Page 35 of Deck the Fire Halls

He gave me a playful nudge with his elbow but he didn’t move his hand from my arm. And as we were getting closer to the diner, I didn’t want to let him go, even though I didn’t really have an excuse any longer to touch him. I held the door open for him instead. “After you.”

He nodded, and if his cheeks were pink from the cold or if it was from blushing, I wasn’t sure. I was indebted tothe lights of the diner for showing me, nonetheless. “Thank you.”

“Oh, here they are,” Braithe said. The whole group was there, evidently. They had three tables pulled together and everyone sat around them.

“We thought you two might have decided to stay in,” Hamish said, wiggling his eyebrows with zero shame.

Ren gave him a nudge, and Jayden stood up, pulling out the two empty chairs. “Take a seat, guys.” He then locked the door, turned the sign toclosed, and pulled the blinds.

“We walked,” Rob said as he sat down, pulling his toque off. I still wasn’t sure if the pinks of his ears and cheeks was from the cold, but it didn’t matter. It was cute as hell.

“And I was a bit late,” I admitted.

“I told them you might be,” Colson said. Yeah, of course the sheriff’s office knew about the fire. “Everything okay out there?”

“Yeah. He’ll have a bit of a clean-up job tomorrow, but he was grateful.”

When I’d been invited for a get-together Christmas dinner at the diner, I hadn’t exactly been aware that Jayden was closing the diner an hour early. He said it was a quiet night and Carl said it was fine.

It was an awesome way to spend the night though. We each threw in twenty bucks and demolished all the leftovers between us while we sank a few brews and sodas. I got chatting with Clay and Colson mostly, talking shit and nonsense, every so often looking over at Rob who was laughing with Ren, Cass, and Gunter. Jayden,Hamish and Braith were arguing and laughing about something, and this, this right here, was what I wanted for Rob.

This group of people. A great bunch of guys, living decidedly normal lives with their partners in this little town tucked away in the mountains.

Away from the rat race he struggled with. Away from the soul sucking job that almost broke him. I wanted him to see that he could be happy here.

“So,” Colson said quietly. “I dunno if you’re trying to keep things on the downlow but you keep looking at him, and if it’s supposed to be a secret, then I have to tell ya... You’re really bad at secrets.”

I chuckled. “It’s not on the downlow. Well, not really. I haven’t told him yet. In so many words.”

“That you have it bad for him?”

“I don’t have it bad,” I lied. Apparently I was bad at lying too because Colson’s eyebrow shot up. “It’s just that I don’t think he’s ready or up for anything like that.” I took a swig of my beer. “And you know what? Even if he’s not, which is fine by the way, he still needs this.” I gestured to the group. “This right here. So that’s okay with me too.”

Colson nodded slowly. “You looked kinda cozy when you walked in. I thought maybe something mighta happened.”

“Something mighta almost happened,” I mumbled behind my beer bottle.

His gaze shot to mine. “Details.”

“I mighta accidentally on purpose kinda got real close up against my front door.”

“Accidentally on purpose.”

I nodded. “Well, I opened the door wearing just a towel.”

Clay choked on his beer, earning us a few looks from the others. He wiped his beard and his shirt. “Sorry.”

I avoided all eye contact and took another pull of my beer, but Colson just laughed. “And? He liked what he saw?”

“Pretty sure, yeah. But he also freaked out a little bit, so I backed off. Well, until he tried to leave and then I might have cornered him at the door, but I was dressed by then.”

“And desperate for him not to leave,” Colson added.

I gave a nod. “Something like that, yeah.”

“Well,” Colson murmured, “for what it’s worth, when you haven’t been lookin’ at him, he’s been looking at you.”

It took everything in my power not to look at Rob right then. “Really?”

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