brushed a light kiss on Ash’s lips.

Ash dipped his chin. “I missed you too.” He let out a quiet huff. “It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“How we talk all the time, every day, and it seems like we’ve been together for so long. It seems like I’ve known you for so long and that I know you so well, and yet . . .” Ash’s eyes lifted back up to meet Cass’s, and Cass nodded.

“. . . and yet this”—Cass’s fingertips gently grazed Ash’s skin again, this time just under his ear—“is still so new, because in all that time, we’ve barely been together?”

“Exactly,” Ash said on a breath. He closed his eyes and leaned into Cass’s touch, his hand coming to settle on Cass’s thigh. Then, with a sigh that sounded perfectly happy and content, he rested his head in the crook of Cass’s shoulder. “To have you here, to be able to do this,” Ash said, his hand pressing a little more into Cass’s thigh, “feels both unfamiliar and totally familiar.”

“I’m definitely feeling that too.” Cass smiled and dropped a kiss on the top of Ash’s head. “Guess we have to work at it a bit to get all of this feeling very, very familiar,” he teased.

“Oh, no, what a hardship.”

“Mm-hmm.”

They both laughed, and then they stayed like that, Ash cuddled up in Cass’s arms, talking quietly as Bri played with her toys. It was all so new still, all of this intimacy, and even when the conversation turned to something else, Cass found himself hyperfocused on every sensation—the weight of Ash’s hand on his leg, the soft warmth of Ash’s breath through his T-shirt, the tickle of Ash’s hair against his cheek.

At one point, Ash tilted his head back, gave Cass a crooked smile as his hand inched upward on Cass’s thigh, and said, “You didn’t hear a word of what I just said, did you?”

Before Cass could answer, Bri chimed in with a loud “Did you?! Did you?!,” before knocking over all of her blocks. “Oopsie!” She giggled and started stacking them again.

Ash shook his head and then leaned in and kissed Cass, grinning the entire time. “So, honestly, did you hear what I said?”

“I, ah, might have been slightly distracted.”