Page 74 of Doing Life

“I’m going to kick your ass. It’s just a reaction to my adrenals dumping. You taught me that!”

Lance started chuckling. Yeah, but Sloan wasn’t going to barf anymore, was he?

Mission accomplished.

And Sloan had just officially asked him to move in with him.

That was pretty momentous for him, as well.

No barfing required.

Chapter Twenty-One

Lance put his bag down on the floor in Sloan’s kitchen. They had moved all of his shit earlier today, but this was the last of it, the overnight bag with clothes for tomorrow, jammies, and his kit bag.

He went to let Abby out in the yard, her harness already off.

Wow. He was gonna live here. With Sloan.

He had never considered how many moving parts there were to this whole thing, and he was fucking tickled that he’d decided to do this now, here before going to New Mexico.

Luke had occupational therapists coming in for him. There were these specialists who came in and did a class with Sloan. There was a ramp now and a doggy door. At Sloan’s expense, since the house was a rental. It was kind of amazing.

What was even more amazing was that Sloan hadn’t turned and run. He’d just been like, fine, bring it on, and well…here he was.

“You look a little wigged,” Brick pointed out. “You sure you wanna do this?”

“Yes, I’m really sure. It’s just going to be weird, not being able to just go out to the front room and talk to you guys.”

“So there is this neat thing that has been invented. It’s called a phone. You pick it up, you tell it to call Brick. And then it?—”

“Shut up, you dick.” He couldn’t stop laughing though.

“What?” Brick sounded elaborately innocent.

“Yeah, yeah. Look, thanks for all your help.” He valued his friendship with each and every one of the people who had been with him all this way.

“Hey, we’re buds, man. And I am so happy for you.” Brick touched his shoulder firm enough to let him know he was that close, then gave him a man hug.

“We are. I’m a little wigged.”

“You’re doing great. And it’s not that far from Dallas to Santa Fe. Hell, the flights are cheap. I looked.”

He drew in a breath. “How’d you know I was thinking that far ahead?”

Brick chuckled. “Because once you start thinking of the future, it all lines up.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Brick had the right of it. Once he’d agreed to let Sloan back into his life, he’d been all over making plans and getting all sorts of stuff lined up. For the future.

It was a wild notion.

He heard Sloan tromp into the kitchen, his bootheels ringing on the floor. “Is that the last of it, babe?”

“It is.” He smiled in Sloan’s direction. For which he got a kiss dropped on his mouth. “Brick and the guys have been a huge help…”

“You want me to order pizza?”

“No, Mr. Late to the Party. I want you to make enchiladas.” Sloan had been at work most of the time. They hadn’t been able to schedule everyone to come when Sloan wasoff.

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