Page 118 of Together Again

Max

“Have you got everything you need?”I asked for the hundredth time.

“Yes, Daddy,” Lucy replied with a mocking childish voice.

“And the presents?”

“Those, too. Gotta go. See you in two days.”

She hugged Isaac and me and ran out the door to spend the weekend with Diogo. Lucy had started volunteering at the hospital, and this weekend they were handing out presents to the children that weren’t well enough to go home for Christmas. I was so proud of her.

It had been nearly a month since the wedding. Lucy was completely settled with us, and her romance with Diogo was blooming before our eyes.

Her confidence had grown so much. Lucy was funny, witty, and as fiery as you’d expect from a girl with Latin roots, and I absolutely loved her.

She was turning seventeen in January. We were traveling back to Lisbon for Sofia’s Christening, and Lucy was coming with us. What she didn’t know was that as part of her present, Diogo was coming, too.

“So, Daddy…” Isaac drawled as he came close and put his hands around my waist.

“Not you, too.” I groaned.

“The Christmas tree is decorated, dinner is in the oven, and we have the apartment to ourselves for the weekend.”

He pressed against me, and I felt the hardness of his erection against mine. It was near enough impossible to not get hard when he was this close to me.

My husband was absolute perfection, and I still pinched myself every day I woke up with him in my arms.

“We don’t quite have the apartment to ourselves, do we?” I looked at where Max, the cat, was curled up on top of his favorite pillow in front of the fireplace. He’d only arrived from Portugal last week but had already made himself at home in the apartment.

“Do you think he’s going to like it here?” Isaac asked.

“Look at him. Have you ever seen a more chilled cat? He hasn’t even jumped anyone.”

“Maybe he’s sad. Do you think he misses his boyfriend?”

I chuckled at how adorable Isaac was, pulled him closer to my chest, and kissed those soft unruly curls of his that I loved so much.

“How about in the new year we take him to the animal shelter and see if we can find him a new friend?”

Isaac pulled back, his eyes wide, and his mouth sporting a grin.

“You’re serious?”

“I’m serious, baby. I think it would be nice to have a dog to keep Max company.”

Over the last few weeks, we’d talked about how we felt about being parents, and we’d decided we wanted to have our own biological children and also to adopt.

Our lives had changed massively in such a short time, and we had Lucy in our lives now, so we’d decided we’d look into it once Lucy was away at college.

We didn’t know if she was going to stay local or not, so we wanted to keep all options open for now and start with the dog.

“Anyway, what were you saying about this weekend?” I inhaled the familiar scent of Isaac’s shower gel and ran my hands down his back, stopping only when I reached the globes of his butt.

“I vote for a naked weekend,” Isaac said.

“You’ve been speaking to Dorian again, haven’t you?”

“The man does have some good ideas.”