Chapter 9

Once, while Henry was in the middle of a conversation with a few of his coworkers, Luke excused himself from the table. When he came back, it was with two plates of food. Henry hadn’t even realized that the dinner buffet had been brought out, but Luke made up a plate for him. Chickenfrancesewith a scoop of antipasto. He picked the olives out for him already since Henry simply loathed olives.

Before he started eating, Henry smiled and watched Luke as he dug into the mashed potatoes and beef tenderloin on his own plate. Some of those potatoes fell off his fork when he noticed him.

“What?” he asked. “What’d I do?”

“Nothing,” Henry whispered, and leaned in close to press a tender kiss to his brow. “You’re just the best.”

Luke’s face lit up with a smile, and instead of answering with some smartass, sassy remark, he kissed Henry back and said, “That’s only because I have the best friend in the world.”

The night slowly dwindled away.