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“Do you feel better now that you have some perspective on it?”
He brushed my hair back with the fingers of his left hand. “I’ll let you know after I tell you.”
I nodded, then kissed his lips, determined not to let the heavy topic ruin our time together. “Fair enough. We should probably shower before they get here.”
He smiled and kissed the end of my nose. “Yeah, let’s go.”
I eased off him and picked up my t-shirt to wipe us up. Patrick gazed at me with so much love and affection that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to handle a separation from him ever again. We were facing some big decisions about our careers when the time came.
All I wanted was him.
CHAPTER 22
PATRICK
Claire and William arrived with what I was sure was half of the baking aisle from Safeway. She spent the afternoon and evening making every dessert imaginable. Cole and I pitched in to help when we could, but I wasn’t much help. So I volunteered to be the taste tester instead. Someone had to do it, so I sacrificed myself for the job. It was the least I could do. Literally.
Cole ordered Chinese food for delivery while I learned how to make her specialty brown butter chocolate chip cookies. When I had two hands to work with, I was going to make them.
“The secret to really good cookies is to brown the butter first. Then let it cool before adding it to the sugar.”
“Isn’t it burnt? Won’t it make the cookies taste bad with all that brown stuff in it?”
She smiled at me and patted my face. “No, that’s the good part. That’s where the flavor comes from.”
Cole smirked at me like I didn’t know anything, then stuck his finger in the flour before rubbing it across my cheek. He was in a playful mood, and I was all in.
“Really, Bradley?” There was no way I could keep from smiling at him as he gave me that ‘whatcha gonna do about it?’ face. I loved this lighter side of him. He’d been so worried about something lately, and he didn’t think I’d noticed. So if rubbing flour on me brought that out of him, he could rub it all over me.
“Yep, Griffin. Now you look like a real baker.”
Claire just chuckled at the two of us. She loved cooking with and for all her boys, and William was just happy that it wasn’t him. He camped out in the family room watching baseball while we plied him with sweets.
By the time she’d finished baking everything and I’d eaten my weight in beef and broccoli and cookies, they’d decided to spend the night and give Adam and Michael the apartment to themselves. It made me wonder if they were having one of those naked search and rescue missions over there. Either way, we were more than cool with them staying. It was nice having them here with us.
The following morning, we woke to the smell of bacon and, what I would guess was, French toast. When the aroma of cinnamon and maple combined with the undeniable smell of bacon hit my nose, my stomach growled. And then there was the coffee.
Cole chuckled and looked over at me. “She’s sending us the signal to get up.”
I stretched. “I don’t care. She can wake me up with that any day of the week.”
Cole snorted. “Don’t tell her that. She’ll want to move in so she can take care of her ‘sweet Patrick’.”
Smiling, I reached for him. “You sound jealous, baby.”
“I’m not jealous at all. But taking care of you is my job.”
I grinned at him and kissed his nose. “I don’t understand why they want to stay in Seattle. They should just move here.”
“It’s home I guess. We all grew up there and have so many memories. But if they moved, where would they have to go visit?”
“They need a vacation home.” I kissed him again, then rolled away to get out of bed. I looked over my shoulder at his naked body spread out over our bed. “Hurry up, Bradley, or I’m gonna eat it all.”
At a quarter to one, we loaded up all the desserts into the Range Rover for the three-minute drive to Marcus and Aidan’s house. Living in the same neighborhood as them and Jackson and Simon was very convenient. This summer, we were going to have some cookouts of our own and invite everyone over. Maybe I’d put in a pool too, like Jackson had.
When we pulled around to the back of the house, Cole stopped the car along the brick walkway that led to their patio. Long tables had been set up and already held some items for the cookout.
I got out of the car and walked to the back, waiting for Cole to release the hatch. William and Claire were going on about how beautiful their home was when Marcus came out wearing a baby sling across his chest. One of his daughters was pressed to him.
