Fresh Ink: Irons and Works Short Story Collection by E.M. Lindsey

Author:E.M. Lindsey [Lindsey, E.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

After this many years together, Rowan had developed a sort of extra sense when it came to James. It was like a little itch under his skin, or burning ears, and it happened whenever there was an upset. He felt it on his drive home and he was entirely unsurprised to find James in the middle of the living room floor, legs off, starfished on the rug.

Rowan dropped his keys and his phone, shrugged off his jacket, then marched over and laid directly on top of him. James let out a small grunt, then wrapped his arms around Rowan’s back and pressed his stumps tightly against his hips.

“Chocolate chip pancakes kind of night?” he murmured.

James groaned loudly. “Darlin’… why are you so good to me? You should leave my sorry ass in the dirt and never look back.”

“Are we really going to have this fight tonight?”

James sighed and his body sagged back into the floor as he let his thighs and arms fall with a heavy thud. “No.”

Rowan rolled off James and onto his side, propping his head up on his hand. He reached out, tracing some of the cogs inked into James’s temple. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. But…also, yes.”

Rowan fought back a smile. When James was struggling with his internal need to just hide from his problems, it shouldn’t have been cute, but Rowan found it goddamn adorable. “How were the puppies?”

James slapped his hand over his face. “Ridiculously cute. I think I want two.”

“So get two.”

James dropped his hand and shot an accusing look over at Rowan. “Just like that, huh?”

Rowan’s brow furrowed. “Yes, just like that. I’m lost, baby. You have to use a few more words to explain why this is pissing you off.”

James curled onto his side and wrapped his hands around the backs of his stumps. “I know I’m bein’ a goddamn child about this. I just…I guess I had a panic attack or something. My feelings were just so dang huge and I was lookin’ at these puppies and thinkin’ about how would make us a family, and⁠—”

“We’re already a family,” Rowan reminded him. He reached out with his free hand and gently pried James’s fingers off his legs, bringing one hand to his mouth so he could kiss his palm. “Puppies might add to that, but it’ll be the same house. The same marriage. Same life.”

James met his gaze. “If I could have kids—like, say we lived in some universe where you could knock me up. And say we was tryin’ to prevent it, but it happened anyway…”

“I wouldn’t leave you,” Rowan said automatically. He pushed up to sit and offered his hand out, then he gathered James close. With his legs off, he fit on Rowan’s lap perfectly, and Rowan kissed him long and slow until the pain in his back from sitting like that was too much. “I don’t think you seem to understand that you’re it for me. Hell or high water—isn’t that what you always say?”

James rolled his eyes, but he nodded.

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