Page 19 of Decorated

The thing was, Alfie felt that pang at the thought of being separated from Blaine, too.

They’d only just met. He needed to keep reminding himself of that. Blaine was cute and just his type, and they got along well, but there was no way to tell if it was just a passing infatuation or if they had potential for more.

His heart tried to give him an answer to that unspoken question, but he ignored it. Blaine was the one who, evidently, got carried away by mistaking lust for affection. He couldn’t do that, too.

“What else do we need to decorate?” he asked, glancing around the room. It was a ploy to keep him from pulling Blaine into his arms and kissing him like he was heading off to Cyprus tomorrow. If he did that, it would have been motivated by his fear of the unknown and his need to find an anchor point so he could make a decision for his future.

“I…um….” Blaine’s voice was rough as he gazed up at Alfie, like he didn’t know what he should say next.

He didn’t have to figure it out. Three seconds later, at about the point when Alfie thought he was going to have to kiss Blaine just to break the awkwardness between them, a group of loud, chatty kids walked into the room along with Rhys Hawthorne.

“You can take your paintings to Mr. Blaine,” Rhys said, loud enough to indicate he knew he’d walked in on an intense moment. “He and Corporal Spears can tell you where they want to hang them.”

“Shit,” Blaine hissed under his breath, peeling away from Alfie. “I mean, shoot. I forgot Rhys’s class painted winter scenes that we’re going to use to decorate the room.”

“That’s a cute idea,” Alfie said, stepping away from Blaine as well and pretending nothing at all heated or sexual was going on between them.

It was next to impossible to pretend that.

“Hey, kids,” Blaine started forward with a too-loud voice to meet Rhys’s class. “Let’s see what you guys made.”

Alfie took a deep breath to clear away all his thoughts. None of them, not work and not how he felt about Blaine, were the sort of thoughts he should be having around kids. When he felt up to it, he put on a smile and started forward toward the table where the kids had gathered.

“Wow, these look amazing,” he said, adjusting to the voice and demeanor he used around children. “Did you do these?”

“We learned how to paint snow,” one of the girls said. She and the rest of the class looked like they were around eight or nine.

“Really? And how do you paint snow?” he asked, crouching a bit so he would be closer to their level.

“You use blue,” another of the boys said. “Not white.”

“Hey, I was going to say that,” the girl pouted.

“I’m sure you know something else about painting that you can tell me,” Alfie said, giving his attention to the girl.

The girl’s frown turned back into a smile. “You can use a fan brush,” she said. “And use light strokes, not blobs.”

“I didn’t know that,” Alfie said. “Thank you for teaching me. And what’s your name?”

“Anna,” the girl said, glowing with joy at being addressed by an adult.

“Like Anna and Elsa?” Alfie asked.

The girl looked stunned by his cartoon knowledge. “How did you know?” she asked in awe.

“I know a lot of things,” Alfie said, straightening. “Which one is your painting?”

As Anna pointed to her work, Alfie caught Blaine’s eyes across the table. Blaine was staring at him with a look of absolute adoration. That made Alfie smile right back at him. It never ceased to amaze him when people were surprised that a soldier could be good with kids.

“That’s very nice, Anna,” he said, still looking at Blaine.

“This one’s mine,” the boy said.

Alfie dragged his eyes away from Blaine to give his attention to the kids and their art. “You’ve done a really good job,” he said.

That opened the floodgates for the rest of the kids to point out which of the paintings was theirs. They were all eager to show off what they could do to Alfie, and Alfie was more than happy to listen to each of them brag and work to impress him.

He was impressed. He’d always been impressed by kids. They were so open and free with the way they viewed the world. They hadn’t been jaded by life yet, or at least most of them hadn’t.

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