Meeting Mr. Christmas (Collier’s Creek Christmas)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“You want to go to the town bash tomorrow?” Jed asked as he stretched out after a dinner of out of date frozen lasagna, some limp lettuce, a few wrinkly tomatoes, and a packet of Oreos. “Just the two of us,” he added. “I’ll buy you dinner after.”

“Why, is that an invitation to a date, Mr. Mason?” Noel said, putting on his best terrible, Southern belle accent. He’d watched Gone with the Wind into double digits.

Jed snorted. “It’s an invitation to beer and take out. To say thanks for letting me crash and feeding me stuff that’s older than my parents. Just thought dinner sounded better.”

“You weren’t complaining when you were stuffing it down.”

Jed laughed. “True. So, how about tomorrow? Unless you’ve got something better to do.”

Unless I ’ ve got a date, you mean. Noel shook his head. Even if he had, he’d be canceling.

“No, nothing better.”

The town bash. It had an official name, but to everybody in the Creek, it was just the bash. Always held on the last Saturday evening before Christmas, it was the final big public event before the day itself.

“You should order your groceries online if you can’t get to the store. Or I can get Mom to send you regular deliveries of home cooked food.” Jed grinned, his eyes full of mischief.

“What?” God knew, Noel loved Francine, but the thought of her bustling around, armed with box upon box of Tupperware, standing over him and urging him to eat up like a good boy…

Jed began to laugh.

“You’re a dick, Jed Mason.”

“As you’ve told me before.”

“You can stand your mom down. I’ll go to the store, I promise. Just haven’t had the time, that’s all.”

“It’s not the only thing you’ve not had time for.” Jed made a point of looking around the room. With a pile of Christmas cards on the side and a box with a few tattered decorations forlorn and forgotten in the corner, Noel may have been Christmas by name, but according to his undecorated apartment, not by nature.

“I got them out of the cupboard. That’s a start.” It was also going to be the end. With nobody here but him, and with Christmas Day being spent with Jed and his family, what was the point of putting up the dusty old decorations that had long ago seen better days?

“A start’s not good enough, Christmas. This is your season. Put on some tree decorating music and we’ll get started.”

Jed tumbled everything from the box as Noel found the perfect mix on his streaming app, Christmas carols given a jazz twist, grinning when Jed groaned.

“What can I say? I was raised in a home with two jazz crazy parents,” he said, as Ella Fitzgerald’s rich voice filled the room.

Jed sifted through the pile on the floor. “I think we have everything we need. Or just about.” Jed looked up and smiled before he returned to sorting the decorations.

Noel’s eyes dropped to a close as he took in a quiet, deep inhale. A heady mix of fragrant blooms, cut through with the sharper scent of greenery. It melded and mingled with a masculine scent that owed nothing to any cologne, but was uniquely Jed’s own.

“Hey, is this the little tree you used to have in your room?” Jed unfolded a plastic, rainbow colored tree.

Noel jumped, his eyes snapping open. “Er, what? Oh, yes. It is.” He looked at the tree Jed was quickly assembling.

No more than four feet high, the bright and brash tree brought a lump to his throat. How could he not put it up and deck it out with all the flamboyant and cheesy decorations it was made for?

“Mom and dad gave it to me.” Seventeen years old and three days before Christmas, he’d taken every shred of courage he had — which hadn’t been much — and told them the truth about himself.

“I remember,” Jed said quietly. “Didn’t I tell you they’d be cool about it?”

Noel nodded, the lump in his throat growing bigger. They’d been more than cool. The following day, when he’d gone into his room, he’d found the little rainbow tree set up, dripping decorations and twinkling lights.

“Are you okay?” A warm, strong hand came to rest on his shoulder, gently massaging. Sighing, Noel pushed into Jed’s touch. “I know you miss your mom and dad, but you’ll be seeing them early in the new year. Come on, let’s do this.”

And they did. Tawdry scraps of tinsel, scratched and chipped candy canes, and Christmas angels with bent or broken wings, all of it went on the little tree.

Jed checked the box for any decorations he’d missed. “What’s this?” In his hand, he held something loosely wrapped in creased tissue paper.

“I don’t…” But the memory was resurfacing, making its way like a diver heading up from the deep. How could he have forgotten the decoration that had taken pride of place on his little Christmas tree?

“You’ve still got yours!” Jed exclaimed as he peeled the paper layers away. The bright red ornament had seen better days. Battered, scratched, and mottled, where patches of silver glitter had come away.

“Oh my god! I remember getting this done at the tree lighting ceremony. We got one each because the second was half price.”

Personalized Holiday Ornaments, the sign above the booth had read, Your Face on Our Baubles… Two grinning faces, pressed together, Jed’s arm around his shoulder and pulling him in tight. Two teenage boys on the cusp of becoming men, Noel had been crushing hard. His heart twisted. Had been… and still was.

“Still got mine. Always will have it, too.” Jed said quietly, as he brushed his thumb over the print of their faces.

They’d been so bound up in each other, like a ball of twine it had been impossible to pick apart. Noel’s heart thudded in his chest and his mouth dried to sun baked desert sand. He licked his lips, which were no more than dried strips of leather. In the warm and quiet room, just the two of them, bathed in soft lamplight, he could tell Jed. He could tell him how much he loved him, had always loved, he could?—

“I’ve got mine in my bedroom, on my desk. It kind of makes a good paperweight.”

Noel blinked. “What? Oh. It’s good for something, I guess.” He blinked again. Paperweight? It was as light as a feather, and round. It would roll away. Since when would it make a good paperweight?

Jed attached the bauble to the tree, just beneath the battered Christmas angel, and stood back, hands on hips as he inspected their efforts. “It’s not bad, not bad at all.” He looked over at Noel and smiled his bright, confident Jed smile.

The moment had passed. Noel’s thundering heart didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad, whether it would have been an insane move or a missed opportunity, whether it would have damaged and skewed their friendship or taken it to a whole new level into something so much more. But in the room where the light now seemed so much harder and brighter, he would never know.

“The room’s so much better now, don’t you think?”

Jed slung an arm around Noel’s shoulders, the urge to lean into Jed’s body a near irresistible pull, but Jed’s arm was loose and easy, friendly and comfortable, the intimacy of a good and close friend. It would be a heap of madness and insanity, piled upon craziness, to put all that at risk. He’d done the right thing in keeping his secret locked away, even if his heart wanted only to weep. Noel eased himself out from under Jed’s arm and began to gather together the few scraps of decorations that were left, too few, too ratty and too bedraggled to be festooned around his living room.

The music stopped, Ella finishing up on a well-known classic; Noel turned it off.

Jed yawned and stretched, his T-shirt riding loose, revealing the hard muscles he’d honed and kept from high school sports. A trail of fair hair disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans. “I could use a shower.”

You ’ re not the only one… Noel cleared his throat. “Sure. You know where everything is.”

“Thanks, bud.” Jed sniffed his armpit and wrinkled his nose. “Just a shame I’m gonna have to put this stuff back on.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

Jed’s eyes opened cartoonishly wide, and Noel groaned. “What I mean is, last time you stayed here, you left some clothes. Just sweat pants and a hoodie. I kept meaning to give them back.” The lie slipped easily from his tongue. There was no way he’d ever intended to return them, not when he could bury his face into the soft fabric, inhaling the fading but still there scent of Jed.

Noel dug out the clothes as Jed showered, leaving them on the bed. He stared down at the king size, which dominated the room.

One bedroom, one bed. They could share, because they’d shared a bed before. When they’d been kids… But they weren’t kids now. He sucked in his lower lip… It would be way more comfy than the couch… They’d each have their side… It was a new, firm mattress, so no chance of rolling into the middle together… It made sense to share. He’d suggest it. Fuck, he’d never suggest it, he’d?—

“Hey.”

Noel swung around — and almost keeled over. Jed stood in the doorway, his fair hair darkened from the shower. Stray droplets of water were scattered over his chest. One meandered down, gravity pulling it towards that mouthwatering treasure trail, darker and more defined on Jed’s still damp skin. Noel watched it fall, powerless to drag his gaze away as it made its way south, soaking into the towel wrapped low around Jed’s hips.

Jed stepped towards the bed. Noel couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. Hell, he could hardly breathe, because Jed in all his golden, almost naked glory, was taking up every inch of space and every breath of air in the room. Jed was so close, all it would take would be one tiny tug of the towel and it’d drop to the floor. Jed stepped in closer, and reached for the clothes that sat in a small pile on the end of the bed.

“I’ll make some more hot chocolate.” Noel rushed from the room, pulling the door closed with a bang.

He hung on hard to the edge of the sink, taking deep breaths to steady his galloping heart. Jesus, he needed to get a grip. He’d held it together with Jed for so many years, everything he dreamed of, fantasized about, and wanted so much it hurt, locked down in the dark, yet here he was, everything straining at the seams and threatening to unravel.

Two clumsy paws scratched at his leg. He looked down into Peter’s enormous eyes, and he snatched his little pet up into his arms.

“I’m just tired, that’s all. Honest. Works’s crazy. I haven’t got laid in too long a time, so I’m imagining stuff,” he whispered into Peter’s soft fur. Peter licked Noel’s nose before he snuggled deeper into Noel’s hold, his warm body a comfort.

“He’s the cutest thing when he’s not farting. Here, give him to me.”

Noel looked up and swallowed. Sweats were supposed to be loose and baggy, but these seemed to mold themselves around Jed, emphasizing rather than disguising his hard, muscular frame, the soft fabric cupping Jed’s plump dick. Jed stepped in close and Peters squirmed with excitement — yeah, Noel sure got that okay — as Jed took him into his arms. “You’re such a beautiful boy, a beautiful little cutie. You gonna give Jed a kiss? Are you?”

Peter yapped and caught the tip of Jed’s nose with his tongue. Wriggling hard and with his tail thrashing from side to side, he was exactly where he wanted to be: held tight in Jed’s arms.

You and me both, Peter…

“I’ll bring the chocolate through,” Noel croaked, stepping backwards, putting some space between him and Jed, giving himself room to breathe once more.

“Ah, okay.” Jed put Peter down, who whined at the sudden loss of attention before he waddled out of the kitchen. “I really appreciate you letting me crash here. I can’t believe I left my keys in the house.”

“I can. It’s not the first time you’ve got yourself locked out, but I’m surprised you didn’t look up one of your girlfriends first. I mean, I’m happy you’re here, and I don’t mind being second choice…”

Jed’s face froze.

Fuck… Why had he said that? Unless Jed had called Cora or anyone else on the long list of women whom Jed only had to smile and crook a finger at…

“Because I haven’t got a girlfriend.” Jed’s voice was a low rumble, and strained, as though he were holding back a storm that was pushing to break through. “You know I’m not seeing anybody, but even if I were, I’d rather be here with you. You’re not second choice. Okay? I don’t want to hear you say that again. Ever.”

Noel nodded and he swallowed hard. “Erm, go find something for us to watch on TV.”

Jed hesitated, as though he wanted to say more, before he mumbled an okay.

Rather than the TV, Jed was loading the DVD player. Noel’s brows raised when he saw the cover sitting on the coffee table.

“You’re a techie, but you still have a DVD player. It doesn’t make sense.” Jed shook his head as he pressed play; it was as though the tense moment in the kitchen had never happened. They were back on track, which, Noel reckoned, was at least better for his nerves.

“Then how would I get to play any one of my fine rom-com collection, lovingly assembled over so many years?”

Jed huffed. “I can’t believe I have willingly, and of my own volition, just selected a movie about a woman who only dresses in pink and?—”

“Because you know it’s one of my favorites?”

“Yeah, well…”

With the lights turned low, the tree lights gently twinkling, and with Peter nestled between them on the couch, Noel stared at the screen. He knew the film backwards, could quote lines. Rom-coms were his sappy, happy place, guaranteed to lower blood pressure and float away anxieties.

“Hey, you know where she…” Noel turned to Jed, and his words faded.

Jed, propped up in the corner, his head tilted back into the cushions, was asleep. His hair had dried into little tufts and his lips were slightly parted, puffing in and out with each slow breath. Noel carefully removed the mug, loosely cradled in Jed’s hand, and placed it on the coffee table before he switched off the movie, plunging the room into silence. Jed shifted, pushing himself down into the couch, muttering unintelligible words before his breathing became a low, soft snore.

Digging out a couple of fleece blankets from a closet, Noel draped them across Jed. Careful not to wake him, he kissed his fingertips before pressing them lightly to Jed’s brow, gazing down at him for a moment before tiptoeing out, closing the door behind him, to climb, alone, into his empty bed.