Chapter 14
Author's note:
Milo
Milo wasn’t exactly the most observant person on the planet. Anabelle had once cut off nearly ten inches of hair, and it had taken Milo three full days to notice.
Clearly, something had gone very right between the two brothers, eliciting deep laughs that Milo and Ray had been able to hear through the front door.
When they came back inside, though, the vibe was different.
Ruben looked happy as a clam, munching on a strawberry donut, but Rowan seemed…
something. It wasn’t quite sad, but it also wasn’t happy.
One of Anabelle’s period drama books probably would’ve described him as melancholy or, perhaps, forlorn.
Milo would just say he looked kind of bummed.
Milo’s conversation with Ray had gone about as well as it could have.
Ray swore up, down, and sideways that he was going to suss out if Ruben was serious about mating.
For all of their sakes, Milo hoped he was, but they still didn’t think anything that happened in Ray and Ruben‘s relationship would affect their relationship with Rowan. Yes, things would definitely get awkward if their mate bond didn’t work out, but they were all adults.
Right before they came back inside, Ray had casually mentioned that if things didn’t work out, Ruben was likely going to move away.
He had gotten a job offer multiple times from a symphony on the opposite side of the country but had apparently stayed here to be close to Rowan and the rest of the family.
“He told me point-blank that if I didn’t want anything from him, he would probably have to move away because he couldn’t stand the thought of seeing me at the club dancing with someone else,” Ray had said.
Milo thought that sounded a bit dramatic, but from the lovesick looks Ruben kept casting at Ray, maybe it really was like that for him.
The two brothers were so different. Rowan seemed to have dozens of walls up around his heart to protect himself but also to keep himself at a distance from everyone else.
Ruben‘s heart practically bled through his shirt, and not just with Ray. The brotherly looks he kept giving Rowan were just as obvious and somehow even more intense. And yet, Rowan seemed to miss all of them, only looking at Ruben with a furrow in his brow when Ruben wasn’t looking.
That sort of familial tension and brotherly strife was a problem for another day, though. Milo had a bigger problem to deal with right now.
Their first kiss with Rowan had been tender and sweet, exactly what Milo had been missing for almost two years now. The second kiss had nearly lit Milo‘s hair on fire, and they and their pony were beyond ready for more.
It wasn’t exactly a problem to want more kisses from their boyfriend—which was still crazy to say—but when said boyfriend was touch averse, acquiring kisses had to be done with tact.
Something Milo wasn’t exactly known for.
Obviously, he wasn’t going to kick out their guests, but when Ray made the innocent mistake of glancing at the massive gothic lighthouse clock Anabelle had bought them, Milo announced it was time for strawberries and ice cream and that their couch could only comfortably hold two.
Ray, thank gods, took the dismissal with grace, threading his fingers with Ruben’s and saying they should all get dinner sometime soon.
Without even pulling out his phone, Ruben declared he was only free that Thursday night, so after some brief calendar checking for the rest of them, they agreed, and the two love birds went on their way.
After Milo tightly closed and locked the door, they turned to Rowan, using every ounce of self-restraint they possessed not to pounce on the sexy man.
Neither of them had brought hats to the strawberry field, and Rowan’s cheeks were sun kissed, and his gorgeous ginger hair looked streaked with gold.
As if to tempt Milo, the ugly fluorescent lights caught and shimmered against some of the lighter hairs on Rowan’s upper lip and jaw.
Milo had felt the stubble rubbing against their face only an hour before, and they wanted to rub their cheeks and possibly their tongue over it—
But again, tact.
They could do this. They could be smooth and endearing.
They could stick to the plan and start with strawberries and ice cream.
Their pony whinnied and pawed the ground in excitement.
They were an expert at being endearing. There was no way Rowan could resist their charm if they set their mind to it.
Milo put on their flirtiest smile, raising one eyebrow suggestively as they walked over to the pile of freshly washed strawberries. “So, do you want to eat these out of my mouth?”
Nailed it.
Rowan spluttered, erasing that bummed look, and Milo’s pony let out a triumphant neigh, throwing their blonde locks back and forth.
Alright, decided it. Milo was absolutely going to grow their hair out.
They wanted to be able to toss their hair over their shoulder and coyly look through their curtain of bangs.
That would totally up their flirt game, and now that they had a very handsome fated mate to flirt with, they could use all the help they could get.
“Uhm,” Rowan said, clearing his throat with a cough. “I could go for some food, but maybe just in a bowl for now?”
“Roger that. Food first, smooching later,” Milo said, spinning on their heel and marching across the small kitchen to where they kept their fanciest bowls.
For the record, they weren’t actually fancy. They were just the only ones not chipped or dented. Milo only took them out for special occasions, like when they hosted Ethel and didn’t want to hear her lecture about them living in squalor.
“I…can’t make any promises about kissing,” Rowan said haltingly. “But I did really enjoy kissing you earlier.”
He leaned back against the counter, crossing his broad arms across his chest. Milo would give up strawberries for the rest of their life for just one hug from those big arms. But even if they could never hug or kiss again, Milo would never give up Rowan.
They were sure of that now, so they just had to be patient and see where the evening—and their relationship—took them.
They did their best to tiptoe around the fog in their head and sent a thank you to wherever Anabelle was for preparing them for being with someone who was touch averse.
They probably would’ve figured it out on their own, but there would’ve been a lot more fumbling, bumbling, and stumbling.
Not that there wouldn’t still be some fumbling and bumbling, but hopefully without any catastrophic stumbles.
It was a little difficult to prepare their snack with Rowan’s smell and warmth and broad shoulders and sexy half-smile in the kitchen with them, so they finally had to shoo him over to the couch.
Momentarily free from temptation, they were able to scurry around the kitchen and get their snack together.
After everything they’d gone through in the past twenty-four hours, Milo decided to sit a little closer to Rowan than they usually would have, still not touching, but just barely.
Rowan accepted his bowl and tucked into it like it was the first meal he’d had in days. Come to think of it, it might actually be the first meal he’d had since he’d picked at his pancakes that morning.
Milo’s pony snorted at them. Anabelle would be so disappointed in them for not feeding their boyfriend. She always made sure to keep Milo and Ethel well fed, even with Milo’s sporadic appetite.
Speaking of which, the fog in their head, and the intensity of the past twenty-four hours had done a number on their stomach, and they spent more time moving the strawberries around their bowl than actually eating them.
Thankfully, Rowan seemed to have an appetite, polishing off half his bowl before his knee fell open to rest against Milo’s dress-covered thigh.
With that added steady pressure and Rowan’s calming scent permeating the small apartment, Milo managed to eat three strawberries and two bites of ice cream.
“Did everything go okay with Ruben?” Milo finally asked. “Ray and I had a lovely little chat, and I think things might actually work out for the two of them.”
Rowan’s gaze was fixed firmly over Milo’s shoulder as he said, “That’s good. Ruben didn’t leave me with quite that much confidence, but I guess we’ll see.”
Milo tapped the spoon against their teeth. “Would it be helpful if I said again that I genuinely don’t think their relationship will affect ours?”
Rowan was in the middle of a bite, and he closed his lips around the spoon and nodded.
“Okay, well, I swear on Ethel‘s good hip that I will do everything in my power not to let anything or anyone but us affect our relationship.”
Rowan raised an eyebrow. “Ethel’s…good hip?”
“Yeah, Ethel swears everything by her hip, so I thought I might as well do it, too.”
Rowan gently nudged Milo’s leg with his knee. “Fair enough.”
Milo continued chasing strawberries around their bowl as anticipation spread through their limbs. Their fingers itched to touch Rowan, to explore the vast expanse of his muscular chest and cup his stubbly cheeks.
Milo’s pony shook out their mane, and Milo took that as their cue.
They made sure Rowan was looking over at them before suggestively licking ice cream off the end of their spoon.
Just to be sure he understood, Milo made very suggestive eye contact, widening their eyes in a way they were sure looked sexy.
Rowan’s lips, which had already been twitching upward throughout their snack, curved all the way up, and he shook his head, clearly blown away by Milo’s sex appeal.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I just want to make sure you know I’m serious about being good with my mouth. It was one of my three promises after all.”