Melting - Sean Ashcroft Page 0,75

I said, bracing myself. “The last ones are chocolate-hazelnut praline with a whole roasted hazelnut in the center.”

Seth looked at me like every Christmas and birthday of his entire life had just come at once, like he could barely comprehend the enormity of the gift I’d just handed him.

“I don’t even know what to say. There are nuts in your balls,” he said. “I’m speechless.”

“That’s a first,” Wes said, grabbing the salted caramel and popping the whole thing in his mouth at once, making a happy sound as he bit into it.

“Oh my god,” he mumbled through a mouthful of ice cream. “Holy shit. I can’t even make a joke, I need to be alone with these.”

“See, you think I’m bad,” Seth said, looking at me. “But at least I’m not at risk of being arrested for public indecency.”

“You’re at nearly-constant risk of being arrested for public indecency, sweetheart,” Andre—who I hadn’t noticed come in—said, pulling his own stool over.

“You wanna try Hayden’s balls?” Wes asked. “They’re delicious.”

“Why are you like this?” I asked, producing another plate of the truffles for the three of them to try, now that they were all here.

“You love it,” Wes said, biting into another truffle and making happy sounds. The kind of happy sounds that told me I’d be making happy sounds later.

The sex was still incredible.

“I do,” I admitted. “I love you.”

I was getting better at saying it. The way Wes lit up when he heard it was enough to convince me to make the effort.

I loved him.

“Aww,” Seth said, taking another truffle. “Cute.”

“I’d be within my rights to kick you out,” I pointed out.

“You’d miss me,” Seth said as he bit into the next truffle, making an outright obscene sound at the first mouthful.

He was right. I would miss him.

I couldn’t imagine leaving here again. Not for anything.

“Wes would miss you,” I said, not willing to admit that I was just as attached to him—and Andre, and Mark, and even Isaac now that he was sleeping with Andre and they were both clearly happy about that. “And I’d do anything for him.”

“The, uh, dropping your entire life and moving across the country was kind of a hint,” Andre said, reaching out for one of the vanilla-chipotle truffles. He was always ready to try something new, and I loved that about him.

I loved all of them, and I loved Otter Bay, and for the first time for as long as I could remember, I loved my life.

All of it.

“Can’t believe you two have been dating for a year now,” Seth said, sipping his beer and lounging back in the bar we always met up in—the same one Wes had first taken me to meet all his friends.

“Can’t believe as in it feels longer, or can’t believe as in it feels shorter?” Wes asked, snuggling closer to me.

I didn’t so much mind being surrounded by people I loved on this couch, even if three people on a two-seater was pushing it. Wes sitting mostly on top of me was never a bad thing, as far as I was concerned.

I’d come a long way since we first came here.

“Can’t believe Hayden’s put up with you for this long,” Seth teased.

“It’s the sex,” Andre said, bending over the top of us to set down two fresh beers on the little table and retreating to the broad, comfortable armchair by himself.

I’d tried that with Wes once and quickly realized that it wasn’t intended to hold the weight of two adult men. Wes had laughed about both of us tipping back and spilling out of it onto the floor for days, so the bruises were worth it.

Anything to make him laugh. Anything to make him smile.

I’d been in my last relationship five years, and it’d never felt like this. Wes was the real thing.

The year had flown by—opening Melting seemed to take all of ten minutes, but if that was true, Marissa had opened Sugar, Baby in the equivalent of twenty seconds.

Within a month, she’d had a line around the block.

Within six, she’d had to open another premises.

I was so proud of her that whenever she was on the cover of a food magazine or I saw someone in the grocery store buying one of the home-bake pastry range she’d gotten national distribution on, I couldn’t help pointing and telling them that I knew her.

There was an invitation to her and Omar’s wedding on the fridge at home, and I couldn’t wait to hug her in person again.

It’d