“Maldives.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah, better weather than here that’s for sure. It’s fucking freezing. How long’s it gonna rain for?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I dunno. Want me to call the Meteorological Society?”
He stopped just before the beer bottle touched his lip. “Wiseass.”
I grinned. “I missed you, Jupe.”
“Yeah, missed you too.” He looked around. “Gotta say though, I meant it before;, you do look good, you look happy. I like it. I haven’t seen you this happy for a long time, and I like this place. Have you moved in?”
“Not officially, but I’m either here or at the loft. We don’t often stay at my place. I’m moving the boxes in after Christmas.”
I opened the fridge again. There were a few options for pasta sauce, but I knew which one Jupiter would want - arrabiata with extra parmesan.
I started heating it, and then drained the pasta.
“So this is it then, it’s real?”
Real. Really fucking real.
I nodded, smiling wide, trying not to look like a lunatic.
“Yup. Real. So can you stop sending him threatening text messages please?”
He grinned, with zero shame. “It was one message.”
Both brows went up this time.
“Okay, three, maybe four. But I’ll give him credit, he didn’t back down.”
Of course he didn’t because he mostly found it funny, but he also respected that Jupiter was being protective. In fact, it would have been more of an issue for him if he hadn’t.
“He loves me.”
“When are you introducing him to mom and dad?”
“They’ve met him on FaceTime, but in person will be Christmas. I have some time off and he’s got away games on the west coast, so I’m going to travel with him and we’ll come home for a few days; see Piper, Andy, and the kids too.”
I threw the pasta in the bigger pan with the sauce and started stirring it all together. Grabbing the pasta bowls from the drawer, I filled them and passed them over to Jupiter, along with a giant block of parmesan and two more beers.
He put his nose down to the pasta. “This smells amazing.”
He grabbed the cheese grater and I watched in silence as he covered his bowl with an inordinate amount of parmesan. It was almost obscene.
“Home for the holidays, that’ll be fun. Good plan starting him early on what he’s getting into with you. Dad’s already sorting the decorations.”
Our father was a Christmas nut. Any decoration, you name it, he’d bought it. Growing up, we were one step away from being that weird house on the block that people traveled miles to see.At least now the house was away from the street, and the only people subjected to the blinding display of Christmas cheer were those who actually lived there or visited.
And Jupiter would never tell anyone because it didn’t fit with his grumpy, unapproachable public persona, but he secretly loved it too.
He forked up a mouthful. “What have you got planned for me while I’m here?”
“Not much, I just wanted to hang out. We could drive into the city tomorrow, but if you want to stay at the house, that’s good with me too. I’m just happy spending time together.”
“Nah, let’s hit the city. I never spend time here, so let’s go for a walk. I need to test out my new winter thermals, don’t I?” he smirked.
