“But that didn’t mean he wasn’t there,” Beckett quickly added. “It was dark, and you were obscured by the tower until I was close.”
Noah let out a breath and slumped against him. “His name was Eduardo. We had an entire conversation. He…he stopped me from jumping, and I think I stopped him. It…it wasn’t a dream though…was it? Was he an angel?”
Again, Beckett knew what he was asking. “I don’t think that sort of delusion is part of your condition, love.” He rested a hand on the side of Noah’s face and tenderly kissed his lips. “I’m certain the man was really there, and that he was an angel. It sounds like he saved you for me.”
“Alright,” Noah said, though doubt still laced his voice.
“It is alright,” Beckett said, smiling. “We will be alright.”
He leaned in to kiss Noah again. After nearly losing him, he didn’t think he would ever get enough of kissing Noah or holding him tight.
He would have kissed him the whole way up Manhattan to Sixty-Third Street, if his father hadn’t been in the carriage with them, and if they hadn’t both been so tired. A few kisses led to snuggling, and once the two of them were comfortable in the rocking carriage, they both drifted off to sleep.
They were awakened with a start to a loud rap on the carriage door.
“Sir, we’re here,” the driver called to them.
Beckett shook himself from sleep and drew in a breath. The carriage was still, and the sun had risen considerably higher in the sky. Heat flooded him at the way the driver had found them, but then again, the carriage door was still closed. He and Noah were tangled together, but that could be explained by the fact they’d both been sleeping.
“Thank you,” he told the driver as he and Noah climbed down. He paid the man a generous amount on top of what he’d already paid for the trip, then hurried Noah up the stairs to their home.
Any hope of going straight to bed was thwarted the moment they swept through the front door by Aurora’s cry of, “Noah! Beckett! Father! You’re back! All of you!”
Noah brightened considerably, and by the time Aurora dashed into his arms for a massive hug, he was ready for it.
“I’m sorry I worried everyone,” he said, clinging to Aurora as if she were his own sister. “I’m so sorry.”
“Never mind all that,” Aurora said, leaning back so that she could gaze at him. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters. Oh, I’m so happy!” She soared in and kissed Noah squarely on his mouth, then flinched back, eyes wide, and laughed at herself.
“Now, now,” Beckett teased her, his heart brimming with joy. “He’s mine. Get your own beau.”
“I’m not sure any of us are ready for that,” Beckett’s father said. He, too, was joking, but Beckett could see the genuine relief and gladness in the way his father smiled.
“Miss Taylor has been up all night baking,” Aurora told them as she stepped back from Noah. “She claims it was the only thing she could think of to soothe her nerves, but for us, it means we’ll have muffins for every meal for days now.”
“I could use some,” Noah said, nodding gratefully to Gardener as the man took his hat and coat. “I’m starving.”
They all started into the parlor after coats and hats were taken care of. Beckett would have much rather taken Noah straight up to bed, but he understood the importance of sharing his love with his family. Noah was their family now too, and even though he would have been devoutly faithful to Noah through thick and thin all on his own, Beckett knew he would be relying on his family often in the future.
“I want you to know that I feel awful about what happened,” Noah said once they were all settled in the parlor with tea and muffins. “I…I know I am a terrible burden to you—”
“You are not,” Aurora cut him off, scooting closer to him on the sofa and hugging his arm. “You’re one of us. We take care of each other.”
Noah tried to protest, but Beckett’s father said, “We understand what you are trying to say, son.”
Noah swallowed hard and smiled, his eyes glassy with sentimental tears.
“You’ve no need to put your regrets into words,” Beckett’s father went on. “We all intend to put last night’s events behind us. We understand how it all happened, and we understand how lucky we are that the outcome was happy. You are sorry, but we are sorry too. And that is the end of that. Going forward, we will all take better care of each other. That is all that needs to be said on the matter.”
“Thank you, sir,” Noah said, reaching across to where Beckett’s father sat and taking his hand. “You truly have no idea what this means to me.”
“And you have no idea what it means to me to see my son happy and settled and able to share his life with the man he loves,” Beckett’s father said, old grief suddenly lining his face in a way that made Beckett’s throat close up. “Not all of us are so lucky.”
Beckett couldn’t speak. As happy as he was that his own love story had been gifted with a happy ending, it pained him that his father’s had ended in tragedy so many years ago, when things were different.
“You never know, Mr. Smith,” Noah said, his old smile and good humor coming back. “It’s never to late to start life over again. I know that better than most these days.”
He let go of Beckett’s father’s hand and shifted to lean hard against Beckett.