Page 22 of Submit
Larry gulped, then licked his lips. “No,I want to know. I don’t think anyone besides Hank has ever loved me.”
“That’s not true,” Bo countered. “Mrs. E loves you, and everyone at the soup kitchen does, too. But I love you in a way they can’t. I love you with my heart and soul, and every fiber of my being. I have since we started dating. After our first night together, I think. It started then, when I woke up in the morning, and youwere sleeping. You looked like an angel. A little bit of sunlight touched your cheek, right here.” Bo touched the place he spoke of. “My heart did a weird flop-thump thing, and I knew then I was falling hard and fast.”
“Flop-thump?” Larry placed a hand over Bo’s heart. “For real?”
Bo nodded. “Not like I was going to die, but like so much emotion flooded it, so much love, my heart needed to growand make room for it. Corny, I guess, but it’s true. I love you. You’re an amazing person and I’m lucky to be with you.”
Larry shook his head. “Oh, no, I’m the lucky one here.” Tears spilled down his cheeks. “I love you, too. I was going to tell you tonight, at dinner. I wanted to tell you sooner, but the key was about as brave as I could get.”
“You are very brave, and loving, and sexy as fuck,”Bo stated. “And I want to spend my life with you.”Oops. Was that a proposal?
Larry’s jaw dropped, and a second later he flung himself at Bo. “We can do that. We can spend our lives together. We’ve already started. I don’t know if that was a marriage proposal or not, but I love you, and that’s what matters. Well, that we love each other.”
“We do, and—” Bo couldn’t imagine a life without Larry.“And I don’t want to rush you, but if you would like to get—”
“Yes,” Larry said. “I want to marry you. I want kids, cats, maybe a dog…and a picket fence. I want it all, with you. Does that scare you?”
“Nothing can scare me as long as I have you,” Bo assured him. “Mrs. E told me about Tad and how glad she was that she hadn’t wasted time waiting for him to propose.”
Larry laughed. “She askedhim?”
“After only a few weeks,” Bo informed him. “We’ve got three months down and a lifetime to go.” Bo wasn’t nervous. He was excited and filled with hope. “I want that future with you, and I want this moment, as we live it. I don’t want to lose any time with you.”
“You won’t. I’m all yours, and we’re going to have a long life together.”
“We are,” Bo agreed, then he did what he had wantedto do since Larry had walked outside.
He kissed Larry.
It was a perfect kiss, a perfect moment in time, and Bo would treasure it for eternity—just as he’d treasure the very special man in his arms.
