Despite the tight time frame, they'd still managed to put on one hell of a show. But Adam wanted this to be perfect. He wanted Everett and Morgan's wedding to be everything they'd dreamed it would be.
Adam continued singing along to his playlist and sorting through his clothes. Then he had to go through the tedious process of actually folding the huge, messy pile so it could all be neatly packed into boxes. But once he started hauling those boxes out to the dining room and saw just how much space he'd cleared up, he couldn't help grinning. It felt so damned good!
He picked up the last box, singing along to “Glitter & Gold” by Barns Courtney as he made the trip back to the dining room, trying to decide what space to tackle next. Adam dropped the box when he rounded the corner and nearly ran right into John.
“Holy shit!” Adam gasped with a laugh, pressing a hand to his chest. “I didn't hear you come in. Wait. What time is it?”
Before John could even answer, Adam's stomach growled, telling him it was definitely later than he realized.
“After six,” John confirmed, then eyed the growing pile of boxes. “You've been busy.”
“Yeah.” Adam grinned as he picked up the box he'd dropped and added it to one of the stacks. “I mean, I've barely made a dent, all things considered, but it still feels really good.” He paused. “I guess that's one benefit to Haven moving out. I can use his room as a staging ground once I start going through Dad's things.”
His voice tapered off to something between a murmur and a whisper at the end, but at least he managed to say it without breaking down.
“Although,” he added with a laugh, turning back towards the hallway and gesturing for John to follow. He ducked into his room to silence his phone, then continued on to the next bedroom. “I'll have to decide what to do with all the stuff in there, first.” The door to Haven's old bedroom stood ajar, but Adam pushed it wide open and waved a hand at the space.
It didn't look all that different. Haven's clothes were gone, so the closet and dresser were empty, but the dresser itself remained, as did the bed and the nightstands.
John frowned. “I thought he was moving everything out today.”
“Oh, he did. He didn't have any furniture of his own when he moved in with me, so I hauled these out of storage for him to use.” Adam pointed at the bed. “These were all from the guest bedroom in Dad's house. Sheets and all. Even the lamps. Hell. Come to think of it, I've never had to buy furniture becauseeverythinghere is from Dad's house. Except my bed. The old twin mattress wasn't cutting it anymore, so I bought that queen bed a few years ago. I guess I could have used my dad's old bed, but something about that just…” He shuddered.
“Yeah,” John said in agreement, his mouth twisting in a wry smile.
Adam breathed a laugh. As hard as it had been for John to sleep in Adam's bed over the weekend, he could only imagine the man's reaction if it had been his dad's bed instead.
“I saw your car out front,” John said, changing the subject.
“Oh.” Adam tensed. “Yeah. I had Theo drop me off to get it on the way back here. I mean, I still don't trust myself, but I didn't want to deal with getting a citation and then having it get impounded or something. So…” Adam gasped and pushed past John, heading back for the entryway. He found his car keys and shoved them into John's hands. “Here.”
John slowly took the keys, then stuffed them into his pocket, freeing his hands to cup Adam's face as he leaned down and looked him right in the eyes. “I am so proud of you. You know that?”
Then John moved in, only pausing for a moment to glance at the corners of the room before he closed the distance between them and gave Adam a kiss.
Adam sighed as he kissed John back. He had no idea how long it was going to take John to stop looking for his dad's ghost, but he supposed this was progress.
Maybe they'd actually get through this together.
Chapter 19
_________
JOHN
JOHN FINALLY got up from his desk when his screaming bladder could no longer be ignored.
He muttered curses under his breath as he stormed into his private bathroom, even though it was a relief to get out of that damned chair for a change. John had been trying to get caught up on emails and other winery communications. Just another thing on his seemingly endless to-do list.
It didn't help that he felt exhausted right down to his core. He'd slept every night that week at Adam's place, thoughsleptwas being generous. Each night, he'd lain awake for hours, seeing ghosts in the dark corners of Adam's bedroom, only finally crashing into sleep when the exhaustion became too powerful to fight. Even then, he barely snatched a couple of hours at best. A far cry from his usual eight or nine.
He was running on fumes and he knew it. It was making him slow and foggy, so his focus and productivity were way down. John braced a hand against the wall as he emptied his bladder, needing the extra stability. He almost felt as though he could fall asleep, standing right there.
John flushed the toilet and went to wash his hands, scowling when the water ran cold. He cranked the valve all the way tohot, but even after a full minute of waiting, the water wasn't even remotely lukewarm.
“Christ,” he muttered. “Now what?” John grabbed a towel to dry his hands, then crossed to the far corner of the bathroom, reaching for the door that hid the water heater. He didn't even make it that far. A lightsplashsounded beneath his feet, and when John looked down, he saw water flowing under the door and into the bathroom.
He yanked the door open and put a hand against the water heater. The unit was cool to the touch.
