Page 61 of His Until Christmas

By the time I run down a red carpet, Jack isn’t where I last saw him.

Neither is Lito fucking Dixon.

“Shit.” My heart hammers until I spot a lone figure by the sea gate where waves froth.

It isn’t Jack in silhouette there taking photos of the castle. It’s Lito, and I stalk towards him, determined to do the opposite of all my rescue training by tipping him headfirst into the water. I’m stopped in my tracks by Jack saying. “I’ve loved Reece for years.”

Valentin’s voice is equally familiar. It’s also dismissive. “No shit.”

His voice drifts up from the yacht moorings, and I pause at the top of granite steps which are as gritty as my boyfriend next sounds, even though he speaks quietly.

“All I’m saying is that I’ve loved him long enough to know how he thinks, and Reece absolutely wouldn’t leave you out here. And I…” He clears his throat before adding, “I don’t want to leave you out here either.”

It’s rare that I hear Jack this uncertain. Since he’s added certificates in nonprofit management to the one Valentin askedhis subscribers to laugh at, Jack is more often confident and authoritative, but this is almost shaky.

“B-because I saw who you were talking with. Believe me, that photographer is bad news. You don’t want to be alone around him.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he tried to corner me once. Tried to convince me I owed him. Friends helped me believe he was full of bullshit.”

I can’t see Jack from where I stand above him, but I can so easily picture his back straightening as he says this.

“I’m just saying that if you had friends here, they’d tell you to avoid Lito Dixon. Don’t even talk to him, Valentin. He’ll only try to take advantage.”

“Oh, he already tried.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, I’ll show you.”

I get to see too when I take the harbour steps down and join them. Valentin is still aboard the kind of powerful speedboat that is right at the top of Rex’s Christmas wish list, and that’s where Valentin turns his phone to face us. “I wouldn’t be much of a documentary maker if I didn’t know when to press Record.”

I’ve never seen Lito face-to-face or heard him speak. Valentin presses Play, and I get to.

Lito is pompous about his photography business. Then he purrs about Valentin’s bone structure, only to instantly neg him, all while sounding thirsty.

“If I smoothed away all your faults, you could have potential as a model,” Lito suggests in this recording. “No charge, even though making you look good would take a lot of labour. I’d still do it for free.” The same camera I always hated Valentin pointing in the direction of kids has captured Lito sounding oily. “Or almost for free.” Lito purrs some more. “I’m sure you could think of a way to pay me back for making you look picture-perfect.”

Valentin snorts, another dismissive sound I’d forgotten until he spits this. “He suggested I could use this to make a down payment.” He runs a hand along the sleek lines of a speedboat Rex would sell his soul for. “Said he could make a mint by selling shots of the castle all lit up and pretty. And if I gave him a ride to take photos from outside the harbour, he’d make me look just as pretty.”

“Don’t,” Jack snaps. Moonlight brings that single fierce word into focus. He’s protective about someone who once asked the whole world to laugh at him, which only confirms why tonight’s the night to give Jack every single present in my pocket.

A year ago, he typed the wordlife. That’s what I want with him now more than ever, and I’d tell him so, only he’s busy not taking no for an answer.

“Come inside with us.” He offers a hand. “It’s cold out here.”

Valentin crosses his arms. “I don’t think I will.” His chin lifts, and for the first time, I see all of Valentin’s sharp lines as fragile, if only for a moment. The next second, he’s back to hard-edged. “It will only be even colder for me in there.”

I guess he means his father, and isn’t that another insight I could have noticed sooner, but Jack isn’t done yet. He doesn’t plead or threaten, doesn’t cajole or bargain. He fucking yodels for Rex, and I can’t help laughing.

Rex laughs too when Valentin gives him the speedboat ride Lito wanted. I hear thathur hur hurof his from where I watch on the harbourside, but the best laughter is Jack’s from right beside me. It spirals over the roar of a high-powered engine when Rex takes the wheel and sends water flying to drench an uninvited wanker with a camera.

Lito had that icy soaking coming.

Jack laughs again when we escape to the kitchen, where someone has moved all of his interview-practice sticky notes on the fridge into the shape of a love heart. His gran, most likely,who leaves us without teasing for once as Jack peels those notes off one by one. He also dims a little, as if worried, and I’m done with seeing his light flicker, so I tell him this in a hurry.

“You’ll smash your interview.”

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