(TW: NSFW)

“Y… you lied to me?” I stared at Kai in shock.

“Well, I… I… I didn’t know we’d get to this point. I have to leave this house in a year. Juniper and I were figuring out what to do and…” Kai stuttered.

“Right… okay,” I chewed my lip, staring at my hands before I climbed into my wheelchair and went to Kai’s fridge, grabbing a beer, “okay. We can figure this out but… why did you lie?”

“I never lied,” Kai yelled at me and my eyes grew wide.

“Don’t… don’t yell at me,” I whispered.

“Then don’t accuse me of things I didn’t do! Dammit, Juniper. I was going to tell him in my own time,” he yelled into the phone before hanging up and tossing it onto the table.

“Kai. I’m leaving if this is how you’re going to talk to me when you’re angry. I’m worth more than that,” setting my unopened drink back into the fridge, I went over and grabbed my shoulder bag and backpack.

“Shiloh… I’m so sorry. I… I’m not usually like this,” Kai rushed over to me and I held my hand up, telling him to stop.

“I know. But too much happened and I think we need a night apart. We haven’t spent time apart in months. You’re dependent on me to manage your feelings. I’m your partner and I’m happy to be here when you need me. But you’re not thinking about how I’m feeling right now. I’ve had a hard day, Kai. You’ve gotten all the good news. We’re finally a couple, Juniper is going to be fine. I get bad news. My twin brother has been hurt by my ex-boyfriend and rather than help me cope, you’re trying to distract me. Now, you’re yelling at me. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know. Please… don’t leave me here alone,” he begged, falling to his knees, “please Shiloh.”

I stayed silent, wringing my hands before I set my bags back down, “Kai. You should have told me. That you were going to lose the house. I don’t understand. You make good money at the cafe, I know this because I handle the finances. So I don’t understand. Where is all your money going?”

“I’m in debt,” he whispered, “from college. I took out so many loans, maxed out credit cards I opened so I could feed myself and Juniper. I put myself in massive debt. To keep the cafe, I have to pay those back or the bank will take my loan for the building. I’m going to lose everything in a year. Everything I’ve built.”

“Kai,” I ran my fingers through his hair and he raised his head to look at me, “no. We won’t lose it,” leaning down, I kissed him softly, “because we’re moving to Idaho. I’ll call my parents and make sure the house is ready. There’s no mortgage, we just pay the yearly tax and the basic bills. We don’t have to open a new cafe immediately when we get there. I have another place where we can work together. Side by side. The building next to it is a cafe that was never reopened. We’ll take the combining wall down to make it one big business.”

“What are you talking about?” He sniffled.

“My grandmother owns a bookstore. She’s ready to retire. I was planning to take over so I could run it while I wrote before I changed my entire life for William. So let’s take over for her. She’s exhausted. Deserves to rest after running the shop for 40 years. My grandpa owned the cafe. Why do you think I love to bake? He taught me. I’ll run the bookstore and still make things for the cafe. You can run the cafe solo. You don’t need me. We’ll be in the same building. It’s going to take us a while to fix up the cafe, but you can help me in the bookstore. I know how to do everything already. All of it is waiting for me if I want to come home. We can hire Isaac to do deliveries. Come home with me, Kai. You promised. I can give you a chance to stop this daily struggle. Just say yes.”

He started to cry, burying his face in my lap and I gently rubbed the nape of his neck, waiting for him to calm down.

“Shi,” he hiccuped, “Shiloh I don’t deserve you.”

“Stop that yes you do,” I laughed, “Kai you’re overwhelmed to a breaking point. I’m your boyfriend, idiot. You have to tell me these things. No secrets. Let’s figure out what to do for Juni and Connor and as soon as things are settled we’ll head home. Back to Idaho. My house there has 5 bedrooms. It’s sunflower yellow with white accents. The front yard is a little tiny, but the backyard is huge. We can do so much back there. There’s also… oh holy crap! I just remembered!”

“What?” He muttered, his voice muffled thanks to his face being buried in my lap.

“My parents own another house. It’s tiny, only two bedrooms, but it’s perfect for Juniper and Connor. They can transfer to Boise. Connor does remote work anyway. My Pa can help them transfer. He works at the college after all. Ma can hang out with Juni during the day. They both get lonely. It’ll be perfect. You can all just… join my family.”

“Why are you doing this for us?” He sniffled, gripping my thigh.

“You’re my boyfriend? It’s not just your job to take care of me. I have to take care of you too. Now. Go wash your face, call Juniper, and tell her all this. Also, apologize for yelling at her. She didn’t deserve that. I didn’t either. You have to make it up to me.”

“What can I do to make it better?” He tilted his head to look up at me, his emerald eyes sparkling due to his tears.

“I want a back rub and make-out session. I also want to sleep in your bed. I’m not sleeping without you. We were supposed to be camping right now after all.”

“I know,” he took my hand and kissed my palm softly, “how soon do you think we can move?”

“Hm… 6 to 8 months probably. Unless you want to close down the shop and sell the house using a realtor after we get to Idaho. We can do it remotely. That’s also possible. It’ll be best to wait until after Christmas at the very least. I don’t want to be driving from here to Idaho in the snow.”

“Okay… how about… March? The snow will lessen by then.”

“That’s 5 months. That’ll be perfect. Go wash up. I’m gonna call Pa again. Oh and my grandma.”

“What’s her name?” He kissed me softly, getting to his feet.

“Kamilla. She’s my Ma’s mom.”

“I love that name,” he smiled, “alright. I’ll meet you in the bedroom.”

Kai went into the bathroom and I took my phone out, doing some mental math before calling my grandmother Kamilla, hoping she was still awake.

“Shiloh? What in the world! You’re actually calling?” Kamilla answered with a laugh.

“Did I wake you, Nagyi?” I smiled.

“No! Even if you did, I wouldn’t mind. How are you, baby?”

“I'm good! I'm sure Ma has told you what’s going on.”

“Mhm. I talked to Isaac a little bit ago. Curse William for doing that. I'm so glad you’re free. You deserved better.”

“I have better, nagyi,” I laughed softly as Kai came from the bathroom, looking more relaxed than earlier, “his name is Kai. Lovely, amazing, wonderful man. We just got together today, but we’ve been going on dates for a few months now without me realizing he was actually courting me.”

“Oh… oh Shiloh, that's amazing! What does he look like? What does he do? Is he sweet?”

“Calm down,” I snorted as Kai came behind me, massaging my shoulders gently, “Kai is Japanese-American. He has beautiful, long, nearly black hair and bright emerald-green eyes. He’s from Boston so his voice is funny but I love it. We own a cafe together here. I’m a baker now. He made my dream come true. We take care of each other. He also has a lovely little sister named Juniper who looks nearly identical to him and she just got engaged today to her boyfriend Connor. My life is incredible now that I have them but… Kai is going to lose his house. So I’m considering bringing him home. Moving into the house Ma and Pa have for me. I wanted to see if you were finally ready to retire. I’m ready to take over the bookstore. We can reopen the wall between the bookstore and the cafe you own still. Kai can run that. You can finally rest, nagyi.”

“Shiloh! Oh, I’d love nothing more,” Kamilla sniffled quietly, “come home okay?”

“We’re going to be there at Christmas. Juni and Connor are getting married on the farm. So I’ll introduce you to Kai then.”

“I’ll get all the paperwork together. Oh, that’s so soon. But it’s okay. Make sure you bring me a dollar.”

“Huh? Why?” I laughed softly as Kai wrapped his arms around my shoulders from behind.

“So I can sell you the cafe and bookstore. 50 cents each.”

“Are you sure? How are you going to take care of yourself?”

“I have everything saved from when we lost Papa. Don’t worry. I can take care of myself. Worse comes to worst, I’ll move in with Jo and Thatcher. I’m not worried. Just come back okay?”

“We’re planning to move there in March. So we’ll be there at Christmas and as soon as we’re home, we’ll start our move.”

“Perfect. Okay. I’ll tell your parents to get the house ready for you.”

“Do you know if the house over on Pine is still empty?”

“It is,” she laughed, “do Juniper and Connor want to move here too?”

“They have to. Or at least we want them to,” I turned to smile at Kai and he kissed my nose softly, “Kai I’m on the phone!”

“Oh is he there?” Kamilla laughed.

“Yes. He’s kissing my face.”

“I missed you today,” Kai muttered softly.

“We literally haven’t been apart for more than an hour, Kai.”

“Shh. Shush. Just finish talking to your grandma.”

Kai continued to spread gentle kisses on my neck and I could feel my face growing warm.

“I’ll let you two go. I need to get some sleep. I love you, Shiloh. I’ll see you all at Christmas,” Kamilla laughed again.

“I love you too.”

Hanging up, I tossed my phone on the couch and looked up at Kai, “babe I was talking to my grandma!”

“I know. It was cute. I was just giving you affection,” he laughed before quickly picking me up, “hey Shi?”

“Yes,” I laughed, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“Thank you. For everything you do for me.”

“I do it because I care for you,” cradling his face, I kissed him softly, savoring the roughness of his lips.

I paid very little attention to where Kai was taking me, my focus fully on his lips until I heard the bathtub turn on.

“What are you doing?” I panted softly, “I already showered.”

“I want to take a bath with you,” he whispered, kissing me again before setting me on the bathroom counter, “a nice, warm bath. Wash your back. Your hair. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything unless you ask. I just want to be close. Then, I’ll slowly dry every inch of you and you can borrow that huge t-shirt I have,” he placed a finger under my chin and tilted my head up, exposing my throat, “god you have the most beautiful skin,” he whispered, running this tongue from my collarbone to my earlobe.

I let out a sharp gasp when he bit down on my ear, his hands roughly pushing my thighs apart as he slid between them, “Kai. How many times are we going to fool around today?”

“Oh it’ll be so much fucking worse when we have our own home,” he laughed, pulling me until my hips were flush with his, “I’m going to want to feel you, taste you, all the time.”

“Really?” My eyes grew wide.

“Why is that so shocking? Have I not proven that today? Shiloh, I clearly can’t keep my hands off you. You wouldn’t believe how hard I’ve been fighting not to touch you all the time. I mean you would let me lay with my head in your lap and play with my hair when we lay under our tree but all I could ever focus on was wondering what your lips felt like. I’m glad I know now,” he gently pulled my bottom lip down and kissed me roughly, his tongue forcing its way into my mouth and leaving me weak as I clung to Kai.

“Kai stop,” I pushed at him, my chest heaving and he looked at me confused.

“Honey… do you… do you not like being with me physically? Am I doing something wrong?” He tucked my hair behind my ear and I nuzzled his palm, holding it to my cheek.

“I love how you feel. You were made for me, Kai. But it’s so much so fast,” I sighed softly as he turned the water off, the tub now full of bubbles, “I’m scared. Scared you’re going to wake up and not be attracted to me anymore.”

“I told you,” he placed his hand on my chest and smiled, “I don’t want to be with you for the way you look. Even if you’re the most attractive man on this planet to me. I want to be with you because we fought hard to get to this point. No matter how hard I tried to deny my feelings, you made your way into my heart. You’re it for me, Shi. If I don’t have you, I don’t want anyone. Just like I was scared of hurting you and put my fear aside, I need you to trust in me enough to know that I’m attracted to you. I mean seriously,” he took my hand and placed it on his groin, “can you not tell? I’m this ready from kissing you. Literally the idea of being in the tub with you and I… I can’t help it. Does it… does my drive bother you?”

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head before gripping gently, “no I love that I make you feel this way,” watching his face, I continued to tease him and his head immediately dipped down to my shoulder, his hands sliding to my back to grip my rear, “I want to see your face.”

“No,” he panted, “if I see your eyes, I’ll release so fast.”

“Come on baby. You promised to make it up to me for yelling. What I want,” I pressed my lips to his ear, “is to watch your expression when you come for me.”

Kai took a shaky breath before lifting his head, his eyes squeezed shut as his hair fell around him. Tucking his hair back so I could see his face, I slid my hand into the top of his pants and he gripped me tighter.

“Shiloh, fuck,” he hissed, “I don’t… think I can hold it in…”

“Then don’t,” I nipped his jawline and Kai grunted a few times before he coated my hand once again, “Jesus. This is like the third time you’ve gotten off today. Why is there still so much?”

Washing my hand in the sink, I let out a startled gasp when Kai kissed my groin from outside of my shorts, “what… what are you doing?”

“Wondering how you taste,” he whispered, still kissing, “don’t worry. I don’t plan to take you out until you ask me to. I just wanted to see how you’d react.”

Taking a shaky breath, I ran my hand through his hair as I used my other to pull myself slowly from my shorts. Kai looked up at me confused and I flicked my gaze down before meeting his again.

“Shi…” he whispered, “baby today was the first time you’ve been touched are you sure?”

“Y… you don’t have to go until I’m done but I told you… I’m curious. Can you at least… lick it a little?” I blushed furiously before letting out a loud moan when Kai flicked his tongue against my tip, “oh… oh… d… don’t stop. Please.”

Kai immediately took my full length down, his hands gripping my thighs and I wrapped my hands in his hair, fighting down the urge to immediately release. Hesitantly, I shoved his head down as I pushed my hips up and he gagged softly, never stopping as I started letting out full-chested moans, my body shaking.

“Kai… Kai if you don’t want to swallow it’s fine… just… Stop, I'm about to.”

He fully ignored me, now using his hand as well, and I shouted out before releasing, shooting down his throat as I shook.

Kai slid me out, wiping at his mouth before resting his hand on my throat and kissing me softly, “how was that?”

“Fantastic,” I laughed breathlessly.

“Good. Bath time?”

“Absolutely.”