12 Dates of Christmas (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Oh my God,” Leo said a short while later, his eyes widening as Nick turned into the driveway where a sign proudly displayed the Reindeer Rides Farm logo. Holy shit. “Are we … are we doing something with reindeer today?”

Nick shot him a grin. “Yes. I was trying to think of what you liked the most and it seems like you’re a big fan of animals so … I thought the reindeer might be fun.”

“Holy shit,” Leo whispered. “That’s … yes. Yes. Reindeer. Yes. I am so excited.”

Nick shot him another grin, his eyes creasing at the corners. “Perfect.”

Leo glanced around raptly as Nick parked by the barn and they got out of the truck. A man appeared, greeting Nick by name. Nick introduced him to Leo.

“So, you’re here for a private reindeer experience,” Ollie said when the intros were done.

“Um, I guess?” Leo shrugged, glancing over at Nick.

“Yep. You’ll get to meet the reindeer, pet them, groom them, feed them …”

“This is the best day of my life,” Leo said with a sigh. Holy shit, this was gonna be awesome. He couldn’t wait to send photos to his family.

Nick beamed. “Are you ready?”

“So ready.”

The barn was big and old, but very well maintained. The moment Leo stepped inside, he breathed in the familiar dusty scent of hay and straw and animals, feeling nostalgic for home.

The reindeer stared at them curiously as they approached the gate sectioning off a third of the barn. At the far end, big double doors were open to the pasture beyond.

Ollie gave them a few rules, then explained. “We don’t usually do this. This is our first private reindeer experience so although they’re used to humans, they might be skittish. Nick said you’re familiar with animals though, Leo?”

“Oh yeah.” Leo grinned. “My family has a dairy farm.”

“Ahh.” Ollie looked relieved. “Then you understand.”

Leo nodded. He might not know reindeer but any large herd animal could be flighty and skittish with strangers, which could be dangerous.

Nick, who Leo knew didn’t have any experience with anything larger than a cat or a dog, hung back, offering to take some pictures.

Ollie offered Leo a pail of their specialized feed. “You can put some in your hand and offer it to them, if you want.”

Leo definitely wanted. He held out a hand and several of the animals eyed it curiously. One finally grew bold enough to step forward, reaching out with its nose to sniff his hand. With another wary look, it gobbled a few bites, then stepped back.

That went on for a few moments until Leo had a few of the reindeer nosing each other out of the way to eat from his hand.

He laughed, delighted. He glanced over to see Nick’s soft expression. Warmth bloomed in Leo’s chest.

It was so sweet of him to arrange this.

The reindeer were amazing . They were smaller than Leo anticipated. Half the size of a fully grown Jersey cow and they weighed about a third as much. And they were even cuter than he’d thought they’d be.

When the food was gone, Ollie held out a brush. “You can groom them, if you’d like.”

“Oh, I’d like,” Leo said happily. He carefully approached the friendliest of the reindeer, holding up the brush to show it what he was doing. He settled a hand on its flank, then carefully stroked the brush across its thick, shaggy fur.

It let out a soft huffing sound and leaned into him. Leo smiled.

“Would you like to know some facts about reindeer?” Ollie asked.

“Yes!” Leo said, giggling as another reindeer in front of him nosed at his pocket, hoping for more pellets.

“Well, unlike most deer, the female reindeer have antlers as well as the males,” Ollie said.

“Huh.” Leo scratched the nose of the one he was grooming. “So is this a lady reindeer or a gentleman?”

Ollie grinned. “This is a lady. We call her Gumdrop.”

“Hi, Gumdrop,” Leo whispered.

“They can’t fly, but did you know they can swim?”

“No, I had no idea,” Leo said, impressed.

“They have thick, wooly undercoats and the top layer of their fur is long and hollow shafted. It keeps them warm and increases buoyancy in the water.”

“Very cool.” Leo glanced over at Nick and smiled.

Nick beamed back again. Gah, he was such a sweetheart.

“They are also the only mammal who can see ultraviolet light,” Ollie continued.

“Neat.”

“And they have some of the richest and most nutritious milk of any land mammal.”

“So, my family raises Jersey cows,” Leo said, his interest piqued. “What’s the butterfat percentage compared to that?”

Ollie grinned. “Twenty-two percent.”

“Twenty-two?” Leo yelped. “Holy shit.”

“Right? And ten percent protein.”

“That’s incredible.”

Nick looked lost so Leo explained. “So, most milk is around three to five percent fat and like, three-and-a-half percent protein. Jersey milk is on the high end of that range for butterfat and a little higher in protein. About three point eight.”

“You know your dairy,” Ollie said admiringly.

“I do,” Leo admitted. “Hazards of growing up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.”

“We have some milk and cheese right now,” Ollie said. “Reindeer generally give birth in late spring or early summer and the calves are weaned in November and December. We don’t milk them a lot. Frankly, they’re very low yield. You can only get about one and a half to two cups per milking. But I could give you a taste if you’re curious.”

“ So curious,” Leo said with a laugh. “If you don’t mind …”

“Not at all.”

“So you’re having fun?” Nick asked when Ollie left the barn.

“Oh my God, so much fun,” Leo admitted, scratching under the reindeer’s chin. “This is awesome. I miss animals more than I realized, I guess.”

“Glad you’re enjoying it.”

“Do you want to pet one?” Leo asked. “I’ll be nice and share Gumdrop with you.”

“Sure.” Nick stepped closer, reaching out a hand and letting the animal sniff before he carefully stroked her face. “Oh. Her coat is coarser than I expected.”

“Yeah, it’s not like a cat’s fur. But it’s very thick and warm.”

“Yeah, it is.” Nick slid a hand along Gumdrop’s back and she leaned into the touch.

Gah, Leo couldn’t blame her. He’d kinda like Nick to be touching him that way too.

“I love their faces,” Leo said with sigh. “The big dark eyes and sweet little square noses get me. I can only imagine how cute the babies are.”

“You could come back when they’re born,” Ollie said, reentering the barn carrying a tray. “If you’re interested in seeing them. No charge.”

“Um, yes. I’d love that.”

“So, both of you can help yourself to the milk, cheese, and crackers,” Ollie said, setting the tray on a nearby straw bale. “And here are some wipes to clean your hands.”

“Thanks!”

After cleaning up, Nick and Leo sampled the milk and the sweet cheese, which was mild and creamy. Honestly, it reminded Leo a lot of cream cheese, only richer.

“I like it,” he said. “What do you think?”

“Uhh, not to insult Gumdrop or you, Ollie, but I think I’ll stick to cow’s milk,” Nick said with a cute wrinkle of his nose.

Leo grinned. His family had a small herd of goats and sheep as well, so he’d pretty much tried every kind of milk out there.

“So, are you ready for your ride?” Ollie asked when they were done.

“Uhh, hell yes,” Leo said, visions of racing across the snowy ground on the back of a reindeer dancing in his head.

He said goodbye to Gumdrop and a few of the other reindeer, then followed Ollie and Nick out of the barn. He was disappointed when they walked around the back and there was a sleigh with reindeer harnessed to it.

“Oh, I thought we were going to actually ride them.”

Ollie grinned. “The Sami people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia do. But we use sleighs. And at the risk of ruining the illusion even more, our sleighs use wheels. We don’t get enough snow here in Illinois to use the traditional style sleighs with runners.”

“Still very cool,” Leo assured Nick, who looked worried.

A few minutes later, when they were tucked into the sleigh with a warm blanket over their laps, Leo snuggled close to Nick.

“Cold?” he asked, putting an arm around Leo.

“No.” Leo glanced over. “Wanted to be close.”

Nick swallowed. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Leo said, reaching out to take Nick’s gloved hand. “Today has been great so far.”

As the sleigh moved over the snow, the bells on the reindeers harnesses jingling, hope rose inside Nick.

Leo was tucked close, his cheeks already flushed pink from the cool wind. He seemed happy and content and Nick was deeply relieved. He didn’t think one good date was going to solve anything but he’d hoped to show Leo he was paying attention to him. That he knew him well enough to pick out what he’d enjoy.

It would take time and patience to show Leo how sincere he was. That he was reliable and trustworthy and in it for the long haul.

But some good dates couldn’t hurt. And so far, this one was off to a great start.

“Where are we going now?” Leo asked.

“You’ll see,” Nick told him.

Leo poked him in the ribs. “Why are you trying to be so mysterious?”

“Because it’s more fun.”

Leo grumbled. “For one of us.”

But he didn’t look upset so Nick pulled him closer.

“Thank you,” Leo said softly, a few minutes later. “I loved meeting the reindeer.”

“I thought you might.” Nick had hoped so, anyway.

“Honestly, it makes me miss home.”

“Are you going to visit the Fenner Farm for Christmas?” Nick asked.

“No. My parents are coming to visit me,” Leo said. “I think they were worried about me when we talked last.”

“Because some guy was a jerk to you?” Nick asked.

“Something like that.”

“So I’m going to have to win them over too,” Nick said. “Unless … will that be too soon to meet the family?”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to see how the next few weeks go. But I’d like for you to meet each other.”

“Okay,” Nick agreed. He was nervous. He’d never had to impress the parents before. He’d known Nicole’s family growing up, so they’d already had a good idea of what kind of guy he was when he and Nicole had started dating.

“I didn’t go into details, by the way,” Leo said. “Just said there was a guy I was hoping it might work out with but he wasn’t ready.”

“Ahh.” Well that was something.

“Hayden however …” Leo laughed ruefully. “He might take a while to come around.”

“Shit.”

“Sorry.”

“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about,” Nick assured him. “This was on me.”

Leo squeezed his hand. For a few moments they were silent and Nick glanced around, taking in the snow-covered ground and the rapidly deepening twilight. There were little fairy lights strung on the reindeer and it would be magical looking once it got fully dark.

“So you have two brothers, right?” Nick asked.

“Yes.” Leo shifted, snuggling even closer. “Adam and Jason.”

“Are they coming to visit for Christmas?”

“No. They’re staying in Wisconsin to take care of the farm.”

“Ohh, sure,” Nick said. “Makes sense. Cows don’t milk themselves.”

Leo chuckled. “There are some robotic milking machines where the cows can walk up to the machine and it takes care of the whole thing without people, but that’s for much bigger, fancier dairies.”

“You know a lot about it,” Nick observed. “It was great to hear you talk to Ollie. You sounded so smart and competent.”

Leo straightened, grinning. “You like that, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, good to know. I will definitely keep that in mind for the future.” Leo settled back against his side, resting his cheek on Nick’s shoulder. “You only have the one sister, Heather, yeah?”

“Yes. I used to be close to Nicole’s brother, Ford, but like I said, he kinda disappeared from my life.”

“Yeah, I remember you telling me about your encounter at the bookstore. It’s hard when you drift away from people.”

“It is,” Nick admitted.

“Do you—do you want kids someday? The way you talked about Charlie …”

“Oh.” Nick let out a shaky laugh. He forgot Leo wouldn’t know that about him. Nick had read all of Leo’s wants and needs in a relationship when he filled out the forms for the matchmaking service but Leo had never seen his. “Um, I do want kids. Nicole and I were trying. We found out shortly before she died that I have a low sperm count so we were looking into our options.”

“Oh, Nick.” Leo kissed his shoulder.

“Sometimes I’m glad,” Nick whispered, his voice growing thick. “That we hadn’t already had a kid or she wasn’t pregnant when she died. That would have been …”

Leo squeezed him tighter. “I can only imagine.”

“But um, yeah, I want to be a dad at some point. I was planning to be a stay-at-home dad. I was unhappy with my career at the bank and Nicole’s books were selling so well it made the most sense.”

“I love that,” Leo said. “I, um, this is really, really putting the cart before the horse, or well, the sleigh before the reindeer, maybe, but I love my work so I kinda—I hoped to find a guy who wouldn’t expect me to be the one home with the kids.”

“Yeah?” Nick asked, hope rising in him.

“I want to be an active parent,” Leo said. “Just … not the primary, stay-at-home one, if that makes sense.”

“It does. And that would work for me,” Nick said. “I mean, I know it’s early for us to discuss this but I also think the relationships that tend to fail are the ones where people aren’t on the same page about marriage and kids.”

“Makes sense.”

“So I don’t think it’s bad to talk about it when you’re getting to know someone.”

“Oh!” Leo sat up straight. “Oh, Nick, look at the lights!”

Nick grinned. It was fully dark now and they’d arrived in one of the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Santa’s Village—what Christmas Falls called the center of town. All of the homes in the area had a ton of lights on them.

“Welcome to the second part of the date,” Nick explained. “A sleigh ride and tour of the Christmas lights.”

Leo kissed his cheek. “It’s so beautiful .”

“Glad you like it.”

“I do.” Leo settled close again, his hat brushing Nick’s cheek. “Hey, how do you feel about Christmas Vacation ?”

“The movie?” Nick asked, slightly confused. “It’s a classic, why?”

“Just curious.”

The date ended with Nick dropping Leo off at his door with a hug.

No matter how great the evening had been, Nick needed to take everything slow this time around. But he was feeling optimistic as he let himself into his house and greeted Jelly.

She mewed before he had even gotten his coat off and he lifted her into the air triumphantly, then kissed the top of her head. “I have good feelings about this,” Nick told her.

She squirmed and, laughing, he set her down.

He’d gotten her fed and settled into bed when his phone rang. He frowned at Leo’s name, picking up immediately. “Hey, did you forget something in my truck?” he asked.

“No,” Leo said. “I thought we’d keep doing the post-date debriefs.”

Nick chuckled, settling back against the headboard. “Well, how’d your date go today?”

“Perfect,” Leo said with a sigh. “He saved me from the evil bathroom door, brought me yummy snacks, took me to pet some reindeer, then arranged for a romantic sleigh ride.”

“Yeah? Well, I have it on good authority he had a great time too.”