“I want you,” Dante whispered close to his ear. He did that even more now, read Ben without Ben having to say a word.

Ben turned and leaned into his man. “Take me home then.”

He didn’t have to ask twice. “We’re going to head out. Thanks for this,” Dante told the three men standing beside them. “I’ll have some comps for you to look at before we leave for Italy,” he added to Tristan. Dante was doing some design work for Tristan and Ben and they would be taking their first trip to see Dante’s family together in the coming weeks.

“No rush,” Tristan told him before the men said their goodbyes. Dante and Ben walked over to do the same with Rhonda, Elliot and his wife before they left.

They were quiet on the cab right home, Ben’s head lost in thought.

Sometimes, he couldn’t believe the changes in his life. He still missed Bonnie like crazy. He wasn’t sure he would ever fully get over losing his sister, get over his sister losing her life, but now he knew how to live with it. He’d learned how to live at all, because that hadn’t been what he did before. It was something he made sure to do every day now, something Dante helped Ben with, and something Ben helped Dante with as well.

They weren’t lost anymore.  They weren’t broken. His friends weren’t either. Maybe they were all a little cracked and chipped but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that they lived.

Ben reached for Dante, just as Dante reached for Ben. And that was okay, the leaning, because they hadn’t saved each other. Dante had been right about that. He couldn’t save Ben just as Ben couldn’t save Dante.

They’d saved themselves.

“I love you,” Ben dropped his head against Dante’s shoulder.

“I love you, too.”

THE END