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either side of Ryan’s body. “I love you.”
    “I love you, too.” Their bodies were loose with alcohol and exhaustion and love and they melted into each other without much purpose or ambition. They shed their clothes as a way to get closer to each other, not as a prelude to anything else. After a deep, languorous kiss, Ryan pushed back into the pillow, far enough away from Chris’s face that they could focus on each other’s eyes. “But I want to wait. I’m a California boy, and I want to get married in California. I don’t want to compromise or play the system.” Ryan was easygoing about most things, but every now and then he’d dig in his heels, and Chris could tell this was one of those times. It made him smile.
    “For a second there, I thought you meant you wanted to wait to have sex until after we were married. I would have had a problem with that. But…” he nodded seriously. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll wait until we can do it here.”
    “But we’re engaged, dude. We are fianc�s. We should probably have a party.”
    “We should set up a gift registry is what we should do. I want some loot.”
    “We should get towels.”
    “We should move in together.” Chris waited until he saw that Ryan wasn’t rejecting the idea completely. “Who knows how long it will be before we can actually get married? If we’re just waiting on a technicality for that… we should move in together. Definitely.”
    “Your place or mine?”
    “Maybe neither? I think Danny’s real estate agent has about given up on finding the three of them a place they’ll all like, but maybe she could find something for us.”
    “Yeah,” Ryan said. “We should do that. Absolutely.”
    “Yeah?” It seemed stupid that Chris had been so nervous about all this. It was Ryan, after all… he made everything better, made everything easy and relaxed and perfect.
    “You bet. I’m touring again in February and March, so we can try to find something before that and then you can take care of all the moving bullshit while I’m away.” Ryan grinned and shifted a little. “Now, get off me. We’ve got about four hours to get some sleep before the Kaminski Christmas madness begins.”
    Chris shifted obediently to the side. “This is the beginning of it, huh? They say that once you get married, your sex life goes to hell…”
    Ryan moved fast for someone as tired and tipsy as he was. Chris didn’t know how it happened, but suddenly Ryan was astride him, pinning his arms to the bed and staring down with an almost feral expression replacing his usual grin. “Our sex life isn’t going anywhere ,” he growled.
    Then, just as suddenly as he’d started, he stopped. “But right now, I’m going to sleep. Goodnight. I love you.” He rolled over and managed to burrow himself in under the covers, leaving room for Chris to spoon in behind him.
    “I love you too,” Chris whispered in his ear. “See you in the morning.” And he let himself drift away, safe and secure with the man he was going to marry.

CHAPTER FIVE
    “That’s Uncle Justin,” Dan said. He let RJ reach down and touch the glossy page of the small photo album, but gently pulled his hand away when it became clear he was trying to bring the plastic to his mouth for a nibble. “You haven’t met him; it’s too bad, because he really would have liked you. He liked kids a lot, and he really liked excellent little kids like you. And, look, it’s Christmas time in the picture! See the tree, there? A Christmas tree.”
    Dan let RJ help turn the page. His technique was a little rough, but he was figuring it out. “This is your Grandma and Grandpa Kaminski. See those people? That’s Evan and Aunt Tat, when they were little. And, look, it’s Christmas time in this picture, too. Those are stockings by the chimney… and, look ! It’s the exact same chimney we have. That picture was taken in this room. And if we ever get this show on the road, we’ll be opening our stockings here just