Rare - Briar Prescott Page 0,107

just spent that time getting naked at home.”

Alex threw Noah a grin. The sunlight fell on Alex through the window, and his smile was breathtaking. Dazzling. Carefree. Relaxed. Full of happiness. It was the first of its kind Noah had seen in a while.

Not that Alex had spent the last three years moping around, worried and anxious. Well, he’d been that, too, every once in a while. But mainly, they just lived and loved each other. It wasn’t that Noah’s lack of possible donors wasn’t an issue. Noah knew that worry about Noah’s well-being was always present in the back of Alex’s mind. It was what pushed him forward and made him work his ass off day in and day out. But they’d learned to deal with the anxiousness of their situation so that the stress wouldn’t break them.

The last few months had been hard, though. There had been unexpected setbacks, and the slow process that generally tended to precede all big changes had been getting to Alex. Oh, he’d tried to hide it, but Noah knew him too well for Alex to succeed.

So Noah had taken it upon himself to try and distract Alex from real life whenever he could. Some days he was more successful than on others, but that was life in general. It wasn’t always sunshine and ice cream sundaes, but it was theirs and it was real, and Noah loved every moment of it.

“So are you ever going to tell me where we’re going?” Noah asked.

“It’s a surprise.”

“I hate those,” Noah grumbled.

Alex laughed. “No, you don’t. You live for birthday presents and Christmases. Besides, we’re almost there.”

“And where is there exactly?”

Alex laughed again as he steered the car to the front of an older farmhouse. He turned off the engine and got out of the car. Noah followed his example.

Everything seemed to be quiet, but then, a young woman stepped out from behind the corner of the house.

“Hi,” she called with a cheerful wave. “You must be Alex and Noah.” She walked to them and reached out her hand. “I’m Lila.”

They shook hands, and Lila motioned toward the building to the left of them. “They’re in there. Follow me.”

Noah aimed a quizzical frown at Alex, but the man just gave him a wink and followed Lila.

They headed toward some kind of a barn. Lila pushed the wide door open, and they stepped in. It was warm inside, sunlight dancing in the air that smelled like hay. Noah breathed in deeply, enjoying the scent as they made their way to the back of the barn.

Noah peeked over Alex’s shoulder when they came to a stop and drew in a sharp breath as he saw a dog pen. Inside, a bunch of puppies were playing, climbing on top of their mother and rolling around like little balls of fur.

Lila climbed into the pen and patted the mom on the head. The dog nuzzled into Lila’s palm, and the puppies gathered around her feet. There were six in all, and they made for the cutest sight Noah had ever seen with their mix of black, golden, and white fur, pudgy feet stomping around on the hay-covered floor, sniffing and whimpering in excitement.

“They’re almost six weeks old right now,” Lila said. “Missy here is a rescue dog, so the puppies were a bit of a surprise. I have no idea what breed is even in them, but I don’t think they’ll be huge. I understand you live in Seattle, so I mean, a dog the size of a cow would probably not work for you guys.”

Alex laughed. “No. We recently bought a house, so we have a backyard, but that’ll only hold a regular-sized dog.”

Noah glanced toward Alex. He hardly dared to hope. Alex was smiling as he looked at the puppies, and then he glanced at Noah, eyes glinting with excitement.

Lila’s phone started ringing. She pulled it out and glanced at the display. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this, but feel free to play with those guys,” she said with a smile as she walked out of the barn.

Noah whirled toward Alex the moment Lila was outside. “The surprise?” he asked, heart galloping in his chest, trying and failing not to hope too much immediately.

Alex slid his arm around Noah and pulled him against his side as they stood in front of the pen, looking at the play-fighting that was taking place between the brothers and sisters.

“Lila is a cousin of one of the people from the LGBTQ