Unsteady

by Peyton Corinne

“Can’t even make it through a few hours, huh? Need me that badly, kotyonok?” He doesn’t use the word often, but it never fails to light me up when he speaks Russian. “I love you.”

I trace my thumb along the cluster of freckles beneath the corner of one of her cat eyes before kissing her forehead solidly. “I’ll be here for whatever you need.” Even if it’s not me.

“Do you know what kotyonok means?” She laughs, smiling wider than I’m sure I’ve ever seen. “It means kitten, my love.”

“You are worth it. And if I have to fight the little demons in your mind that convince you otherwise every day for the rest of our lives? I’ll happily do it. Do you understand?”

He takes my hand in his, and we step onto the ice together. From now until… forever.

Rhys Koteskiy is pure gold. I know it. And soon the entire world will too.

So I soak up these moments, just the two of us between the dark-blue sheets of his bed. Under the fading light of day, safe and warm in the comfort of his arms, falling asleep to the sound of his steady, strong heartbeat.

“Yes, hotshot,” I say into his skin, like telling a secret. “Forever, yes.” He shouts, “She said yes!” at the top of his lungs before hoisting me into the air with a yelp. And while Oliver smiles and claps, and Liam howls like a little wolf, I stare right down into the eyes of my golden boy, whose sad eyes aren’t sad anymore. And if I have anything to do with it, they never will be again.