Noah was finished for the day. Who would’ve thought that he would enjoy working at WOAK this much? He liked it, really liked it, here. Less pressure than in NY and great co-workers. He turned around and saw Luke standing up looking at him from the door. He couldn’t help but smile

“Hey, babe”

Luke smiled too

“Hey, babe”

Noah moved closer to Luke and kissed him

“What are you doing here? Where’s Aaron?”

“He’s with Dad, he had to go pick up some stuff for the farm and Aaron wanted to go with him, Ethan was going with them too”

“He loves being with Holden”

“And Dad loves being with him… he’s all we have left of Aaron, so…”

“He left us something bigger than life”

Luke smiled

“Yes… I thought we could have supper together at the Lakeview”

“I’m there”

They left the studio together, Noah’s arm in Luke’s shoulders

“You were smiling, back at the studio, when I saw you…”

Noah smiled again

“Who? Me?”

Luke looked at him smiling too, God… they smiled a lot, people probably hated them for being so happy….

“Yes, you, what were you thinking?”

“Mmh… that I love you, and what we have together, our family… I was looking forward to see you, and I turned around and there you were…”

“I wanted to see you too”

Noah looked at him and Luke caressed his chin

“You do know that it will be our anniversary next week, right?”

“Of course I know… What do you want to do to celebrate?”

“I don’t know, maybe we could go somewhere for a few days”

“You mean just the two of us?”

“Aaron can stay with dad for 3 or 4 days”

“Yes, I guess we could…”

“What, you don’t want to?”

“Of course I do, Luke. Where do you want to go?”

Luke looked at him and smiled

“Who cares, just as long as there’s a bed and room service”

Noah laughed

“Sounds like a plan to me”

They kissed and talked about Aaron, work, Holden and the farm, their next holidays… Life was really good. It would be perfect if it weren’t for Noah’s dad. They didn’t want to talk about the letters, or that he was going to be in jail only for a few more years and it scared them to death to think that eventually he would be free to go after them.

After supper they left the Lakeview and walked hand in hand.

“That’s what I always wanted…”

Luke looked at him smiling

“What? Walking with me hand in hand?”

“That too… I love our family, and living here in Oakdale is great. All the nights I was awake in NY thinking of you and wondering what you would be doing… I always imagined you like this with some other guy, you know? Living with him and adopting kids with him, and”

“Well, I did adopt a kid”

“Nat told me that when Aaron had the accident you came to Oakdale with your boyfriend…”

“I thought we didn’t want to talk about past boyfriends”

“And I don’t, I really don’t… I doesn’t worry me who you slept with or dated or whatever…”

“Why do I sense a “but” coming?”

“It’s probably very stupid, but… I hate the idea of you living with another guy, going shopping, talking about bills or who’s taking the car to get fixed, or… I know, it really is crazy, but”

“Hey… I’ve never lived with any other guy. And you already knew that I was going out with someone when Aaron had the accident. I left him cos I knew there at that moment that I only wanted you by my side”

“I’ve always known, you know? Always… there wasn’t a day that I didn’t think of you”

“Pity we wasted 10 years…”

Noah caressed his husband’s face

“We have plenty of time ahead of us”

“Thank God for that…”

They kissed.

“Let’s go get Aaron and enjoy our family”

“Yes, let’s do that… Have you got my briefcase?”

“No… did you leave it at the Lakeview?”

“Shit, probably… wait, I’ll go get it”

“I‘ll start the car and wait for you here, ok?”

“Don’t go without me”

Luke laughed at that and kissed him again

“Never, babe”

They both turned around and started walking . Luke turned again to look at Noah, he couldn’t believe how great things were…

It happened so fast he didn’t have time to react… A car speeding up when Noah crossed the road… Someone shouting… The horrible sound of flesh against metal… No… Oh, please… No… Luke couldn’t move… He saw Noah hitting the ground and saw blood… People were shouting and running, but for Luke everything seemed to be in slow motion… All he could see was Noah’s still body on the road…

Chapter 8