Page 124 of Why Cheese?
“Can’t win ‘em all,” Cam declares before he pats Roq’s cheek. “Give him time.”
“It only took you a few hundred years,” Roq whispers back before kissing the tip of Cam’s nose. Then he curls a palm around me, pulling me tighter into his embrace. My head lands on his shoulder while Cam holds my waist.
All four of us lean in together for a hug. For what we lost, for the future we cannot see, for those we love, and for those we could never stop loving.
A loud banging wrenches us apart. TheOpen Housesandwich board sign walks its way inside. As it tips to the side, revealing Brie’s concerted frown, he yanks the otherFor Salesign out of the window. “We don’t want to trick anyone into thinking they can buy this place.” The signs clatter to the ground and he wipes off his hands. Gazing one by one at each of us before finishing on Roq, he asks, “Do we?”
Roq bows his head. Bending over, he picks up the small window sign. “It’s not our place.”
“Yes, it is.” The words slip from my mouth, but my lips twitch up into a smile. Confusion abounds and yet, I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. “You made this place, you guarded it. It’s your home. It’s yours.”
I pluck the sign out of Roq’s hands.
“Violette…?” he asks as I stand before the four of them.
TheFor Salegleams up at me with a promise of wealth, but not security, or riches, or love. I can only find those in one place. With a giddy laugh, I bend the sign in half and rip it down the middle. As both halves hit the trash, I declare, “It’s ours.”
“Woo!” Cheddy whoops again. He’s the first to reach me, hefting me into the air. I bend over to kiss him, clinging to his square jaw for balance before Cam swoops in.
“My lady,” he whispers, bends me over, then puts my hand to his lips. “A promise for later.”
“It’s going to take a lot of work to fix this place up again,” Roq says.
I glide my arm around the back of his neck and kiss his fretting lips. “I know,” I say, and kiss him again.
“We need counters,” Cam adds.
“And places to put stuff,” Cheddy says.
My happy dance ends at Brie. I take his beautiful fingers and tug them back around my waist. “First, we need a new sign for our place. And I think I know the perfect man to paint it.”
Brie laughs, then his voice softens to a tender love song. “I could never leave you,” he whispers in my ear before kissing me.
Roq claps. “Let’s draw up a list. Cam, fetch me a sheet of paper.”
“Fetch it yourself,” he says and manages to pop open a wine bottle that came out of nowhere. ”We’re celebrating!”
“All right,” Roq says. “One glass, then we get back to work. Or maybe two. Three?”
“We’re far too dressed for this occasion,” Cam declares.
“But you’re naked,” I gasp as he hands me a glass.
“Not all of us,” Cam says before peeling off my dress with his eyes.
“What?” Cheddy asks. “Oh, yeah! Yeah!” With another loud whoop, he reaches for my belt.
“I should call the realtor. Hang on.” Wine sloshes up the glass and beads down Roq’s chest. As I watch the scarlet liquid trace every channel of his muscles, Cam slides my hair and kisses the back of my neck.
“It’s a night for celebrating.”
“Miss Reely!” the realtor’s voice cuts over the phone.
Cheddy runs his palms up my knee and around my thigh. Brie does the same on the other side, both of them sneaking under my dress.
“Any last questions for tomorrow?”
“I’m sorry Mister…ha!” I laugh, Cam tickling under my breasts as he sucks on the nape of my neck.
