Page 66 of Any Given Lifetime
Joshua grinned. “I love you, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
November 2034—Paris, France
Neil woke upand snuggled into Joshua’s side, breathing in the hollow between Joshua’s shoulder and neck. He curled his fingers into Joshua’s chest hair and let the images from the dream wash over him. He had the dreams less and less these days, but they always left him feeling profoundly grateful.
Joshua rolled toward him, gathering Neil into his arms and smiling in his sleep. Neil gazed at his face and felt an answering lift in his own lips. The hotel room around them was lush, with thick bedding, and a view of the Seine out the window. Still the dream vibe lingered.
Neil never told Joshua about the dreams. He sometimes wondered if he should, but Joshua seemed untroubled by their life together. He didn’t seem to want or need any reassurance about their relationship—except for the occasional promise that the age difference between them wasn’t important. As Neil pointed out, he was actually older than Joshua in most ways, and between the nanite creams and treatments keeping Joshua’s body young and Neil’s adamant refusal to do anything to prevent his own aging, they’d be peers before they knew it.
The dream always started the same way. Neil would be working in the lab, and he’d be right on the edge of a massive breakthrough, something huge, when the sensation of someone next to him would break his concentration. He’d turn, annoyed, ready to tell off whoever it was for interrupting, and then stop short.
“Hey,” Lee would say.
Neil remembered that when the dreams first started, he’d felt a weird wave of guilt, like he’d been caught fucking Joshua, and his husband had just walked in the room. But he didn’t feel that way in the dreams anymore. Now, he just experienced a kind of realization that, oh, he was dreaming, and, hey, Lee was here to check on Joshua again. He didn’t mind it.
“You could just ask him yourself,” Neil had said in the particular dream he’d just woken from. “I’m not his keeper.”
“Sure you are,” Lee answered. “Besides, I like asking you. Keeps you humble.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m a reminder that he wasn’t always yours—even though he was, you know. Always yours.”
Neil shrugged. “He had a life with you. He loved you.”
“Yup.” Lee leaned against the counter, and Neil refrained from telling him not to jostle anything. It was just a dream, after all. “So, how’s he doing?” Lee asked.
“Great. He’s happy. I mean, he seems happy. He smiles a lot.”
Lee’s own smile was always brilliant. It made Neil feel like he was a kid in the presence of someone much older and much braver. Someone who had a hell of a lot more knowledge than he did about the most important thing in the world to Neil.
“Good. Keep it that way. It’s not hard to do. Just love him and let him know that you do. That’s all it takes.”
“I know that.”
Lee had rolled his eyes. “Of course. Anyway, it’s good to see you again. You’re looking pretty happy yourself.”
“I am,” Neil had said. He was the happiest he’d ever been. Happier than he’d known possible.
“Okay, well, I have to go. Heaven calls and all that.”
Neil had snorted at the joke. “Don’t know how he put up with your bad sense of humor.”
“You’re one to talk.”
Neil put out his hand, and they shook. Lee’s fingers were strong, and even after waking he could still feel the ghost of that touch as he stroked Joshua’s chest hair.
Joshua shifted, and his eyes fluttered open. A grin broke over his face, and Neil touched his lower lip with his thumb.
“Neil,” Joshua said, his voice tremulously happy. “We’re in Paris.”
“Yup.”
“And you’ve never been here before.”
“Nope.”
