Page 123 of Only Ever You

She didn’t respond to his comment about how she should have lived with him already for years. Instead, she slithered off of the bed.

“Where’re you going?” Bash watched her shimmy into her underwear and then his t-shirt, which was a new sight to imprint on his retinas, alongside the rest of her naked and mewling his name.

“Just something that I have to do,” Faye said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Her footsteps echoed all of the way down the stairs.

Bash waited.

A minute later, his phone that he’d found downstairs on the sofa and tossed aside an hour ago buzzed with a notification. He searched the nightstand piled with empty bowls for the device.

Faye

I’m home x

Bash read the text, and his heart melted into a gooey mess when he realised what she meant.

Text me when you get home –the goodbye he always gave to her.

His bubble of a laugh was with a joy that brought a strange sting behind his eyes. He wouldn’t cry, not over a text. But damn it he wanted to.

When he looked up, Faye leaned in the doorway, toying with her phone in her hands. Bash set his phone down on the nightstand and opened up his arms to her.

This was home.

This was his future.

And it only hit him then how momentous it was.

They’d fallen in love with each other over a decade. No fuss. No drama. Just them.

Just them.That’s all he needed.

37

BASH

As it turned out,Bash’s streak of good days kept on coming.

It appeared there weren’t many people wanting to play tennis in the middle of winter, two days after Christmas, which meant it was almosttooeasy to book a court for their trio for once.

The changing room was mostly empty when they wandered in. Bash and Bennet dumped their bags on benches and began shedding themselves of outdoor clothes for their tennis whites. Though while they took layersoff, Freddy piled them on.

“You not getting changed, Fred?” Bennet’s voice as he picked cat hair off of his training shirt made Bash look over from pulling on his shorts.

“I might have to just umpire you today, guys,” Freddy replied, adding gloves to his attire.

Fear spiked in Bash’s blood. He hadn’t noticed as they’d walked how rigidly Freddy had held himself. “Is your back alright?”

Freddy wafted the concern away with a glove. “Just a flare up. Nothing to worry about.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I brought my heat packs.” The blonde tapped the pockets of his gym bag he’d brought all of the way here for no reason. Bash made a mental note to carry it for him on the way out. “All good.”

The courts were freezing, but at least they’d managed to snag a couple of hours on an indoor court instead of the rooftop. Still, the giant hall was like stepping inside of a tin can buried in snow. Bash needed to get his body moving, and fast.

Freddy set himself up on a chair at one end of their court’s net, looking like a grandpa with his woolly hat pulled down around his head and a scarf covering every inch of his neck. Surely moving about and staying warm would be better for his back? Loosen up the muscles? But that was Freddy’s choice and Bash wouldn’t interfere.

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