Page 32 of Slam Dunk
Jathan opened the door and waved her inside. Before Jathan could follow, Quince grabbed his arm. His mouth covered Jathan’s and Jathan felt the way he shook. Jathan vowed, whatever happened, he would be right there with Quince. That was where he belonged.
The day had been such a mixture of wonderful and bittersweet. Quince swore a haze coated his every thought for more hours than he liked. Even several hours after his mom left, he kept catching himself frozen and staring into space. His shock was sodeep, he didn’t know where to go with it. Quince never spoke of his mom for a reason. Losing his dad hadn’t felt like that big of a deal. The guy was awful. But losing his mom had cut all the way to the bone. While he had known his mom would never leave his dad, until it happened, he had never dreamed she would cut him from her life either. Turned out, she hadn’t. The lengths his dad had gone to make her believe Quince hated her were psychotic. He had gone as far as to buy a prepaid phone to trick her into thinking Quince had changed his number to get away from her. Each time she called, it went straight to a voice mailbox with a generic message. She hadn’t known where to even start looking for him, and when she tried to hire a private investigator, he had put his foot down, refusing to let her have the money to invest in a son who didn’t want her. Even though it had broken her heart, she had to eventually give up for the sake of her mental health. It wasn’t until she caught Frank mumbling about how Quince was dead to him while watching that interview that she got the truth. Nearly thirteen years lost, and he doubted their marriage would survive it. Quince just didn’t know where to go with the overload of emotions. He hadn’t known a father could hate their child so much. A therapist had once told him his dad was likely jealous of his mother’s love for him. Some people couldn’t stand to share their spouses, even with their child. Quince hadn’t taken those words to heart at the time. After all, he hadn’t spoken to his mother either. But now his entire life made sense, and he was just coasting while trying to deal.
“Tell me how to help.”
Quince yanked his head from the clouds and focused on Jathan. Jathan looked sick with worry. Nothing could have broken the shock faster. “I don’t guess there’s anything anyone can do.What’s done is done.” An uncomfortable laugh escaped Quince. “So, what was it like to be raised by normal people?”
Jathan looked confused for a second. “How would I know? I don’t talk to my dad either, and you’ve met my mom.”
Quince smiled. He felt better by the second. “I have. She’s wonderful.”
“I mean, yeah, but she’s not normal. That lady is weird as hell.”
A laugh burst from Quince. Jathan was everything to him—the love of his life. His rock. Quince also hadn’t understood what that truly meant until Jathan. The guy just anchored his entire existence. Without him, Quince would still be adrift and miserable.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” Jathan looked genuinely confused.
“For loving me.” That was the foundation of it all. Quince could sit and list all the ways Jathan made everything better, but it all boiled down to love.
“I mean, I’m kind of lazy, if that tells you anything about how easy you make it.”
While wearing a huge grin, Quince shook his head. He pushed the table away from the couch with his foot and moved to thefloor. He put his feet on the couch and patted the spot next to him. “Come on. I know your back hurts. You’re sitting all lean-y like you do when you’re miserable.”
With a smile, Jathan filled the spot beside him. Side by side, with their feet on the couch and holding hands, they stared at each other.
“Are you getting excited yet?”
Quince didn’t need to ask what Jathan meant. He hadn’t stopped wishing time would move its ass from the moment he asked Jathan to marry him. “Are you joking? Quince Dexter has an incredible ring to it.”
“If I wasn’t so stoked to show you off to the world by marrying you as publicly as possible, I’d beg you to elope with me right this second.”
“Realistically, we only have three more days.”
Jathan nodded. “Seventy-two hours. Honestly, less than that if we start breaking it down.”
They both nodded. Their gazes never wavered. “Then again, no one would have to know. We could just have the wedding as planned.”
Jathan’s hands rose and fell. “It could be our secret.”
“It would be less stressful that way.”
They kept staring, as if waiting to see who broke first. Fuck it. Quince had no pride when it came to Jathan. “I’ll grab our shoes.”
Jathan rolled to his knees. “I’ll grab our wallets and the marriage certificate.”
They had already applied. All they needed was one signature. When they were on their feet, they froze and held each other’s stare again. They were really doing this. Zero shame. Their love was too big to contain. It was the forever kind of love.