Page 62 of Watch Over Me

When they arrived at James's place, Robert simply wished him a good night.

"You, too." Eddie got out, then turned and leaned down to look at his brother again. "Thank you, truly. For everything."

And then it only took one text and three flights of stairs before the door opened and here James was, in old jeans and a T-shirt that stretched in all the right places.

"Hey, you," he said, and put his arms around him the moment Eddie crossed the small space between them and plastered himself to James's front, inhaling deeply.

This, right here, was where he wanted to be.

Hopefully forever.

EPILOGUE

A few months later

It was an uneventful night, thankfully, and the congressman and his wife decided to leave the party early, which meant that at half past ten James was back at the headquarters, showered and changed, and ready to head home.

But first, he needed to make one more stop.

He could hear the music playing from down the corridor. It was the latest of Eddie's obsessions that James sadly knew all the lyrics to, since he was subjected to it on a daily—sometimes hourly—basis. He didn't mind it right now, though, because it meant Eddie was alone in there. He never put on any music on speakers with somebody else present.

As James pushed the door open, the familiar sight greeted him—Eddie turning around in his chair and smiling brightly before standing up. Meeting in the middle of the room for an I'm-glad-you're-okay kiss was familiar, too. The way Eddie's mouth tasted, the way he smelled, the way his body felt pressed against his…

"I can't wait to get home," James murmured into the corner of Eddie's lips and felt them stretching into another smile before Eddie pulled back.

"Well, then you'd better hand me the equipment so we can get this over with." He poked James in the chest. "Don't. Don't make an equipment joke."

Unable to resist the tips of Eddie's ears turning red, James brushed his fingers over them as he swallowed what he was about to say.

The sooner they went through this, the sooner they couldleave, after all.

These days, neither of them lingered at work any longer than they had to.

They had someplace better to be.

"Spoilsport," James told him, but took a step back, then another, and settled in his chair as Eddie returned to his seat and opened the bag James handed over.

"Stop complaining and tell me about your day," Eddie said, inserting the USB drive into the computer. He was able to easily carry on a conversation and process the files, something James was a little jealous of.

"Ryan's cage-y in his texts," he admitted with a sigh.

"Which makes you suspicious."

It wasn't a question, more like a statement, but James still hummed his agreement. It was weird, not having his partner here, but what was even more weird was how quiet Ryan had been.

"He says it's fine, and he always had good things to say about his family, but I feel like there's some drama he doesn't want to share. Christmas can bring the worst in people."

Eddie grimaced. "I agree with that last part, that's for sure."

"Yeah."

While Eddie's relationship with his family was slowly changing for the better, neither he nor James were really looking forward to the upcoming Christmas Day dinner at the Bailey residence.

"In the worst-case scenario, we'll commiserate after he's back and tells us all about it." Eddie glanced at him. "Maybe he just doesn't want to do this over texts. Or, he may be too busy having a great time and we're a pair of Christmas haters."

"I'd take that." James stretched his legs in front of him. "Anyway, moving on from my full-time partner to my temporarypartner, I have new scoop on Ian and the You-Know-Who," he said, grinning at the expected groan.

"I didnotsay he looks like Voldemort," Eddie told him for yet another time, rolling his eyes.

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