Page 78 of Shades of Henry
Lance smacked him on the top of the head. “You’re so stupid.”
“Ouch! What?” Henry rubbed his head and tried to figure out what he’d missed.
“I don’t need you to pay rent!” Lance snapped, absurdly enough keeping his voice down. “I just need you to move in with me!”
Henry blinked. “Lance, we’ve been sleeping with each other for a week.”
“But we already live together! And seriously, if we get a separate apartment, and it doesn’t work out, you know, move back into the flophouse!”
Henry laughed softly and sprawled across Lance’s chest. “Galahad?” he said, trying to be reasonable.
“I don’t trust that name.”
“You should. It’s amazing. Do me a favor and relax, okay? We’ve got some privacy, we’ve got a movie. We’ve got air-conditioning. I am, at this moment, a very happy guy. I may even get lucky tonight, and that makes me even happier.” He kissed Lance’s cheek, giddy all over again that this guy seemed to want him. “I haven’t been this simply happy in a long time. Let’s not fuck with the happy. Not now. Let’s make out on the couch and pretend we’re teenyboppers, okay?”
Lance grunted. “Fine, but I still think it’s a perfectly good idea—”
“It’s a great idea. But it’s not going to happen this week, or even next week. This weekend, Ellery’s having a party, and he’s invited some of our friends and my brother, and you know what?”
“What?”
“I’m looking forward to that. Because last week, when Ellery was issuing invitations left and right, it was always followed up with, ‘As long as Henry’s not in jail.’ So I’m not going to jail, and I have a boyfriend, and I did something sort of heroic this morning. There may be more shit to come.” He sobered. “Malachi is still out there. I still need to pass my classes and get my license. There’s always shit to sort, but….” He swallowed, suddenly unable to joke about this. “A few months ago, I was trying to get out of an abusive relationship I wouldn’t even admit was happening. Can we just let… let a good reality sort of sit on our shoulders a little? Please?”
Lance let out a breath. “Sure,” he rasped. “It’s… this morning, you walked into a room and confronted a woman with a gun. And I get that you’re still high from that, but it mademerealize that you are… really special to me. And you’re going to be doing shit like that a lot more than I’d like. So I don’t want to waste any time.”
Oh. Oh wow. Henry took his mouth, savoring the sweetness. “It’s never wasted when we’re together. We’ll find a way.”
Lance sighed and kissed him back, and Henry spent the next few hours on the couch, learning the joys of having a boyfriend you could kiss indiscriminately, and who was as much fun to talk to as he was to have sex with.
More, in fact, because there was respect, and kindness and humor in all that banter, and the sex was a promise, not a threat.
ELLERY GOThome about two hours later, right when Jackson got up. Jackson looked much better after his rest—his color was good, his eyes twinkled wickedly as he gave Ellery crap about saving the world while Jackson was down for a nap.
Henry and Lance made a quiet exit while Ellery was trying not to swoon all over his boyfriend, because it was obvious the two of them needed privacy and that every moment alone for them right now really was a sorely treasured miracle.
“Dinner?” Lance said on the way out to the car. “We could go somewhere.”
“What would you want to eat?” Henry asked, keeping his voice neutral.
Lance let out a sigh. “It would be mostly for you,” he admitted.
“Which is nuts because we skipped lunch.” Then Henry remembered his own words about just letting them be happy, and let it go. “Anywhere you’d eat,” he said. “I mean that.”
“Okay. I’ve got a place. Bratwurst for you, grilled veggie kabobs for me. We can do this.”
Of course they could. Lance made his way to one of those industrial-chic places with a polished concrete floor and sanded wood tables. Inside would have been unbearably loud, but outside on the patio, with the river breeze picking up through the tree-lined boulevard and the sunset sky overhead, it wasn’t bad.
They chatted about movies and books—Henry had read anything and everything when he’d been on deployment, and Lance was insanely jealous, because the only things he’d had time to read were medical journals.
It was a fun moment, until their server, a happy, perky girl with blue ends to her curly brown hair and an infectious laugh, left their plates on the table with a happy wave. Lance looked at the veggies on his plate—absolutely lovely grilled mushrooms and pineapple and peppers—and then he met Henry’s eyes across the table, his face sober.
“Want to see something?” he said, out of the blue.
“Here?” Henry raised an eyebrow and tried to make it dirty, just so he could see Lance’s smile again.
“Yeah.” Lance reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He had to dig a moment, but eventually he pulled out a picture. With visible reluctance, he handed it over to Henry.
“Oh my God!” So cute. Round little cheeks, round little chin, and the same great, comforting ear-to-ear smile. “You make me want to have kids, and I gotta tell you, kids drive me nuts.”
