“I asked you to come with me.”
“And you knew I couldn’t. What else is new?” Could they really mend old wounds, or had they accumulated too many scars? Was fixing each other even possible?
Neil breathed hard, looking at him. Torn between tugging him close and shoving him away, Rob silently counted to ten and tried for logic instead.
“Why did you come back, Neil?”
“You said you needed me.”
Rob crossed his arms. “That’s not good enough.”
“Nothing’s good enough for you, is it?
When Rob didn’t answer, Neil let out a sharp exhale and tried again. “I wanted to see you. These years apart, they wrecked me.”
“When I wake up each day, do you know the first thing that comes to mind?” Rob asked.
Frowning, Neil met his gaze. “Tell me.”
“That I could have woken up each morning, to the face of the man I love.”
Expression softening, Neil closed the distance between them. He tilted Rob’s face upward, thumbing Rob’s bottom lip, still swollen from his earlier kisses.
“We can’t change the past, but the future’s still waiting to be written.”
Hope flared inside Rob. He clutched at the fabric of Neil’s trousers, not daring to speak.
Neil bent down to kiss him, slow and tender.
“Let’s continue where we left off.”