a kitten. He despised showing weakness or needing to lean on someone. Other than the previous morning, they hadn’t made love and André was counting on this trip, now that he felt a bit better, to make up for the lost time between them after all the months apart.
The car turned into the drive lined with evergreens that led into the compound, and André craned his neck to see if anything had changed in the year since they’d visited, but it all looked the same. They approached the main house, its redbrick exterior setting off the white columns, windows sparkling in the sunlight, and though he’d tried to forget the house, a peculiar sense of coming home rose within him. Lately he’d begun to appreciate the small things that brought him joy in life, and it was partly the reason why he’d decided to slow down a bit.
Rows and rows of lilies and irises circled the house, along with rosebushes, all interspersed with lavender in their losing battle to keep the deer away. One of his favorite things about staying here as a child had been to wake up early and see the deer nibbling on the grass and shrubs. He regretted that the memories of the place as he grew older were tangled up with Dawson’s death, his own out of control behavior, and Kyle.
Kyle. Christ. How had he made the mistake of believing he’d been in love? It was the main reason he’d hesitated coming here all these years. Fuck it. That wasn’t love. He knew it now. Because of Chess.
“Wake up, love, we’re here.” He kissed Chess’s ear. Anticipation quickened in his chest, and he hoped to persuade Chess into having a midnight swim. Naked.
“Mmm. I was having such a nice dream.” Smiling with his eyes closed, Chess yawned, then rubbed his cheek against André’s shoulder. “It was all about you and me.”
“Sounds like my dreams.”
They shared a smile.
They pulled into the circular drive, and the moment the car stopped, the front door opened, which meant Freddie had been on the lookout for them. Freddie and his wife, Dottie, were in charge of maintaining the houses while his family was away, and they were like second parents to André and his brother and sister. At almost seventy-five, Freddie remained as spry as ever, his smile bright as he waited on the front porch.
He and Chess received their hugs and walked inside the huge foyer while Freddie gave directions to the driver to drop off their bags around the rear entrance. While André had his own home on the property, he’d chosen to stay at the main house so as to interrupt as little as possible Freddie and Dottie’s daily routine. With only Chess and him in residence, it didn’t make sense to do it otherwise and have them trek out to his separate home on the compound.
André took Chess’s hand, and they entered the great room, drawn to the wall of windows overlooking the sparkling, turquoise water of the swimming pool and the ocean stretching out blue and endless behind it. “I never get tired of this view,” André said as he and Chess wandered over to the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Pots holding delicate white orchids from the greenhouse decorated the tabletops, along with the red roses his mother favored. Huge, whitewashed beams lay across the vaulted ceiling, giving the space a rustic feel, and André’s gaze lit on the stacked stone fireplace taking up the far wall. An image of him and Chess snuggled up before a roaring fire in the winter came to mind.
“Do you want to sit for a while, or go to our room?”
“Let’s unpack, and then we can get something to eat and hang out by the pool.” Chess met his eyes. “I can’t wait to do absolutely nothing with you.”
Freddie rejoined them, bringing each a glass of sparkling water. “Your bags are in the room across from the master suite, and whenever you’re ready, Dottie has lunch prepared. She assumes you’ll want to eat outside on the back deck. There’s gazpacho and lobster salad, followed by a mango-passionfruit sorbet. Chess, she said she already has the recipes printed for you.”
“You know me so well.”
“It’s wonderful to see you both. We were thrilled when we found out you were planning on spending some time here.” Freddie turned to Chess. “When André was younger, he and his friends spent every summer here.”
“Those days were long ago. I’m all about the present and moving forward.” Anxious