Aftermath by Bailey Bradford (most important books of all time txt) 📗

Johnny had tricked him and done horrible things to him. Stefan didn’t think he’d have been able to ever try the whole love thing with anyone else, even if Johnny hadn’t killed him. Maybe that’s why seeing Lee and Darren so happy together made Stefan happy, too.

“Whatcha doing, Stef?”

Stefan blinked and was able to focus on the blond man beside him. Conner was really cute and he was nice and sometimes mean in a funny way—like when he hid Laine’s hat or when he slapped someone on the butt. And Conner had made sure Johnny went to prison for killing Stefan, how amazing was that? Sometimes Stefan still had trouble wrapping his head around the fact he had such a good friend.

“Let me guess, you were watching Lee and Darren and they snuck into the office for a little…” Conner waggled his eyebrows and Stefan giggled—and stared at Conner in shock. “Excellent, dude! I heard you make an actual noise! I knew you could do it! Let’s go give Laine and Severo a hard time, hopefully they aren’t busy— Oh! If they are, you can giggle! That would be hilarious!”

Yeah, until Laine did the cussing and Severo did the yelling, although that could be funny, too. Just thinking about it made Stefan giggle again, which must have made Conner happy because he started laughing.

“C’mon, Stef, let’s go have some fun!”

Well, that sounded like an excellent plan to him. He’d some back and try his new skill out on Lee and Darren later—much later considering the sounds coming from the office. Darren was probably going to end up getting in trouble with his boss again. Or maybe not, he thought as he saw Virginia standing in the hallway with a huge smile on her face. She chuckled and headed off and Stefan decided he needed to do the same. His friend was waiting for him, wanting to spend time with him. How cool was that? Then a thought occurred to him that made him giggle from sheer happiness as he raced toward Conner.

Life—the afterlife, Stefan corrected—was actually pretty awesome, and he really was one very lucky spirit.

* * * *

“You know, I’ve been thinking…” Lee began, letting the silence prickle at Darren until Darren couldn’t handle it. He always gave in and asked, even after almost a decade with Lee.

“What have you been thinking?” Darren prodded, leaning back against the couch and propping his feet on Lee’s lap. “Rub my feet while you tell me, pretty please.”

Lee snorted but began massaging Darren’s feet. “Well, you know how we said we’d discuss having kids?”

Darren’s heart began to beat faster. “Uh huh.” It’d been a topic they’d danced around a few times in the past, neither one of them wanting to push the other on it. Darren studied Lee’s expression, looking for hints as to what he wanted to do.

“Well,” Lee drawled. “I want to talk about it again.”

“We didn’t rule it out,” Darren said. “It’s not like it’s a taboo subject.”

“Right, but we haven’t decided anything, and I want…I want to decide.” Lee bit his bottom lip.

“Decide—what? If we want to have a family? How we want to have a family?” Darren asked.

Lee pressed on the arch of Darren’s foot and Darren groaned at the blissful sensation. “God, you know that’s my favorite spot when you do my feet.”

“Yes.” Lee raised that foot and kissed Darren’s big toe.

“Ick.” Darren tried to yank his foot back but Lee held tight. “I haven’t showered, and I was on my feet all day.”

Lee waggled his eyebrows at Darren. “And I love a man who smells, hmmm, manly.”

Darren laughed. “Manly, huh? I’ll remember to call my stinky feet odor masculine pleasure instead.”

“You do that.” Lee kissed his toe again, then lowered Darren’s foot back down. “Since you changed the subject, does that mean you don’t want to talk about it?”

Darren sighed and pulled his feet out of Lee’s lap. “No, it means what you were doing felt so good it was all I could think about. Now. No distractions. Let’s talk.”

Lee cleared his throat then said, “Well, I think…I think we should go for it.”

“Go for it which way?” Darren asked. He thought he knew, but clarification was key.

“I want kids,” Lee blurted out, tensing up as if he thought Darren would object.

Darren felt a bit lightheaded because his heart and pulse trebled. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Lee repeated, blinking at him. “That’s it?”

“Do you want me to argue?” Darren scooted closer and took Lee’s hands in his. “Why would I argue? I want what you want.”

“Because I want it?”

Darren bit his tongue to keep from laughing. The conversation wasn’t funny, but the question Lee had just tossed at him struck him as such. “Yes and no. Yes, because you want it, and no, because I want it, too, I just hadn’t decided when to broach the subject with you. We’ve been so busy lately, and I didn’t want to push.”

“Am I?” Lee gently squeezed his hands. “Pushing? Am I pushing the matter?”

“Neither of us are getting any younger, Lee,” Darren pointed out. “I think, if we want kids, we should get started on figuring out the how of that before we reach retirement.”

“We’re not that old,” Lee grumbled.

Darren winked at him. “But time flies. Ten years, Lee. We’ve been together almost ten years now, and it seems like only yesterday we found each other again.”

“That’s true. Time flies when you’re happy.” Lee frowned. “Not that I’d rather be miserable and have time drag.”

“No kidding. So.” Darren eased his hands from Lee’s and picked up his glass of sweet tea. He took a long drink then set the glass on the coaster. “So. What do you want to do?”

Lee shrugged. “I haven’t gotten that far. I wanted to talk to you first and make sure this is what we both wanted. With what we know about the afterlife, I— Well, I wouldn’t assume anything on your part.”

“What we know about the afterlife is that some people remain