Page 82 of Something Like Forever

Ben nodded, feelingtremendous pressure. There was so much he wanted to say to Jace, alist so long that he found it impossible to choose. “Have I toldyou before? All the things I feel about you, and all the littleregrets. The things I wished I had said, or what I could have donebetter while you were still alive.”

“Youhave,” Jace said. “And I’ve told you all of mine. If you want, wecan do that again. I don’t mind.”

Ben shook his head. “Iwant this time to be as different for you as possible.”

“Then try the eggs,” Jacesaid, releasing him. “I always go to all that effort, and youalways say—”

“I’m tooemotional to eat right now,” Ben said. Then he grabbed the tray,which had a little of everything. Pancakes, toast, eggs, sausage,and fruit. Jace always made a good omelet, so he startedthere.

“What do youthink?”

“Theeggs are heavenly,” Ben said. Then he snorted.

Jace rolled his eyes.“Keep in mind that I have to remember these conversations, nomatter how bad the jokes get. Did you notice how the eggs are stillwarm even though they’ve been sitting there? Neat trick,huh?”

Ben nodded eagerly.Stuffing more and more food in his mouth until he could barelychew. He did this just to make Jace laugh, the sound like a drug tohis ears. He had missed it so much. This place too. Their home. Benmanaged to swallow eventually and set aside the tray so he couldstand. “Is the rest of the house here? I miss it.”

“You always complainedabout it being too small,” Jace said.

“I know, but I loved itanyway. Expect for the bathroom, which was literally smaller thansome of our closets.”

“It wasfine,” Jace said, standing to follow him into thehall.

“Anything seems spacious when you spend too much time on anairplane.” Ben spun around to face him. “Hey! What do you do allday? Besides stalk me. Do you have a job? Does Heaven have anairline?”

“There’splenty to do. Anything you can imagine and more.”

Ben swayed, enough that hehad to reach for the wall to stabilize himself. “I’mdizzy.”

“Already?” Jace said. “We don’t have much time. Come back tobed with me.”

Ben felt like someone hadslipped a drug into his drink. The hallway seemed slanted as hewalked down it to the bedroom. Only when Jace put him to bed andslid in next to him did the room stop spinning.

“Better?” Jace asked.

“Yeah,” Ben said, scootingbackward so they could be as close as possible. “Can we stay likethis?”

“Of course!”

“I’m onmy way out, aren’t I?

“Afraidso. It’s like drifting off to sleep, and when you wake up, you’llbe home again.”

“You’remy home.” Ben pulled the arm tighter around him. “Can we keepspooning while I sleep? Even if I’m not aware that you’re withme?”

“Iusually don’t do that,” Jace said.

“Becauseof Tim?”

“Becauseit breaks my heart, but I won’t let that stop me. Nottonight.”

The light had gone fromthe room and Ben found it hard to see, but he didn’t feel afraid.“I love you,” he said, putting all of his emotion into thewords.

“I love you too,” Jacereplied. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”

“What?”Ben struggled to hear, but he was as good as blind now. Maybe evendeaf, because he didn’t hear a thing. Just a whisper. Two words,but he must have heard them wrong, because they didn’t make sense.No matter how he rearranged them, he couldn’t figure out how theywere significant to his relationship with Jace.

Trunk.