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“Wow.” Logan started to laugh. “Now I’ve heard everything. Next you’ll be telling me this French Prick is really a kitten.”
“Actually,” Robbie said, pursing his lips, and Logan held a hand up.
“I don’t need the details. I just want to know that you’re…happy.”
Robbie nodded and leaned in to kiss Logan’s cheek. “I am. But you know what would make me really happy?”
“Am I going to regret asking?” Logan said when Robbie moved away from him toward the door.
“No, because I’m going to mend your work relations.” When Logan raised a brow, Robbie put his hands on his hips. “Come and make up with Priest.”
“We aren’t teenage girls, Robbie. We’ll cool off and be fine.”
“Logan…” Robbie said. “You said you wanted me to be happy.”
“Fine,” Logan grumbled, and walked over.
“Good, then you can tell me all about the island Tate whisked you off to and kept you prisoner on.”
Logan stopped short. “How do you know that’s what he did?”
“Wow, you really did get stuck into the champagne at your wedding. Tate said so on the voicemail.”
“Oh,” Logan said as they walked out of his office and headed toward Priest’s. “We went to St Lucia. It was heaven on earth.”
Robbie’s heart swelled with happiness at the blissful expression on Logan’s face. He knocked on Priest’s door and heard, “Come in,” and they pushed it open to reveal the serious man with the flame for hair and steel for eyes, and Robbie wondered if he was wearing the exact same expression as Logan. Because right now, he felt about as blissful as one could feel.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
CONFESSION
I truly believe that what is meant to be
will always find a way.
LATER THAT NIGHT, after his shift at The Popped Cherry, Robbie found himself standing in his nonna’s kitchen. It was the first time he’d been home since the accident, and the once bright and lively space was now cast in shadows, as the moonlight slipped through the curtains.
He still couldn’t believe how much his life had changed over the course of a week. First, he’d started to date, really date, two men. And as if that wasn’t mind-blowing enough—among other things being blown—one was the gorgeous celebrity chef he’d spent most of his twenties fantasizing about, and the other was Joel Priestley, the man who had set him on edge from the minute they’d met. He’d just never known why.
But now he knew. Priest saw him. He saw Robbie the minute he stepped into view, and from that moment, he’d been watching and waiting for Robbie to stop running. To stop being so scared of taking a risk.
As he stood there looking around the room where he’d shared many meals with Nonna, Robbie felt his heart tighten. Things could’ve been so much worse; he knew that. He’d seen on Julien’s face last night that something much worse had happened to him, and he’d survived—if not a little bit broken for it.
But his ma and nonna were right: there was no point in dwelling on what-ifs. He could do that all night, but it was time to move forward. He had no choice, really. Nonna needed to sell the house, and that meant he needed to move out—and that brought him back to the one sentence that had been on a loop in his head all through work.
“We would like to invite you to come and stay with us.”
Priest and Julien’s offer. One Robbie had immediately dismissed as too fast and too much, insanity, and declined. But what about any of this was sane? Nothing about their relationship would ever be considered normal, so why was he so scared of this? What was he waiting for? Hadn’t he been the one to tell his ma, to tell Logan, that he was happy? That he wanted this relationship?
Yes, he had been, and it was true. He did want it.
Robbie wanted Julien’s smile directed at him, that dimple of his sneaking out to play, making his face impossibly sexier. Robbie wanted Priest’s ever-seeing eyes and serious expression fixed on him as though trying to learn everything he possibly could, because he was interested. Robbie wanted to eat Julien’s food and tell him how delicious each bite was just to see how much it pleased him. And Robbie wanted to kneel by Priest’s tub and serve him in any damn way that man wanted him to.
He was in deep. Robbie knew that. And even though it was late—early, really—he knew what he wanted to do next. It was a risk, that was for sure, but he knew he’d regret it if he didn’t take it.
THE SOUND OF Priest’s phone vibrating on the side table had him and Julien stretching beneath the covers in the early hours of the morning. They’d both finally drifted off after dinner, where Priest had filled Julien in on the whole Robbie/Logan situation at the office.
