Looking For Love (Semper Fi, The Forever Faithful Series Book 2)

by Stella Starling

  She wagged her tail happily, and he decided to take that as agreement that the tamale incident would stay between the two of them. He also decided not to worry about his little flub. At two years post-surgery, it was pretty clear that he’d never master depth and distance the way other people did, but he’d made his peace with that. The probably-never-going-to-drive-on-public-roads thing was kind of a bummer—and he was definitely holding out for the self-driving cars Elon Musk kept promising the world—but having to rely on friends, Ubers, and public transportation wasn’t really that big of a deal.

  Micah grinned. It never failed. The “bad” in life always seemed to make room for something better, and not being the driver meant he was free to do other things when he and Zach were on the road. Case in point, on the way over to his mother’s house tonight, he’d decided that he definitely needed to make the birthday blowjob thing a tradition… and even if Zach’s birthday wasn’t technically until tomorrow, practice was always good, right?

  “Careful, bro, you’re wearing your sex face out in public again,” Sam said as Micah walked back into the kitchen.

  “Sam,” Amanda said, looking up from the cheese Rachel-Lyn had talked her into grating. “Ana doesn’t want to hear that kind of language.”

  Micah slapped his hands over his cheeks, looking over at Ana as he started to blush furiously. Was he really that transparent?

  Sam snickered, stealing a couple of beef taquitos off the counter and slipping one of them to Precious without making any effort whatsoever to be sneaky about it.

  “You’re going to spoil her, Sam,” Micah said, rolling his eyes.

  Losing battle.

  Sam grinned unrepentantly, popping the second taquito into his own mouth. “Dude, she looked hungry. Don’t be mean.”

  “But you will spoil your own dinner, too, nene,” Ana admonished Sam, waving a wooden spoon at him from her place at the stove before turning to Micah’s sister. “Do not worry about these old ears, Amanda. If Zachary inspires that face on our Micah, then it is a good thing, no? It is part of what keeps love alive. And a few wrinkles do not make me a prude. I, too, once had a man who inspired a face like this.”

  Gary, Rachel-Lyn’s husband, popped his head into the kitchen. “I can’t find the extra chairs in the garage. Did Tanja move them?”

  Rachel-Lyn shrugged, waddling over to him with a tray of something delicious smelling in her hands. “I’m not sure, babe. She’s up in her office talking medicine with Zach, if you want to go ask. But put these on the table first, yes?”

  “Anything for you, honey,” he said, winking as he patted her oversized belly and stole a kiss.

  “Sex face,” Sam whispered, nodding toward Rachel-Lyn as Gary left the room.

  “Sam, she’s pregnant.”

  “Dude, I’m pretty sure that doesn’t mean—”

  “Stop,” Micah interrupted, holding up his hand and laughing. “Just, no, okay, Sam? She’s my sister.”

  “Exactly my point earlier,” Amanda said, grinning over at the two of them. “You’re my brother. And even if Ana doesn’t mind hearing it, I prefer the PG version of Micah’s love story, thank you very much, Sam.”

  “Well, I prefer the action-adventure version,” Sam said. “Seriously, skydiving tomorrow is gonna be awesome.”

  All of Zach’s military friends were joining them for Zach’s birthday, and Micah was excited, too. It would be his first time. He’d be jumping tandem with Zach, and he couldn’t wait to see what the sky looked like when he was actually up in it.

  “Please don’t remind me about tomorrow, Sammy,” Amanda said, going pale. She turned to Micah. “Musje, are you sure you want to—”

  “Yes,” he said, grinning. “Totally.”

  She pressed her lips together tightly, but didn’t push him, which made him smile even wider. The three M’s had been slowly dialing down the overprotectiveness ever since the hospital incident with Zach the year before. Very slowly… but at least it was happening.

  “Sam, can you get the drinking glasses, please?” Rachel-Lyn asked, slapping his hand when he tried and failed to snag another taquito and redirecting him toward the dining room. “I think we still need napkins put out, too. And you might check with Gary on the chairs?”

  Precious whined softly, sinking down onto her belly as she eyed the taquitos. She looked utterly pitiful.

  Micah laughed. Precious was a total ham, and she’d pull out all the stops when food was involved. Even though she was well-fed and at a healthy weight now, she loved to play up the starving-stray sob story… especially around Sam.

  “I tried, Presh,” Sam said, giving her an apologetic shrug as he headed out of the room. “You’re just gonna have to turn those big brown eyes on someone else.”

  “A few taquitos will not hurt her, no?” Ana said, just as much a sucker for Precious’s hungry-and-pitiful routine as Sam was.

  “No,” Micah and Rachel-Lyn said simultaneously.

  “We can’t spoil her, Ana,” Micah added, flushing guiltily as he thought of the tamale. But that had been an accident.

  Ana gave a dramatic sigh, shaking her head in disappointment. “I suppose I will just have to wait for this little one, then.” She nodded toward Rachel-Lyn’s stomach. “An old woman needs someone to spoil.”

  “You spoil all of us,” Rachel-Lyn said, pulling Ana in for a one-armed hug and taking the spoon from her. “But please, let me finish this. We’re almost ready to put dinner on the table, anyway.”

  “Let me take you into the dining room, Ana,” Micah said, ignoring her automatic protest from long practice and letting her lean on his shoulder as they walked.

  He loved the way she and Rachel-Lyn had bonded over cooking, and by now, the whole family had adopted her as an honorary grandmother. Having her and Sam with them tonight really did make it feel like a family dinner, and the best part was knowing that Zach felt it, too… especially since his mother remained estranged.

  Good riddance, though, in Micah’s maybe-not-so-generous opinion.

  Karen Hunter didn’t deserve Zach any more than Zach’s father had, but between Ana and the Rawlings and all of Zach’s good friends, Micah was pretty sure that Zach was at peace with that. And he was totally sure that his family, at least, considered Zach one of them now. They adored Zach.

  “Thank you, Micah,” Ana said, lowering herself into one of the dining room chairs. “You are a good boy. It makes my heart happy that Zachary has found you.”

  “Mine, too,” Micah said, grinning.

  “The gift there, it is one of your pictures?” Ana asked once she was settled, waving a hand toward the side table where the family had piled a few presents for Zach’s birthday.

  Micah glanced over, squinting to try to bring the colorful array into focus. One of them definitely looked like some kind of framed print. A big one. The size and shape were pretty obvious, even to Micah, but it wasn’t from him.

  “Um, no? I don’t know who that’s from.”

  “Don’t know who what is from?” Sam asked, walking into the room behind Gary, both of them carrying the extra chairs.

  “That picture,” Micah said, pointing. He glanced around furtively, lowering his voice. “Oh my God, I suck at surprises. I mean, I don’t know for sure it’s a picture, because it’s not from me. Do you think Zach heard? I’d hate to spoil someone else’s surprise.”

  Sam laughed. “Nah, I think he’s still upstairs with your mom, but don’t worry about it, bro. It is pretty obvious.” He put the chairs he’d been carrying down and went over to it, flipping over the gift tag and then shooting Micah a questioning look. “Says it’s from you, dude.”

  Micah bit his lip, puzzled.

  “Um… no? I got Zach some stuff but—” he blushed, “—I really do suck at surprises. I already made him unwrap it all.”

  Getting presents for Zach had been super fun, actually. Micah had been doing it for months, and every time he found something he thought Zach would like, he’d wrappe
d it up and meant to wait… but every time, he’d ended up slipping up and ruining his own surprise, and then insisting Zach open it right away so Micah could see if he liked it.

  Micah grinned. Zach had accused Micah of spoiling him, but that was most definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Zach was always giving him things. Besides, Micah’s art sales had taken off like crazy, which was still both a little bit shocking and a whole lot of wonderful, and since it had been bringing in more money than he actually needed—enough that he was seriously considering quitting medical transcription—he’d had some disposable income to play with.

  “You never could stand to wait when it came to presents, Micah,” Amanda said, coming into the room with the tray of taquitos. “And I thought that shirt Zach’s wearing tonight looked a lot like the one you picked up when we were shopping last week.”

  Micah blushed again. “Well, I do have one thing to give him still, but it’s not wrappable?”

  “Oh, right. The video?” Sam asked, snagging a mini shrimp tostado. Zach and Tanja’s voices sounded on the stairs, and he whispered a contrite, “Oops. Sorry, bro. Unless he already knows?”

  Micah shook his head. He was actually pretty sure he had managed to keep that one a secret so far… which was actually kind of amazing, given how many people had been involved in putting it together.

  Back during baby-gate, Zach had mentioned to Janis that he had some money set aside. Later, when he’d decided to move out of Cielo del Mar and buy a house so that he could keep Precious, Micah had assumed that the money was what Zach would be using. He’d been wrong, though. And when Zach had explained why—that it was money he’d never wanted to touch because of where it had come from—Micah had pointed out that he’d have to do something with it… and that maybe that “something” could be using it to help someone else.

  Or maybe—once they’d seen the actual balance in the account John Pearce had been paying into for the past ten years—it could be helping a lot of someone elses.

  Zach had liked the idea. He’d decided to use the money to help save dogs like Precious from euthanization and retrain them as service animals, and the lady from Zach’s father’s office had helped him get the program set up as a nonprofit. She’d even arranged to have someone manage it for him through John Pearce’s estate.

  In the six months since it had started, the program had already saved more than a dozen dogs, matching them with blind teens who would work with them during the two-year guide-dog training process. Zach’s nonprofit—Pippin’s Precious Paws, totally cheesy, according to Sam, but Micah adored the name—would cover all the training costs and the dog’s basic care for the first few years, which Micah had been over the moon to hear. The cost of a service animal often held people who could really benefit from them back from getting one.

  Micah had helped Zach put together a series of publicity videos featuring Alicia and Pippin—which had meant visiting them up in Washington State, which had been awesome—and helping with that had given him the idea for Zach’s present: a video “thank you card” from the program’s participants that included footage of some of the training sessions along with heartfelt words from the teens and their families.

  Because honestly, sometimes Micah didn’t think Zach really got just how wonderful he was.

  He knew that Zach still got a slight twinge from the fact that it was his father’s money, but he was making an enormous difference to a lot of people, and Micah hoped that the video would help him see that.

  Zach was in the middle of an enthusiastic discussion with Tanja about something related to Zach’s first-year medical school studies as the two of them entered the dining room, and Micah grinned, his heart flooding with all the lovely things that Zach always inspired in him the moment he saw him.

  He loved Zach’s passion about things.

  And his good heart.

  And the fact that he got along so well with the three M’s.

  And a lot of other things, too… things that sort of flew out of his mind when Zach looked over and caught his eye. A little thrill went through Micah at the slow smile Zach gave him—just like it always did—and his resident happy-butterflies did a quick little two-step in his stomach, probably making him wear the love version of what Sam had called his sex face.

  Did he actually fall in love with Zach again every single day, or did it just feel like it?

  “Sorry I didn’t make it back down to help with dinner, baby,” Zach whispered, coming over to pull him in for a sort-of chaste kiss. “Your mom was just telling me about—”

  “No more medical talk tonight, yes?” Rachel-Lyn interrupted, smiling. “Micah is right. Presents are much more fun, and since we don’t get to see you on your actual birthday, Zach—”

  “Dude, you’re totally invited to come skydiving with us tomorrow,” Sam cut in, grinning. “Right, Zach?”

  Gary frowned. “Rach is not jumping out of an airplane at seven months pregnant, Sam.”

  “Nee, this is not the time,” Tanja added sternly. “It would not be safe for the baby.”

  “It wouldn’t be safe, period,” Amanda said, turning on Micah. “In fact, I can’t believe you really want to do this, musje. What if you fall?”

  Sam snickered. “Isn’t that kind of the point?”

  “I thought we were worrying about Rachel-Lyn right now,” Micah said, backing up as the three M’s all pinned him with Very Concerned Looks.

  “Rachel-Lyn isn’t the one going,” Tanja pointed out.

  “And it is an awfully long way down, musje.”

  “Micah will be safe,” Zach said, tugging him against his side with a grin. “I promise. Now, what’s this about presents?”

  Micah knew for sure that Zach was just trying to deflect attention from him, and he loved him for it. Plus, it worked. Micah’s family immediately switched gears, excitedly passing over the presents they’d picked out for Zach, even though Micah was pretty sure the original plan had been to wait until after dinner.

  Apparently, he wasn’t the only Rawlings who couldn’t stand to wait when it came to gift giving.

  “This last one’s from Micah,” Amanda said, stepping over Precious to hand Zach the wrapped had-to-be-a-picture.

  “Um, no it’s not,” Micah said, nibbling on his lip as he looked around the room. “Which one of you put my name on it?”

  “I did,” Zach said, grinning at him. “Because I’m hoping it will be my present from you.”

  “Dude, you can’t shop for yourself and then say it’s from him,” Sam said, punctuating his words with an epic eye roll. “That’s like, what old married couples do.”

  “It does kind of ruin the surprise, Zach,” Micah said, lips twitching.

  Zach just grinned. “Open it for me, baby.”

  “But it’s not my birthday, it’s yours.”

  “Please?”

  Micah blushed at the look Zach was giving him. Faces were still hard for him to read in general, but Zach’s face? He’d sort of become an expert on it. And as much as he loved being with his family, that look made him wish the two of them were alone.

  “You’re killing me, Rawlings,” Sam said, pushing the gift into his hands. “Open it already before I die of curiosity.”

  Micah laughed, but okay. He was actually pretty curious, too. He recognized the wrapping as coming from Koen West’s gallery, and he half-expected it to actually be one of his own pictures, after all.

  It wasn’t, though.

  “Oh,” he said once he’d pulled the paper off, blinking away the prick of happy tears. He knew this picture. “It’s just blue.”

  Zach grinned. “You remember it?”

  “Of course I do,” Micah said, propping it against the side table and stepping back to see it better. It was the picture Zach had texted him before their very first date, just sea and sky and all the blues, and Zach had had Koen do it as a huge canvas print, as wide as Micah was tall.

  He adored it. Totally.

 
“I thought you could put it in your office, Micah,” Zach said, wrapping his arms around him from behind.

  Zach’s cute little house was a four-bedroom, and when Micah had asked him why he wanted so many bedrooms, Zach had mentioned them both needing offices. One for him, for his future medical practice, and one for Micah to set up as a studio for his work… and an extra room, for a family someday.

  And then Zach had asked him to move in with him.

  The memory still made his heart overflow. He’d had to wait for his lease to be up, but now they’d been living together for the last four months, and it was basically the greatest thing in the history of the universe ever.

  And yes, the print would be perfect for his office. He’d love to look at it every day. Thanks to Zach, Micah would always see blue as the color of love.

  “Did you have Koen do this, Zach?” Sam asked, frowning at the picture. “’Cause looks like he messed it up.” Sam ran a hand over the canvas. “There’s bumps all over it. You should have him reprint it, dude. Just sayin’. But I mean, it’s… nice.”

  Micah squinted at it. Depth and texture still tended to elude him, and he hadn’t noticed any imperfections.

  “Samuel is right,” Ana said, cocking her head as she looked at it. “I can see them, too. It is a shame, no? But I am sure you can have it redone, mijo.”

  “What do you think, Micah?” Zach asked, grinning. “Should I have it redone?”

  “Um,” Micah said uncertainly, moving closer to it. It looked beautiful to him, but not just because of what his eyes took in. It made his heart happy, and he sort of didn’t want to give it up, even knowing he’d get it back again.

  He reached out a hand, still not trusting his eyes as much as his sense of touch. There were bumps on it, which was weird. Koen was usually so careful with his work. But these—

  Micah sucked in a sharp breath, whirling around to stare at Zach.

  Zach gave him another one of those slow, sexy smiles, his eyes going all soft and tender in a way that made Micah’s heart feel like it was so full it might burst.

  “I’m still hoping this turns into a gift for me, Micah. But that’s up to you.”