Free In Another Life by Cardeno C.

at work, and they’d had him training his replacement, which meant a lot of overtime, so I hadn’t seen him since the weekend.
    I grinned. “I missed you too.”
    He draped his arm over my shoulders and led us out of the office. I snuggled close, wrapped my arm around his waist, and felt a bulge in his pocket.
    “What’s this?” I asked as I reached in and pulled it out.
    “Nothing.”
    I looked at the pack of cigarettes in my hand and then up at him. “Since when do you smoke?”
    He rolled his eyes. “I don’t really smoke. I just bum one off people now and then when things are stressful at work, and with the week I had, I figured I should buy my own pack,” he said, sounding defensive. “Don’t make a big thing out of it.”
    You were right about the smoking.
    Anger, panic, and grief hit me in equal measures. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t think. The only thing I could do was tremble.
    “What’s wrong?” he said.
    I didn’t answer. I just put one foot in the front of the other, walked to the trash can in the hallway, and said, “Smoking’s bad for you.” Then I tossed his cigarettes inside.
    “Hey!” he said incredulously. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    I pressed the elevator button, stepped in, and took a deep breath. My voice was mostly steady when I said, “I’m making sure you stay alive until a ripe old age.”
    “Those were my smokes,” Travis muttered as he stomped in after me. “Who are you to throw them away?”
    This was meant to be.
    “I’m the guy who wants to live by your side during that ripe old age.” The elevator opened on the main floor, and I walked out. “I figure that means I have the right to do whatever it takes to get you there.”
    “Is that right?” Travis asked as he followed me.
    “Yup.” I nodded, took in a deep breath, and then said, “Promise me you’ll stop. No more buying packs. No more bumming any off people. I need you to stop.” I looked into his eyes and hoped he could see how much this meant to me. “Promise me.”
    He hesitated for a moment, but then his expression softened and he said, “I promise.”
    We walked toward the door, and I squeezed his arm as a thank-you. He nudged my shoulder in response.
    “Hey, look at that!” I said as I pointed to the red sign next to the door.
    “What?”
    “We’re walking into the sunset together.”
    He shook his head. “That’s not a sunset, Shy. It’s an exit sign.”
    “Same difference.” I held out my hand, palm-side up, and gazed into his eyes.
    Travis glanced down at my hand and then looked at my face and smiled as he twined our fingers together.
    “I guess it is a sunset.”
     

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About the Author
    C ARDENO C. —CC to friends—is a hopeless romantic who wants to add a lot of happiness and a few awww s into a reader’s day. Writing is a nice break from real life as a corporate type and volunteer worker with gay rights organizations. Cardeno’s stories range from sweet to intense, contemporary to paranormal, long to short, but they always include strong relationships and walks into the happily-ever-after sunset. Cardeno feels that characters write their own stories and just hopes to find enough time to get those stories on the page.
    Cardeno’s Home, Family, and Mates series have received awards from Rainbow Awards, the Goodreads M/M Romance Group, and various reviewers. But even more special to CC are heartfelt reactions from readers, like, “You bring joy and love and make it part of the everyday.”
    You can learn more about Cardeno’s writing at http://www.cardenoc.com/.

By CARDENO C .
     
     
    THE MATES SERIES
    Until Forever Comes
    Wake Me Up Inside
     
    THE HOME SERIES
    He Completes Me
    Home Again
    Just What the Truth Is
    Love at First Sight
    The One Who Saves Me
    Where He Ends and I Begin
     
    THE FAMILY SERIES
    Something in the Way He Needs
    Strong