Holiday Cheer from Andrew Grey and Amy Lane

Grown Accustomed

Grown Accustomed

“WIGGLE YOUR toes,” Dr. Chu said, running a small tool along the ball of his foot as it pudged out from the cast.

Cassidy did as ordered, and Dr. Chu grunted approval.

“Good. Good—you have plenty of feeling there, and mobility. Your X-rays say it’s healing well, but not quite ready for a smaller cast.”

“No?” Cassidy asked, disappointed. In the two weeks since he’d returned home, he’d come to loathe the cumbersome thing—and the chair he was confined to.

“No,” Dr. Chu said kindly. “It was a big injury, Mr. Hancock. I hope you know how lucky you are that Dr. Taylor was there when that tree fell on top of you. He routed you directly to me—we were able to operate much sooner than we would have been otherwise. He may even have saved your leg.”

“No, no,” Cassidy said hurriedly. “I’m not complaining. Mark’s been—” How to complete that sentence? A godsend? A guardian angel? A friend?

The man in his bed who kissed him every night, whether or not they touched each other naked?

“—awesome,” Cassidy finished weakly. “He’s been so much help. I’m so lucky to have him and his family in my life.”

Dr. Chu’s mouth crinkled at the corners. “You’re dating him, aren’t you?” It wasn’t really a question, and Cassidy’s face went up into a quiet ball of flame. “It’s fine—he’s not your doctor, I am. But he’s my friend, and he’s been insufferably happy these past two weeks.”

“Yeah,” he rasped, surprised his sweater, the mutilated sweats that exposed his leg, the loathsome wheelchair, all of it, didn’t just immolate right then and send him down to the core of the earth to be turned to ashes. “Yeah, we’re, uhm, sort of a thing.”

“Excellent!” Dr. Chu said happily. “Oh my God, you are such a nice guy. And don’t tell Mark I said this, but Brad and I were in medical school together too, and he was such a prick . I’m so happy Mark’s with someone I don’t mind inviting to the office Christmas party. Do you want to come to the orthopedic ward Christmas party? It’s in three days, in the evening, my house. Mark isn’t working—I did that on purpose so he’d have no excuse not to come.”

“He’d make up an excuse not to come?” Cassidy asked, surprised, because this didn’t sound like Mark at all.

“I think he’s afraid Brad has been trash-talking him,” Dr. Chu confided. “Which he has. But I’ve known Mark since med school too, and he’s such a nice guy. I want him to fit in here. He’s a gifted surgeon and an excellent practitioner. It’s my way of sweetening the pot.”

Cassidy smiled, thinking he’d never heard so many confidences in his life as he had in the past two weeks. “Well, his family is here,” he said. “I think that’s his sweetened pot, right there.”

“And yet another reason he is beloved,” Dr. Chu said grandly. He patted Cassidy’s cast with a sigh. “Try not to hold the cast against us, okay? We’re going to take this one off, check your stitches—although I don’t see any inflammation in the exposed areas and you have no pain, so I’m pretty sure that’ll be shipshape. But we’re going to have to put on the same model here—padded fiberglass. Next trip, maybe we can do one of the sleek 3-D printed ones. Don’t lose hope.”

Cassidy sighed, and he tried not to think about the things he wanted to do with and to Mark when he had mobility again. “I won’t,” he said.

“And definitely come to the ortho ward party,” Dr. Chu insisted.

“I’ll try,” Cassidy told him, smiling warmly. “I don’t have anything to wear.”

“Who cares! People will be getting drunk and sleeping in the basement—I’ve got couches all over for company. Jeans and a sweater, it’ll be fine—or in your case, one-legged sweats. It’ll be fantastic. Just come.”

“We’ll see,” Cassidy promised. “Thanks, Dr. Chu.”

“Call me Harry!” They shook hands, and Harry pushed him out into the waiting room, where a pretty woman with Mark’s brown eyes and Yvonne’s pale blond hair awaited.

“How we looking?” Dani asked.

“Like you need to go down one floor to have the cast replaced,” Dr. Chu said.

“Will we see Mark?” Cassidy hadn’t meant to ask, because Mark told him he’d be in surgery all day and he hadn’t wanted to sound needy, but it sort of slipped out.

“Probably not,” Dr. Chu—Harry—said with a smile. “But you will see me. While you’re getting checked in there, I’ll see this next patient, and then I’ll come down to supervise the whole thing with the saw and the new cast. And then we can all dish about Mark—how’s that?”

“Mark’s boring,” Dani said flirtatiously. “Let’s find something else to dish about.”

“How about my Christmas party in three days,” Harry told her, obviously charmed. “You’re welcome too.”

“I’ll be there!” She giggled, and Cassidy shook his head as she turned his chair and started pushing him to the lab.

“You’re terrible,” he told her. He’d fallen a little in love with Dani Taylor the moment she’d breezed through his door last week, smelling of jasmine and—in her words—stale airport air. She’d been carefree and exciting, just like Mark, but unlike her brother, she didn’t carry all the emotional weight of rapidly becoming the center of Cassidy’s world.

“Yes, well, I had to do something,” she said easily. “Because we both know you’re going to politely back out and leave Mark to go all by himself.”

Cassidy’s cheeks heated in the cool of the hospital. “That obvious?”

She bent down and put her back into pushing the wheelchair, making him gasp in surprise—and, he could admit, excitement. She slowed for a corner, and they both laughed, and she answered his question.

“Not your thing, honey,” she said softly. “Anyone can see it—well, except for Harry, but that’s because he’s a good guy and he desperately wants my brother to stay here and be his second chair in ortho. But it’s okay if you don’t like parties or crowds. Remember? You and Mark are working on your boundaries?”

That had been one of the things that had come about after that terrible night when Mark had arrived late. Mark would do his very best to give Cassidy a heads-up if his timeline was going to change—and in the past two weeks, it had changed a lot. What was supposed to be a light schedule as Mark made himself comfortable in the hospital and his new home had evolved into full-time very quickly, and Mark had cursed repeatedly as his pager had gone off just when he was starting to relax.

In return, Cassidy needed to let Mark—and his family—know when too much was too much. He’d gone back to work—online—in the past week, and he’d had to regretfully ask Yvonne and then Dani if they could only come over during his lunchtime or after work. He was surprised to realize his company was in demand. Yvonne liked to sit and crochet with him, and she’d continued to teach him new things. Dani’s job as a consultant for a financial firm involved traveling about once a month, and when she wasn’t in the air or online, she confessed to enjoying the chance to sit in Cassidy’s living room and comment on stupid television with him.

“I know it’s dumb,” she’d said the Saturday before, “but I love living in the same town with everybody. Meeting someone nice who knows all the same people is really a treat.”

Keith had brought the kids over during the weekends—both when Mark was and wasn’t at home. He’d been so respectful of Cassidy’s woodworking gear—and so genuinely regretful that he was going to have to sell or store what he owned until he found another house—that Cassidy offered to let Keith use his.

It was such a simple, small thing, after all Mark’s family had done for him, but the big man had gotten a little misty-eyed over it and asked for ground rules.

Cassidy had set them, and Keith had been so amenable. “This is great,” he said, still looking like he could cry. “You don’t understand—I’ve made little wooden toys for the kids since they were born, and I hadn’t even started this year. I…. It’s so dumb, but after everything else, I just really hated to break the tradition.”

“I’m so happy to,” Cassidy said, meaning it. “Your family—they’ve saved my life this last month. It’s nice to be able to give back.”

Keith chuckled and shook his head. “You are so much better than Brad,” he said, and Cassidy didn’t know how to reply.

It was nice to hear, right?

But the point was, as Dani had said, he was setting boundaries and standing up for himself, which was good, because it meant that ball of anger, of resentment, of panic, that had built up in him the night Mark had been late hadn’t been allowed to form—and day by day, Cassidy had grown more comfortable with having these people in his life.

With having a life, actually. With having people who would watch out for him and care for him—but who would let him care for them back.

The day before, he’d tried to explain to Rose how the Taylor family had woven themselves into the fabric of his life.

“It’s so strange,” he said after logging back on after a lunch during which Mark had run in with sandwiches, then kissed his cheek and run back out to work in his mother’s yard. “I… I have my work family, everybody I talk to and you, and I really love that. But… but this is different.”

Rose grinned, the flatness of the screen not hiding a whit of her animated beauty. “Oh, honey, I’m so excited for you. I was so worried about you for so long. You’ll be able to make the Christmas Eve party? Please tell me you will. I’ll send a car for you myself—it’s just everybody in the office has talked about how much they miss you.”

Cassidy frowned. “But… but I’m so quiet.”

She cocked her head. “Yes, honey, but it’s what you did while you were quiet. It was the way you always made sure the break room had snacks, or that people got a plant or a card on their birthday. I know you’re my assistant, but that was never part of your job. You’re the one who requisitioned money for gifts when some of the girls went out on maternity break. You know how you got flowers yesterday?”

Cassidy smiled, warmed. “Yes—thank you. They’re very pretty.”

“You’ve been laid up for two weeks, darling. They’re late. Those are some very pretty, very late flowers, because Lucy in the billing department asked why we hadn’t sent them yet. She said you two had talked for an hour about who we needed to pay this month, and she realized she hadn’t seen a single bouquet of flowers in your home—and then she threatened to quit. So whether you realize it or not, you have made an indelible and beautiful mark on my company and my office culture, and I think the people here would like to thank you. Please say you’ll come.”

“I’ll have to ask Mark,” he began, blushing.

“Bring him,” she said. “I know you probably have one big social event a month inside you. I insist on making it mine.”

And he blinked, realizing it was true.

“Is that bad?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. You can be a perfectly wonderful person even if you don’t thrive on big groups of people. It’s just that in this case, it’s Christmas. And your coworkers miss you, and we’d like to see you. Just for an hour or two. Is that too much to ask?”

And the last sentence wasn’t flippant or manipulative. It was completely sincere. He realized she was worried, having seen him at Christmas parties in years gone by, because he’d never been more during those things than the person on the fringe of the crowd.

And he remembered that, while always maintaining her professionalism as his boss, she’d been a good one, warm in her way, and kind. She might not have remembered everybody’s birthday, but she’d been more than complimentary when Cassidy had, and while she’d always expected perfection from him as he helped schedule her time and gave input to the magazine itself, she’d also been willing to talk things out with him, so if an idea didn’t start out as perfect to begin with, it ended up as perfect between the two of them.

And of course, the fact that he’d just been hired to keep her schedule and get her coffee, but she’d promoted him so quickly up the ranks he’d been able to fulfill the dream he was living in right now.

“Of course it’s not,” he replied right then. “I’ll see if Mark can come.”

Mark couldn’t.

Lying in bed that night, Mark’s head on his shoulder because that was the easiest position with the cast keeping him mostly upright, Mark gave his regrets.

“I can’t. I’m sorry—Harry’s been scheduling me more and more this month, and I put my foot down for Christmas, but the only way I could do that was if I—”

“Worked Christmas Eve. I get it,” Cassidy said, and the wonder of it was, he did get it. God, he’d been so worried. That terrible day—that terrible outburst—the storm of weeping later. What if he couldn’t pull his emotions together? What if he was too broken to have the relationship he’d always dreamed of offered to him on a platter?

But Mark had been so patient—and it turned out he’d been right that night. Cassidy had been through a lot, and even the good things were hard on the emotions. Allowing himself some space—and imposing boundaries on Mark’s family—had given him the strength he’d needed to be an equal partner in their relationship.

It had given him the space to become used to being a son, a brother, an uncle, and a lover, all in the span of less than a month.

And now it gave him the courage to suggest something he might not have done a month ago.

“So, uhm, Dani?”

“Yeah?” she said, slowing the wheelchair and then parking it by one of the chairs in the waiting room. “Wait—hold that thought. I’m gonna go give your paperwork to the nurse.”

She returned in a moment and went through his wallet, which was stashed in a small bag hanging from the handle of his wheelchair, so she could return his medical card. He watched her with bemusement—boy, she was awfully familiar awfully fast, but she was just as irrepressible as her brother.

“There you go,” she said, patting the bag. “Right next to the yarn. And I love that magenta color. Whatever you’re making, it had better be for me.”

Cassidy snorted. “Your mom can make you whatever you want, and better than I can.”

She rolled her eyes in return, her little elfin face practically hidden by a thick, fluffy, homemade scarf in deep purple. “Yes, maybe, but you are a much better story. I have so much stuff from my mom, people are like, ‘Yeah, yeah, your mom rocks,’ but if I say, ‘It’s from my brother’s boyfriend who had a tree fall on his head and learned to crochet,’ I mean, that’s an icebreaker for cocktail parties, right?”

He shrugged. She wasn’t wrong. “Uhm, speaking of parties?”

Her breath caught. “What? You have one to go to and I get to be your beard?”

“Well, since you’ve offered to take my place with your brother, is there any way you can take his place with me?”

“In a way that’s sick and wrong,” she said, sounding judgy, “but since I know what you mean, then I have no problem with that.”

He gasped in horror. “Oh God. Yeah. Gross. Forget I said anything.”

“No, I will not. You were about to invite me to a party!”

Cassidy smiled—winningly, he hoped. “See, my office Christmas party used to be the only thing I ever got invited to, and I’m awkward and weird and shy and stupid. Anyway, it’s Christmas Eve. I’m sure you’ve got something with your family—”

“No, no—we all gather on Christmas Day,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Mom, Keith, and the kids are doing Christmas Eve small-style, and then we all converge on my mother’s house and make her think that three was a much bigger number than she supposed when she was pushing us out.”

“That’s terrible,” he said. “I don’t even know if I’m invited Christmas Day—”

She laughed so hard she snorted, and then covered her mouth to hide the snort and continued to laugh. “My God, you’re dense. Pretty—I can see why my brother’s so in love with you—but stupid. Very, very stupid. It’s a good combo. I’ll try for pretty and stupid for my next boyfriend. It sure beats pretty and manipulative or pretty and unfaithful. No, no—Mark had the right idea.”

“Stop it,” he said, but he was laughing because no, she really did never quit. “Okay—so Christmas Day is all family, and Harry’s thing is in three days, and Christmas Eve, I need a ride, I mean a date,” he teased, liking the way her brown eyes lit up over her hand as he said it.

“I think I could be your ride,” she returned soberly. Then—actually sober—she said, “It sounds pretty frantic. There are things you could be late for. Think you can manage it?”

“Only because I’m bailing on Harry’s party,” he said, feeling a little guilty.

She bent and kissed his cheek. “Honey, you are a dyed-in-the-wool introvert, and you are suddenly surrounded by people during the crazy time of the year. I think you’re doing outstandingly, if that’s a word, and I’d be happy to come with you to the Christmas party and meet all your work friends. And then dish to Mark about them later, and he’ll be terribly jealous, and that will be fun too.”

Cassidy’s cheeks heated, which was what they did whenever Mark’s name came up. “I, uhm, don’t want to make him jealous,” he said. “I mostly want to make him a hat to match the scarf I made him for Christmas.”

“Why don’t you?” she asked.

He shrugged, feeling sheepish. “Well, your mother was going to teach me in three days. She won’t have the kids, and, uh, you just volunteered to go to that party.”

She laughed. “Oh, you little schemer,” she told him fondly. “Okay. We’ve got this beat.” Then she paused. “But you are going to give me something for Christmas, right? Something homemade. In that color that’s in your bag there.”

Cassidy nodded at her, knowing he’d been caught. “Well, yes. If I wasn’t stuck with the leg, I’d make you something in my shop, but right now, unless you want perfume, this is what I got.” He blew out a breath. “I just wish I wasn’t using all your mother’s yarn. She says she has a lot, but I don’t know if she has enough for the both of us if we’re both obsessed.”

She gave him a look of pity. “You poor, sad boy. You have no idea what you’re letting yourself in for.” Then her eyes widened. “And I have a dilemma on my hands. Let’s see….” She pretended to consider. “I could let my mother clear out some of her craft room by feeding your addiction, which is only fair since she’s the one who got you hooked in the first place, or….”

She pulled out her phone. “I could text you all the places Mom buys her yarn and let you go to town for yourself.” Playfully, she tapped her lip. “Decisions, decisions….”

“You’re terrible,” he said again, but God, he couldn’t remember laughing this much with anyone.

Except maybe Mark.

“I am,” she agreed. “Now grab your phone, son, ’cause we’re about to go online yarn shopping. And believe me, I’ve heard my mother say those words enough times for them to hold some weight.”

And that’s what they were doing when Cassidy got pulled into the cutting room to have his cast replaced. He was so intrigued by all the links she sent him he didn’t have time to mourn that he was stuck in that tremendous bulky cast for another two weeks at the very least.

It was like all the good new things in his life really did outweigh this hundred-pound chunk of fiberglass on his leg.

HE TOLD Mark about his and Dani’s plan that night as they lay in bed, watching television. Well, Mark might have been watching television, but Cassidy was watching Mark. He’d been assisting in surgery for a vehicular trauma most of the day, and he’d texted Cassidy he was going to be late about a minute before Cassidy truly got worried.

Then he’d slid into the house without his usual bluster and excitement, and Cassidy found he was worried about something completely different.

“What?” Mark asked, catching his gaze.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Cassidy said. “You’re sad.”

“Today was hard,” he said simply. “There’s a reason surgery isn’t my favorite. I mean, it’s the job and I’m good at it, but Harry’s got the heart of a surgeon.”

“Will the patient be all right?” Cassidy always hesitated to ask. As much as he loathed the monstrosity on his leg, he was also acutely aware it could have been so much worse. He’d been given a second chance at life—and a group of people to assist him in taking it.

“No,” Mark said softly. “At least, I don’t think so. Harry’s going in after he’s stabilized, but he took one look at the X-rays and agreed that it was a fool’s errand. We should have just amputated the leg and saved the risk of infection. But… but it’s not just a leg, you know? It’s this person’s whole plan for his life, his self-concept. And they’re doing wonderful things with prosthetics now, but it’s just so unfair.” He shrugged. “But there you go. Life’s not fair. If life was fair, you and I would have met while fixing up my mom’s yard and you wouldn’t have needed a tree crashing on your poor body.”

“But… but we would have met working on your mom’s yard, right?”

Mark rolled onto his side, and Cassidy hit Pause on the remote. He loved it when Mark did this, looked at him seriously with those bright brown eyes, talked to him like every conversation was important.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling slightly. “One day, Gus-Gus would have broken loose and run straight to you, because he’s smart enough to know that someone who loves dogs like you isn’t to be taken for granted. Or you would have shown up to clean my mom’s gutters and I would have come out to talk to you, because you’ve got pretty eyes. Something—something. I don’t think life would be that cruel to let us just sit there, day after day, as neighbors, when we could be so much more.”

Cassidy laced their fingers together and raised Mark’s knuckles to his lips. “I’m sorry your job was hard today,” he said sincerely. “But I’m so glad you’re the kind of person who will work to do the right thing. You’re so smart—you’re so good. I… I want to be someone in your life who makes that easier—who supports that.”

“You are,” Mark said. He scooted forward so he could cup Cassidy’s chin and kiss him, his body warm and his lips soft. It was a tender moment, but as happened so often when Mark kissed him, it flared from tender to inferno in a matter of heartbeats.

For a few moments there was no sound in the room but their muffled hmm s of pleasure as Mark made free with his hands, rucking Cassidy’s shirt up, grinding their groins together. Cassidy tried to keep up, but he moved slower, more methodically. He just hated to miss any part of Mark’s body that might make him wriggle and moan.

But that usually meant he was the one wriggling and moaning and out of his mind first.

“Here,” Mark whispered, pushing him onto his back. With deft movements, he stripped off Cassidy’s wide-legged sleep shorts and boxers, and then his T-shirt.

Cassidy’s eyes popped open as he realized he was well and truly naked, with the exception of the hated albatross on his leg. “Uhm…. Mark?”

Mark sat up on his knees and pulled off his shirt, grinning. “What?”

Cassidy swallowed and chinned toward his erection, which had not deflated one bit as the air—and Mark’s eyes—stroked along its length. “Feeling awfully, uhm, naked?”

Mark cackled, mischief in his every move. “Really? That’s great! I like you naked!”

“But the lights?” he whispered. That first night, they’d kept partially clothed, and after that, well, Cassidy was more comfortable in the dark.

So many secrets—and so alone—for so long. Was it any wonder? But being comfortable naked still didn’t come easy.

“Leave them on,” Mark said, shinnying out of his own pajamas in a quick movement.

Cassidy was torn between gaping at his fit, rangy body or protecting his own body, which was becoming a little softer than he’d have liked, in spite of the upper-body workout. “But….”

Mark rolled over and kissed him, their bare chests rubbing, their body heat mingling, and Cassidy lost the thread of everything but that kiss. Then Mark straddled him in one quick movement and bent over, nibbling down Cassidy’s neck.

“Nungh!” Cassidy tried again to ask what he was doing, but that same sound came out, and he just abandoned himself to it.

Mark fumbled with something under his pillow, and Cassidy felt the cool slick of lubricant smoothed over his cock, and had a light bulb. “We’re doing this?” he asked. “I thought…. You said you usually topped!”

“I do,” Mark mumbled, positioning Cassidy’s erection right at the place he wouldn’t be, if Mark was going to top.

“But what are we—”

Mark paused. “I want this with you,” he rasped. “Do I want to be inside you? Yes. Can I do it the way I want right now? Not without hurting you. This, we can do. Do you want me?” He inched his body down, just a little, enough to stretch his entrance, and Cassidy’s eyes rolled back in his head.

“Yes…,” he hissed, lost in it. Mark’s slow, easy descent gave the lie to his gruff words, and in a moment they were lost in the thrust-and-recede pattern of lovemaking that made the world go softly around.

“Wow,” Cassidy mumbled. “This is… wow!” Mark’s body engulfed him, hot and satiny, and Mark supported his weight with hands on Cassidy’s chest. It was like he was surrounded by all things Mark Taylor, and all things Mark Taylor were so, so good.

“Mm….” Mark closed his eyes and concentrated on his rhythm, and Cassidy took the opportunity to touch him some more. Pinching his nipples never got old—they were sensitive and pebbly, but now, as Mark shifted his hips back and forth, the motion seductive and undulating, Cassidy wanted them closer. He cupped Mark’s neck, feeling Mark’s pulse against his palm, and closed his eyes in awe.

“You feel so good,” he said brokenly. “So beautiful. How is it you’re here with me?”

“Mm….” Mark’s sensual mouth twisted a little in response. “Destiny,” he replied. “Meant to be here. Ah…. God, Cassidy, you’re awesome. Stay here inside me. Stay.”

Cassidy’s hips had begun to pump of their own volition—albeit crookedly, one part of him mobile, the other not. But the grip around his cock stayed tight and velvety, and Mark arched his back and cried out. His own cock bounced up and down with his movements, and Cassidy moved one hand from his neck to that jutting piece of flesh.

Mark moaned again, head tilted back, and to Cassidy’s surprise, he came, semen arching out from his tip, landing across Cassidy’s abdomen, hitting his chest. The sight of him, abandoned in pleasure, in the two of them, sent Cassidy over the edge, and he grabbed Mark’s hips and gave an awkward thrust, groaning in completion and seeing stars behind his eyes.

He was still spurting when Mark collapsed across his chest, and for a moment Cassidy’s breaths carried the two of them, until Mark gave a little grunt of unhappiness.

“I should probably roll off you, but I don’t wanna,” he whined.

“I am not having a problem with this,” Cassidy told him, eyes still closed. “I could be here forever.”

“Okay,” Mark mumbled, still sprawled. “Let me move my clothes in. I’ll keep them in the guest room dresser. I’ll be here forever.”

Cassidy’s breath caught, and he stopped breathing entirely, stunned by the suggestion.

Mark’s body stiffened, and he slid off Cassidy’s cock in a mess of come. “Unless, of course, it’s too soon,” he said, sounding chastened.

“No,” Cassidy gasped, surprised at himself. “I mean, probably, but I don’t care. You’re practically living here anyway. Stay here until your brother’s situated. Or, uhm, after, if we’re still happy. I’m happy. Are you happy? The sex we just had was wonderful, by the way. Are we moving in?”

Mark rested his cheek against Cassidy’s chest. “I’m really happy,” he murmured. “But we should wait a while. Still, keep it in mind. I mean, I was freeloading off my mom before I came over here. We do what we just did much more often, I’ll be freeloading off you for the rest of my life.”

“Every night,” Cassidy said dreamily. “We could do that every night.”

Mark laughed throatily and licked a path across his nipple. “We could try,” he said.

Sanity asserted itself. “Maybe,” Cassidy mumbled, “we should, you know, wait until I get the cast off, at least. I’ll have a sad little spider leg until I can work it back to health. You may want a chance to run away once you see it.”

Mark laughed some more and licked again. “I doubt I will,” he said, “but that’s fine too. Maybe now that you’ve topped, you’ll have to wait until I can top you to see if I’m the kind of lover you want living here full-time.”

“I do,” Cassidy sighed. “I don’t see that changing.”

The moment went still, and the face Mark turned toward him was completely serious. “I felt so shitty when I left work, and you made me so happy tonight. I know it’s too soon—I do. But Cassidy?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m falling in love with you. I’m probably already there. I just want you to know that’s where I’m headed. If you’re not ready for happy-ever-afters and two toothbrushes and my nieces and nephew’s pictures all over your fridge for ever and ever, you need to let me know now so I don’t get my heart ripped out.”

Cassidy caught his breath, his eyes burning. “You know you’re talking about all I’ve ever wanted for my entire life, right? You and me, together, your family all in my business—even your dog, who is cowering under the bed—you know that’s… that’s my fantasy. That’s like my reward for clean living. I’d be stupid to turn my back on that—and I’d really be stupid to turn my back on you .”

“You don’t strike me as a stupid man,” Mark murmured. “I think this just might work.”

Cassidy laughed again, not sure how much of what they just said was foolishness and how much of it was promises, but determined to show Mark that it was all possible. “Only stupid thing I’ve done so far is wait for a tree to hit me so we could meet,” Cassidy said. “Once is enough. We’ve met. I’m going to count my blessings.”

Mark gave a rumble of laughter and pushed up to take his mouth. “I care about you so much, Cassidy Hancock. You’re my blessing, and I want to count on you every day.”

Cassidy had no words for that—but then Mark was kissing him, and he was flying and words were unnecessary.

Even when they were true.

CHRISTMAS TUMBLED down upon them at warp speed. Cassidy regretfully dodged Harry’s Christmas party, but he was able to finish the matching hat for Mark, which, as far as first Christmas presents went, he was pretty damned proud of.

He also managed a scarf for Dani, and a sweet quilted project bag for Yvonne, which he bought online from one of Dani’s sources. He bought the kids small gifts, even LizBet, but after seeing the doll furniture, carved action figure, and very basic string puppet Keith produced from his woodshop, he promised himself he’d up his game next year. Crocheted toys were very en vogue right now, he thought. He would have to investigate.

And he’d also made a scarf and hat for Rose. He gave them to her on Christmas Eve, when Dani, true to her word, took him to the Christmas party. His coworkers seemed thrilled to see him, and for the first time, he realized that he’d never been invisible. That thing he’d said to Mark right after surgery, about having nobody—that hadn’t been true.

He’d always had people who would have cared about him if he’d let them.

It just seemed that Mark and his amazing family had been the ones to show him that.

Dani brought him home that night, happy and breathless and still so very, very ready to have a break from people. Gus-Gus, who had been staying in his house for longer and longer intervals without incident, jumped about the wheelchair until Cassidy dropped his hand to fondle the oddly blocky head. He wondered for the millionth time how he could have lived his life so long without a dog.

“Now, remember,” Dani told him as she pushed him down the hallway, “the kids will be up at ungodly a.m., but you’re not expected to be, okay?”

“But I don’t want your mom to have breakfast go cold.” He grimaced. “Although I should probably not worry too much about breakfast. I need to count my calories if I’m ever going to be able to put weight on my leg again.”

Dani blew a raspberry. “Only you,” she said bluntly. “Only you, Cassidy Hancock, would be worried about your diet on Christmas Eve. Now I’m going to help you get into your jammies and take Gus-Gus out for a quick piddle.” She paused. “After I take you in for a quick piddle, of course.”

Cassidy winced. He recalled a time not too long ago when he would have held it, anxious and in pain, because he didn’t want one more person to help him undress. But Dani had insinuated herself as easily into his life as everyone else in her family. He wasn’t ecstatic about the situation, but he was grateful for the help.

“As long as you remember the rule,” he said soberly.

“When you get the cast off your leg, nobody in the family shall ever speak again of how Mom and I got to see you wee. We get it, Cassidy. We’ve signed on the dotted line, in blood—it shall never leave our lips.”

Cassidy snorted. What that possibly meant was everybody he ever met from this moment on was going to hear how Mark’s entire family had to help him to the bathroom in the early days of their relationship. A month earlier, it would have been the end of the world.

Now he was merely hopeful he’d have other, better, happier, and funnier memories to contribute to the Taylors, so this one could quickly be forgotten.

But not all of it, he thought, after the embarrassing part was over. With Dani’s help, he was changed and comfortable, sitting on the bed under the covers with Gus-Gus sprawled on the bed between him and Dani, both of them asleep in front of A Christmas Story when Mark arrived home.

“This is frickin’ adorable,” he said softly, walking into the room and kissing Cassidy on the cheek.

Dani yawned and blinked, and then grinned at her little brother. “And so is that,” she said, indicating the kiss. “But now I’m pretty sure you want me to be gone.”

“You can sleep in the guest room,” Cassidy said. Dani apparently lived a couple of miles away in an apartment with a roommate who watched her cat when she was away for business.

She smiled softly but shook her head. “All my presents for people are at my apartment,” she said on another yawn. “But thank you. Next time I keep you company while Mark’s at work, I’ll definitely do that.” And with that she walked around the bed and gave Mark and Cassidy both kisses on the cheek before heading out.

Mark stripped quickly after that, dressed in his pajamas, and cozied up to Cassidy while the movie wound down. When it was done, he turned off the television and rested his head against Cassidy’s shoulder.

“Good party?” he asked, sounding half-asleep.

“Yeah.” Cassidy launched into a highlight reel, mostly designed to make Mark laugh, which was pretty much what Mark had given him about Harry’s party.

When he was done and Mark was somnolent against him, he reached to turn off the light, and Mark slid down next to him.

“Cassidy?” Mark mumbled, burrowing closer.

“Yeah?”

“I have so many plans for us next Christmas. About how we’ll make each other’s parties. And what I want to give you. And how we’ll spend the year between now and then. Tell me I’m not the only one.”

“No,” Cassidy whispered, his eyes burning. “No. I have so much hope for us. I want to tell you I love you, but it’s probably too soon. I should probably wait until my cast comes off and you don’t have to help me around my own house. But I’ll save it for then, okay?”

“Yeah,” Mark said. “I don’t think that’s how it works. I think if we love each other now, we get to say it now. Merry Christmas, Cassidy. I know it’s quick, but I love you.”

“I love you too.”