12 Dates of Christmas (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

CHAPTER NINE

Leo walked to the back of The White Elephant and ducked into the room labeled The Nook, a special event space where trivia night was held. He glanced around hesitantly, half-afraid of what he’d find.

Along with the usual collection of townsfolk, one guy stood apart. He was … damn, even hotter than he’d looked in the pics on his profile. He was around the same height as Leo, with dark hair, dark eyes, and tattoos covering both of his muscular biceps.

Best of all, he was dressed normally. No elf costumes this time. Although, admittedly, the last two dates Leo had been on weren’t horrible. Just totally bland and forgettable.

The guy glanced over with a lopsided grin, then walked toward Leo. “Leo Fenner?”

“Yeah, hi. You’re Jett Davis?”

“Yep.”

“Oh thank God,” Leo said before he could stop himself.

Jett gave him a quizzical look. “What were you expecting?”

“Um, one date I had was with a guy who showed up in an elf costume, so …”

Jett laughed. “Oh wow. Yeah that’s, um, interesting.”

“That was just the start of it,” Leo said grimly. “But that’s enough about him. You want to go grab a table? It looks like they’re filling up fast. Do you have a team you’re on?”

“No. Maybe we can join one?” Jett waved at the half-full tables.

Across the room, Stephanie waved and Leo brightened. “Oh, we should try over there. Stephanie was nice. I met her on a previous date.”

Jett gave him a confused look. “I thought you were gay.”

“Oh, I am.” They wove through the tables to get to the far side of the room. “I sought refuge with her when the elf started to get creepy.”

“Wow, and I thought I’ve been unlucky with my dates,” Jett muttered.

“Seems to be going around.”

They ordered drinksand made small talk with their new teammates. After the introduction was over, Jett turned to him.

“So, I heard you’re new to town? How are you adapting to all the … cheer?”

Leo grinned. “Not gonna lie, it was a shock when I first visited. My friend Hayden warned me about it, but I never knew there could be this many Christmas puns.”

Jett chuckled.

“But since the first visit, I quickly came to appreciate the town’s quirkiness. It’s one of the reasons I decided to move here and since I did, everyone made me feel real welcome,” Leo said with a smile. He looked at his hands briefly, hiding his smile when he thought of Nick.

“Ooh, looks like we’re about to start,” Leo said when a woman walked up to the front of the room where a large whiteboard was set up. She introduced herself as Shelley and said she’d been MC-ing the trivia event.

She explained that no cell phones would be allowed so Leo tucked his into the pocket of his jacket hanging from the back of his chair and Jett put his away too.

“My servers will be keeping an eye on you, and if we see anyone looking for the answer online, your entire team will be automatically disqualified.”

“There are four categories and ten questions per category,” Shelley went on. “Tonight’s categories are: Christmas carols, holiday traditions, Christmas entertainment, and the North Pole. We’ll collect your forms at the end of each category and tally up the results for our leader board.”

Leo glanced at Jett, frowning when he realized his attention was across the room, staring at the front door of the pub. Someone Leo didn’t recognize walked in and Leo glanced away with a shrug and took a sip of his drink. Maybe Jett knew them or something.

Shelley continued. “We’ll start it off easy with question one: how many reindeer fly and guide Santa Claus’s sleigh?”

Stephanie laughed. “Well that’s an easy one!”

Leo marked his answer on the trivia form, then glanced at Jett.

He’d been very quiet and he was staring at a nearby table. From this angle, Leo could see the guy Jett had been watching earlier, but the rest of the table was blocked from view by a tall guy wearing a Santa hat.

“Um, at the risk of making this super awkward, are you into the guy over there?” Leo whispered, nudging Jett with his elbow.

Jett choked. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry … I’m being terribly rude to you.”

“No, it’s okay,” Leo said with a sigh. “I get it.”

Jett shot him an understanding look. “Who are you pining over?”

“Uhh, I wouldn’t say pining, exactly, but …” He smiled. “Well, his name is Nick.”

Jett blinked. “The matchmaker ?”

Leo nodded.

“Didn’t he have a wife who passed away?” Jett asked, glancing back at the table.

“He did. He’s totally not into me or anything,” Leo said. “It’s a stupid little crush on my part. I’ll get over it.”

“Not to freak you out or anything, but Nick’s sitting over there with my guy.”

Leo whipped his head around, blinking at the table. He had to crane his neck a little to see over the Santa hat guy, but once he did, he could see Nick’s face in profile.

Leo glanced away just as fast, ducking down, not wanting Nick to see him. He’d already weirded Nick out with his talk of masturbation. Gah . Why hadn’t he listened to Hayden?

But if Nick was weirded out, why the hell was he at The White Elephant when he knew this was where Leo would be tonight.

“What is he doing here?” Leo muttered to himself. Had Nick come to check on him? He’d done that at the parade …

But Leo shook his head, realizing it was stupid, pointless speculation. He glanced back at Jett who was staring at him with a curious expression.

“Anyway, your guy, huh?” Leo raised an eyebrow at Jett, who fidgeted, looking a little uncomfortable. Leo chuckled, then added, “Tell me about him.”

Jett glanced over at the table again.

“I feel like I’ve been in love with Remy for half my life, but we only recently became friends. I was kind of an idiot in high school.”

“Who wasn’t?” Leo joked.

Jett smiled. “We’re friends now. Which is great, I guess. But there are these moments, you know? Like he says something that gets my hopes all up, then firmly shoves me back into the friend zone. Sometimes I wish there was a sign out there to tell me if I even have a chance with him.”

“Do you want to find out?” Leo asked as an idea popped into his head.

“Oh? What do you have in mind?”

Before Leo could answer, Shelley called for everyone to write down their final answers before they collected the forms. He grimaced, scribbled down a couple of answers that were probably wrong because he’d only been half-paying attention to the last few questions.

He stood, grabbing Jett’s hand and pulling him to his feet. “Come with me.”

Leo wove through the tables, right past where Nick and Remy and their friends were sitting. Leo didn’t glance Nick’s way, didn’t stop until they were in the back near the bathrooms.

Leo spun Jett around until his back was against the wall, boxing him in with his arms.

Jett blinked, clearly startled. “What are you?—”

“Are they watching?” Leo asked.

Jett peeked over his shoulder.

“We definitely have an audience,” he muttered. “Is this all part of your grand plan?”

Leo grinned instead of replying and took a step closer till their chests were nearly touching. He reached up and brushed a loose piece of hair off Jett’s forehead, looking deeply into his eyes.

Jett blinked at him, his gaze darting toward the table, so Leo cupped his cheek. “Don’t look. Keep your eyes on me.”

Jett wet his lips. “You’re not going to kiss me, are you? Because while you’re hot and all, I’m not interested in kissing someone in front of my crush.”

Yeah, Jett was fucking hot too. But unlike every time Leo got close to Nick, there wasn’t a single spark.

Damn it.

“What a coincidence, because same. We’re not going to kiss, but maybe try and look like you want to kiss me,” Leo teased.

Jett looked him in the eye, like he was studying Leo’s face, before his gaze darted away again.

Leo was about to apologize and pull back because clearly Jett wasn’t into Leo’s plan when someone brushed his hand away from Jett’s cheek, roughly saying, “We need to talk.”