Under the Mistle-Foe (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

REMY

To hear that not only did Jett have a crush on me, but he’d been harboring this crush for years was shocking, to say the least. But hell if those words hadn’t made me feel like I was flying in the clouds.

I barely registered the houses on the light tour and ended up mostly watching Jett while he diligently snapped pictures for the rest of the ride.

Afterward, we went for a late dinner at The White Elephant. It had only been one day since trivia night here, and if someone told me yesterday that I’d be returning the following night on a date with Jett, I might not have believed them. Now, I was so happy I could rewrite Jett’s date here with our own.

The place was packed since it was a Friday night and tourists had rained down onto our town, but we arrived just as a booth opened up. It was a nice, romantic dinner. Soft lights, and teasing hands as we squeezed close on one side of the booth and fed each other small bites of food.

I never thought I’d be one of those disgustingly sweet couples I’d made fun of in the past, but doing these things with Jett? It somehow didn’t feel sweet enough.

And never mind the fact that all the teasing during dinner had me all hot and bothered by the time we’d returned to Jett’s place. The beers we’d had only intensified the heat brewing in the pit of my stomach and gave me the liquid courage to drag him into his room before dropping to my knees and returning the favor from the other night.

“You don’t have—” Jett started, but I was already swallowing him down before he could finish his sentence. His sexy moans rang in my ear as his hands gripped my hair tightly.

I’d never sucked a dick before, but I wanted to make him feel as good as he’d made me. Maybe it was my eagerness or the teasing throughout dinner that had brought Jett to the edge because, before long, he was warning me of his orgasm.

I licked harder, wanting to taste him, and not a second later, his hips bucked, and a sinful moan coming from his mouth as he spilled his seed on my tongue. I sucked him until he was soft, then loomed over him and crashed our lips together, stroking myself until I was coming into my fist.

Our kisses continued, languid and so sweet that they had my insides all twisted like Twizzlers .

I ended up spending the night at his place again and fell asleep all wrapped up against him with the cats softly snoring in my ears. The next morning, I woke up squeezed to the edge and Jett pressed up against me. The kitties curled up in the middle of the bed like they’d owned it, only leaving us a third of the space.

It was still early, with the sun not even out yet, so I tucked Jett back under the covers, pushing him closer to the middle so that he didn’t fall off the bed in his sleep. I whipped up some quick breakfast for him for later and headed home to check on Dad and get ready for work .

Dad was already up when I entered the house. He gave me those knowing eyes as I cooked breakfast for us, and his shit-eating grin hadn’t disappeared even as we settled down to eat.

“If you want to say something, then say it,” I said and took a hard bite of my bacon.

Dad smiled wider. I prepared myself for whatever embarrassing thing he’d say. What came out of his mouth surprised me instead.

“I’m happy you didn’t shut your heart off from the world. After your mom passed, I lost myself for a while and you had to watch me go through that when you were barely just an adult,” Dad started.

“Dad, we don’t have to talk about that,” I said and patted his hand. It was a lot smaller under mine than I’d remembered it being. He shook his head.

“No, we do. This has been left unsaid for too long. I was so absorbed in my grief that I never noticed how you shut yourself up as tight as a clam. It was too late by the time I’d realized. You’d already run away, hiding from the town and your own emotions?—”

I wanted to apologize again for running and leaving Dad here all by himself, but he held up a hand to stop me before I could.

“I know why you had to go. And I’m not saying it was right, but it was what you needed to do, and I accepted it. And I thought you could move on, away from here, but you weren’t happy. You became a shell of yourself, almost as if you were fighting against the world. And I didn’t know how to help you.” Dad patted my hand. “Now I can see glimpses of your old self reappearing. You’re healing, moving on, and I know your mom would be happy to see this.”

Shit. I wasn’t expecting to start my morning off with tears and my eyes burning to keep them from flowing .

After Mom’s death, I lived hating the world that took her away from us and thought if I shut myself off, then I wouldn’t have to feel the pain of loss again. But now I realized I was only doing a disservice to Mom’s memory.

She’d lived every day so full of love for her family and the community we’d built in town. I’d tried to deny it all by running away and never letting anyone in, but Dad had embraced her memory by continuing the traditions she’d loved. It made me realize again just how strong of a person Dad was.

As I cleaned up after breakfast, Dad sat at the table. “Jett’s a good boy,” he said out of nowhere. This wasn’t the first time he’d said that to me, but it was the first time I’d agreed with him. I knew this was his way of tacitly acknowledging our relationship.

“Yeah, he is,” I said with a laugh.

There wasn’t much time before the diner opened, so I quickly got ready and drove us both to work. Dad had been walking on his crutches more, which I read online was good at promoting healing in his leg at this stage of the process. While Dad set up the register, I brought the sign out to the front.

In the past week, I’d noticed new things hanging from the arch. I was glad to know Dad had been adding to it, filling it with happy memories for everyone to see, when I still couldn’t bring myself to add anything. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to honor my mom’s memories and continue her traditions, but that didn’t mean it was easy, so it really helped to see all these different memories on the arch.

I plopped the sign on the sidewalk. When I turned around to head back inside the diner, I noticed a tiny toy car hanging on a branch by the ground. It was weird to think Dad was playing with toy cars but plausible, but then I noticed other mementos that definitely couldn’t have been from Dad. Rainbow friendship bracelets, scraps of paper with poems written on them, mini Polaroid pictures of smiling families that definitely weren’t of me and my dad.

Then, off to the side of the arch, I found a laminated card with a fancy script that read: Cherished memories grow when shared. Let’s make this holiday season one filled with happiness and love for the community.

The letter was signed ‘Secret Santa.’ Who the fuck was that?

I called Dad out to take a look. Heguffawed after reading the card. “I don’t know who this Secret Santa is, but I approve. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier. We are a community, and what better way to come together as a community than this?”

“Aren’t you worried at all that someone is going around telling people to randomly add their personal items here? What if someone steals theirmementos and the owners blame us?”

Dad gave me an incredulous look, like that was the stupidest thing I’d ever said. “Son, you’ve been in the city too long. Who would steal around here?” After he finished speaking, he went back inside, leaving me standing there studying the note. Dad might not be worried, but that wouldn’t stop me from trying to find out who this Secret Santa was.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped at the sudden voice behind me. I spun around to find Jett standing there, looking amused.

“What are you doing here so early?” Was the first thing that came to my thoughts.

“What? Not happy to see me?”

“No! I just thought you might want to sleep in, since it’s the weekend. ”

He stepped into my space and pressed a sweet kiss to my lips. “Aren’t I allowed to come see my boyfriend at work?”

I instantly wrapped my arms around him and tried to deepen the kiss, but he pulled back and looked around me. “What were you staring at?”

My puckered lips met with air as Jett sidestepped me to look at the spot I’d been studying earlier. He picked up the laminated card and read it with a grin.

“My dad and I already saw the card. You don’t have to hide behind this moniker anymore,” I stated. Jett was the one who’d helped Dad set the arch up, so it made sense he was also the one to help fill it up.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not your Secret Santa,” he shot over his shoulder, looking smug at my incorrect guess before entering the diner and leaving me there to continue staring at the damn card.

The mystery bugged me all day. I’d asked every single one of the diner staff if they were the Secret Santa, and nobody had a clue what I was talking about.

Hell, I even asked Kaysen if he was the one behind this when his entire family came for an early lunch.

“No clue what you’re talking about, but more importantly, a little birdy told me you’ve been seen around town on a date with a certain man,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at where Jett sat tapping on his laptop.

“Ooh, what are we gossiping about?” Kaysen’s future brother-in-law came over, looking eager to hear some tea. Felix was a little ball of sunshine with curly blond hair and blue eyes that made him look like an angel. It was a wonder how he’d fallen in love with the grump of the Brooks family.

“What mischief are you two up to again?” The man in question joined our little group, his eyes darting between his fiancé and brother. Felix laughed and snuggled into the bigger man’s arm. Bruce was almost a head taller than Felix, and I had to admit they were cute together with their size difference and the way Bruce seemed to physically soften when his fiancé flashed his sweet smile at him.

“No mischief, just gossip,” Felix replied, almost giddy.

“Word’s going around that Remy was on a hot date yesterday,” Kaysen piped up.

“How you heard about this when it only happened last night is beyond me,” I muttered.

“Now I can’t give away all my secrets, can I?” he said with a wink, then slung an arm around me. “So, since when were you into men, and how come I never knew this?”

I shifted under his question, not really sure how to answer. It wasn’t entirely true to say I was into men, because I’d never felt this way about anyone else before—man or woman. I’d done some research online these past couple of days and learned about demisexuality; when someone felt sexual attraction only after making an emotional connection.

It was what made the most sense to me. After years of not letting anyone in, Jett was the only one stubborn enough to keep bothering me until I was left with no choice but to let him into my heart. And thank god for his persistence too, because while we haven’t been officially dating for long, these feelings for him had been a long time coming. It just took me seeing him on a date with another man to realize them for what they were.

“I’m not interested in most men—or women, for that matter. Just Jett,” I shot over my shoulder with a wink, then strode to my man to give him a loud kiss. Cheers and whistles erupted behind me as I lingered in the kiss.

“What was that for?” Jett asked, surprised by the sudden attack and adorably shy at the attention.

“Just wanted to kiss my boyfriend. Is that not allowed? ”

“Oh, definitely allowed. In fact, it’s encouraged,” he replied as he pressed his smile against my lips and pulled me down for a deeper kiss. Everything else drowned away.

I might still be confused about my sexuality, but this thing with Jett? There was no confusion about that.