Page 100 of Alpha & Omega

“And that was a present to myself.”

“I’ve got more presents for you tonight, and your family will be here for dinner and cake.”

“They are?”

“Yep,” I replied, brushing away sweaty bangs from his forehead.

“Do you have enough space for them?”

“We’ll make the space.”

“I can’t wait.”

We kissed for a bit longer, making out like fools. Then I massaged his residual limb, giving it kisses. It weirded him out at first, but eventually, he came to love it, knowing that I loved every inch of him.

Eventually, we dragged ourselves out of bed to shower and get ready for the party for Kingston’s big thirtieth.

After we ate dinner, everyone gathered in the living room to eat cake and open gifts.

“Good thing I made such a large cake,” I said, winking at Kingston as I lit all the candles. “You have way too many candles.”

He gave me the bird, making me laugh.

We sang him the birthday song as he buried his face in a throw pillow. I’d never seen him so shy and embarrassed in my life. When we finished singing, his face popped out, looking bright red.

“Never sing to me again,” he groused.

He stood with his wine glass in hand and raised it. “I want to say a little something. I’m not one for speeches, but I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you over the past two months. Without you all, I wouldn’t have made it this far. You are my family. My crew. I love each one of you. Some of you helped me. Some of you pushed me with tough love. But every single one of you had a hand in my healing. I can’t thank you enough.”

His family held each other, looking teary-eyed—well, not the stoic ones, but you could see the love in their eyes.

“I would also like to announce a business change at Alpha’s,” he continued. “Ajax and Stix… just wow. You both especially came through for me by helping out behind the bar and working extra hours while ensuring we were stocked and the bills were paid. This is my announcement that I would like to make you two part-time managers. With that comes extra pay. It’ll be tight, but I think we can do this now that Alpha’s is bringing in more money.”

Ajax and Stix looked dumbstruck, their jaws dropped.

“Seriously?” Stix asked.

Kingston smiled. “Seriously.”

With that, Kingston sat down and opened presents. I gave him a keychain of a prosthetic leg with his name engraved on it and the date of the day he lost his leg.

“Thanks, baby. I love it,” he said, kissing me.

“That’s to remind you of how far you’ve come, but it’s not your only gift. You and I are also taking a mini-vacation during the week, so it doesn’t interfere with the weekends. We’re going to the coast. It’ll be cold, but the place will be quiet. I got us a rental two weeks from now in Ocean City. It’s not a fancy beach, but it’s close.”

“God, I love that. The beach sounds perfect.”

“Open mine!” Stix said, tossing a plastic shopping bag Kingston’s way.

“Let me guess… A T-shirt.”

Stix’s dark eyelashes fluttered. “You know me so well.”

Kingston rolled his eyes, pulled the T-shirt out, and read it out loud before throwing back his head and laughing. “Amputee: Some Assembly Required.”

He pulled off his sweatshirt and tossed on the T-shirt. “Ain’t that the truth. It’s perfect.”

March-FiveMonthsLater

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