Page 21 of Hot Chicken (Sunday Brothers #6)

DREW

Marco squeezed his dark eyes shut, and his shoulders drooped. “You knew.”

“Pffft.” This was a silly question, so I didn’t bother answering it. I’d stared at that rooster fondly every night while making dinner for the better part of two decades and glared at it any time Marco made me mad. I’d recognized it immediately.

It hadn’t taken a big-brain genius to figure out how Hawk had come to “buy” it either. No doubt it was the same way I’d been able to “buy” my own freaking caftan at the rummage sale last weekend.

Marco—the man I loved beyond all others—had donated my shit.

I’d considered confronting him about it right there at the rummage sale, but I hadn’t.

For one thing, I’d guessed how it had happened, and I knew it wasn’t malicious.

The last time we’d done a “Keep, Donate, or Toss” session, it had gone about as well as it had today—in other words, I’d steadfastly refused to part with ninety percent of my things.

Marco had started out patient, but eventually, he’d thrown up his hands in frustration, carelessly shoved aside the bin we’d been sorting, and bossily declared we were going out for ice cream right this minute before his brain melted out of his ears.

At some point, he must’ve grabbed the wrong box when he went back to tidy up, mistaking the unsorted box for a donation box. A simple, careless mistake.

For another, the look of dawning horror and guilt on Marco’s face when he’d recognized my caftan at the rummage sale had been pretty compelling. He’d felt genuinely bad that his impatience had led to this, as well he should.

And for yet another, I’d gotten no small amount of amusement out of watching Marco sweat as I’d pretended not to recognize that the caftan was mine and waited for him to admit his mistake.

As I’d told my niece and nephews repeatedly, it didn’t do to let your partner get too complacent.

But the real reason I hadn’t confronted Marco about it was that I felt bad, too. I had not been handling this whole “downsizing” concept with aplomb.

“And how, ah… how angry would you say you are?” Marco asked with a smile that was both innocently eager and rakishly calculating—a combo I’d found devastating when we’d first met…

and only found more devastating now. “Because I know where I could get a ceramic rooster for your collection, if you thought that might help.”

I huffed out a laugh. God, I loved the man.

“Five out of ten on the anger scale,” I told him. “Where ten is how I felt the time you let Hawk juggle with my expensive healing crystals?—”

Marco winced.

“—and one is how I felt when you almost referred to my treasures as junk a minute ago,” I added pointedly.

He nodded seriously. “Five is good. I can work with five.” He hesitated.

“And I really am sorry about your things getting donated, baby. It was an accident, and I’m still not entirely sure how it happened, but it wouldn’t have happened at all if I hadn’t been impatient and careless.

I’m trying to work on it, okay? I know this is hard for you. I get it…”

“Do you?” I laughed again, tiredly this time, and lowered myself into the chair Marco had vacated.

“Then maybe you can explain it to me. Because here’s the thing: I know I’m making this difficult.

I’m dilly-dallying, which means we’ve had to press pause on our dream of traveling, and I’m making you feel like the bad guy every time you try to give me a reality check, which is even worse. I hate that.”

Marco squatted down beside me, heedless of how the move made his knees pop. “Drew, I don’t mean to pressure you?—”

“You’re not! Or if you are, it’s because you know that this is something I want and that I can’t wait forever to make it happen.

I do want to travel.” I took a deep breath and admitted, “But when I start to think about it, I think about all the things we might miss. Hawk planning his wedding to Jack and getting to see them so happy. Porter doing such amazing things with his youth programs. Knox finally letting himself have the future he deserves with Gage. Webb and Luke having more babies. Reed and his sweet Chris coming to visit. Emma, about to graduate and set the world on fire. I don’t want to miss those things.

So how can I want to stay so badly… and also want to go? ”

“Honey, it doesn’t have to be black-and-white.

You know that. Hell, you showed me that.

You can have a life that’s fun and unexpected, purposeful and meaningful , all at the same time.

You can have true love while still being dedicated to your family.

You don’t have to choose.” His big hand palmed my knee.

“This is no different. When you’re ready, if you’re ready, we’ll leave for a while.

And then we’ll come back as often as you want, for as long as you want, so you can hug your family and love on them.

Because those things you’re talking about?

I don’t want to miss them either. Your family is my family, too. ”

I sniffed. The Universe had been right that summer day all those years ago. Marco was exactly the man I’d needed then. He was the man I needed now.

“But you know what you didn’t say just now, Drew?

” he went on, his dark eyes serious in his lined face.

“In that whole list of things you told me you’re going to miss and that you don’t want to leave?

There wasn’t a single mention of your T-shirt collection or your rusty-ass bread pans.

It’s almost like, deep down, you know that the truly important stuff in this life…

isn’t stuff.” He gave me a half smile. “Christ, I sound like a Hallmark card. This is why I don’t do sentimental. ”

“But you do it so well!” I teased.

He leaned in and held my gaze, though my own was cloudy with tears.

“Those trinkets of yours aren’t who you are, Drew Sunday.

If you need a reminder of the life you’ve lived, go and ask those kids you raised into wonderful human beings.

Ask any person in this wackadoo community you created.

Ask the man who’s been in love with you since you picked a fight with him over a damn rooster.

We’ll all be right there to tell you. I, for damn sure, will be right there to tell you. ”

I made a noise that was half chuckle, half sob, and Marco smiled as he ran his thumb under my eye and brushed away the moisture there. Then he kissed me long, and slow, and deep.

“Fuck,” I muttered when he finally pulled away. I wiped my eyes with the heels of my hands. “ Fuck . You’ve gotten really good at making up. Possibly too good.”

“That so? Impossible to stay mad at me, huh?” he teased. “So can we skip to the makeup sex now?”

I laughed. I was more than ready for some makeup sex. More than ready to show this man that, of all the treasures I’d collected over the course of my wonderful life, his heart was the one I valued most.

“Take me home, old man,” I said, pushing to my feet and helping Marco to his. “I’ll show you that I still know how to wrestle… and win.”

As we gathered our things, my eye caught on the rooster, still perched on the sideboard like it had been watching the whole scene unfold with those big golden eyes. That little bird might have brought us together, once upon a time, but now it was only a souvenir.

And not one worth clinging to at the expense of all the memories we still had left to make.

With no hesitation whatsoever, I picked up the rooster, gave him a wink, and set him carefully in the Donate box.

That bird had brought love into my life, a love so strong and true I could only hope it would move on to someone who needed it as much as I had. I had a feeling whoever tripped over it next would add their own story to its history.

I reached over to take Marco’s hand, and together, we stepped out into the warm sunshine… toward whatever came next.