Piper and Tenner had crossed off every day he’d been missing with a red X, seven weeks, eight weeks, nine weeks—this next one would be the tenth. And with every X, each day stretched longer without him.
Tenner had never missed anybody so badly in his life. But with the missing, came the peace. Every moment of their time together was like another thread binding their future to his hopes. This thing Tenner felt, it was real. And Ross loved him in return. Faith—that thing that had deserted him so long ago, seemed to have come back with a vengeance, and it was what kept Tenner functioning while Ross was away.
He’d never had so much faith in another person in his life.
“Next week?” Desi asked, her voice far away. “Are you sure?”
Tenner turned to look at her and saw her eyes were focused on the parking lot, where what looked like an Uber was pulling up to the curb.
A tall, lanky blond guy got out, his curly hair almost to his shoulders, his duffel and his suitcase by his side.
Tenner knew that duffel and suitcase.
He knew that bright blond hair.
“Oh. My God,” he said, at the same time Desi said, “Oh my God!” next to him.
“Oh wow. Oh wow!” Tenner stood, frozen with surprise, until Desi jabbed him unceremoniously in the side.
“Don’t just stand there—go get him! Do you think he’s here to see me?”
Tenner took off like a sprinter at the mark, dodging around the other practice field where a bunch of seven-year-old boys screamed like an invading army, through the playground and up the hill to where Ross was scanning the chaos below the parking lot.
He saw Tenner as he approached, though, because he dropped his duffel bag and opened his arms.
His mouth on Tenner’s made the last two and a half months, miserable as they had been, seem like shadows.
Oh God. He was here. He’d come back. He was here.
“Hi,” Ross said, smiling softly as they pulled away.
“Hi. You’re here.”
Ross kissed his forehead. “I had to come here,” he said. “You were here. And I’m home.”
Tenner kissed him on the lips again, and the kiss was still going when Piper came and tugged on his arm. “Daddy! Daddy! Let me hug Ross! Ross! We missed you so much!”
Ross grinned and picked her up, and Tenner grabbed his luggage so Ross could listen to her chatter. As he walked behind the two of them, Ross looked back and caught his eye and winked.
They would have time. Time to kiss, time to talk, time to make love.
Time to plan—their wedding, watching Pat and Desi’s kids while they took a vacation, all the things Ross had wanted to do with him and Piper, family things that had needed time and planning because that’s how grown-ups worked.
They would have time.
All the time in the world.
Because Ross had meant it. He was home.