Page 84 of Street of Dreams
Mac grinned. “That I do.” His gaze drifted to the house. “This is the first time me and you are gonna walk through the door as a married couple.”
“Do you want me to carry you inside?” Jake joked.
Danny suddenly ran in front of them and blocked the doorway. “Wait. We have to announce you.” The twins talked quietly for a moment, as if deciding what to say, before they held the door open and called inside, “Everybody, Jake and Mac!”
Everyone cheered, and Jake felt his cheeks redden. He wasn’t used to being the recipient of attention. He just wanted to move forward as a married couple. Mac, on the other hand, wore a smile a mile wide and was amped up as if he were about to perform for 20,000 people.
A catered celebration waited for them, complete with wedding decorations and two signs strung across the dining room wall. One said, “Congratulations Ben!” The other said, “Happy Wedding Day, Jake & Mac!”
Ben ran up to Jake and handed him something that looked like a scroll. “It’s my present,” he said.
Jake opened the white sash and unrolled the heavy paper. It was a pastel drawing of the landscaped yard out back. It depicted Jake and Mac sitting on a bench holding hands. The twins and Ben were throwing a baseball in the background. Each of them were drawn in detail and clearly recognizable. Even the flowerbeds, which Mac’s mom had planted the week they moved in, were replicated with precision and lifelike.
“It’s us,” Ben said. “Our family.”
While Jake struggled to say something around the rock in his throat, Mac hugged the kid. “I love it,” Mac said. “We’re going to frame it and hang it on the wall.”
“It’s beautiful.” Jake’s voice shook when he finally spoke. “Thanks, Ben.” He looked closer at the photo and saw a black and white ball of fluff digging in the yard. “What’s this?”
“That’s Popcorn. Our new dog.”
“Don’t be mad,” Henry quickly said, as Danny walked into the living room holding a tiny pit bull mix puppy. “We found him.”
“When?” Jake asked, with surprise. “Where?”
Danny shrugged. “Yesterday. At Petco.”
“We can keep him, right?” Ben asked.
As if Jake could say no to that kid. He took the puppy from Danny, and it licked his face like crazy and then playfully nipped him on the nose. “Sure.”
Mac wrapped an arm around Jake and scratched the puppy’s head. “He’s cute. I never had a dog.”
“Us neither,” Jake replied. A puppy. A little tiny thing, full of carefree happy baby barks and playful whimsical mischief, brought new life into this house that truly was a home.
“What a day.” Jake stood with his hands on his hips and surveyed the mess in the dining room. Normally, the disaster around him would have drove him crazy, but today was different. The empty plates and trays of half-eaten food, including the enormous tiered wedding cake, were the remnants of a celebration that brought two families together as one.
Ben had crashed a few hours ago, and the twins were getting Popcorn accustomed to his crate before they brought it upstairs where the puppy would sleep next to Danny’s bed. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Jake told them. “Because I have no clue.”
Danny held up a book. “We got everything the lady at the rescue told us we needed.”
“And then some,” Henry added, pointing to a box full of toys.
The amount of love in this home continually knocked on Jake’s heart. This was everything he always wanted for his brothers. It may have taken 18 years for the twins to find peace, but at least Ben had pretty much been shielded from the violence and hate, and he was still a kid.
Noise from the other room brought Jake into the kitchen, where Mac was loading the dishwasher. This guy was too much. Jake stood behind Mac for several seconds. He was still wearing his kilt, with those adorable geeky knee socks that were somehow a complete turn on. While Mac rinsed a dish in the sink, Jake pulled Mac’s long hair into a ponytail and playfully tugged on it. “What are you doing?”
“I’m cleaning up. Grab me the glasses on the table?”
“No.”
Mac looked at him in surprise. “You’re not going to help me?”
Jake took the dish out of Mac’s hands, placed it in the sink and shut the water off. He put Mac’s hands around his waist and took hold of Mac’s face between his palms. “Did you forget it’s our wedding night?”
A smile bloomed on Mac’s face. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about. Why do you think I never changed out of my kilt?”
An erotic chuckle fell from Jake’s mouth as he pretended to almost faint. “You’re killin’ me, Mackenzie. Get that red-hot ass upstairs.”
As they passed through the dining room, Jake nudged Henry in the shoulder. “Don’t forget to clean up before you go to bed.”
“Me?” Henry’s brows skyrocketed.
Jake mocked his brother with an exaggerated laugh. “You brought home a puppy without asking me.” Then he chased Mac up the stairs. A breeze blew the hem of the kilt up as Mac took the stairs two at a time, revealing the backs of two muscular thighs. Jake slapped Mac’s butt. “Hurry it up!” he said, hoping to see more, knowing full well that Mac was naked under the kilt.
The master bedroom was at the far end of the hall and far enough away from the other bedrooms to ensure privacy. And they sure as hell were going to need it tonight. Once inside the bedroom, Jake closed the door and locked it. He backed Mac against the wall and gave him an intoxicating kiss, making gooseflesh rise on Jake’s overheated flesh. This gorgeous man was finally his. Sometimes, it was hard to believe all they went through to get here. But here they were, husband and husband, and nothing was going to tear them apart ever again.
