Wren giggled, smushing the plush toys faces together. “They always keep kissing.”
“And where’s mine?” I puckered my lips for him.
“Mwah!” He pecked my lips, over and over, making the same sound.
As I went to get his gift, I forced him to stay in bed and keep our replica plushies comfortable. At the back of my suitcase, hiding away, it wasn’t big, but it had the potential to be big. I hadn’t known what to get him, and part of me felt like I wasn’t up to the job of being Daddy to his little side, but I could be a good boyfriend to all of him. It was a small rectangular box, wrapped in a cream paper covered in teddy bears and blue bows.
“Ahh, I love it already!”
“You don’t even know what’s inside it yet.”
“Yeah, but I love it.” He took the present and slowly unwrapped it, saving the paper.
Inside was a navy box. He looked at me again and I encouraged him to open it. It was a coupon book, and inside it, I’d written out a bunch of coupons he could cash in. From spending time with Daddy to new crayons and play toys. There was even one written out for a sixty second yarn buying spree. I didn’t want to bankrupt myself just yet for Wren’s yarn.
“I love it!” he said, growing teary eyed as he flicked through it to see the ones I’d left blank for him to write in himself.
“As long as it’s nothing too wild,” I told him. “I think we could also add in one of those blank ones now that we’ll come back here when the ranch opens so we can take advantage of the petting zoo. And because we heard so much about that goat’s cheese from those pastries we ate.” My mouth already salivating, even if we couldn’t go get them together because it was Christmas.
“I wanna live here,” he said.
“I’m not sure you can add that one,” I chuckled. “But we can come back. We’ve still got Snowflake Springs to visit, you might like it better there.”
He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed as hard as he could. “Thank you.” His face as always was pressed to my skin, trying his best to inhale as much of me as he could possibly. “I don’t want time to go as quick as it is.”
“We still have another nine days, I think, or something like that before we’re back in Maplehaven.”
Nine whole days we would get to play together as a couple who didn’t have anything else to do but be with each other. It was bliss, every single second I was able to spend with Wren and away from some of my insecurities that hadn’t reared their ugly heads until I was alone with them. I didn’t know what was coming for me, but I didn’t need to know. I had Wren by my side, and he had me. We didn’t need to know anything else, except how long the next hug was going to last, and whether we would ever get rid of the glitter that had permanently attached itself to our skin.
* * *
The fun was never truly going to end, the magic of the holidays was a gift, but the real magic was spending time with Wren in any capacity. He’d helped me discover so much about myself, and how not to take life so seriously.
It was surprisingly refreshing to not feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, the only weight I carried now was that of Wren when he jumped on my back, but except for that, I was freed almost from being stuck on go, where every decision I made had to line up with the end goal of being drafted by a pro team. It was still my goal, but I knew if it didn’t happen, it wasn’t meant to be. The only thing in my life that I was sure about was loving Wren.
And he loved me too. It’s all I wanted. And with that in my heart, I think I played a little better. The stats never lied, as a business major, I knew what compounded growth look like. A lot like this. I was growing as a player, as a boyfriend, and as a Daddy.
This was the beginning of our romance, and I couldn’t wait to spend a lifetime wooing him gestures and affirmations. He deserved it.
EPILOGUE
WREN
Six Months Later
Graduation came and went. The Orcas didn’t make the playoffs, but I came second in the fantasy league. Puck and Purl had a great run, and I was five-hundred bucks better off because of it. I’d also managed to crush all my assignments, including the reports for the team, which had brought about some scouts from NHL teams. Mason was recruited for the entry draft picks which were soon to take place. The entire team were annoyed because he was a freshmen. And Daddy signed an ATO for the Vermont Maple Kings. It was going to be nice to have him close, and it meant he was able to at least show off for the team and score a real deal contract with them.
It also turned out that it was two of the guys on the team had tried to sabotage Luke as captain, Owen and Dixon were both issues formal warnings during the season, and one of the reasons the team didn’t get as far as they’d hoped. But their behavior was out shadowed by Liam and Dominic coming out as a couple. My little gay heart screamed when they announced it to the team, and even more screaming when Dominic revealed he also had a stuffed toy collection.
“Hey, babe, are you still journaling?” Luke called out to me.
“Yeah,” I said, kicking my legs around on the bed as I told my diary that I hadn’t been keeping up-to-date about everything that had happened.
That was another thing. We were living together now. The Vermont Maple Kings were a forty-minute drive from Maplehaven, which meant we could rent a small house in town.
“Ok, I’ve got the ice cream out of the freezer, you gotta be quick, I think it might start melting.”
“Which flavor?” I called out to him.