Page 55 of Chasing You

“So what do you need from me?” Adele asked.

Kash could hear the sincerity in his voice. “Just you. I need you to be yourself. To be my Adele.”

“I will always be yours,” Adele said quietly.

Kash rolled to the side as much as he could with his legs propped up and wrapped his arms around him. “I need patience as I figure my life out. I’m so…I’m soangryright now. Not all the time, but sometimes I feel so hateful about my circumstances. I don’t want to take that out on what we could be.”

“I can do that. I can be anything you need me to be,” Adele murmured against Kash’s hair. “Did you not notice that in all the years after my divorce, no one has ever caught my eye?”

“I thought you were focusing on Gage.”

“I was,” Adele said with a small chuckle. “And at night, I’d go to bed dreaming about you. I waited for that long, Kash. Nearly two decades. I can keep waiting as long as you need me to.”

“But we can have this, right?” Kash asked, holding him tighter.

Adele leaned back and curled a knuckle under his chin, tipping his face up. “This was never off the table. And neither is anything else we’ve done. Kash, if we never define this, if we stay exactly as we are, that’s enough for me too. I’m yours, and I always will be. That’s all you need to know.”

I’m yours too, he thought, but he didn’t say it aloud. Not yet. It didn’t seem fair, but it was what it was, and Adele didn’t seem upset about it. He looked happy.

“Tell me you love me again,” Kash whispered.

Adele kissed him first, then murmured the words against his lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Am I a fool for needing time?”

Adele pulled back again and held his gaze. “No. You’re not a fool for putting yourself first. Just don’t push me away.”

“And you promise to stop being so careful,” Kash warned.

Adele rolled his eyes, making Kash laugh. “Fine, fine. Yes. Next time we’re outside, I’ll make sure to push you off the curb.”

“Thank you,” Kash said with a sniff.

Adele growled and tackled him to the pillows, kissing him again, then again, and again. “Too much?” he asked when he pulled back.

Kash shook his head and bit back a smile. “No. This is just right.”

“What thehell?”

Kash woke up with a start, attempting to sit up, but he was pinned by a heavy weight. It took him far too long to remember it was Adele and that they weren’t in bed. They were on the living room floor under a blanket fort.

And the voice belonged to Gage.

“You made a fort without me?”

“A fort?” came another voice. Kash recognized Gage’s best friend, Lucas. “Is anyone inside?”

“My dad and Kash.” The sheet rustled, and then Gage’s face appeared. “Oh, good. There’s room for us. Move over.” Gage grabbed Lucas’s hand and guided it to the edge of the pillow nest. “To the left.”

Kash bumped Adele, who sat up with a gasp, his eyes bleary. He glanced over at Gage, very obviously not with it. “Whassat?”

“The teenagers are going to join us,” Kash said. His legs were rested and far more mobile, so he kicked away the pillows elevating them and shoved Adele over enough to make room for the boys, who quickly crawled in.

Adele groaned, curling up against Kash’s side, and before Gage and Lucas were settled, he was snoring again.

“Are you two on drugs?” Gage demanded.

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