Page 139 of Ethan

“Sure,” Avery said. “I’ll get back to you on that.”

“You do that,” Ethan said, picking up Hank’s breakfast again. “I’ve got a boyfriend to wake up.”

The first inkling Hank had that he wasn’t alone in bed any longer was a body landing right on top of him.

“Fuck,” Hank huffed out, his breath forced outwards from Ethan’s weight.

“Hey, baby,” Ethan said, grinning down at him from his perch. “Have a good sleep in?”

“It was fucking great, until you just demolished me,” Hank complained. But he already had one hand on Ethan’s hip and the other trailing up his sweatshirt-clad chest. “How was breakfast?”

He couldn’t get enough of touching Ethan; wasn’t sure he’deverget enough, even if the guy kept startling him out of sleep.

“Breakfast was good. Next time Liv’s in New York, I want you to meet her,” Ethan said, seriously enough that Hank’s heart rate probably doubled. Or maybe that was the way Ethan kept wriggling around on his lap.

“Of course,” Hank said. “Iwantto. And um, like in a couple of weeks, we’ll be up in Toronto . . . my parents and Annie’ll be at the game, and you should meet them. Well. Actually. They want to meet you. Demanded it, actually, when I told them at Christmas.”

“Sick. I’d love that,” Ethan said, grinning, even though Hank had already told him that.

Hank kept expecting some of this to be hard. To feel like a monumental adjustment that didn’t sit quite right immediately, that he’d need to get used to. But instead, all he felt was comfort and pleasure, an all-encompassing-warm-hug kind of feeling, like he’d sunk into something that already fit him just right.

“I got you something at the coffee shop,” Ethan said, leaning over Hank and distracting him even more.

When he righted himself, he was holding a to-go coffee cup and a little paper bag. Ethan shoved them at Hank’s face. “What’s this?” Hank said.

“Coffee, you idiot.” Then Ethan’s face softened. “And something else I promised you a long time ago that I never delivered on. Not til now.”

Curiosity piqued, Hank tore open the bag and pulled out a sandwich-sized item, wrapped in paper. He tucked one of the edges back, and sure enough, it was a breakfast sandwich. Agoodbreakfast sandwich too, if the way it smelled was any indication.

“It’s a breakfast sandwich,” Hank said blankly, staring at the bundle in his hands.

“You don’t get it?” Ethan was smiling still, but the eager look on his face had dimmed a bit. “You don’t remember.”

Hank risked dislocating his shoulder to set it, along with the coffee cup he’d plucked out of Ethan’s hands, on the table next to the bed. Turning back, he tugged Ethan down lower, closer.

“Tell me,” he murmured.

“In September, before you got sent down, we made a bet. If you scored a goal, you’d take me to dinner, and if I scored a goal, I’d bring you breakfast.”

“One of the good breakfast sandwiches from the deli down the street from Charlie’s apartment,” Hank finished for him. “I remember now.”

“I always thought I’d get them delivered the morning after our date and serve you breakfast in bed,” Ethan said quietly. “Never got that chance. But still owed you one and—”

Hank didn’t let him get any more out. Instead, he tugged him down the remainder, enjoying the way Ethan’s body blanketed him head to toe, and kissed him.

For a second, Ethan tensed up, like he hadn’t been expecting it, but then relaxed into it, kissing Hank back, his hands cupping his cheeks like he thought he could merge their two bodies together.

It was a slow, easy, sweet kiss until Ethan pulled back. Blue eyes soft and wide. “I like you so much, I just want you to know that.”

Hank knew. Could do one better. Maybe it was too soon, but Hank wasn’t sure he could keep the words inside anymore, not with the burning ember of Ethan’s gesture lodging deep underneath his skin, warming him up from the inside out.

“I love you too,” Hank said. He’d meant it to come out a little teasing, just in case maybe thatwasn’treally what Ethan meant. But instead, he’d not been able to say it anything but earnestly. Mean it anything but earnestly.

Ethan’s jaw dropped but then he was smiling, bigger and wider than Hank had ever seen. He buried his head into thespot between Hank’s neck and his shoulder, nuzzling into it and said, “Can’t fucking believe you. Swooping in and stealing all my romance thunder.”

“You mad?” Hank asked even though he already knew the answer.

“Never.” Ethan lifted his head. “We have some time before we have to be at the aquarium, do you wanna—”