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Xander holds up a tiny finger. “In our defense, you said you wanted something impressive. And I asked myself,Xander, what do you find impressive? And of course my answer was big dicks, so …” He gestures toward the monstrosity like a magician revealing his assistant. “Big kite.”
“A kite?” Émile repeats, craning his neck to get a better look.
Gabe throws him a dimpled grin. “I think the word kite is generous.”
“It didn’t seem this large deconstructed.”
Seven looks up from where he’s attaching … a wing, maybe? “It definitely did.”
“I did mybest, okay?”
Madden laughs from where he’s flopped on the grass, loose gym shorts leaving nothing to the imagination. “Considering Christian gave us a week’s warning—”
“Three weeks.”
“—I’d say you pulled it together pretty well.”
Xander thrusts an arm in his direction. “Thank you!”
“Fuck, sorry I’m late,” Rush says, as though any of us expect anything different from him by this point. He pulls his jog up suddenly. “What the hell is that?”
Xander throws his hands in the air. “I give up!”
Before he can go to storm off, Seven tackles him and smooshes his face into the grass, while Molly, the new guy, watches them, looking out of place. “Relax, I’m sure Christian has something he wants to say to us all. Especially you who worked so damn hard on this.” The glare Seven throws my way has me stumbling over myself to reply.
“He’s right. Thank you. You did an amazing job, and I’m so appreciative of this, uh, kite, that we are definitely going to be able to get off the ground because I have zero doubts over its aerodynamic …ness.”
Madden waves his hand at me to continue.
“And I’m so lucky to have you all?”
“Close enough.” Gabe pulls me into a hug, smacking a loud kiss on my cheek, before doing the same to Émile.
It’s not until Émile extracts himself that I get my first good look at his face. And his glassy eyes.
“You did this for me?”
I try for a smile that doesn’t stick. “Yeah, I wanted to surprise you, but I don’t … is this okay?”
“This is fucking perfect. Are you kidding?”
I let out a long exhale. “Okay, good. Because it looks like you’re going to cry, and I wasn’t sure …”
He laughs and pulls me into a long kiss that turns my friends into high schoolers again.
“To be clear here,” he says. “This is perfect, and I can honestly say it’s the most wonderful thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“So far.”
He cocks his head. “What?”
“The most wonderful thingso far. You’re an amazing person and you deserve amazing things always.”
“Such a sweet talker.”
Not hard when I’m only telling the truth. Émile shows me what it’s like to be married to a partner, a supporter, someone who’s always in my corner and willing to go to the ends of the earth for me. I never have to worry about him letting me down. I never have to worry about disappointing him. And because he shows me that daily, I want to return it. And I’ll never stop trying when it comes to him.
“Let’s go see if we can get this thing off the ground,” he says, setting his coffee on the grass and pushing up the arms of his long-sleeved T-shirt.
“One more thing.” I grab him before he can run off. “I love you.”
But it’s not only Émile’s voice that answers me.
Five others join in.
“I love you, too.”
