Page 16 of Decorated

Blaine winced and kept going around the tree, but Alfie continued to follow him.

“Yes to the police, yes to the lights, and no to the insurance,” he said, his voice faltering at the end. “I’d neglected to pay the premium, so they canceled it.”

“Oh, Blaine,” Alfie said.

That only made Blaine run around the tree faster to get away from him.

“Trust me, I’ve been ‘oh, Blained’ a lot in the last week,” he said. “Dave chewed my ass out, and not in the way I’m used to, when he realized what it meant for our business. That’s why he was here at Hawthorne House the other day, I’m sure. He was out for my blood.”

“You’re sure?”

“He wouldn’t have been here for any other reason.”

“And there’s nothing you can do?” Alfie asked. “No way to negotiate with the insurance company or talk to the client and resolve things?”

Blaine kept moving around the tree, but Alfie had stopped, so Blaine nearly ran into him as he looped around to the front. Just like everything else, there was no way he was going to be able to outrun or hide from his problems.

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “After Dave yelled at me and said he would sue me into next year for negligence and incompetence, I came here, and I’ve been hiding ever since.”

“You can’t hide from problems like this forever,” Alfie said, reaching for the string of lights. “This isn’t some wanker ex-boyfriend you might meet on the high street.”

He ended up closing his hand over Blaine’s. “I know,” Blaine said breathlessly. “But I don’t know what else to do. There’s no way this situation is going to end well for me. I’ll lose everything. I might even end up in jail for arson.”

“It wouldn’t be arson if it was an accident and if you can prove you had no knowledge of the fire before leaving the building,” Alfie said.

Blaine managed a weak smile. “Thank you for being logical, but I don’t think it’s going to help save me from the gallows.”

Alfie broke into a kind smile. “I don’t think they hang people for incompetence these days.”

It was a nice thing to say, but it only made Blaine wither on the inside.

“I swear I’m not usually incompetent,” he said quietly. “I’m usually very good at what I do.”

Alfie nodded, then surprised him by holding his hand. “I’m sure you are,” he said. “Just look at this gorgeous room.”

He glanced around at the half-decorated room, then brought his eyes back to meet Blaine’s with a smile. It felt like Alfie was calling him gorgeous, which he certainly didn’t deserve.

More than that, for a second, as the two of them stood there staring at each other, Alfie leaned a little closer. His gaze dropped to Blaine’s mouth. For a few, dazzling seconds, Blaine was certain he was about to be kissed.

He could only stand there, head tilted up, lips parted, waiting. He wanted it. Badly. He wanted the kiss, to throw himself into Alfie’s arms, to tangle up in bed with him. He wanted a house and kids and an old-age pension to share with Alfie. He wanted everything.

Alfie pulled back at the last minute and cleared his throat. “We’d better finish with these decorations,” he said, letting go of Blaine’s hand and turning away. “There’s a lot of work to do before this party next Saturday.”

“Yeah, there is,” Blaine squeaked, his head spinning.

His heart raced with wants and his head swam with possibilities.

Of course, that tiny shred of reason within him warned him that he had a pattern with men and he was repeating it just then.

He cleared his throat and returned to decorating the tree. But if he could have one thing under the tree that Christmas, he would do whatever he could to make sure it was Alfie.

FIVE

Blaine Hawthorne waseither the single most disruptive force that had ever entered Alfie’s life or he was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Either way, he had Alfie doing things that he never would have considered before.

Not going for that kiss or wanting to find a quiet corner to play a game of hide the sausage, of course. He considered those things all the time when he met someone who caught his fancy. It was the way Blaine had him hanging insanely overpriced ornaments on a light-decorated tree and actually enjoying the process that was astonishing and outlandish for him. And the way he suddenly had an opinion about whether tinsel belonged on a fresh-cut tree or not.

“It looks pretty,” he argued as he and Blaine stood side-by-side in front of the large tree about half an hour after they’d almost kissed. Alfie had hung several pieces of tinsel over one part of the tree, and now the two of them were debating whether to do more.

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