Page 157 of String Boys

“We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

Seth put a possessive hand in the small of Kelly’s back, and neither of them was afraid. Whatever Matty had said to him, it must have given him some peace, and Kelly didn’t want to shatter it by asking for details.

He’d gone on faith for the past eight and a half years, belief that the man he loved couldn’t be a killer. Here, in this serene moment, he knew this for fact. Not belief. Whatever Matty had said, no matter what Matty had known that Seth hadn’t, Kelly had that peace in his heart.

“We’re free,” Seth said simply. “We’ve always been free. We just didn’t know it. But now we do.”

“What happened—”

“Later.” Seth stopped in a patch of sunshine and turned his face to the sky. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “But there’s no ocean. You know, I’m sure we could find a place back east that’s near the sea.”

“It’s not called the Jersey Shore for nothing,” Kelly supplied helpfully, and Seth grinned at him as a reward.

But his eyes were still far away.

“I want to get married,” he said softly. “In a church if you want, or in a field if you don’t. Or in Monterey on the beach if you don’t mind the cold. I want to go back to New York and say my husband’s coming, and our adopted children. And this half person I’ve been, when I’m away from you, he’ll get swallowed up by the whole person I am right now.” He looked at Kelly directly, the green of his eyes clear as a laser. “Is that okay?”

Kelly remembered his brother’s wedding, how he hated Matty for it, and how he’d wanted one of his own. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he confessed, locking the stroller and wrapping his arms around Seth. “It’s the best birthday and Christmas and Thanksgiving I could ever have.”

Seth’s arms came around him, warm, so strong, and he knew without a doubt that this man—this man who’d sprung from his dreamy boy—could take care of Kelly like nobody else in the world.

And Kelly would care for him back.

“Ready to go home?” he asked breathily.

“Wherever that may be.”

THAT AFTERNOON,they spent time in Seth’s father’s apartment. X-man went down hard, like always, sleeping quietly in the porta crib while Seth and Kelly disappeared into the bedroom and stripped, looking at each other in awe in their ritual of rediscovery.

“You’re skinny,” they both said at the same time, and then shared a sad smile.

And then Kelly had to kiss him, to possess him, because Kelly had been the damned fool who’d let him go.

Their bodies remembered.

Their bodies remembered how to move, how to kiss, what to stroke, what to nibble. Their bodies blended together like they’d never been apart, like they’d been primed, these past months, to fit together like lock and key.

This time Kelly was the key and Seth was the lock, and as Kelly thrust inside his lover’s trusting body, he felt himself float with Seth. Together they rose up, up, beyond this tiny corner of the earth and into the stratosphere, somewhere they could see the future, somewhere they both existed in place and time.

This time Seth took him for a walk among the stars, before their crest broke, both of them crying out, panting, their noises as hushed as they could make them as they fell back to earth, Kelly still moving inside Seth, their fingers laced together so tightly their knuckles were white.

Their bodies remembered—but they remembered the loss too. They weren’t willing to take being locked together for granted.

Kelly collapsed into Seth’s arms, and Seth held him as their harsh breathing filled the room.

“Monterey,” Kelly said. “The day after Christmas. You find the rental. I’ll find the priest.”

“Vince,” Seth said. “He got ordained in Hawaii three years ago for a cousin. I’ll ask him if he can officiate.”

“Maybe two rentals,” Kelly said. “One for the family and one for us.”

“We gotta get super good at this again,” Seth agreed. “Fill us up while I go find us a home.”

“Our home. You’re gonna go find us a house.”

“Mm. Yeah.”

Promises. Promises they could keep.