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“Travis is too cool for the whale unless he’s dating a girl who thinks it’s romantic. Alana has made me look bad enough for at least a week.”

“How is a fake whale in a museum romantic?” Jaime asked as they crowded onto the train. It wasn’t a packed car, but all the seats were taken. Sean leaned against Jaime instead of holding on to one of the poles, and fought a smile as Jaime wrapped an arm around his waist. “Is this somewhere you take all your dates?”

“No. I mostly go with Alana after class. It’s relaxing. We just have to make sure we don’t both fall asleep on the same day.”

“You fall asleep?”

“Not often.” Sean led the way out of the station, grabbing Jaime’s hand when he tried to go in the subway entrance to the museum.

“Why are we going into the cold?”

“The Seventy-Seventh Street door is better.”

“Was Alana serious about you being scared of the other rooms?” There was amusement in Jaime’s tone, but he adjusted his hand to thread his fingers through Sean’s as he said it.

“I’m not scared of them. I just think stuffed animals that used to be alive are weird.” He could handle them if he had to, but it felt like their dead, glassy eyes were judging him.

“And this door doesn’t have them?”

“It has the least and they’re easy to ignore,” Sean admitted as he led them into the main hall.

“Wow, I can see why you like it.” Jaime’s gaze traveled around the room as they descended to the main floor of the hall, and Sean pulled them to where a few people were already laying on the floor.

“You want me to lie on the floor of a public museum?” Jaime asked when Sean sat down and tried to pull him down after him.

“Yes. That’s kind of the point.” Sean tugged at his hand again, and Jaime at least sat down next to him. Sean lay down, admiring the way the dim blue light illuminated Jaime’s face. “Come on. Do you want me to tell Alana we came all the way over here, and you refused to lie down?”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to threaten your dates,” Jaime grumbled, but he finally stretched out on his back next to Sean, and he didn’t object when Sean moved closer to use his shoulder as a pillow.

“Worth seeing?” Sean asked after a few minutes of watching the shifting blue-and-white waves inside the glass ceiling above them.

“Yeah. Worth seeing.”

Chapter 12

T
HE
FOLLOWING
week, classes were as relaxed as they’d ever been before ending early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Sean had to leave without an airport good-bye because Jaime had one last class, but the good-bye he got for going to the train station with Jaime Wednesday morning was worth it. As much as part of him wanted to spend his days off in Jaime’s bed, he hadn’t seen his parents or his sister since they’d visited in the summer. Travis used to say it was a waste of money to travel for Thanksgiving when he’d also go back to California for Christmas, but he’d given up on that once he’d actually met Sean’s mom.

In California. My plane didn’t crash.

He sent the same text to Travis and Jaime before adding,
San Francisco is almost as cold as NY. But I’ll have to sleep alone. :(
, in a separate text to Jaime.

Travis texted back,
Learn to use your phone before you start sexting or I’m forwarding to Alana.

It was probably just as well that he had to get his carry-on from the overhead bin and get off the plane instead of texting Travis back. No one had ever picked up his bag from the baggage carousel to steal it, but he always thought one day it would happen.

He found his dad in the crowd before he even had to call. Flying home for holidays since he left for boarding school when he was fourteen meant they had a system down. But years of living away from home didn’t lessen the way it felt to have his dad wrap him in a hug after months away. BART was packed with people, but the trains emptied as they approached the east bay, and the parking lot at the station closest to his parents’ house was empty enough that his sister could pull up to the curb to meet them without a long wait.

“It’s Thanksgiving, not Christmas,” Elizabeth called out the window as their dad loaded his suitcase into the truck. “You’re here for three days. How do you even need a suitcase?”

“I brought presents.”

“You’re the reason my kids think Thanksgiving is the same as Christmas. Zach’s kindergarten teacher thinks he’s confused because he was excited to get presents on Thanksgiving. I’m blaming you if he gets held back.”

“His teacher is jealous Zach has a cooler uncle than she does,” Sean said. Elizabeth could complain all she wanted. Sean only got to see his niece and nephew four or five times a year. It was his job as an uncle to give them presents every time he saw them so they’d never decide they had better things to do than hang out with him. It was a show of how well he was doing that Zach ran out the door of his parents’ house as soon as they pulled up, and didn’t complain that he was too old for Sean to pick him up and carry him.

“Mrs. Rivera said toys are for Christmas, but she’s wrong, right?” Zach asked.

“She’s right. Your uncle is just confused,” Elizabeth said before he could answer.

“Then I want to be confused too,” Zach said with as serious of an expression a five-year-old could have.

Sean laughed, carrying Zach inside the house while his dad followed with his suitcase. Zach’s sister Jenny gazed at him with wide eyes from where she was stacking blocks on the living room floor with Elizabeth’s husband. She’d just turned one when Elizabeth and Eric had brought the kids to New York in June, and it had taken her two days to stop being afraid of Sean then.

“Hey. Remember me?” Sean sat down on the floor next to Eric and picked up a block to stack on her tower. She watched him for a few seconds before handing him another block and pointing out where it should go.

“When you have your own, I’m buying them all the noisy toys,” Elizabeth said, but she was smiling as she sat on the couch as his mom came in from the kitchen. His mom leaned down to kiss the top of Sean’s head before sitting next to Elizabeth on the couch.

“You’ll have to fight Travis for the job.”

“There’s plenty to go around. We can work together.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes when Sean took a break from playing with Jenny’s blocks to open his suitcase and pull out the tablet he’d brought for Zach. She shouldn’t complain. It was educational. It was supposed to help kids learn Spanish. If he’d tested it out a bit, it was just because he’d learned that, at this age, it was better to open things and put in batteries in advance.

“I don’t even have to ask where the inspiration for that one came from,” Elizabeth said as Zach started trying to figure out everything the toy did. “Do you at least have some pictures? I tried e-mailing Travis about him, but he was as unhelpful as ever.”

“I don’t have a lot.” For someone who took pictures, Jaime never seemed to want to be in them or take any of himself, but Aleksandra had sent one in the last week that Sean might have set as the background image on his phone. He handed his phone to Elizabeth so she could look.

“So, tall, dark, and handsome?” she said, tilting the phone so their mom could look. “I’d say it’s not your normal type, except I think your type is actually just any guy who is attractive.”

His phone buzzed as she started to hand it back, and he grabbed it before she could pull it back to get a look at the text.

I checked the weather. It’s much colder here. But my bed would be a lot hotter with you in it.

“And you’re going to be like this all weekend,” Elizabeth said when he ignored her to type back.

You can’t send me things like that when I’m playing with blocks with a one-year-old. But later….

Then text me when you’re in bed.

It was hours before Sean broke away from his family to go to his room upstairs. He felt like a zombie as he stripped to his underwear and climbed in bed. Getting up for one last class in the morning, combined with the time difference and chasing around two small children, had the text blurring on his phone as he typed.

Finally in bed. Are you still up? Can I call?

His phone started ringing instead, and he turned on his side in the dark as he held the phone to his ear.

“Hey. I was just about to sleep,” Jaime whispered. “I think Lupe’s already asleep in the living room, though.”

“Sorry. My family forgets it’s still two a.m. for me.”

“Does that mean you’ll wake up at a normal time for them?” Jaime asked, the amusement clear in his voice.

“I don’t like to set unrealistic expectations for the future.”

Jaime’s laugh made him wish Jaime was spooned behind him instead of across the country, although they only managed to share a bed once a week most of the time. It seemed easier when Jaime was only an hour away and Sean had the option to go over if he really wanted.

“Elizabeth said to tell you she’s impressed I’m dating someone smart for once. She also says you’re hot, so it’s probably not that I got better taste and more that I got really lucky.”

“You told your family about me?” Jaime asked.

“They asked. Is that bad?” Sean was smart enough to not tell Jaime how many questions his parents has asked about Jaime’s plans after he graduated, but he’d thought Elizabeth’s comments were safe enough.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Is Lupe staying all weekend?” Sean asked.

“Just Thanksgiving and the day after, so she can make me feed her. She’s leaving Saturday morning,” Jaime said, and then paused for moment before adding, “so you could come over after your flight gets in—if you’re not too tired from the trip.”

“If I am, can I just sleep in your bed?” Sean was going to blame his exhaustion if Jaime decided it was weird for him to just show up to sleep in Jaime’s bed.

“Yeah,” Jaime said after a silence that stretched a little long. “Yeah. That’s fine. You get back around two, right?”

“Yeah. I should drop some stuff off at home, but then I can come over.”

“Good. You should sleep. You’re tired, and I have to get up early to cook,” Jaime said.

“I can’t believe you’re cooking a whole Thanksgiving dinner yourself.” Sean always went home, but even Travis went to Steph’s house instead of cooking for himself.

“It keeps Lupe from being too homesick.”

“That’s good. I’ll call you tomorrow night?”

“Yeah. Now go to sleep. I’m going to laugh if your nephew wakes you up early.”

Sean agreed to sleep, but he let Jaime be the one to hang up after they said good night.

Chapter 13

B
ACK
IN
NY! I’ll text you when I know what train I’m on. :)

Sean was pretty sure all his friends and Jaime would argue against him taking a cab from the airport instead of the subway, but if he wanted to be lazy about dropping his stuff off at home before taking another cab to Grand Central, he was allowed to splurge.

“You’re not even staying, are you?” Alana asked as soon as he stepped in the door.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Sean called as he walked past to leave his suitcase in his room and change into something that didn’t smell like he’d been stuck on an airplane for hours.

“Just remember you have class Monday morning,” Travis said as he walked back out the door a minute later.

The train ride seemed longer than normal. He’d been up early to get to the airport, and he’d never been able to sleep on planes. He was just tired enough to be miserable and not tired enough to fall asleep sitting up on the train. Maybe Jaime would have pity for him and curl up around him in bed, even if Sean was the only one who was tired.

Sean leaned against Jaime as soon as he found him in the station at White Plains. He was too tired to care if Jaime thought it was weird that he just walked up and buried his face in Jaime’s neck as he wrapped his arms around his waist. Jaime let out a short laugh as his arms went around Sean’s back and held him close.

“Come on. Ten minutes in my car and then I promise you can sleep in my bed.” Jaime pulled back, but he kept his arm around Sean’s shoulder and let Sean lean against him as they walked to the car. Sean closed his eyes for just a second as Jaime started the car, and the next thing he knew, Jaime was shaking his shoulder.