Page 51 of Surrender

Bowen looked as stunned as I did, but he recovered quickly. He flashed me a flirtatious smile and said, “She’s right, you’re hot. Are you single?”

“No, sorry, I’m not. I didn’t have a chance to tell Nana that before she tried to pair us up.”

He looked disappointed. “Figures. Guys like you are always taken. Where’s your boyfriend?”

“He’s around here somewhere. I should go find him.”

Bowen wished me a happy New Year before disappearing back into the crowd. I was right beside a metal tub full of drinks on ice, so I picked out something for Tracy before going in search of him.

I made it out of the kitchen and halfway across the foyer before I stopped short and realized what had just happened.

I’d called Tracy my boyfriend, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And even though that guy back there had been beautiful, I didn’t have the slightest interest in chatting him up… because the only man I wanted was Tracy.

All this time, we’d been trying to call ourselves friends with benefits, but that was bullshit. We were so much more than that, even though we’d both started out saying we didn’t want a relationship.

But did we have to label this, or try to define it? Calling it a relationship might change things. It might make Tracy pull back.

I didn’t want to stir things up. Not when this was going so well.

Or maybe that was an excuse, and the truth was that I needed a little time to process this. Maybe I’d just let things continue the way they’d been for now, while I tried to make sense of what was happening between us.

I looked around, trying to find Tracy in the crowd. Like me, he literally stood out, so he should have been easy to spot. Instead, I spotted two of my friends from the Pink Victorian, and I joined them and said, “So, you know Nana, too.”

“Everyone knows Nana,” Embry told me. “She’s like, the patron saint of San Francisco’s gay community.”

We chatted for a minute or two, and then I asked, “Have you seen Tracy?”

Hal nodded and pointed to the twin staircases at the back of the foyer. “I saw him heading upstairs maybe fifteen minutes ago.”

I said, “Thanks, guys. Happy New Year,” and went in search of my favorite recluse.

There was some type of mechanical confetti cannon at the top of the stairs, poking through the railing and aimed at the crowd below. Behind it was a pet gate, spanning the start of a long hallway. I went through the gate and clicked it shut behind me.

Tracy was sitting on the floor at the far end of the hallway, with his glasses on and a paperback in his hand. That made me smile. Of course he’d brought a book to a party. And of course, he’d found Nana’s pets—or they’d found him. A tiny beige chihuahua in a red sweater sat on his lap, and a big, hairy dog in a red bowtie was curled up right beside him.

I sat down on Tracy’s left, opposite the Wookie dog, and handed him the beer. He thanked me for the drink and said, “You should be downstairs, enjoying the party.”

“I did enjoy it. I met a lot of interesting people.” I told him about some of the people I’d met while we shared the beer, and then I asked, “Can we go home now?”

“You don’t have to leave early on my account. I’m perfectly fine up here, with my book and the dogs.” He scratched the chihuahua’s ears as he said that, and the dog panted happily.

“I’m not just saying it for your sake. I want to go home, too.”

Tracy looked skeptical. “There’s no way you’ve ever left a New Year’s party before midnight. Don’t you want to celebrate when the clock strikes twelve?”

“Yes. With you, in our apartment.” He was so adorable that I just couldn’t resist—I leaned in and kissed him, which made the chihuahua on his lap raise its hackles and growl.

Both of us chuckled at that. I got up as he pocketed his book and glasses and moved the little dog onto the floor. After I helped him up, I kissed him again. That really pissed off the chihuahua, who growled and tried to lunge at me.

Tracy had to run interference while I escaped down the hall and through the pet gate. When he joined me a minute later, I said, “It’s hard to compete with such a cute rival for your attention.”

He nodded in mock-seriousness. “I’m pretty sure the chihuahua and the big dog are involved, so if you hadn’t found me, I would have become part of a puppy throuple. A pupple. A thruppy…”

I laughed at that as I lightly pinned him to the railing at the edge of the landing. Then I planted another kiss on him and started to step back, but he pulled me close again and deepened the kiss.

Somehow, I managed to bump the device next to us, which went off with a loud pop. The crowd below us in the foyer gasped in surprise, then cheered as gold confetti rained down on them. Tracy grinned at me and teased, “A bit premature, don’t you think?”

“That never happens to me,” I joked. “Well, rarely. As sexy as you are though, it’s no wonder I popped off.”

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