Promise Rock 03 - Living Promises (MM) (40 page)

Mikhail stopped talking then, and the two men kissed sweetly, a slanting bit of sunshine carving through the oak trees to bless them both with gold.
Their gathered family stopped sniffling long enough to applaud, and then Jeff felt himself drawn roughly into Collin's arms, and a tender kiss of his very own was his to return.
They pulled back, both tasting salt, and Jeff said, “Ours will be in the fall.”
Collin nodded. “Right here, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good. Good. We'll make promises. Like, I promise I don't need to wait until then to love you.”
Jeff nodded. “You'd better keep that promise, baby.” He sniffled and used his handkerchief. “It's what I live for.”
They pulled apart then to go congratulate their friends and to celebrate. Days like this one on Promise Rock were what made living sweet and being in love sweeter, and they were both old enough and wise enough to never, ever take that for granted.
And as long as they were hand in hand, they never would.

A
MY
L
ANE
is a mother of four and a compulsive knitter who writes because she can't silence the voices in her head. She adores cats, knitting socks, and hawt menz, and she dislikes moths, cat boxes, and knuckleheaded macspazzmatrons. She is rarely found cooking, cleaning, or doing domestic chores, but she has been known to knit up an emergency hat/blanket/pair of socks for any occasion whatsoever or sometimes for no reason at all. She writes in the shower, while commuting, while taxiing children to soccer/dance/karate/oh my! and has learned from necessity to type like the wind. She lives in a spider-infested, crumbling house in a shoddy suburb and counts on her beloved Mate, Mack, to keep her tethered to reality—which he does while keeping her cell phone charged as a bonus. She's been married for twenty-plus years and still believes in Twu Wuv, with a capital Twu and a capital Wuv, and she doesn't see any reason at all for that to change.