Page 113 of Except You

“Um, nothing. Well, I did a thing,” I say, and he rolls his eyes as the three buff guys push their way into the apartment.

“I am going to murder you tonight. I thought I had another day.”

“Yeah, about that. I guess… well, nope. No extra days. Today’s the day.”

He glowers at me, but it melts off his face when I pull him in for a kiss. I do it in front of all the movers and don’t give a damn. I’m getting more bold, more reckless, but this is what Beau does to me.

He makes me all crazy and wild.

But then again, we’re boyfriends so it’s what I was made to do.

“We’re boyfriends,” I remind him, in case he’s forgotten. “You can’t be mad for long.”

He huffs a laugh. “Plenty of boyfriends get mad. It’s totally in the realm of reason.”

I shake my head. “Not for us. We rise above.”

“Fine, but I am getting you back for this later,” Beau says with a small smile.

I grin down at him and then squeeze his ass gently before nodding toward his old bedroom.

“Let’s get the final things packed up, and then tonight, it’s you and me. At our place.”

“Ours,” he says, his eyes getting a faraway look.

“Ours.”

And it will be. Just as soon as he signs the paperwork to get his name on the title of the house. Then it will be official.

We spend the rest of the day with the movers, carrying boxes from his place to mine. We finally clear out his place, cleaning it up as best we can to make sure he gets the deposit back, while the movers go to my house to drop off the last of his stuff.

It’s the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

I hold his hand as we give the keys back to the landlord and walk away from this.

“A new beginning,” I tell him, and he nods.

“To us.”

“Us.”

When we finally make it back to our place, we begin the arduous task of unpacking. I barely get the first box ripped open when the doorbell rings.

I maneuver through the stacks of boxes—Bow-tie has a surprising amount of stuff—and open the door.

I freeze at the sight of my brother, Matt, on the other side, his hands in his pockets, his gaze settled firmly on the bushes beside the porch.

“Matt?” I ask, and his gaze slowly moves up to mine. His face has healed from the beating I gave it, as has mine. Enough time has passed that our external wounds have vanished. As for the internal ones, that’s yet to be seen.

“Hey,” he says and then purses his lips, glancing away for a second before settling on me once more. “Just came by to see how you are.”

I shift in place and grab on to the door handle for stability. I don’t want anything bad to happen today. Not when it’s supposed to be exciting and happy. A new beginning. I don’t need him coming in and ruining shit.

“I’m good. You?”

It’s a silly exchange of words, but we do it anyways.

“Max, who is it?” Beau asks, striding up next to me and pausing. His eyes narrow and he places a hand on his hip. “Oh. It’s you.”