Chapter 16
(Robbie)
Four Weeks Later
“Awe, we may have to get a two-seater to put in here just for the kitties,” I said as I paused in the doorway of the living room to see Piper curled up with Squik, Pesto, and Bobby.
“Would that be okay?” Nova asked as he wiggled under my arm so he could see them too.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked. “The kitties deserve a comfortable place to sit too.”
“Then we should definitely find something to fit them, now that they are finally getting along.”
“Exactly.”
“You’d never know that just last week they were still giving each other the stink eye and hissing as they passed each other in the hall,” Nova said as I hugged him close.
“I’m glad they finally decided to like one another, and that Megan could get them to my vet for me before my vacation was over, so they’d have the proper vaccines to be able to be released to me at the airport.
I don’t know what I’d have done if they’d gotten placed in 120-day quarantine. ”
“Visited them as often as you were allowed,” I replied as I pressed a kiss to his cheek. “But I’m glad that didn’t happen.”
It hadn’t made sense to have him get his own place when we’d been steadily planning all the things we wanted to do once he’d relocated to the island.
He’d packed and shipped everything that wouldn’t fit in the four suitcases he’d flown with, after selling what little furniture he’d had in his apartment.
He said my whole surfer chic vibe would be a welcome change, especially when there was nothing he needed that I didn’t have, save for a desk.
I’d rearranged my office so I could fit a second desk in there for him, as well as a pair of shelving units to match the one I used, so he’d have a place for anything he needed.
Thinking about it now, I chuckled at the memory of Nova’s response when he saw what I’d done.
Not that I plan to do much work from home, but thank you for making me a space for if I needed to or just had ideas I wanted to play with.
“Since they’ve got the couch occupied, how about you and I take the UNO deck out back?” I suggested. “The last box has been broken down and bundled, and I just whipped up a fresh batch of mango tea.”
“I’ll grab the cards if you’ll pour the drinks and snag the box of clam strips we picked up from the crab shack.”
“Now do you get why I suggested two?”
“Because you can’t keep your hands off my clam strips?” Nova replied with a cheeky grin.
With each day he grew more playful and relaxed, a far cry from the frazzled man who’d hurled his phone at the water and grumbled about not flinging it far enough when it landed in the sand.
“Uh-huh, keep telling yourself that,” I replied as I stepped back into the kitchen to snag the strips and Ezekiel’s famous sauce.
I don’t care what anyone said about tartar or cocktail sauce; they could keep them both as far away from my seafood as possible.
Ezekiel’s rich, creamy, slightly spicy dipping blend was the only thing I ever wanted to plunge my tasty clam strips into.
If he ever did get around to bottling things, I hoped that sauce, along with his spicy pineapple butter, would be at the top of the list.
“I cannot believe that this is my life now,” Nova said as he slid into the seat across from me.
Food and drinks were set up on the table, along with a small container of sugared donuts we’d picked up earlier, when we’d run out for food and supplies.
“Get used to living the life of a beach bum businessman,” I said. “You’ll know you’ve truly settled in when you’re hopping out of bed as the sun is coming up, just so you can catch a few waves before work.”
“Or watch you catch them,” he replied. “I could see myself indulging in a whole new ritual once I start back to work.”
“Oh yeah, and what will that be?”
“I think I’ll call it Man Candy Monday,” he replied. “It will solely consist of me with my ass parked in the sand, staring out at you shredding on a wave, while I drool over how hot you are.”
“Oh, I’m hot, am I?”
“Uh-huh. One seriously smokin’ hot surfer Daddy.”
“I hope you’re still saying that when the blond gives way to gray and you’re catching more waves than I am.”
“I know I will,” he replied. “Only I might have to vary things up a little and start calling you my seriously sizzling silver fox surfer Daddy.”
“I can roll with that,” I replied as he started shuffling the cards.
“Oh my god, I just remembered that I never got the chance to tell you about the text I received earlier,” he said, the cards fluttering as they mixed.
Since moving here, his phone had been notoriously silent save for the occasional texts from family and friends. That deluge he’d been flooded with by his former employer was a thing of the past, though he did still choose to keep it in the box in the kitchen most of the time we were at home.
“Shoot, was it a good text or a ‘why did I check my phone’ one?” I asked.
“It was an ‘oh my fucking god, that’s the funniest shit I’ve heard all week one,’” he replied as he set them in the middle of the table for me to cut.
“This is going to be a doozy, isn’t it?”
“Yup. It was from a former co-worker, telling me that Pete completely torpedoed the department with the presentation he gave and wound up offending the client and upsetting our CEO so badly that not only was he fired, but Jason got the boot along with him for allowing him to go in there and lead the presentation in the first place. He also asked around to see what the odds were of getting me to return to the company and fill Jason’s old position. ”
“Yeah? What did your co-worker say about that?”
“He respectfully told him that there was no chance of that, since I’d moved halfway around the world, so he gave the position to my ex-coworker, who will be a great fit in the slot,” he replied.
“I just found it hilarious that Pete’s ineptitude finally bit Jason on the ass after he tried to make Pete everyone else’s problem. ”
“I love that for you,” I said. “I’m glad someone reached out to let you know what happened. It’s only fair that you got to hear about Jason getting his comeuppance after all the aggravation he put you through.”
“It was nice to see karma kick it into high gear with those two,” he replied as he dealt. “I worked with a lot of awesome people who didn’t deserve to have someone making the whole department look bad because he wasn’t qualified for the position he was in.”
Lifting my glass, I held it up and offered a toast. “To Pete, for fucking up so badly that he helped someone get a promotion.”
“To Pete,” he replied as he clanked his glass against mine.
The cards were in his favor tonight, blessing him with an impressive streak that left me with an inflated hand and color blocks of cards that didn’t match the shade we were currently playing.
Despite going on a good run myself, he still went out before I could catch up, his last card a draw four that left me grateful we weren’t playing for points, or cookies as we’d done the other night.
I’d have had to lick the crumbs off him just to get a taste with how badly he’d destroyed me that round.
Since he’d arrived, even during the unpacking, we’d carved out space each day for something fun and silly, and with each one, I was convinced he’d pegged himself correctly when he said he was a middle.
I was seeing more of that side peek out, especially when we played games or broke out the arts and crafts.
It hadn’t taken me long to see how much he lit up when we did an activity together, no matter what it was.
Hopscotch in the sand, lazily blowing bubbles from our beach chairs, and even impromptu three a.m. baking sessions brought him nothing but joy, even as he ate a whole cookie’s worth of cookie dough before placing the rest of them on the sheet.
We’d grabbed several packages on our first trip to the grocery store.
Freshly baked midnight snacks were becoming a threat I eagerly looked forward to, along with his grinning face as he broke them in half to dunk in his milk.
Funny, but I’d known I was lonely before I’d met him; I’d just never realized how much.
“Ohh, game break, I love this song,” he declared as he hopped out of his seat and held his hand out to me.
I’d never danced to “My Sharona” before tonight, but between the fun, easy beat and the way he bounced and rocked side to side, snapping his fingers and making his hair fly as he shook his head, I had a blast trying to keep up with him.
That wasn’t the first spontaneous dance he’d broken into since he arrived.
It had happened in the kitchen on more than one occasion already, and he even wound up doing some seated dancing in the truck when something came on that he loved.
The more it sunk in for him that I didn’t find it silly or distracting, the more frequently he gave in to the impulses when they hit him.
Something told me that Nova was a truly spontaneous soul who’d been stifled for way too long.
My new mission in life was to nurture it back to the surface.
The next song was a slow one, so I gathered him in my arms and swayed with him to Just Breathe, an old Pearl Jam song.
The words had never resonated with me as clearly as they did tonight, when it felt like Vedder was singing about me and the way I just wanted to hold him and breathe and appreciate that the universe had finally sent me someone who made it feel like the world was made of magic when he was in my arms.
“Nova,” I muttered, caressing his cheek as I gazed down into those warm eyes of his. “The brightest spot in my life. I am going to love sharing a future with you.”
“Even when I’m begging you to play naked twister with me?” he asked, flicking out his tongue.
Growling I lunged, just enough to draw an eep from him as he retracted it, just before my lips landed on his. He giggled into the kiss, still swaying with me to the song, another magical moment between us.
May they never stop.
“Yes,” I replied when we finally broke the kiss, “most especially when you’re begging to play naked twister, though we are going to have a hell of a time trying to spin the spinner when we’ve both got our hands on a spot.”
“Naa, we’ll be okay; you’re thinking old-school twister. They’ve got digital spinners now.”
“Really? Guess folks really do think of everything.”
“Someone had to, especially for that, unless they wanted to invite a third party into the room just to spin the spinner for them while they got all hot and bothered trying to wiggle and twist around their very naked partner.”
“For shame, putting a whole class of voyeurs out of a job,” I replied.
His jaw dropped while his eyes widened a fraction, and yeah, I knew how silly it sounded to say what I’d said, but he laughed once the words sunk in, and we finished the rest of the song giggling together.
“That’s so awesome; I love that it’s never going to be boring with you,” he said.
“I’ll keep things interesting; you can count on that.”
“See, when you say it like that, it gets to be both a threat and a warning,” Nova replied. “I love that for me. I love that for us both. I love you, Daddy. To the depths of the ocean and back.”
“Which is just how far I’d go if I ever lost you,” I told him as I brushed another kiss across his lips. “I love you too, sassy boy. Automated twister spinners and all.”
Even as the song faded, we swayed to the rhythm of the surf lapping against the shore, the rolling cadence wrapping us in a constantly changing beat.
Just like the life I looked forward to sharing with him.