much stitched to my face.
“You okay?” Leo bobbed upward to press a kiss to my cheek and caught my hand on the way past, drawing me further inside with him.
“Hey,” I murmured.
“Hey back,” he said as he lifted himself onto his tiptoes before kissing me on the mouth, his lips insistent, his tongue probing.
I groaned and nudged my door closed then wrapped my arms around him, holding him close as I surrendered to his kiss.
When we parted, I pressed my finger against my swollen lips and chuckled. “That was quite the hello.”
“No, that was just hey.” He shrugged and wiped across his lower lip with the side of his thumb. I followed his movement with my gaze.
Adrenaline spiked through me. And I just stared at him for a moment, then I shook my head to bring myself back to reality. “I’ve set up for dinner outside.” I sounded so formal.
“Are you okay? You sound kind of weird.”
Okay. And weird. I sounded formal and weird. “Just…” Honesty seemed the best policy. “Nervous, I guess. I’ve never invited you to my place before.”
“Yeah, you have… there was that time… Oh, wait. No. No, I guess you haven’t. Even our first date was that super-secret location so no one would find us.”
My gut twisted. “If I could walk it back, Lee, I’d shout how much I loved you to the world.”
He kissed my jaw. “No, you wouldn’t, Shayne. You always had too much to lose.”
“And I lost you anyway.” The irony of the events seven years ago wasn’t lost on me, where I’d hidden Leo to keep him just mine, to keep us both safe, then exposed him and driven him away to save myself.
I swallowed down the urge to vomit.
His gaze softened and he took my hand. “Show me where the food is?”
I led him out to my tiny patio, where I’d set us up a date that was almost exactly like our first one. Okay, so I’d replaced the picnic blanket and tealights with a proper table and candles, and I planned to upgrade the American cheese and ham to cheesesteak sandwiches, but the plastic picnic plates were pretty much the same as we’d used. I’d even found some daisies and made Leo a chain of them to put on his head like I had that day. I’d told him it was his crown.
I picked up the loop I’d left lying at his place setting. “I’ll just go and get the food, but first, your crown?” I offered it to him and he froze, just looking at my hand.
When he looked at me, his eyes shone suspiciously bright and I moved away a fraction, withdrawing before he could push me. I’d gotten this one wrong. I’d fucked up.
But he smiled and took the crown before grabbing my hand and pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “Thank you for remembering.” His words were nothing more than a whisper, and he settled the daisies onto his head in the same way he’d done the first time.
I drew a deep breath, filling my lungs properly for the first time all day and headed into my kitchen to prepare the subs.
“Can I pour you some wine?” I offered Leo some of the same wine we’d enjoyed when we ate at his house, and he nodded.
“We never enjoyed wine the first time around.”
“I don’t think my parents would have ever let me out again.” I shuddered as I remembered more of their rules.
He nodded.
“But we have good memories, too, right?” I tried to keep the hope out of my voice.
I had good memories—great ones. I just hoped he shared some of them.
He nodded and grinned. “Shit, yeah, we do. I mean how many hours did we spend looking at your photograph albums? We’d have your grandpa’s ones and the ones you’d started. How many dreams did we discuss? I’m so glad you got there. You’re living those dreams now.”
My breath caught and I swallowed. Talking about my photography with Leo was bittersweet now. They’d always be tainted by the pictures I’d taken and used to humiliate him. I needed to show him, to apologize again. I couldn’t tell him enough how much I regretted hurting him.
“I’m so sorry I hid you away. I can’t say it enough.” That was the decision that started everything, the first domino to fall. Everything after that had almost been inevitable based on that one bad decision. “I don’t want to hide you or hide what I feel for you. I