XOXO: A Bundle of Cozy Novellas

Owen

OWEN

Owen wasn’t focused on the drive from the Waterline to Edmund’s house. He was going over lists, and lists of lists, trying to figure out if he’d forgotten anything to do with the holiday party. He didn’t think he had missed any details, but in his party-planning experience, something always came up. It was a surprise when Edmund cut the power to the engine. Looking out the window, Owen realized they were at the house.

“That was fast,” he commented as he opened the door and got out of the car. “Dammit, I forgot my coat and my clothes bag. We’re going to have to go back.”

Edmund came around to Owen’s side of the car, carrying the lost clothes bag and Owen’s wool coat over one arm.

“Oh, ha, you grabbed them. Thank you. I don’t know where my head is.”

Edmund smiled at him as he moved toward the front door. “You’ve got a lot going on.”

Inside, Edmund hung Owen’s coat and clothing bag up in his hall closet.

“Now, how about some lunch? I’ve got a variety of soups, all tinned, and I make a mean grilled cheese. Anything fancier and I’ll need to order in again. I haven’t gone to the grocery.”

Hunger hit him out of the blue. Owen realized he was starving. Had he eaten breakfast? He couldn’t remember, which meant probably not. He’d meant to stop at the Booking Room, but instead he’d headed right to the Waterline. The owner had been happy to let him in to move tables around.

“Soup and grilled cheese sounds amazing.”

“Okay.” Edmund took him by the shoulders and turned him around, pushing him toward the stairs. “I will heat up this gourmet soup I’ve got and burn a couple sandwiches while you take a shower.”

The bathroom was a room Edmund had already refurbished. The centerpiece was a six-foot-long claw-foot bathtub. The stainless fixtures gleamed under the period lighting he’d had installed. Along the chair rail at the top of the wainscoting Edmund had placed several silver candleholders, their candles as yet unlit.

A gauzy robin’s-egg-blue shower curtain encircled the entire tub, and the showerhead was as big as a dinner plate. Owen sighed. Complete luxury. Pulling the curtain around to protect the tile flooring, he turned the hot water on high and spread the bath mat out to catch any drips. While the water heated, he stripped off his clothing, leaving it in a pile on the floor. He wrinkled his nose—Edmund was right, he needed a shower.

He stepped into the tub and stood in the spray, turning in a circle so the water could hit him everywhere. It felt so good. Shutting his eyes, he let the water spray his face and chest. This was so much better than the shower at his apartment. He hated his apartment, but it was all he could afford for now.

Using Edmund’s toiletries, Owen scrubbed his hair and soaped up his body, then he stood back under the spray and rinsed off. It would’ve been nice if Edmund had joined him. The shower they’d taken at the cabin had been incredible. He could only imagine what it would be like here, where they had room to maneuver.

When he turned the water back off, Owen felt like he could breathe again. This past week had been beyond stressful, especially after the snowbound interlude and the Andy Dunn incident—he’d been half worried there’d be some fallout.

He didn’t want to put his dirty jeans and T-shirt back on. After drying himself off, he took the robe hanging on a hook on the back of the door and put it on. In the event Edmund minded, he’d just take it off and distract him.

Edmund looked over at him from where he was stirring something on the stove. He waggled his eyebrows, noting Owen’s appearance.

“It looks better on you than me. I suppose you’re stark naked underneath?”

“I didn’t want to put my dirty clothes back on.”

“Right.” He fiddled with the stove, lifted the soup pot off the burner, and then moved across the kitchen to where Owen waited.

“What?” Owen asked innocently.

“‘Whot?’ ‘Whot?’ he says,” Edmund growled. “You are going to be the death of me. Now all I can do is think about you naked under my dressing gown.”

“You could quit thinking about it and do something about it.”

“Are you sure you don’t need to go haring off to decorate or check in with someone?” Edmund teased.

Owen rolled his eyes. “Okay, so maybe I went a little overboard. Have I mentioned I can be a bit of a control freak?”

It was Edmund’s turn to roll his eyes. “A bit? And maybe you’ve had a tad too much coffee? I thought you were going to launch into outer space, all that twitching and bouncing.”

“Well, the shower went a long way toward relaxing me…”

Edmund raised both eyebrows.

“…but I could probably use a little more relaxing.”

“The soup will—why am I worried about sodding soup?”

“I guess I fell asleep,” Owen murmured.

“Not until after the good part.” Edmund chuckled.

Why had he denied himself Edmund’s presence this past week? He’d known Edmund wanted him to stay with him, and Owen had wanted to stay too, but instead he’d forced himself to sleep at his ratty apartment with his too-loud roommates who couldn’t be bothered to put a new roll of toilet paper on the roller. What was wrong with him?

“You could’ve stayed here this week, you know.” It was as if Edmund was reading his thoughts.

“I know, I guess I was overthinking a little. I don’t want to wear out my welcome—as Pearl would say.”

“Overthinking, a little.” Edmund repeated Owen’s words. “I’d say you were overthinking a lot. But who am I to judge, as I thought I was the reigning king of overthinking.”

“It’s just weird.” He struggled to find the right words. “My whole life, my adult life, there’s been this part of me I didn’t know how to handle, and then you come along and suddenly it’s totally clear. It doesn’t seem like it should be this easy.”

“But it hasn’t been easy, has it? Not for either one of us. I don’t mean us together,” Edmund waved his hand between them, “but for us to find the right person. So why can’t it be easy once we have?”

“You make everything sound so simple.”

“Not everything has to be hard. Heh, well, some things have to be hard, but…”

Owen laughed and rolled onto his side so he was half sprawled across Edmund and half on the mattress. “Funny guy. You’re right, of course. I thought something was wrong with me, that I couldn’t sustain a relationship, and here I was looking in all the wrong places.”

“To be fair, I only moved here a year ago.”

Owen sighed. “I wish I’d met you a year ago. Then I wouldn’t have made that mistake with Andy Dunn. I knew it when I was doing it, and I did it anyway, and now…” He shuddered, not wanting to think about Andy. The whole situation had been just another low-grade worry for him over the past week.

Andy hadn’t tried to return that Owen knew of, and he didn’t know where Owen lived, but just the fact that he was out there angry and hurt bothered him. It bothered him a lot.

“Dunn made his own choice when he didn’t listen to you, Owen.”

“Yeah, well,” Owen grumbled.

“So,” Edmund began, “are we done with this nonsense of you staying somewhere else? Yes, I know it’s too soon to make anything official, and besides, Chance, that fucking hypocrite, will come down on me like a ton of bricks. ‘Take your time, Edmund,’ he says. ‘Don’t rush things, Edmund.’ Pffft , he moved in with John almost immediately.”

“How long was I asleep for?” Owen asked, realizing that Edmund’s bedroom seemed darker than it had—but this time of year the dark came early.

Edmund twisted to look over his shoulder. “It’s only half past two. You needed the sleep.”

Owen arched his back, rubbing against Edmund’s hip and side, reveling in their touch, in his skin against Edmund’s. “ Mmm .”

“Now you’re just causing trouble.”

But Edmund wrapped his arm tighter around Owen, who reached down and began to stroke Edmund’s responsive member. He ran his index finger up and down Edmund’s shaft, loving that he hardened under Owen’s touch, his touch. Was it ridiculous that he felt he’d waited his entire life for this man? Was it ridiculous he was second-guessing himself?

“Maybe I need to relax a little more before we head back to the event.”

“I’m not going to argue,” Edmund said, bumping his pelvis against Owen’s hand, “but if you relax much more, you’re going to melt into the carpet.”

Owen grinned into the dark of Edmund’s bedroom, then scooched around so he was in the perfect position. Edmund sucked in a breath as Owen took Edmund’s cock into his mouth, swallowing him as deeply as he could. Edmund was the perfect size: he fit in Owen’s mouth like he was meant to be there. Edmund smelled good, like the shower gel Owen had used earlier. He couldn’t get enough of Edmund’s cock.

“Bloody hell,” Edmund panted. Owen could tell he was trying not to jam himself down Owen’s throat. Owen let saliva build and then coat Edmund so he could take him in farther as he sucked him down.

“I’m not going to last.”

Good, Owen thought, he didn’t want Edmund to. He wanted to drive him out of his mind. He wanted Edmund to look at Owen tonight at the party and think of this afternoon. Edmund began to caress Owen’s ass. Owen shut his eyes, trying to concentrate on Edmund, but now that he could feel Edmund’s hand slowly petting him, it was much more difficult. Keeping his mouth on Edmund, tasting his excitement, Owen pressed into Edmund’s hand.

“Oh, you like that, do you?”

Owen growled around Edmund’s throbbing shaft, letting his mouth go slack so his lips could slide up and down.

“Making it hard for you to concentrate, am I? What happens if I do this?”

With little warning, Edmund’s finger began to circle Owen’s hole. It was electric. He’d been hard already, but now his dick was painfully erect.

“ Mmf .” He sucked harder.

It became a game, each trying to get the other to come first. Owen knew without a doubt they would both be coming, but who would be first? In the next few seconds he had his answer, because Edmund upped the game by dipping the very tip of his finger inside Owen. Owen pulsed, feeling the warm wetness of precome on his thigh.

He tried, but he had to let Edmund slip out of his mouth. He lay his head down on Edmund, his ass lifted high.

“Please.”

Edmund didn’t tease. Parting Owen’s cheeks farther, he pushed his finger—or was it his thumb—into him. Owen pushed back, loving the dry rasp of Edmund inside him. Edmund reached between his legs with his other hand and began to stroke Owen’s erection as he moved forward and backward with his thumb. Owen was wound up from having Edmund in his mouth; he wasn’t going to last. He was going to come right now. It felt like a bolt of lightning hit him—his balls tightened beyond what he thought was possible. There was no way Edmund couldn’t have felt them.

“Oh god, oh god, oh, god.” Owen fucked himself on Edmund’s thumb, his come dripping onto Edmund’s abdomen. His arms burned, and he couldn’t hold himself up any longer. He collapsed onto Edmund’s body. Edmund’s very erect cock lay directly in his line of sight, not an inch from his mouth, so he popped the pink mushroom tip into his mouth and began to suck while he pumped with his hand. Edmund came with a groan and a gasp, and Owen swallowed, loving the taste of him.

“That was incredible,” they said almost at the same time and then laughed at the same time too. Owen loved hearing Edmund laugh.

“We’re both going to need a shower.”

“Huh,” Edmund replied, “Surprise, that.”

They made it back to the Waterline by four. Owen insisted, and Edmund didn’t argue with him. He seemed to feel he’d had a major victory getting Owen to eat after their “nap.” If that was how Edmund napped, Owen was down for napping every day of the week.

“Thanks for taking care of me,” Owen said by way of a goodbye as he climbed out of Edmund’s car.

Edmund had had to park a little farther down the pier this time; the decorating and catering teams had obviously arrived. Owen swung around when he heard Edmund’s car door open and then shut.

“Are you coming in?”

“I’m dressed, aren’t I? Someone’s got to make sure you don’t go completely overboard. What am I going to do if I go home, anyway?”

Owen shook his head and laughed, waiting for Edmund to join him so they could walk to the end of the pier together .

The Christmas holiday fell during the middle of the week. As promised, Edmund and Owen drove to Wenatchee together. They remembered to check the weather first. The pass was clear and dry, but both of them looked fondly at the exit for the cabin where they’d stayed so recently.

“Too bad we can’t stay there,” Owen said.

“I got us a room at the Hilton.”

“It’s a hotel in Wenatchee. It’s not going to be anything special,” Owen grumbled.

“They have hot tubs.”

“Private ones?” Owen asked hopefully.

Edmund laughed, ignoring his question, since they both knew the hot tubs would be nowhere near as private as the one at the cabin.

The Golden Years Senior Home was all decked out for the holidays. All the holidays, which Owen thought was pretty cool. There was a huge glittering tree covered with lights and ornaments in the lobby, and there was also a large menorah in the dining room window, its candles lit. On the way up the stairs to Pearl’s apartment there were decorations for Kwanzaa, and on each landing a different holiday tradition was depicted.

He tapped on Pearl’s door.

“Come in!” Pearl called out.

Owen pushed the door open. Pearl was in her minikitchen, and Owen was pleased to see she was using her walker. They’d had an argument about it, and Pearl had confessed she found using it depressing, but Owen had pressed the issue and gotten her to agree that falling again and going back to the hospital would be much worse.

“Hello, darling!”

Owen rushed across the room to hug her. Did she feel even smaller in his embrace? He wasn’t sure. Pearl looked good, though. She had color in her cheeks, and she’d obviously been to the salon recently and had her hair done.

He leaned back so he could see her better. “You look ravishing—stunning, even.”

“You always have been a smooth talker, Owen. Now, don’t leave your young man just standing there in the doorway. How rude is that! Come here so Owen can properly introduce us; meeting while I was laid up in bed does not count.” She motioned for Edmund to come over to where they were standing.

Owen let his gaze wash over Edmund as he approached. He really was lucky. Yes, they’d only officially been together for ten whole days, but he honestly didn’t think he’d ever get tired of seeing Edmund’s beautiful face and the smile that went along with it. Edmund, of course, refused to believe Owen found him attractive, but Owen figured it would give them something to argue about, since they didn’t seem to argue about much else. And he didn’t mind proving it—over and over again.

“Edmund Lake, meet my great-great-aunt Pearl.”

“I wish you wouldn’t add those ‘greats’ onto my name. It makes me feel like an old lady.” Pearl cackled, there was no other description.

Edmund laughed along with her, and Owen’s heart felt full to bursting. He knew ten days wasn’t much of a marker for a relationship, but Edmund felt right in his life. He glanced over at Pearl and saw she was watching him closely.

“What?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Edmund’s good for you. I was getting worried I’d never see you truly happy.”

“Ugh, enough of this mushy stuff. Gross. Why’s the table set?”

The tiny dining room table in the sitting area was set for four. Pearl had gotten her fancy china out (or gotten someone to get it out for her, Owen hoped), and the table quite literally glittered under the overhead lights. Sprigs of holly adorned the plates, which sat on a heavy damask tablecloth Owen recognized from his youth. In the center a silver candelabra held three white candles ready to be lit.

Pearl had what Owen would later realize was a smug expression on her face.

“I invited my own guest. And I decided we’d eat up here, since whatever they will be serving downstairs is guaranteed to be overcooked.”

“Okaaay?” He was wondering what, exactly, they were going to eat for dinner.

“I decided to order from one of the local groceries. They’ve already delivered it. Everything is staying warm in the oven: ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and even biscuits. Not as good as I used to make, of course, but I just don’t have the space here.”

It was only then Owen noticed the bags and various aluminum containers crowding Pearl’s kitchen counter.

“That’s great, Auntie.”

“And I invited my own special guest,” she announced.

Owen swung back around to stare at Pearl. He inspected her more closely. She’d put some blush on her cheeks, a smudge of blue eye shadow graced her eyelids, and she was wearing one of her favorite dresses: a dark blue one with little white flowers along the trim.

“Oh?” She was up to something. Owen had grown up with this eccentric old lady, and she had something up her sleeve.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Owen was going to get dizzy from turning in circles. In the still-open doorway waited a stooped man of indeterminate age. Owen guessed he was in his nineties; he was about the same height as Pearl, and the only hairs on his head were located in his bushy white eyebrows.

“Boys, this is Webb Cantelou. Webb, these are my boys, Owen Addison and Edmund Lake.”

It wasn’t until after dinner, which turned out to be delicious, that Pearl announced she and Webb were “tying the knot.” It was a good thing the four of them had already moved to sit in the living room, because Owen would’ve fallen off his chair. As it was, Edmund kept him in place with a hand on his thigh.

“Excuse me?” Owen said.

“Congratulations, when is the special day?” asked Edmund, because you can always count on an Englishman to have the right words at hand. If Edmund was as surprised as Owen, he didn’t show it.

Webb answered, “Now that Pearl has said yes, we don’t want to wait. We applied for a license and set the date for New Year’s Eve—we want to start off the year married.”

Owen started to say something about the date seeming soon, but Edmund squeezed his thigh. Instead he asked, “Are we invited?”

Pearl was sitting across from Owen. Webb sat next to her, his thin arm around her waist. They were adorable.

“Owen, I’d like it if you would do me the honor of walking me down the aisle.”

Owen stared across, seeing his diminutive but fierce aunt—seeing how happy she was—and tears welled up in his eyes. “ Of course I want to walk you down the aisle. I can’t imagine anyone else doing it.”

“Good, because I don’t have any other relatives I want to ask.”

Pearl and Webb had met at the home, of course. Apparently, game night was where all the good socializing happened, and after a fiercely played cribbage tournament, Webb had asked Pearl to lunch—and that was that. Owen was shocked to learn they’d been “seeing” each other for several months already and she hadn’t mentioned anything to him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Owen thought maybe he was offended, but he was happy for her too. Pearl had never been married before, claiming she just wasn’t cut out for the wedded life. Now she said she just hadn’t met Webb yet.

“Owen, pet, you’ve been very busy with your new job. I knew you were coming for the holiday—I just didn’t know we’d be getting married.”

“After that scare in the hospital,” Webb added, “we don’t want to wait. Even though the staff knows we’re sweethearts, the hospital couldn’t tell me anything.”

Pearl leaned her head against Webb’s shoulder. “We know we won’t have much time together, but we want to have as much of it as we can.”

His Aunt Pearl always had been a smart woman.

The ceremony would be simple. Webb and Pearl were inviting anyone in the assisted living center who wanted to come, and they were having it in the event room after the afternoon New Year’s Eve party, “because it will already be decorated.”

Pearl’s only request was for Owen to find musicians who would play the oldies, “the real oldies, dear, like Sinatra, Dorsey, Ray Charles, and the like.”

Owen would move heaven and earth to make sure Pearl had live music she could dance to at her wedding.