Chapter 16 #3
“Yeah, I was thinking I’d throw my lot in with you and make New Mexico my home base from now on, but I would keep this place.
Maybe billet some hockey players here so it doesn’t just sit empty.
That way we could come up here and have a place to stay when you and Hillary wanted to visit with Bobby’s family.
” He didn’t keep his hands off Sam. He stroked his arms and his back up and down and grabbed his hips and sort of swayed with him.
“It’s a good investment. I mean it’s paid off so why not keep it, right? ”
Sam smiled easily, so chill, and that was the perfect response, he thought. “Why the fuck not? When can you come?”
“Over the Christmas break maybe for hockey? The players get three or four days off, and God knows I should be able to have some emergency-free time while pretty much everybody is with their families or whatever.”
“And you’ll be with yours, because by then we’ll have a grandbaby.”
Evan blinked at him. “Jesus. That’s only—”
Sam gave him a nod. “When we fly home on Sunday, that’s it. That was the very last day they let her fly.”
“Wow. Wow. Wow.” Evan looked side to side, his paradigm shift stunning him. “Are you ready?”
Sam rolled his shoulders, but he bobbed his head.
“The nursery is done. Baby shower is done. I think she’s probably more than sick of it.
So yeah.” Sam grinned at him. “I just keep thinking maybe by Christmas I’ll have a muneca, a sweet baby doll to hold.
They said that her induce date is gonna be like the twenty-seventh, so we’re gonna have a nieta to love, and I can’t wait.
I mean, I can, because I want it to be. I want my Natasha to be all cooked, but—”
Evan just stared at Sam.
“Guapo? You okay?”
Evan nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again.
“It’s a little scary, isn’t it? Thinking how you’re going to be a grandfather?” Sam teased.
Evan didn’t know what to say. They were standing in the kitchen changing the course of their lives. “You just—would you be okay if that’s what she thought of me as, your Natasha?”
“Of course.” Sam seemed the slightest bit confused, his eyebrows drawn down a bit. “Babies can’t be overloved. You can be her Grandpa Evan. Me, I’m the ‘Uelito.”
Grandpa Evan. He might throw up a little bit. He hadn’t sent a gift to the baby shower. He’d started at a college fund. He figured long-term that was gonna be way more useful.
“Okay, I mean Bobby’s gonna be Grandpa something or other so maybe I’ll be Papa or Pop Pop or something. Jesus, am I that old?” He laughed out loud, squeezing Sam tight after he reeled him back in. “I’m just… wow.”
“Yeah, you didn’t think of it that way before, but I got your number now.” Sam rubbed his back up and down, the motion more bracing than soothing, he thought.
Evan kissed Sam hard on the mouth because he had to because he had all this stuff going on and he wasn’t good at emotions and expressing shit. He thought he might explode.
When they broke for air, Sam reached up and rubbed a thumb over his lips. “You want to show me the rest of the house?”
“God, yes, I have a specific room I’m desperate to show you.”
Sam picked the biggest duffle back up and made a motion with his head. “Lead on, guapo. I want to see everything.”
They got upstairs to his bedroom, which was Evan’s private sanctuary. There was a king-sized bed with a leather headboard, a huge wardrobe, a big-ass TV, and a couple of recliners sitting in front of it for when he felt like just being there. He also had a fireplace in his room, which he adored.
Sam looked around, eyes wide, “Carino, this is amazing.”
“Yeah you like it? I love the fireplace. I had a gas log put in because I didn’t want to have to haul wood but—”
“But nothing. I want to have a fire tonight.”
“Cool, we’ll do that then.” He wrapped his arm around Sam’s waist because Sam had left his bag sitting on the floor just inside the door. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I do. It’s so different.” Sam went to sit on the bed and bounce a little bit, testing the mattress, obviously. “How many bedrooms does this place have, anyway?”
“If you include the suite in the basement, seven. Which means most of your family, like your mom and some of your siblings, could come stay.”
“Ay, be careful what you wish for. I’ll be here with bells on before you can even think that thought.”
Evan went to sit next to Sam, leaning against him and bumping their shoulders together. “I would love that, baby. Take them all out to Legal Seafood and then show them around the old part of the city, and we’d have a ball.”
“I could have a ball now.” Sam leaned in to Evan, then reached over, hands sliding up his thigh, tracing the seam of his jeans. “I don’t suppose that door locks.”
He chuckled softly, mentally fist-bumping, because he wanted his cowboy bad. “Are you kidding? I locked it when I closed it.”
“Perfecto.” The touch kept going higher and higher, and then his balls and cock were cupped, Sam’s hands so warm. “Te amo, carino. Te necesito en mi vida.”
“I need you, too, babe. Here. Now. Tomorrow.”
“Forever, si? You and me. We got something.” Sam squeezed gently, lips soft against his ear. “It’s been a month, guapo. I got a need, and only you can deal with it. Only you.”
“You got me. Right now and for good. I promise.” No matter what happened with everything else, him and Sam, they were in this together. He grinned, reaching for Sam. He was more than ready to enjoy that locked door.
He figured Hillary would take a nap. That gave them plenty of time.