by R. Cayden
I threw myself against him with another kiss, and soon enough, we made our way to the living room. We threw our clothes aside and fell to the couch, licking and sucking and grinding. I had learned so much about my body and what I liked by being with Cass, and I was able to take him in me easily, riding him until we were both exhausted and spent.
Remembering the Jolt show that night, I hurried Cass off to get ready and went to make dinner. Navigating the half-assembled kitchen had also become second nature, and I managed to throw together some veggie fried rice quickly. Once everything was finished, I plopped down at my computer again and put in some serious time just staring at the cover, pride bubbling up. With the freelance gigs I was now picking up for popular science magazines, I really was making a career as a science writer, something I never even let myself dream could be possible before Cass.
I decided that I wanted to celebrate properly and texted Leo and a few friends to join me at the venue. Cass came down the stairs, his hair still wet from the shower. He’d changed into a new flannel and my favorite pair of his jeans, which hugged his thighs just right. “I’m going to load up the drum set and head to the bar,” he said, then kissed me on the cheek. “You want to ride with me?”
I walked over to the counter and grabbed a bowl of fried rice, then shoved it in his hands. “Dinner first. Then I’ll help you load up the trailer.”
He chuckled and kissed me on the cheek again. “Right. Thanks, babe.”
By the time we made it to the venue, Leo was already there, chilling with his roommate Kai at the bar. Cass headed over to find the rest of Jolt, and I took a beer from my brother, then shared my cover with them both. We joked around for a while about my author bio, which Leo tried to insist should include “Leo’s brother” in it, and slowly, the place filled with fans of Jolt and a few new friends in our group.
When Cass came out for warmup, a different kind of pride started to puff me up. Jolt was an established band in Pittsburgh when we arrived, known for the garage rock sound and aggressive, hard drumming. Cass had started out as a fan, but when their drummer had to step back, the timing had let him step in. The other band members and the fans all took to him immediately, and he’d started to sit in on some recording sessions with Pittsburgh old-timers about once a month, too.
Cass had even added some of the deep space sound effects to a new Jolt song. I doubted most people in the audience recognized the weird glitches and electric howls, but whenever I spotted them in the background of a song, I grinned and pumped my fist a little harder.
And the whole time, I’d been there as his boyfriend, cheering him on. I learned how to throw myself into the high energy music, caught in the power that was banging and throbbing from the stage, and I ended plenty of nights in that bar pressed against the back wall, loving up on Cass. It wasn’t my world, exactly, but it wasn’t just his, either. It was one part of the world we were building together, a cluster filled with more stars than you could see with the naked eye.
He looked at me from the stage and tossed his head back in a nod, his hair flipping back. I grinned and waved softly at him, then leaned back against the bar, ready for the show.
CASS
A few months later
“My god, it really is you.”
Mrs. Bergson held the door to the Kentucky house open as snow tossed through the air behind Shawn and me. She had on a black sweater with pearls across the top, and she wore her hair in a short, stylish bob. It had been over a decade since I saw her last, but I would recognize those eyes anywhere, shining as brightly as Shawn’s.
“Come on, it’s freezing out here,” Shawn said, pushing past me. “Hi, Mom,” he added, greeting her with a kiss on the cheek before he dropped his bags.
I kicked off my boots. “It really is me,” I said, then dropped my bags to the side and offered my hand. “And before anything else, I wanted to apologize again for lying to you about my fake ID in 2009, Mrs. Bergson.”
She narrowed her eyes, and we stared at each other. Shawn had sworn in the car ride that nothing would be awkward and that Mrs. Bergson would love me if I just acted like myself. For just a second, though, I felt like I was back in high school and doing a very poor job at hiding something I had done wrong.
Then her face broke open in a wide smile, and she stepped forward, pulling me into a hug. “It’s all forgiven,” she said with a laugh. “We both know it was Leo’s idea in the first place. And please, call me Anne.”
I laughed along with her. “Anytime you need me to ingratiate myself further, just ask. I’ll be happy to rat out Leo for all kinds of things.”
“He’s winning me over already,” she said to Shawn, patting my shoulder. “Now come on. Let’s get you boys some tea and snacks.”
Shawn grabbed my hand as we walked through the house slowly, casting our eyes around. I had come down with a flu right before the holidays the year before, and with the move to Pittsburgh eating up all of our time, I hadn’t been back to the house since we left that summer. Now that I was there again, though, all the memories flooded back through me.
I grabbed Shawn and pulled him close before we followed his mom into the kitchen. “I love you,” I said.
“I love you, babe,” he answered, then brushed his lips over mine.
“Fucking hell, you’re worse here than you are in Pittsburgh,” Leo said, emerging down the stairs. He’d come straight from a business trip in Los Angeles the night before, dealing with another client in crisis. “Are you going to be attached at the lips for the whole holiday?”
“Or somewhere else,” I said under my breath.
Leo shoved me in the back of the head as he walked by. “Very gross, Cass.”
We headed into the kitchen and stood around the counter, talking while Anne and Shawn busied themselves getting tea and some trays of cookies together. Instantly, I fell into the rhythm of it, throwing jokes and swapping stories along with the rest of them. Shawn and Leo were both family to me, but I wasn’t surprised that Anne felt that way, too.
Even if her son and I had kind of stolen her car to drive to a concert on the other side of Indiana one time. Although it was a pretty funny in-law story, I realized.
A weird tingle went across my body. Leo, Shawn, and Anne were a real family. Even though they had plenty of differences, they cared about each other the way a family was supposed to, and I got a little choked up thinking about it. Being with them was so different than being with my family, like everyone was just accepted for who they were.
I cleared my throat and took a sip of the tea, shaking the thoughts away. Once everyone was caught up, Shawn and I stomped back into our boots and headed to check out the studio. It had stopped snowing, and the clouds were passing, which was especially good news for us. We’d come down ten days before Christmas not just to enjoy a longer trip, but to catch the peak of the Geminids meteor shower, too. The sky would be full of shooting stars all night long, with fireballs lighting up the sky in the biggest show of the year.
The studio was covered with a dusting of snow, and Shawn and I made a trail on the porch as we looked around, our hands all over each other. The view was so different in the winter, with all the trees bare and the hillsides opened up to us even brighter than I remembered.
Shawn and I had been granted the remodeled studio for what I figured were obvious reasons. It suited me fine. With a little bedroom nook, its own bathroom, and a cozy sitting area and mini kitchen, I knew Shawn and I would shack up happily there. The old family decorations and paintings by his grandma gave the guest house a nice family vibe that comforted me, and the fact that I had remodeled the thing and built in so much of the interior myself made it all the more satisfying.
It had taken me a little adjusting to trust Shawn that it was okay to spend the Christmas with him, Leo, and Anne, instead of with my own family. It was the only time I saw them, usually. But now that I was in Kentucky and my parents were off in Paris, totally unbothered by my absence, I knew I couldn’t hav
e made a better choice.
I was welcome with Shawn’s family. Someone had turned the heat on earlier, and the space was toasty. Shawn and I tossed our bags and undressed each other, then let off some steam with quick blowjobs on the couch before we hopped in the tiny shower. As much fun as it was to fuck Shawn at the Kentucky house, I fully intended to focus on making a good impression with the family during my first holidays.
Coffee in the living room that afternoon turned easily into making dinner together, and after we’d all had our fill of pecan pie, we sat around the dining room table playing cards. I got so wrapped up in learning Hearts, I didn’t notice until the game had ended that it had grown dark outside.
“Shawn,” I said, poking him across the table. “The meteor shower.”
Shawn and Leo exchanged a quick glance. “Right,” Shawn said. He tapped the cards together into a pile, then shook his head quickly, a funny smile on his face. “We can’t miss that!”
“Leo, you help me tidy up here for a minute. We’ll meet you boys back there.”
It was definitely a cold night, even with our winter jackets on, and Shawn and I held each other around the shoulders as we walked to the back. When we stepped under the light on the porch, his cheeks were pink from the cold, stirring my desire, and I pulled him in for a kiss.
Our lips parted, and Shawn turned his eyes to the view. “Look,” he whispered.
I turned my gaze up as we walked to the edge of the deck. The night sky was open before us, glistening with stars, and barely a few seconds passed before a yellow meteor lit across the sky, streaking slowly toward the horizon.
“Damn,” I said, squeezing Shawn tighter. “Fucking beautiful.”
I didn’t turn my eyes away as we stood there, holding each other, and in no more than a minute, another meteor shot across the sky, followed immediately by a third. The snow-covered trees were silent around us as I anchored myself to Shawn’s breath, watching.
He stirred beside me, and finally, I tore my eyes away from the sky. When I turned, he was down on his knee in front of me.
My heart stopped. Shawn reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box.
Holy shit. He was proposing to me.
“Cass, I couldn’t think of any better place to ask you this than here, right where we fell in love. You have made me so, so happy, and the life we’re building together is exactly the life I want to live. I love you, Cass.” He opened the box, displaying a handsome silver ring. “Will you marry me?”
I fell down to my knees and took Shawn in a kiss. “Yes,” I said, kissing him all over his face as I squeezed him close. “Fuck yes, babe. I love you.”
He leaned forward, kissing me harder, and we fell back to the deck. With the sky full of shooting stars above us, I was suddenly overcome by the feeling that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I had found my people and the life I wanted, and I couldn’t imagine it being any better than exactly how it was.
With Shawn. Just like I was supposed to be.
The end
About the Author
R. Cayden is the pen name of an MM+ romance author living in the Midwest.
My novels feature characters learning about love, life, and sex through unconventional relationships. When not writing and reading, I enjoy hiking, playing pool, and a sunny day at the lake.
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Also by R. Cayden
His Best Friend’s Brother
Falling for the Geek
Bad Boy Security
Guarding His Heart
Stealing Pretty
Double Down
Rebels and Nerds
Brick’s Geeks
Unraveling Malcolm
Clark’s Bully
Asher and His Geek Daddies
Standalone
The Geek and His Bad Boys
Love Spanks
The Guy They Need
