hoped she understood that.
I wasn’t expecting a quick reply, but less than a minute later, I got, Oh my god, thank you, when? I swallowed hard and sent back a time I hoped would work then put my phone away as the girls came back into sight.
…
It started to snow just as we got back home. Marnie wanted to go out back and start on another snowman—she had to add a dog to the family, apparently—but I convinced them it was better to wait for it to pile up a little more before we started trying to roll it into balls. Instead, we worked on some coloring books together before I went to get started on shepherd’s pie.
I made a lot of it, one big casserole dish for us and a smaller one for Mrs. Jackson, as a thank-you for her gift of lasagna a few nights back. I poured in the filling and coated it with a thick layer of creamy mashed potatoes then put both pans in the oven to bake a bit longer while I cleaned the rest of the kitchen up. Being back here was a stark reminder of how much I enjoyed cooking and how little of it I did in my own place.
Often, I took work home with me and ended up ordering takeout or cooking something simple. But I’d never noticed before how isolated living like that left me. I felt it here, though. Whenever I locked myself in the guest room to hash out some work, the girls’ laugher or Hal singing along with them during movie time would filter through from downstairs. At Dominic’s, I’d listen to his off-key humming as he worked on the house. I kept wanting to join them, spend more time with them, but I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to make partner.
I didn’t hear the front door open over the sound of the water pouring from the faucet, but I did hear Marnie and Steph calling out, “Uncle Nicky!”
My heart beat a little faster.
I wasn’t used to reacting this way to another person. I went on dates, sure, and I liked sex, but this anticipatory “lub-dub” leaping of my heart before I even saw the person I was interested in, before I even heard their voice or felt their hand on mine? Not the usual for me, not at all. When his hand did touch me, falling lightly on my shoulder before stroking a path down my arm, my heart kicked it up even more.
“Hey,” Dominic said, leaning close and kissing the base of my neck. It was a tentative sort of kiss, like he wasn’t sure if he’d be welcomed or shrugged off. I turned off the water, dried my hands, then faced him fully.
“Hi.” I took his snow-cold hand in both my warm ones and tugged him a little more. As soon as he was in range, I kissed him. He melted against me, like I’d suddenly given him permission to show me how much he liked what we were doing and how much he wanted it. I moved one hand to his waist and pulled him in closer, until our thighs brushed. We kissed again, slow and soft, and I started to get hard in my jeans.
“Uncle Nicky, are we—oooh!”
Aaand Marnie had found us. I grinned, but Dominic jumped back like he’d been burned. He didn’t let go of my hand, though, which…I definitely felt like I was getting mixed signals here. I looked over at Marnie. “What’s up, buttercup?”
“Are you guys kissing?” she demanded with both hands on her cheeks. Steph joined her a moment later, her eyes wide and interested.
“Well, we were,” I said. “Not right now, obviously.”
“Are you going to kiss again?”
“Not right now,” I repeated.
“Do you like each other?”
I waited for Dominic to pick up the reins on this one, and after a few seconds of him staring between me and his nieces, he did. “Uh, yeah. We do, Marnie.”
She looked between us. “Even though you’re both boys?”
“Yeah, we…both of us like boys. For kissing.”
“Not girls?”
Dominic shook his head. His hand in mine was trembling. “No, not girls. Not for me, at least. Just boys.”
“Oh.” Marnie thought about it for a second then nodded. “Okay, cool.”
“Cool?” Dominic seemed to deflate a little. “Really?”
“Yeah!”
“You don’t have any…questions for me or anything?”
Marnie shook her head. “My friend Sydney at school has two mommies, and when we talked about Antarctica, Mrs. Paulson said her son was a scientist down there and she