Page 73 of Haven
Ezra laughed despite himself, his stomach tied up in knots. This wasn’t how he’d imagined this going, but he couldn’t lie to Mike. Not ever, but definitely not right now. Not about this.
“You could pull off the little sailor suit,” he said.
“If we’re gonna start doing costumes, I think I’d ratheryoupulled it off,” Mike teased. “Come on. Talk to me.”
“It’s nothing bad. At least, I hope it’s nothing bad.”
As sure as he was that this was whathewanted, Ezra couldn’t shake the little tendril of fear wrapping around his gut.
“Then it can’t hurt to tell me, can it?” Mike asked, voice soft and kind, genuinely concerned for Ezra’s wellbeing.
Ezra looked up at him, meeting his eyes and finding warmth and love there, with just the faintest trace of worry. He stared for long moments, and then after a while, couldn’t work out what had made him so anxious in the first place.
This wasMike. The love of his life, a man who wrote love and devotion onto his skin with every touch.
Ofcoursethis would be fine.
Ezra reached for his coat, shoving his hand deep in the pocket to find what he was looking for.
“I don’t have a box,” he explained. “This was my dad’s once, I dunno if it’ll fit you, but mom gave it to me to give to… well, to give to you,” he finished, holding his hand out to Mike and uncurling his fingers.
To reveal a thin gold band, a little worn with age.
“I was thinking,” Ezra spoke again before Mike could respond. “That umm. If you wanted. Marry me?”
Those weren’t exactly the words he’d planned or the order he’d planned them in, but the way Mike’s face lit up told him he’d gotten the idea across. And that Mike didn’t hate it.
“Obviously,” he said, a bright, brilliant smile making him look like… well, like an excited little boy at Christmas.
Which Ezra was pretty sure was exactly whathelooked like, too.
“Really?” Ezra asked, shocked that it had been so easy.
“Really.”
Ezra grinned right back, fumbling his way through helping Mike slip the ring onto his finger. It wasn’t exactly a perfect fit, but it really didn’t have to be. They weren’t exactly a perfect fit, either.
But they worked all the same.
And this was the best Christmas present Ezra had ever gotten.
