Thirteen
“Do you think he told him who I was?” Micah paced nervously back and forth across the porch. The closer it got to the meeting time—the harder it was to breathe. How was he going to get through this? How could he even speak to Graham O’Brien if he couldn’t catch his breath?
Nick and Mark perched on the porch banister. “I wouldn’t have told him,” Nick said with a smile. “I’d let him be pleasantly shocked.”
Mark nodded. “Same here.”
Micah groaned and paused at the far end of the porch and laced his fingers behind his neck. “Oh, God…I don’t know if I’m going to survive this.”
The two men chuckled. “You’ll survive just fine,” Nick assured. “I mean, come on—this is the most amazing Christmas gift ever. A solid goldmiracle.The one thing you’ve been waiting for all this time.”
“You’re going to do great,” Mark offered supportively. “Once you see him again and get another look into those pretty green eyes—nothing else will matter. All you’ll be thinking is,‘how soon can we make love?’”Mark and Nick laughed.
Micah turned around and stared at them. “Don’t put that in my head.”
“Like you needusto put it there,” Mark teased. “Be honest now, hasn’t it been on your mind since the moment you saw him in the terminal?”
Micah had tried his bestnotto think of the man at all—much less think about going to bed with him. But he couldn’t deny that those thoughts had crept in and left him trembling from head to toe. “We’re just meeting to talk about his dad,” Micah mumbled. “Not tosleeptogether.” Saying it out loud, though, sent a sweet shiver racing through him.
“Yeah.” Mark smiled. “And you and I were just going to have dinner. Look how that evening ended. And we weren’t even soulmates.”
It scared Micah a little bit to think of this thing with Graham O’Brien as a done deal. What if it wasn’t? Was he taking too much for granted?
“Micah?” Nick sobered. “What’s wrong?”
Micah walked across the porch. “What if I’m being too presumptuous? Just because we had that one moment at the airport…it doesn’t mean he’s just going to automatically want to pursue a relationship with me.”
“It wasn’t someinsignificantmoment,” Mark said. “It wastheemoment. I saw the way he looked at you. The whole world fell away in that instant andallhe was aware of wasyou.”
“Isn’t that how it felt for you as well?” Nick asked.
It was. Micah had never in his life been so enraptured by another person, so drawn in that everything else ceased to exist in that moment. “Yes,” he whispered.
Nick stood up from the rail and grasped Micah’s shoulders. “Then stopworrying…and just savor this beautiful, amazing thing that’s happening to you.Enjoyit.”
Drawing a deep breath, Micah let it out slowly and smiled anxiously. “Okay. I’ll try. It’s just…if it was taken away after all this…I don’t think I’d recover.”
“It isn’t going to be taken away,” Mark said. “Did you see the look in Seth O’Brien’s eyes when he realized thatMicah Rosewas the same man from the terminal? He was happyfor his brother.Logic tells me that, like you, his brother was convinced he would never see you again.”
When Micah had confirmed that Mark wasn’t his boyfriend, the relief had been evident on Seth O’Brien’s face.Good to know.Mark was right—there was no denying the joy in the man when he understood just who Micah was.
Micah nodded, a little less scared—yet still crazy nervous. “I guess I should get ready to go.”
“Yes.” Mark grinned. “And pretty yourself up real good.”
Micah shook his head, smiling. “It would take a lot more time than I have to make mepretty.”
Mark and Nick exchanged an eye roll. “Whatever,” they chimed in unison.
∞∞∞
“Shouldn’t you be getting ready to go to the diner?”
Graham looked at the clothes he was wearing. “I am ready.”
“Really?” Seth observed him doubtfully from the twin bed. He sat with his back to the wall and his legs outstretched, ankles crossed. His eyes crinkled. “Didn’t you buy some new clothes before we came out here? You wanted to look extra-good when you met Micah.”
That was then, this is now,Graham thought, a heaviness in his chest. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” he mumbled. “These clothes are fine.”
