Fast Connection (Cyberlove #2) (31 page)

“Fuck, sorry.”

Luke waved me off. “Stop apologizing.”

“No way, man. You drive all the way over there—”

“—it takes thirty minutes.”

“—and then I conk out and can’t even make the ride back fun for you.”

Luke shouldered his door open. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I’m immune to that comment now,” I said, stepping out onto the steaming sidewalk. “Try a new one.”

“Okay.” Luke shut his door and came around to my side of the truck. “You’re also old.”

“Uhh… Okay. I guess that’s a new one.”

“Er. You’re old
er
.”

I cocked my head. “Luke, are you losing it?”

He barked out a laugh. “It’s your birthday, dumbass.”

“No it’s—” I glanced at my watch and blanched. “Wow, it
is
my birthday.”

“Uh-huh.”

Luke snagged the front of my white tee and drew me in for a longer kiss than what he’d greeted me with. Right there on the sidewalk in front of our neighbors and the nuns at Blessed Sacrament. My heart thudded, and happiness wiped away my exhaustion. The taste of him always got me energized.

When we pulled away, I was grinning the cheesiest of grins. “Man, it should be my birthday every day if it’s gonna prompt awesome PDA.”

“Heh. We’ll see.” Luke jerked his chin at the house. “Go inside.”

“Are there presents inside?” The idea was mystifying to me. “I haven’t celebrated my birthday in years.”

“Even better,” he said mysteriously.

Curious and pumped up that he’d remembered, I unlocked the door and quickly realized that the smoky BBQ smell that had been wafting through the neighborhood was coming from our house. Upon entering the house, I also heard… familiar voices. Namely, my parents bickering over how long to let the meat cook.

With dawning realization, I followed the sounds to the backyard where I was greeted by the sight of my parents, the kids, Nadia, and Anderson in the backyard. My parents were hovering around Luke’s grill while Micah and Adriana put up a giant Happy Birthday banner, and Chelle critically observed the patio table she’d set up. Nadia and Anderson were putting out containers of side dishes on the other table.

“Holy shit.”

They all turned to me, grinning.

“Happy birthday!”

I kept staring, mouth open, at the joint effort by both our families. No… by our
family.
All of them together, working together, and getting along.

“How—” I shook my head, blinking back dampness. Shit, I was getting teary-eyed. “What…”

“Luke planned for us to come over with a cake,” my mother said adoringly. She fucking loved him. And had taken to bringing over giant containers of food every Sunday. “Then your dad and Adriana put their heads together about making it a party, and Nadia said she was dying for the Costigan BBQ she’d heard so much about from Micah.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I said.

“Say thank you,” Duffy suggested, grinning broadly. “And tell your mother to stop trying to overcook the chicken!”

“Oh! Thank you. Shit, sorry,” I said, laughing. “Jesus, you guys are incredible. You have no idea how happy I am right now.”

“Oh, we can tell,” Adriana said wisely. “You’re tearing up.”

I waved her off, still laughing even as I wiped a sweaty arm over my eyes.

“Seriously though, thank you. I love you guys. And I’m starving, so this is awesome.”

“Good,” Nadia chimed in. “We have three cakes!”

Oh my God. It figured the combo of our families would result in enough food to feed an army.

I spent the next few minutes hugging everyone, shaking hands with Anderson and talking baseball with him since he was the only one besides me to have switched allegiances to the Mets, and then I discreetly tugged Luke into the kitchen.

He was stoic as always, but his eyes were twinkling. “You seem happy.”

“You have no idea,” I said. “I’m so fucking emotional right now that I want to bawl, and that’s literally never happened to me before. Okay, it has, but not much.” When his expression turned a little concerned, I laughed and shook my head. “It’s just… dude, everything has come together, you know? The shop is finally in the black, everything’s getting back on track, and I haven’t seen my parents this lively and happy… shit, maybe ever. It’s like… I don’t know.”

“Your parents don’t seem like the same people,” Luke agreed. “Chelle and Micah have even noticed since they started working at the bagel shop over the summer. It’s amazing how money can affect you.”

I bobbed my head in agreement. “But also I think… the fact that we have a bigger family now helps. My parents have always been isolated from their own tribes, so they did everything on their own, and now they have like… support. From me but also from you. And the kids are always around now, and everyone is getting along, and shit, I might actually cry.”

Luke put his arms around me. “Is it a bad time to tell you about your birthday present?”

“Dude, this is present enough. You don’t have to—”

“Shut up. It’s already done.”

“What’s done?”

He got that little smirk again. “Plane tickets to Chicago for those three days you have off next week.”

My eyes bugged out of my head. “Chicago? Why—” It hit me like a baseball bat to the head. “So I can see Garrett?”

“Uh-huh. We talked about it.”

“You talked to Garrett?”

“Well, Adriana helped. But yeah.” Luke shrugged like it was no big deal. “I was going to book a hotel near them, but Kai said they weren’t too far from Chicago.”

“You planned this with Garrett… and Kai. And Adriana helped.” I sounded like an idiot, but my mind was blown. “Dude.”

“George is gonna cover me while we’re gone.”

Luke kept wanting to talk about the logistics, but I was ready to blow his mind in return with insane thank-you sex. Since we had a house full of people, I settled for pulling him into another kiss. Soft and slow and full of promises for later. He smiled against me.

“That mean you’re happy?”

“It means I’m ecstatic. Thank you, Luke.”

“No, Dominic. Thank
you.
” He kissed me again before dropping another against my forehead. “For not giving up on me, and for making my life so fucking full. The fact that I willingly threw a party should say a little something.”

“Oh, it does. It means you’re a social butterfly now.”

“Heh. I dunno about all that, but I do… truly appreciate our family. All of them.”

I dragged him into another hug, a tighter one, and said against his ear, “I can’t believe we met by chance on Grindr. I’d never have expected to meet the person I want to spend my life with on a friggin’ hookup app.”

Luke’s laugh shook his shoulders. “Me either.”

“But I’m glad I did. I love you, Luke.”

“I love you too, Staff Sergeant.”

Want more Cyberlove?

As a thank you to fans of this series, we wrote a special FREE bonus scene of Dominic and Luke visiting Kai and Garrett!

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We have been overwhelmed and grateful for the love readers have shown this series. We didn’t know what to expect, but the reception was better than we could have imagined. These characters and this world are so fun to write, and we’re glad you’ve told us that you’re enjoying reading as much as we’re enjoying writing.

So thanks so much to everyone who loved Garrett and Kai from Strong Signal, and who wanted more Cyberlove stories. We hope you enjoyed Costigan and Luke.

Thank you to our beta readers: Ashley Hayes, Lia Riley, AJ Pine, Natalie Blitt and Eddie Clark. Getting feedback that you laughed in the first chapter was encouraging, and all of your suggestions were spot on.

Thank you to Natasha Snow for working with us over and over again on this cover. We love this concept and look forward to working with you again in the future.

Thank you to Edie Danford for fabulous and thorough copy edits, Keyanna Butler for excellent proofing, and Daniel W. for the beautiful formatting.

And once again to the readers, thanks for accepting that for some people, love starts online. We can’t wait to bring you more stories.

Megan Erickson
worked as a journalist covering real-life dramas before she decided she liked writing her own endings better and switched to fiction. She’s a multi-published author with Avon, Berkley, and Entangled. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids and two cats.

Santino Hassell
is a writer of queer romance heavily influenced by the gritty, urban landscape of New York City, his belief that human relationships are complex and flawed, and his own life experiences.