Page 51 of Full Service
Macsen pulled back and placed one hand on my chest and for one horrible second I worried that he was about to reject me. Then he smiled and leaned in for another quick, chaste kiss that did sweet fuck all to stop me wanting more.
“Of course,” he said. “That’s what I want. I-tried to put that across in my actions, but maybe I have to use words. Hywel, I’ve been in love with you for as long as I remember. I’ve thought of you enough over the last decade. Even when I fucking hated you. So yes, if you want to be with me. I’m here. For as long as you want me.”
I smiled even as I choked back a sob. Maybe glasses of wine with dinner wasn’t a great idea.
“What do we tell the family?” I asked.
“Well, for now, we keep it quiet…” Macsen tailed off and his face darkened as he looked over my shoulder at something. I turned and looked back at the doorway, where Gruff was silhouetted, mouth wide open and glass of wine slowly dripping onto the floor from where he held it by his side.
“Don’t. You. Dare.” Macsen fixed Gruff with a stare that could have terrified a lesser man.
Gruff shouted even as he kept his eyes on the both of us. “Mum! Dad! You’ve gotten the Christmas wish you’ve had since I was seventeen!”
“What’s that?” Caroline shouted from the living room.
Macsen took a step toward Gruff even as he gripped one hand tighter to my chest.
Gruff smirked. “You’ve got Hywel as a son in law!”
“You’re dead meat,” Macsen said. Gruff ran into the house like child rather than the 32 year old man that he was.
“That pissed off about them knowing?” I asked him.
Macsen took his free hand off my chest and slid it down my arm, and clutched at my hand. He held it as we stepped toward, and then into the house. “Not at all,” he whispered close into my ear. I could see Caroline’s eyes across the open plan kitchen, wide as dinner plates at the intimate contact with her son. “But I’ll take any excuse to get my own back at my brother.”
I laughed as he tugged me through the house to sit down next to him on the sofa. Every eye looked down to our hands for a second, but Caroline seemed to snap out of the stupor first. She gave us both a bracing smile and rummaged in a coffee table drawer before pulling out a deck of cards.
“Who’s for Chase the Ace?” she asked.
And that’s how I spent my Christmas night. Playing cards, drinking and eating ridiculous amounts of dessert. With the family that had once and now again treated me like one of their own. And with my boyfriend.