Being in Boston for so long, I forgot what it was like to live in a secluded, suburban beach town.

I forgot that almost everyone knew your name. I forgot the familiarity of driving the roads I grew up on, and eating at the same restaurants my grandparents had. I forgot what it was like to walk for two miles and not see a single soul.

I’d loved Boston, loved the city life for a long time. But at heart, I was a beach town boy. And being back, waking up next to Blake in my little rental home on the shores of the Atlantic with Rhett licking our faces, this was where I belonged.

They’d come to stay over two nights ago on Friday, and now we were having a lazy Sunday morning.

“Do you still take your eggs over easy?” she asks, turning at my stove with a spatula in her hand.

“With Tabasco sauce on toast, you know it.” I wink, looking up from the local paper as Rhett snoozes at my feet.

“And who said I’m making you toast, mister? You can work a toaster.” She gives me a stink eye.

Blake looks damn good in her sweatpants and T-shirt, with all of that blond hair tumbling down her back. She’s a man’s wet dream standing over my stove, and while I feel like kind of a caveman for desiring her in my kitchen, I’m only a man. I’m a weak, horny man.

I rise, with a protest from the dog, and help by putting the toast in the toaster. “Do you want juice or milk?”

“Tea please.” She doesn’t look up from making the eggs.

“Honey, do you see what my place looks like? You think I have tea stocked here?”

Her smile is sarcastic. “Well, I thought you might want a little extra loving after breakfast, but maybe I changed my mind now.”

Wrapping my hands around her waist, I coax her into forgiving me.

After breakfast, we retire to the couch, where I put on the sports network and their early pre-game football coverage. Blake cuddles into me with a book, and we exist in separate worlds, together.

Something tugs at me though, because there is still something holding me back. She’s confessed it all, laid out all of her secrets and vulnerabilities on the table.

And the truth is, I haven’t.

“Baby?”

“Hmm?” I know she isn’t listening, but is in her book world.

“I haven’t been one hundred percent honest.” I cringe when her body stiffens under my touch. “No, nothing like that … but I’ve held back. You let me hear it all, and I haven’t opened up to you.”

She turns, sitting so she can face me. “I didn’t want to push you. I knew you’d do it in your own time.”

Her patience makes me want to tell her more. “There was something I didn’t tell you at the lighthouse, when you told me about what happened after I left. Blake … after he was gone, after our fight … I bottled it all up. I couldn’t deal with it, just like you told me you couldn’t. So I … I started doing the most reckless things I could manage. I’d go out at night, driving through red lights just to test fate and see if that damn vengeful God would take me too. I’d drink until I couldn’t see straight, hoping I’d get into a fight or fall down a flight of steps. I would go searching for trouble, fighting in this ring of betters just to get the shit beaten out of me. To feel like Joel felt. To feel a little closer to you. Anything.”

Blake’s mouth wobbles, and I know she feels exactly the same pain I’d felt back then.

“It took a long time for me to be all right again. Not even all right, because I missed you so much it killed me inside. I had to remind myself every day that there was something worth living for. And what always got me through, besides my courses and learning, was you. I knew that someday, I’d come back to you.

“I was broken too, Blake. And it took a long time to heal that part of me. It was still damaged until I came back to you. And now, I will always wear a scar, just like the one on my arm, but there is no chance of it ever reopening. Because I have you back, and since I left ten years ago, it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

I leaned over to kiss her, my hand cupping her smooth, porcelain cheek. Her warmth invades me, suffusing me as the fireplace crackles in the background. Our fused mouths stoke the embers inside of me, until I’m struggling to breath underneath the weight of my erection.

And then, someone throws a big fat bucket of water over us. Or rather, Rhett jumps up and sits on me, while licking the side of my face repeatedly.

“Ha! Sorry, was I getting too handsy with your mom?” I pet behind her lab’s ear, a motion that has Rhett snuggling into me.

“Who knew you were such a cock block?” Blake tickles under the dog’s chin.

He sits on me, looking happy as a clam to have all of the attention on him.

“Thank you for telling me all of that,” Blake says quietly as we both pet Rhett. “You’re always strong for me, and I want to help you carry some of your pain. Or erase it. Just … whatever you need me to do. We’re in this together now. I’m not going anywhere.”

It’s not like we haven’t proven that to each other over the past few months, but to hear her say it is a comfort to my heart that she’ll never see. It was rough for me for a few years after Joel died, and getting back to her was a dwindling dream the past two years. It was a miracle we’d made our way back to each other.

“So now that you’re a Boston boy, do you like those assholes from New England?” She perks up, and I know she’s trying to make me feel better.

“I may have shipped up north, but don’t call me a traitor, baby. I bleed Carolina blue all day. Don’t test me, woman.” I kiss her cheeks until she giggles.

“Well, good, because I couldn’t date someone who didn’t like the home team.”

Sometimes I forgot that Blake grew up in a world of men, and knew sports like the back of her hand.

“My girlfriend is sexy. Maybe we can get some pre-game action of our own.” I couldn’t resist taking a little nibble of her neck.

“If you make some corny sex joke about scoring a touchdown or driving it into the end zone, I might slap you.”

Her words make me belt out a humongous laugh. And after I catch my breath … it’s possible I do just drive into the end zone.