Page 17 of The Stargazers of Copper County
“It has at least eighty-two moons. You should be able to at least see Titan,” I explained, giving him pointers on how to find it. “Titan, Rhea, Dione, and Tethys are considered the ‘major four.’”
He asked several questions without pulling away from the eyepiece. The awe in his voice was satisfying to hear. Sharing the magic of discovery was thrilling with anyone, but sharing it with him felt like an even bigger gift for some reason.
As soon as he pulled away, he begged for me to show him something else. I used the finder to move the telescope to Regulus before gesturing him back into position.
“You’re a Leo, right? Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation. Alpha Leonis.” I pulled up a stool so I could sit behind him and wrap my arms around him while he continued looking. “It’s actually four stars. The largest of them is Regulus A, and it is almost four times larger than our sun. What’s interesting about it is that it spins so fast on its axis the motion causes it to bulge in the center, which makes it appear egg-shaped.”
He asked questions about how fast it spun compared to the Earth and what the other three stars were like in comparison. I could have talked to him about stars all night, but the feel of his warm body against mine was too tempting to ignore.
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the back of his neck. “Stay with me tonight?” I murmured.
“God, yes.” He turned around and kissed me on the lips. After a moment, he pulled back and shot me a cheeky grin. “You’ll let me come back and stargaze with you again sometime?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
And because it felt right and fated, because it felt like Theo and I were discovering something here that had been a billion years in the making and would shine bright enough for a hundred lifetimes, I added, “Theo Ross, I think you and I will be stargazing together for a long, long time.”
And we did. Over and over again. Until our time together could be measured in months and then years. Until neither of us could remember a timewehadn’t existed. Until Theo no longer had to do more than stumble out of our bed and pull his sleepy husband upstairs with him to watch the stars together one more time.
