Epilogue
Two Months Later
“Looks like you hit your sales target this month, Neil. Good job,” Gordon said, nodding to him from the far end of the conference table.
Relieved his boss had shifted to a new target, Neil checked his phone under the table. No new messages from Rob. A little worrying, but given the circumstances—reasonable. Neil had stayed two more weeks, helping Rob with Clarissa’s arrangements, before returning to his apartment in the city. They met often. Rob would drive out on Friday evening and arrive at his doorstep Saturday morning.
The arrangement would be temporary. Last night, Rob told him the sale of their old house had gone through. By the end of this week, Rob would be moving in. Neil’s lips curved into a smile. After all they’d been through, it was finally happening. They were going to live together. The calendar on his phone confirmed the date—Monday. Four days of hell, of waiting until Saturday arrived.
Neil could do this. Hell, he’d waited for years for Rob. He’d wait an entire lifetime if need be, but time seemed to drag on.
Someone gave him a shake on the shoulder. Neil looked up, blinking at Ken, one of his close friends at the office. “Neil, the meeting’s ended.”
“Right, thanks,” Neil answered, feeling sheepish. He closed his tablet with the note taking app absent of anything written and followed Ken out.
“Good thing the meeting ended on time. The guys and I plan to hit the usual bar. Want to come?” Ken asked.
They walked out of the conference room and neared their cubicles, but something—a familiar figure—caught Neil’s eye. A man stood by the reception table and the sound of his laugh jolted Neil awake. It couldn’t be, but he met Rob’s amused eyes and grin across the cubicles.
Neil halted in his footsteps. Ken followed his gaze and let out a whistle.
“That your boyfriend, Neil?” Ken teased, looking stumped when Neil met his gaze evenly.
“No,” Neil said in a quiet voice. “That’s the man about to become my husband.”
Ken let out a whoop, thumped him on the back, and sent him stumbling.
“Neil, this nice young lady’s been keeping me company,” Rob said, beaming at him.
“Young lady? My word,” Linda, the forty-three-year old widow who’d been at the firm for a decade, gushed.
Rob always had a way with people, Neil remembered.
“Neil, introduce me to your fiancée,” Ken said, coming by his elbow.
Neil groaned. Ken practically announced the fact to everyone there.
“Fiancée?” Rob asked.
A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. Neil was tempted to walk up to him and shut Rob up with a rough and bruising kiss. So tempting, but Neil had some measure of self-control. Some days, Neil still couldn’t believe this was all real, that both of them were finally free from the past and free to live life any way they chose.
“Wrong word?” Ken asked. The tease.
To Neil’s surprise, Rob didn’t bite. He looked at Neil for a couple of thoughtful seconds. When Neil crooked a finger, Rob approached him, sinking into his embrace like he knew he’d belonged there all along.
“Are you denying we’re engaged?” Neil asked, no longer caring where they were. He pulled out Rob’s finger, the one with the wedding band, and sucked on it. Someone gasped, probably Ken, because he’d never seen Neil so forward in his relationships.
“We’re more than friends, lovers, or husbands.” Rob didn’t add the last word. Brothers. The rest of the world didn’t need to know. The day Clarissa had been laid to rest, they’d ceased being step-brothers. They were reborn as simply two men who loved each other.
“What then?” Neil asked.
“Soul mates,” Rob finished, locking his arms around Neil’s neck and pulling him in for a kiss. Ken whistled, but he didn’t matter, neither did the rest of the world. Whenever Rob and he were together, only they existed.
They parted. Neil cleared his throat and extended his hand. His mind took him to a time, not long ago, when Rob and he were first introduced by his father. Rob spat in his face, tried to run away, but tripped instead. That twelve-year-old Rob looked so startled when Neil offered him a hand up. Rob reached out, hesitation written on his face back then.
In the present, Rob laced their fingers together without hesitation. Unable to help himself, Neil tugged him close for another kiss. Rob’s familiar taste and heat—Neil could never get enough of it. He pushed his tongue between Rob’s lips and Rob let him deepen the kiss.
“Ready to start our new lives?” Rob asked, panting when Neil pulled away.
They’d given Neil’s office plenty of things to gossip about.
Neil didn’t answer, merely pulled him close and they exited the office together, hands still linked.
The End