Chapter 20 #2
“Chuck, Hunter, and Carl?” Josh asked excitedly. Of course they’d need three of them for a flight with that quick a turnaround. “I hadn’t realized they’d even borrowed the plane. I had no idea….”
Liam gave a tired smile. God, he looked good, but like Josh, he’d lost weight in the last month and a half, and there was exhaustion in the circles under his eyes. This is how he feels when he looks at me, Josh thought, wanting to hold his face and kiss him and kiss him and kiss him.
But Liam set him down with an oolf, and Josh clung to him with more than affection.
They were still a little bruised and a little battered. Like Felix and Danny, they would need a reckoning, some jiggling in the puzzle boxes of their own hearts until the pieces learned to fit.
But for once, Josh was content.
It would come.
“They seemed to think you were pining for me,” Liam teased, except Josh, thinking about his friends’ concern over the last month, didn’t think it was all in jest.
“And they missed their new playmate,” he said, hoping to make Liam smile.
But he swallowed, and Josh realized that he’d just left the job that had driven him his whole life.
He needed reassurance.
“And I was pining for you,” he said honestly, leaning his head on Liam’s shoulder. “So much.”
“Me too,” Liam said softly, holding him close some more. “Apparently it doesn’t matter if you send me away or I go on my own—away from you doesn’t suit me anymore.”
“Same,” Josh murmured. But still… Liam’s whole life had been spent trying to do a job he loved. “But you left. Are you sure?”
Liam’s tired smile still did amazing things to Josh’s stomach, crooked teeth and all.
“I haven’t technically left,” he said. “I’m a consultant with detective inspector rank.
They may still call me in on cases, but I have the right to refuse.
But, you know, I thought since we’ve gone international now, you lot might like a chance to venture outside of Chicago once in a while. ”
Josh grinned. “My lot might,” he said, and then he sobered. “But not right now. Not this year.”
Liam cupped Josh’s too-narrow waist with his big hands. “Joshua Daniel Salinger, I’ll take a year off. Or three. Or five. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll ever get bored.”
Josh had to wipe his eyes with his palms. “I don’t plan to,” he said, his voice a little broken.
But he didn’t want to break right now. He wanted to celebrate.
Later they’d have time for Josh to fall apart in Liam’s arms. Later they’d make love, slowly, carefully, immersed only in the glory of intimacy, not racing for a peak he couldn’t afford to leap off. Not today. Not now.
But they’d get there.
“What are your plans?” Liam asked, but he’d turned, one arm still around Josh, the other including Julia, who had been somewhat trapped in her tiny corner of the garden and had been smirking as she pretended not to see their reunion.
“Well, right now,” Josh said, taking his cue and dialing back his emotions, “I’m trying to convince my mother of two things.”
“One is to give up the necklace, which I shall not do,” Julia said archly.
“Nor should you have to,” Liam said dryly. “As I was saying when I came outside, I happen to have the provenance on me—I saw it on Kadjic’s inventory list, and, well, I guessed where it had gone.”
“You have the provenance?” she asked, batting her eyelashes coyly. God, Josh’s mother—she’d be beautiful and brilliant forever.
“In my luggage, milady,” Liam said. “I’ll get it later, and we’ll consider it an early Christmas present, shall we?”
“Ooh, Josh, I like this in a son-in-law. Tell him he’s scored big points with me here.”
“Because catching Danny as he fell out of a window wasn’t enough,” Josh scoffed, and his mother pouted.
“Some would call that reminder in bad taste,” she said.
“What was the other thing you’re trying to convince her of?” Liam asked.
“To find out if I’m having a brother or sister,” Josh said. “It’s driving me and the dads insane. It’s driving Uncle Leon insane. It’s driving Grace insane, and he, in turn, is driving us all insane. Why won’t she even try to find out?”
Liam’s hand around his waist tightened. “It’s like any good caper, lad. The surprises are half the fun.”
Josh scowled at his mother but returned the squeeze. “You’re pregnant at forty-one, Mom. Isn’t that enough of a surprise?”
“Hush,” she said and then lowered her voice. “But between you and me, I did have the test done. I want to find out how long it takes for Danny to break into the medical system and find out. I think he’s already asked Stirling for help.”
Josh chuckled and pulled Liam down on the bench next to her for the last few streaks of sunlight through the gold leaves and what might be their final glimpses of the heartbreak-blue sky of late October before the snows came.
No family was perfect—not even families that looked perfect on the outside. But his family, as sprawling and unusual as it was, had more than proven itself strong enough for whatever was to come.
And the man by his side had been part of that. Like Felix and Danny, they would have their storms, their disagreements, their rough patches.
But Josh hadn’t only learned thievery and graft from his parents. He’d learned loyalty, kindness, and play, and now he knew Liam had those things in his bones.
The Salingers were a long way from being finished with the world, but for this moment, in his mother’s garden, he and the man he loved had peace, and his family had joy, and as he and Liam had both learned the hard way, peace, love, and joy were the rarest, most vital riches any human could be gifted with, and they couldn’t be hoarded.
They could only be given freely.
Josh Salinger and his family would be giving of their riches for as long as hard work, luck, and a little theft could provide.