Page 30 of One More Yule Log
“Well, if we do that, we can go again.” He grinned. “Because, you know. Brunch.”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
Oh, he’d said the right thing because Ben relaxed next to him. Excellent. He wanted Ben to feel comfortable around him. Safe.
“It’s been a long time for me too. I just think you ought to know.”
“I’m not sure if I should apologize or be thankful that you understand.”
“I think we can just say we’re going to be together on this.” Gray squeezed gently, wanting Ben to know he wasn’t alone.
“Good deal. I can handle working through this for sure.” Ben’s legs spread, just a little bit.
He caught his breath. Oh, that was hot as hell. That little bit of surrender to what they both wanted.
They headed out of town, climbing up through the snow into the foothills, toward that gorgeous house. The drive was so pretty when he wasn’t the one behind the wheel and not worried about sliding right off the road.
Everything was lit up and sparkling, the Christmas lights more rare out here, but beautiful. They made little pockets of jewels among the snow.
“Gorgeous,” Gray murmured, and he meant Ben as well as the scenery.
“Isn’t it? It’s beautiful out here. I promised to take the girls all out looking at lights soon.”
“That’s awesome. My folks always did that Christmas Eve.” He’d loved that, piling into the car and riding around the neighborhood, looking at what the houses had all over them.
“Are they local?”
“No.” He sighed. That was complicated. Really damn so.
“I’m sorry. Forget I mentioned it, hmm?”
“No, it’s fine. We just don’t see thing the same way a lot.” He rolled his eyes. They saw him as not… who he was. Not just gay, but in “food service” too.
“Well, come to watch lights with us. I’ll see eye to eye with you.”
“Will you?” He loved this whole making-plans thing. It didn’t seem forced at all. It just seemed like a natural progression. He and Ben clicked, and he would roll with it.
“I’m good that way.” Ben winked at him before they turned into the drive. The house was lit up like, well, Christmas—hundreds of rainbow lights covering the entire two-story A-frame.
“Look at that! Wow.” Gray actually clapped his hands like a kid, just damn tickled. Who needed to go see other people’s lights when they had this?
Ben beamed. “Thank you! I love it.”
“It’s great. I bet Liv is over the moon.” Olivia had to be so tickled that her dad was doing Christmas things.
“She orchestrated the whole thing. I had to hire the top part done because she didn’t want me on the roof. Crazy girl.” Ben sounded proud and fond.
“She’s very sure about things.” Oh, clever girl. That roof looked steep and scary. “Did you put up the tree and all too?”
“We have it up and lights on. We’ll hang the ornaments on the Solstice.”
“Fun!” He blinked at the house again as they pulled up to park. “That’s just so cool.”
“Thank you. Come on in. I’ll open a bottle of wine and grab glasses and forks.” Ben led the way from the car to the house, the cold a little shocking out there.
The snow was coming down hard now, the lights sparkling in it.
Gray followed, managing not to slip. He was used to the snow now, really, as much as he bitched about it. It was magical this time of year.
