“Wow, that’s, um, more than I expected. The way you said it, I mean.” Dale squeezed his hand. “I believe you. And I trust you, Maxmillian. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
“Your son holds my heart, Dale, so all is well.”
Despite his intention to avoid it, Max still ended up leaving them both embarrassed. It was a tremendous relief when Ethan called out from the hallway.
“Seems to be taking an awfully long time to learn how to turn a dial,” he sing-songed.
Max and Dale grinned at each other. The older man slapped him jovially on the shoulder before leading them out again.
“Everything okay?” Ethan asked with a crooked smile and a question in his eyes once they re-entered the living room.
Max walked up to him and kissed him on the forehead. “Everything is wonderful.”
“Aw. That’s so sweet,” Jeannie said, smiling as she watched them. She caught her husband’s hand as though emotionally overcome. “Well, you two enjoy the rest of your evening. Extra towels are in the hallway closet and I placed more blankets on the dresser in your room for you if you need them. We’ll see you boys in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Mom. Thank you.”
Max held Ethan close. “Thank you, Mom. We’ll be just fine.”
Chapter Seven
Ethan wiggled his nose as a familiar scent filled his lungs. Mmm. Waffles. Mom’s up early. He smiled and snuggled more deeply beneath the blankets, seeking the warmth that stretched along his left side.
Wait a second.
His eyes snapped open. He was in a familiar room, though granted, it was the guest bedroom. His own room had long ago been turned into a sewing and craft room. He turned his head and was met with the welcome sight of Max in bed beside him, reading on his phone. Since they were in a full-sized bed rather than the king they shared in Las Vegas, Ethan lay half sprawled atop him.
“This is so weird,” Ethan whispered as past and present struggled to fit together in his mind.
Max smirked before turning his head to look down at him. “What? That you and I are sleeping together in your parent’s house? Or that your mother seems to be making enough breakfast to feed everyone on this street?”
“She’s been at it for that long?”
“About an hour now. I didn’t realize waffles took that long to prepare.”
“They don’t.” Ethan palmed his face. “She must be making extra food for us.” He laughed behind his hand. “Don’t be surprised if she’s prepared lunches for us to take with us.”
“I would be utterly charmed.”
Of course he would, because Max lived to defy Ethan’s expectations of him.
Ethan lowered his hand and lifted up to kiss him. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a good man?”
“An equally good man may have mentioned it at some point.”
Ethan smiled against his lips and slowly shifted over him, savoring Max’s sleep-warm skin. If Ethan were a koala, Max would be his favorite tree.
Last night had been a slightly strange experience for him having his soon-to-be-official husband in his childhood home. Max was a dominating presence in any space he occupied, but he had been especially oversized in this small, simple house. Though he’d been dressed simply, he’d seemed too much, like an expensive porcelain doll sitting amid rag dolls. Somehow he made the furniture and the décor feel old-fashioned, as though the house were a prop house from a re-enactment site that Max was visiting.
This had all been in Ethan’s head, of course. Max had been perfectly respectful and complimentary and Ethan doubted his parents had felt self-conscious having him in their home. But Ethan couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t felt a twinge of discomfort at seeing Max sipping store-brand juice from a plastic, cafeteria-style cup or adjusting the protective slipcover made of bath towels that Ethan’s mother had sewn for the sofa. Ethan didn’t want to be embarrassed by his family and he wasn’t, but it was impossible to deny that massive differences existed between his old life and his new one.
All of that was easy to set aside, though, when Max placed his phone on the nightstand so he could slide both palms down Ethan’s bare back. Both of them had worn sleep pants to bed, but their bare torsos pressed comfortingly together as they kissed. The familiar sounds and smells of childhood mixed with Max’s scent to form a confusing, but far from unpleasant new memory in Ethan’s mind.
He had never brought a girl home to spend the night. He’d lived with his parents until he left for the Air Force. Being that young, Ethan wouldn’t have dared to bring anyone home, knowing that his parents would have denied him. But he tried to imagine how they would have reacted had he brought a boy home simply to meet them, or to have dinner with them in their small kitchen. They’d claimed to have an inkling of his sexuality before he’d come out to them. At what point had that suspicion begun to form in their minds? Had it been years ago, giving them time to come to terms with it? Or had they been open-minded all along, caring only that his partner treated him well and made him happy?
He bet that either way, they probably hadn’t predicted he’d find a man of Max’s stature.
He cupped Max’s jaw and brushed his thumbs along the light stubble dusting his cheeks. Max didn’t grow much facial hair. What he did grow lent him a rakish, sexy look that really got Ethan going.
“The quarters may be cramped,” he said as he slowly ended the kiss, “but I can’t say I minded being squished against you all night.” He propped his chin on his hands atop Max’s chest. “How did you sleep?”
“Very well, thank you.” Max brushed the mussed locks of hair away from Ethan’s face. “How was your sleep?” He brushed a thumb beneath the hollow of his left eye. Ethan figured he must have bags there.
“Took me some time to finally nod off,” he admitted. “My mind was going a mile a minute for a while.”
Though Max’s eyes were blue, they were a rich, deep shade of blue. They appeared darker as he studied Ethan. “Anything you need to talk about?”
Ethan tilted his face down and kissed Max’s collarbone. “Just worried, mostly.”
He groaned appreciatively when strong fingers massaged the back of his neck.
“Tell me your worries,” Max said softly.
He kept his eyes averted. “Worried that you’d find all this beneath you. Worried that my parents would feel beneath you. Worried that you’d remember that I’m not a sophisticated guy and that I used to buy my clothes from the J. Crew catalog and The Gap.”
“That’s a lot of worries.”
“I know they’re mostly baseless—”
“They are all baseless.”
Ethan raised his eyes. Max caressed his nape. “After all we’ve been through, Ethan, you should know better than to worry even for a second that I could be turned off by something so trivial and shallow.”
“I know. I know this. I’m sorry.”
“And please get it out of your head that any of this, or anyone in your life, is beneath me. Don’t put me on a pedestal. I’m as flawed as anyone.” Max smirked slightly. “As you very well know.”