Raylan met each one, smile inching up incrementally. He loved the hand in his shirt and how endlessly happy Malcolm seemed to just see him and have him there.

"Good. Do it. I know you're in a spot right now, but I am selfish lookin' forward to havin' you more easily in my arms. I know it hasn't been two months but absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder, it just hurts." It hurt to have to go back to the way he was before, to not have any arms he trusted to fall into, to not have anyone he could show his heart to.

"An apartment for two or three months is better than me livin' above a bar and I need a place to be with you." To be with him, no masks, no worries, no stringent rules only he followed.