Page 19 of The New Place

“Pat, good to see you,” Ned says quickly. “Claire, I’m so sorry to bail, but you’re in great hands here. We have to be on our way. Now. See ya.”

Yes. They will talk. Later, though, and Abbot lets Ned lead him to the door.

6

NED

Ned pulls Abbot into the shadow of Pat’s front door and kisses him. “I,” Ned says and kisses him again. “Fucking.” He kisses his chin. “Missed…” his cheek, his mouth. “You.”

“I can’t believe you’re here.” Abbot kisses him back, slowly and thoroughly, forcing Ned to match him in a more measured pace. Leisurely, even, as Ned tips his head and answers the pull of Abbot’s lips. Why the hell were they thinking they could go a month without each other? Fuck not having the money to buy a plane ticket over the holidays. Ned can barely manage the handful of days that stretch between their weekends, and he’s hungry for Abbot now in a way that feels unquenchable, the slip of his tongue just stoking the fervor.

“Where are you parked?” Abbot whispers when they part.

“Somewhere, I don’t know.” Ned dives back in, kissing his bottom lip, his upper one. It’s so damn convenient that it’s colder than hell out here, because they’re at least alone on the street as Ned licks into his warm mouth.

Abbot laughs a little and that’s even better. “You don’t?”

Ned smiles against his lips. “Down the block, maybe. Fuck. I missed you.”

“Let’s go. Now.” Yes, Abbot is the sensible one, which is good because Ned’s brain is riding on the taste of Abbot’s mouth, the tease of what he can feel of his body in his thick coat.

Though one thought does register as Abbot pulls at his hand. “Baxter,” Ned says, but can Pat just keep him for the night?

No, because there’s no food for Baxter at Pat’s anymore, and Ned no longer has a key to upstairs, dammit. He’d borrowed Pat’s to stash Baxter up there, and he groans softly, dropping his head to Abbot’s shoulder. “It’ll be two seconds,” he says.

Abbot scratches his fingers through the hair on the back of Ned’s head.

Ned shivers. “Or,” he whispers, turning his face and finding Abbot’s neck with his mouth. “Or I just take you up there and fuck you in my old bed.”

Abbot’s grip tightens on the nape of his neck.

“Yeah?” Ned murmurs, sucking a kiss beneath Abbot’s jaw. “Remember that? Back when we couldn’t keep our hands off each other?”

“I’m not sure we’re exactly proving anything otherwise,” Abbot says, and he squeezes again, deliciously tight, and then he releases Ned.

Ned pushes inside the bar once again, hoping he can chalk up the flush he feels on his face to the cold of the night. He smacks a hand on the bar to get Pat’s attention “Your keys.”

“Hey, you’re back,” Pat says with none of the urgency this moment absolutely calls for.

“I gotta grab Baxter. Where are your keys?”

“Maybe my coat?” Pat asks, like Ned would know. “Listen. About Claire.”

“And where’s your coat?”

“In the back,” Pat says, but instead of doing anything at all to grab it, or pointing Ned to it, or helping even a little, he drops his voice and says, “You have to help me out.”

“You gotta get me your keys, or you’re about to adopt a dog.”

“Claire’s a vet.”

“That’s really great. I need your fucking keys.”

“Can I introduce her to Baxter?”

Ned pauses long enough to let out a laugh. “Are you using my dog to get her upstairs?”

“No. Yes. Just a little bit.”