Page 24 of The Winging It Holiday Special

At least he hadn’t asked Dante to go to Mass with him.

The rest of the day was low-key. A couple teammates dropped by to exchange holiday greetings. Gabe and Dante had a Facetime call with the Yorkshires in which Gabby showed off her gigantic new stuffed pony and rhapsodized about how much she loved it. Then Dante broke out the dominoes and a vicious competition ensued, with Michelle emerging the victor.

Chris cooked fish for dinner. Dante thought it was pretty good, but he was glad he had that fancy oil-burning thing to get rid of the smell.

“Not a fan of fish?” Gabe asked Michelle quietly when they were cleaning up after.

“It’s not my favorite,” she admitted at the same volume.

“There’s a jar of cookies in the pantry,” Dante stage whispered. “Or leftover roast beef for a sandwich. Promise I won’t tell your mom.”

She snorted. “Thanks.”

The post-dinner lull got to him. Sitting in the lights of a beautifully trimmed tree, waiting for the guilt trip.

But it didn’t come. At nine thirty his dad went upstairs to get dressed. Talia did the same, but in the guesthouse. They met up in the living room, bundled up for the elements. Dante kept expecting significant eye contact, a pointed invitation, but it didn’t come.

“All right, don’t burn the place down while we’re gone.”

“And save some of those thumbprint cookies—for Santa, I mean,” Talia added.

Michelle paused with a cookie halfway to her mouth and a comically exaggerated guilty expression.

“Please,” Dante said. “There are definitely more of those in the freezer.” What did these people take him for?

Only a few more minutes passed before Dante’s mother excused herself to go to bed, by which Dante knew she meantdevour her latest cozy mystery novel in peace.

That was fine. He hadIt’s a Wonderful Lifeon the TV, a nice fire, and Gabe’s comfortable warmth next to him on the couch. Snow was falling gently outside, the icy petals tick-tick-ticking on the windowpanes before dropping to line the sills. It created a layer of insulation between the house and the outside world. Dante appreciated the coziness.

As long as it lasted, anyway. After a few moments Chris cleared his throat and looked at Gabe.

Dante sensed he was going to need to swap Gabe out for a blanket.

“Can we take a drive?”

Yep.

Next to him Gabe froze infinitesimally. Dante surreptitiously grabbed his hand for a quick squeeze, reassuring, before Gabe got up. “Ah… yeah.” He bent down and kissed Dante lightly. “We’ll be back.”

“Good luck,” Dante mouthed. Out loud he said, “Be careful in the snow.”

Gabe made a pained face just for him to see. A few minutes later the door closed behind both of them with an icy gust.

Dante turned to Michelle. “Shouldn’t he have been asking you to go?”

She snorted. “Oh, he got my permission already. Man movesfast.”

“Yeah, well. He didn’t date for, like, twenty-something years. If your mom got him to break out of that rut, he probably knew what he wanted by the second date.” Did that make him Gabe’s opposite, because he’d figured it out so quickly? Or was he exactly like his son, and it had taken him three decades?

With her knees pulled up to her chest and her buffalo-plaid pajamas, Michelle looked like a little kid waiting for Santa. “Can I ask you something?”

He paused the TV and gestured for her to go ahead.

“Your dad’s Catholic. Not you or your mom?”

Oof, that was a loaded question. Dante picked up his mostly empty hot chocolate and tapped his fingers on the warm ceramic, needing something to fidget with. “That’s complicated.” He exhaled slowly. “My dad’s Catholic in the, like, major holidays way, I guess. Navidad, Semana Santa. Things he celebrated with his parents growing up. But my grandmother was devout. We were close, even though I didn’t usually go to church with her.” Not that she hadn’t tried to get him to go more often. Like any grandmother, she wanted to show him off, but hockey practices got in the way.

He knocked back the rest of the hot chocolate in the hopes it’d help clear the tightness in his throat, but it didn’t help—too full of undissolved powder. “We had a good relationship until she found out I was dating Gabe.”

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