Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Luke stood in the shower and groaned as the hot water beat at his muscles. The first day back at the landscaping company he worked for from April to September was always hard. Hell, it usually took a week or two before his muscles stopped protesting the sudden exertion. He’d been hoping for a massage from Chris, but his lover wasn’t here when he got home. He hoped that meant Chris had found some work; he’d been doing odd jobs here and there with construction crews. He hadn’t found anything steady yet, but there were a couple foremen with his number who would call if they were down a guy on a job. But Luke knew it wore at Chris that he didn’t have anything solid, as he called it.

He got out of the shower when the hot didn’t seem quite as hot anymore and dried off before throwing on a pair of light sweats. Chris still wasn’t back, so he went to the fridge to see what he could make for supper. There wasn’t a whole lot in there; they needed to do a grocery run and he was going to have to Chopped it—invent something from the bits they had.

He still had his head in the fridge when the front door opened, and he looked up with a smile for Chris.

“Hey, babe.”

Chris gave him a beaming smile. Whoa. He didn’t see that one very often—it was usually reserved for lovemaking. Very good lovemaking.

“Guess what?” Chris asked.

“What?”

“I got hired on by Aaron Carson.”

“For the summer?” he asked, bouncing over to give Chris a congratulatory hug.

“For good. I brought home dinner to celebrate.” Chris hefted a bag from the fried chicken place down the road.

“That’s awesome! Congratulations!” He kissed Chris thoroughly, feeling breathless when their lips parted.

“And guess what else?”

There was more? “What?”

“I told him I needed to be off the six weeks before Christmas and he agreed.”

“So you can still be Santa?” He jumped into Chris’s arms, his lover catching him and holding him close.

“So I can still be Santa.”

“I love you, Chris.”

“I love you, Jolly Elf.”

Luke put his head back and laughed, and Chris kissed him, giggles and all.