by Amy Aislin
"No," Elias repeated when he pulled back, hands cupping Ty's neck, thumbs tracing cheeks heated from the kiss. Snowflakes glittered on his eyelashes and in his hair. "You said everything I needed to hear about my work. That I wasn't happy and that I was too talented a photographer to let it go to waste. And the truth is, if I hadn't met you, if I were single right now and had been offered the VP job? I would've taken it, and I would've been a repressed, miserable motherfucker for the rest of my life."
Ty chuckled and moved in for a hug, burying his face in Elias's neck. "I'm sorry," he breathed against Elias's skin, warm breath a contrast to the cold winter air.
"I'm sorry, too," Elias said. "I love you, Ty." Inhaling deeply, he memorized the scent of Ty: pine-scented soap over a subtle layer of chocolate. He held him tighter, knowing his outdated ideals could've cost him this wonderful man who saw past Elias's walls to the heart of who he was.
"I love you, too. I won't walk away like that again," Ty promised.
"That would be nice."
Ty pulled back with a grin. "You know, my dad made a good point earlier. He said that we both got new jobs, so our argument was moot anyway."
"Huh, that is a good point. Don't I feel like an idiot?"
Ty snorted a laugh.
"Speaking of your dad," Elias said. "Did you send him out here to tell me that stuff?"
"What? No." Ty took a step out of Elias's arms and avoided Elias’s gaze. The fact that he didn't ask, “What stuff?” was a bit of a giveaway. How would he know what they'd discussed unless he'd sent his dad out here with specific instructions? "Of course not. He just wanted to come out here and talk to you."
Uh-huh. "God, you're as bad as your dad."
Ty's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I know. I just needed a few minutes to gather my thoughts."
"I figured."
"And to make my snowpal."
Elias peered around Ty, where the little snowman still held the I'm sorry sign. Its mouth had fallen off at some point. "You know, that's the creepiest snowman I've ever seen."
"Shhh." Ty covered its fake ears—or where its fake ears would be if it had any. "Fluffy Snowdrift will hear you," he whisper-shouted.
"He doesn't even have any eyes. He looks like a reject from The Nightmare Before Christmas."
Ty lost it, laughing so long and hard the sound echoed up and down the street. A few houses down a dog started to bark. Coming around Fluffy Snowdrift, he launched himself at Elias. Heart fluttering, Elias caught him close and kissed his cheek, marveling at the way their evening had gone from agonizingly awful to so, so right.
"Hey," Elias said. "I just realized. You never apologized that first day."
Ty pulled back to frown at him. "What first day?"
"The day we met. Remember? When you lectured me about which garbage can to throw my newspaper in?"
"What?" The look of disbelief on Ty's face was hilarious. "Why would I apologize for that? Had you put it in the right garbage can in the first place, I wouldn't have said anything." And we never would've met, was left unsaid, though Elias was sure they were both thinking it. "Recycling isn't a game, you know," Ty continued, the twinkle in those ice blue eyes belying the serious set of his face. "It's extremely important for the environment—"
Elias tuned Ty out as he started talking about glass plants and plastic plants and what-the-fuck-ever plants, just like he had on the day they'd met. To shut him up, Elias used a technique he never would've considered then.
He kissed the shit out of him.
Thank you for coming along on Ty and Elias’s journey.
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Amy's lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she's read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she's been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn't at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada's largest environmental non-profit.
An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group, Amy Aislin’s Readers, to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram and Twitter, or sign up for her newsletter.
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