Chapter 16: The Middle of It

Gabe did not turn on the lights when they got home.

He shut the green door, set the deadbolt, and stood in the hall with his back against the wood.

Eli stood in front of him in his father's coat, which still smelled like pot roast.

"Come here," Gabe said.

Eli went.

Gabe took the coat off him and hung it on the hook.

Then he took Eli's face in both hands and just looked at him.

"What?" Eli said.

"I'm looking."

"You've been looking for two weeks."

"I've been looking for two years," Gabe said. "I'm only now allowed."

He kissed him.

It was nothing like the stairwell or the supply room or the car.

It was slow, and it went on, and Gabe's thumb moved back and forth across the scar in Eli's eyebrow.

Eli felt his knees go loose.

"Upstairs," Gabe murmured against his mouth.

"I can walk."

"I know. I want to carry you anyway."

"You are not going to carry me, you're forty-two."

Gabe picked him up.

Eli yelped and grabbed his shoulders, and he was still laughing when Gabe set him down on the bed in the lamplight.

The laughing stopped when Gabe knelt over him and began to undress him.

He did it one button at a time, kissing each inch of skin he uncovered.

He kissed Eli's collarbone, and the hollow of his throat, and the soft place under his ribs that made him jerk.

"You're taking forever," Eli whispered.

"Yes."

"Gabe."

"I waited two years, remember? I intend to make up for them."

He pulled Eli's shirt off over his head and tossed it away.

Then he put his mouth on one nipple and sucked, gently at first, then with his teeth.

Eli arched off the mattress with a sound he did not know he could make.

"There," Gabe said, pleased and breathless. "I've wondered about that."

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