Page 43 of Tender
“No. We won’t ever give up on her, but you deserve to be happy.”
Emmett closed his eyes in a long, slow blink, then asked, “What about you? You know the rules. Even if he can give me what I want, he has to mean something to you too.”
“He does,” Cosimo said very softly. “I like him too.”
It wasn’t as deep of a confession as Emmett had given, but Cosimo had never been fully open with his feelings. Not in the same way Emmett had. He loved fiercely and profoundly, but also very quietly. So the fact that he was admitting it at all was important.
“Tomorrow,” Cosimo said when Emmett didn’t say anything else. “I’m going to take care of financial stuff with Selene’s account. I think you and Miles should have a day out.”
“We did that already,” Emmett said, leaning over to rest his cheek against Cosimo’s chest. He was soothed by the steady heartbeat against his ear.
“So do it again. Test the waters. Flirt with him. Set the mood so when you talk to him, none of this will be coming out of left field.”
Emmett knew that was fair. Maybe a little tricky, but this situation wasn’t normal, so they had to do what they could. “Kiss me, please,” he murmured.
Cosimo let out a hum, took Emmett by the jaw, and kissed him until his body relaxed…except his toes, which curled happily into the sheets.
Emmett’s plans were foiled the next day by Miles getting a migraine. He kept the shades down in the room and accepted soup and water, but it was obvious the poor man was in pain. Emmett was disappointed, but it gave him an opportunity toshow Miles what it could be like with them when he was having bad days.
When Cosimo got back from his errands, he looked a little harried and uncomfortable which told Emmett that he’d had a run-in with their daughter.
“She said a lot of nasty things,” Cosimo said, falling onto the sofa beside Emmett. He leaned against his husband. “She had that gym douchebag with her. I forgot to tell the staff she wasn’t welcome, so Debbie let her into my office, and that dickhead was strutting around like he owned the place.”
Emmett wrinkled his nose. The two were quite the pair.
“She’s still going to Ibiza,” Cosimo went on. “I guess Jake bought her ticket.”
Emmett sighed, feeling disappointment rushing through him. He couldn’t prevent her from finding someone with money to take care of her the way he and Cosimo had been though, but he had a feeling that would get old pretty quick.
“She said she’s cutting us off until we turn all her cards back on,” Cosimo told him, reaching forward to steal a drink from Emmett’s mug.
“We’ll see how long that lasts,” he said, then leaned back and closed his eyes.
Cosimo began to massage his scalp gently. “How’s Miles?”
“Still in pain. I’m hoping to try again tomorrow.”
“I won’t be here,” Cosimo told him. “I got a call asking me to take two of Andrew’s patients. He slipped a disc and can’t reschedule these because they’re both emergent. One’s at eight tomorrow morning, and the other’s at five.”
Emmett opened his eyes and grimaced. “You’re going to be exhausted.”
“Yeah. I might crash at the hospital and come back in the morning since I won’t be done until close to midnight.”
Emmett sighed, but that was his life. Cosimo wasn’t as busy as he used to be when they were younger, but he’d spent plenty of nights going to bed with one side cold. Maybe that wasn’t going to last forever.
“Kiss me,” Emmett said softly.
Cosimo leaned over and he did. “I think it’s going to be okay.”
He could only hope his husband was right.
It was almost a miracle, seeing Miles appear the next morning, just as Emmett finished making a fruit plate. He was bleary-eyed but looked in a lot less pain than he had been. He managed a tentative smile as he walked over and leaned his hip against the lower cupboard.
“Can I help with anything?”
Emmett smiled and shook his head. “You can have a seat while I serve you breakfast. Are you hungry?”
Miles hesitated before he pushed away and walked to the little breakfast nook, taking the seat that had the best view of the yard. The storms hadn’t moved on yet, so the patio was full of little puddles all over the deck.
