Once in a Lifetime

by Cassie Decker

  As they walked along a dirt path that followed the lake, Rangi pointed out the Tekapo vegetation to Peter. Golden tussocks swayed in the breeze, and white buttercups nodded under the weight of visiting bumblebees. The lake was in its full summertime splendor, and Rangi very much enjoyed Peter taking in his surroundings with a quiet awe. Rangi brought them to a stop at the Church of the Good Shepherd amidst a field of vibrantly blooming russell lupins. The pink, purple, and white stalks were a beautiful, harmonious complement to the striking turquoise waters of the lake. It never failed to take Rangi’s breath away.

  Peter stood beside Rangi, staring out at the water. Peter closed his eyes and tipped his head back a little, nostrils flaring as he pulled in a deep breath. Rangi took a moment to just look at him. Golden sunlight highlighted Peter’s hair and facial features, settling in the faint creases fanning out from the corners of his eyes, caressing his full lips, playing over the strong line of his jaw. It saturated the flowers around him and twinkled over the surface of the lake. Rangi wished he had thought to bring his camera. Peter would have made an amazing subject. He tried to take a mental picture instead, to burn all of the scents and sounds and images into his mind.

  “I never knew there was so much beauty in the world,” Peter said reverently, opening his eyes.

  Rangi, who only saw Peter, had to agree. He’d never known anyone as beautiful inside and out as the man standing beside him. “I didn’t either.”

  Peter smiled and turned toward him, about to say something, but stopped when he saw Rangi staring at him. His face was open and honest, and his deep blue eyes seemed to look right into Rangi’s soul. Rangi brought one hand up to Peter’s jaw, then brushed his thumb over the rise of Peter’s cheekbone. And took the leap.

  He dipped forward, taking Peter’s lips in a kiss. It was a gentle, tentative thing at first. But then Peter pressed himself to Rangi, his arms wrapping around Rangi’s back to draw them closer together, and it morphed into something deeper, something full of hunger, desire, and revelation. Rangi pulled taste after taste of Peter’s mouth until they were both breathless.

  Withdrawing just enough to rest his forehead on Peter’s, Rangi kept his eyes closed as his heart pounded away in his chest. He’d never shared a kiss like that with anyone. It turned him inside out and knocked him off balance, connecting him profoundly to Peter like the hongi had yesterday.

  Rangi’s palm was still cupping Peter’s cheek, their foreheads still pressed together as their breathing evened out and fell in sync. “Taupuhi,” Rangi whispered. Beloved. The word struck him out of nowhere. He couldn’t remember ever uttering the word aloud since he’d learned it in his language lessons as a child.

  “Did you feel that too?” Peter murmured in a hushed awe.

  Rangi dropped his hand from Peter’s face and straightened back, nodding. “I did.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “I didn’t want to regret not taking the chance.”

  Peter grinned and stretched up for another kiss. This one was just a peck, a thank-you of sorts, that Rangi accepted wholeheartedly.

  He looked around, noticing how dark it was getting. “We can head back to my flat if you need to get anything together before I drive you up to the observatory.”

  “Let’s do it,” Peter agreed enthusiastically. “I’ll just grab my laptop from my suitcase. And another one of those cupcakes.” They walked back down the trail, hand in hand.

  IT WAS almost full dark by the time Peter was in Rangi’s car on the way up the road that led to Mount John Observatory. He turned in his seat to look out the back window as Rangi drove. The facility was situated a little distance outside of Tekapo, up in the mountains surrounding the lake. The town prided itself on its Dark Sky Reserve status, and Peter could see by the lack of light from this vantage point as he looked down on the village that they took it seriously. It was prime star-viewing territory.

  Peter’s pulse jumped when Rangi pulled to a stop in front of the large, pale, domed building that housed the telescope.

  “Ready?” Rangi asked, turning off the engine.

  “I have been for years,” Peter replied with a grin.

  They walked to the observatory together with their fingers intertwined. Peter was happy in a way his heart had previously refused to believe was possible. The family he’d been surrounded by today showed him an acceptance and love he’d not known in years. He had come into their house a stranger, but they made him feel like he had been a part of their close-knit group for forever, like he belonged. And Rangi, who was selfless, caring, and deeply compassionate, who helped him without expecting anything in return, who took a chance on him, fanned a fire inside him he’d thought long gone. All the calculations and textbooks and theories in the world couldn’t explain the complex connection they shared. It was something Peter once believed he’d never experience in his lifetime.

  Rangi gave Peter’s hand a squeeze and let go as they came up to the entrance of the observatory. “Just give me a call when you’re done and I’ll come pick you up.”

  Peter frowned. “You’re not coming?”

  Rangi looked at him, clearly confused. “I can come with you?”

  Chuckling, Peter grabbed his hand again. “I wouldn’t want anyone else in the whole world there with me.”

  They walked inside together and were greeted by Professor Campbell, who had been expecting Peter after email communications they had shared over the past couple months, starting just as the comet was re-entering Earth’s orbit. Peter and the professor had coordinated the meeting to coincide with his winter break at the University and the last few days of the comet’s visit. A special donation of brand-new tablet PCs from Peter’s astrophysics department to Lake Tekapo’s local high school allowed him to have the telescope to himself for an hour for his first viewing. Though he didn’t mind being among the expected crowd of other space enthusiasts when he came back to the observatory over next three or four days to watch as the comet slipped away, he needed this time to collect himself and absorb the moment.

  The professor directed them through a door that led to the observatory floor. The sight that greeted Peter when he entered took his breath away. The 1.8-meter MOA telescope he had been waiting years to see up close and personal was finally right in front of him. It was massive, taking up nearly the whole area and reaching all the way up to the high domed ceiling, and painted red and white, looking like it was trying to get in the holiday spirit.

  The observatory’s roof was already open to view the comet, and Peter could see about a billion stars shimmering through just from the small patch of open space around the telescope. He pictured his father standing there with him, seeing this marvel of human ingenuity that was only just a vague idea to astronomers back in those days before his passing.

  Professor Campbell waved Peter and Rangi over to the control panel where a computer screen calculated out various lines of code. Peter felt a rush of excitement course through him.

  Rangi looked over to the telescope, then to the computer setup, perplexed. “We aren’t going to squiz a look of the comet with that?” He jerked a thumb toward the telescope over his shoulder.

  Peter laughed gently and shook his head. “Not with this kind of technology. The mirrors feed the reflected image through the camera on top, which then relays it back to this computer to give us a high-quality real-time picture.”

  He tugged Rangi closer up to the computer by the hand as Campbell dimmed the lights and punched in the necessary coordinates. The telescope rotated gradually on its base from where it had previously been centered on a newly discovered planetary system in the Sagittarius constellation to the proper alignment to view 38P, and the professor showed Peter which button to push to bring the comet up on the screen when he was ready. He then left the room to give Peter some privacy.

  Rangi stood beside Peter, hanging on with just their pinkies looped together. He was silent, waiting patiently for him, giving him the time he needed
. Peter took a deep breath and let it out slow, then pushed the button. A fuzzy streak of light centered on the computer screen snapped into focus, and Peter’s chest tightened up in response. He was speechless.

  The comet was utterly magnificent. Atmospheric particles reflected a brilliantly white corona around the nucleus, and blue and green residual gases trailed behind in a long tail, gracefully delicate like a late-winter icicle. It was gliding through the endless darkness of space, greeting the Earth on its decades-long trip around the solar system, so comforting in its reliability; no matter what happened, no matter how things changed, 38P would be back. Peter had seen plenty of comets in his life, with the aid of his own home telescope and pictures shared online, but this one, this one meant so much more, and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life.

  Tears sprang to his eyes, and he didn’t try to hold them back this time. Rangi curved an arm around the back of Peter’s shoulders to comfort him through it, and Peter was endlessly grateful for his presence. After a moment, Peter pulled his glasses off to wipe the moisture away, then put them back on. Thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years and he was finally here. It didn’t seem quite real.

  “This is the first shooting star I’ve ever seen,” Rangi said, rubbing his hand up and down Peter’s arm. “Thank you for letting me be a part of this with you.”

  Peter kept his eyes locked on the comet, trying to take it all in. “My whole life growing up I wondered how things would have been different if I hadn’t lost Dad at such a young age. Would I have gone to college? Would have I become a professor? Would I even be the person I am today? But finally being able to see this, after all this time, made me realize—” Peter turned toward Rangi, looking up at him, and settled his hands flat on his chest. “—everything I’ve gone through, everything I’ve experienced, every single moment has been leading me up to this. It’s been leading me here to you.” Peter knew there was a scientific, calculable answer for almost every mystery in the known universe, yet he couldn’t explain this. It just made sense. Some unseen driving force in the cosmos brought them together. Everything happened for a reason, and he believed with his heart and soul he was meant to be here with Rangi.

  Peter stretched up on his tiptoes then, bringing them forehead to forehead, nose to nose. Rangi breathed him in without hesitation, and Peter did the same. “Your first shooting star is a pretty big deal,” Peter whispered, his heart full to bursting. “Make a wish.”

  Rangi tipped his head down, his mouth hovering just inches from Peter’s. His warm breath washed over Peter’s chin, sending tingles up and down his back and out to his fingers. “It already came true,” he said, bringing their lips together in a kiss that had Peter seeing stars.

  CASSIE DECKER started writing love stories once she read her first romance novel in high school and instantly fell in love with falling in love. She believes everyone deserves a happily ever after, whether the men in her stories rope cattle in the rodeo, live in a tropical paradise, or are just trying to survive in a postapocalyptic world.

  When she’s not writing romance, she’s reading it. And if there’s time between that, you can find Cassie getting her geek on with cosplay costumes, comic-cons, and video game binges. Besides being a total nerd, she likes to knit naughty rainbow keychain charms for her friends, home brew her own beer, and practice her ukulele. Cassie also loves playing in the Colorado wilderness with her husband and her corgi pup, Murphy, when she’s not busy obsessing over the fictional men plotting their steamy love stories in her head, that is.

  Email: cassiedecker84@gmail.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/cassie.decker.9

  Twitter: @cabooseomalley

  Blog: www.lopsided-whiskey-grin.tumblr.com

  By Cassie Decker

  Driven to Distraction

  Kismet

  Once in a Lifetime

  An Unexpected Sanctuary

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Once in a Lifetime

  © 2018 Cassie Decker.

  Cover Art

  © 2018 Adrian Nicholas.

  adrian.nicholas177@gmail.com

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-055-2

  Digital eBook published December 2018

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America