Page 45 of The Map Home
“Hold this.” He held out one of the cups. “And open up the lid.”
After his instructions were followed, Tad quickly poured the additional ingredient into each cup. “There, now it’s perfect. Try it.”
Dakota pressed the lid back on and raised the hot chocolate to his lips. “Delicious,” he said, meeting Tad’s gaze.
Tad’s cock twitched. Silently, he thanked his mother for the long winter jacket she’d given him and then fervently wished he hadn’t brought his mother into the conversation, even if it was just all in his head.
“You okay?” Dakota asked.
“Er, yes, just went offline for a second.” He almost offered his hand to Kota but thought better of it. There was such a thing as too much too fast. And as long as it had taken for them to get to this point, Tad didn’t want Kota feeling awkward or changing hismind. He settled for wrapping both hands around the warm cup and taking his own sip.
Kota was eyeing him. “Huh.” Then as if he was reading Tad’s mind, Kota held out his free hand. “Let’s go pick out a fucking tree.”
Tad grabbedthe string Kota tossed across the bed of the truck and put the finishing knot on the plastic twine holding the gorgeous, perfect, possibly too tall noble fir tree in place.
“Hey, Tad.”
Looking over his shoulder, Tad saw Boone’s almost-fiancée, Amanda.
“Hey, Amanda, what’s up?”
Kota came around to stand beside him.
“Hi, Dakota,” she said.
“Amanda.”
“Looks like you found a nice tree.”
“Yep, it’s perfect.” Tad looked around and didn’t see Boone. “Are you on the tree hunt?”
“Ah, no. I just had dinner with some friends and saw you over here. Look, can I ask you something?”
“Sure?”
“Is something going on with Boone?”
Tad rolled his inner eyes. Damn Boone.
“Not that I know of. I saw him yesterday, and he was his normal annoying self.”
“It’s just that—” She stopped, took a breath, and started up again. “We had a night out planned. Like a fancy one, and he canceled at the last minute. Which—I know you and Boone don’t see eye to eye, but crazy as it is, I love him, warts and all. And Ikind of thought he was going to pop the question because we’ve talked about maybe getting married next winter. Ugh, this is so awkward.” She huddled into her thick puffy down jacket and looked sad, which was not like Amanda at all. “But now it seems like he’s avoiding me.”
“Have you talked to him?” Tad asked. The idea of being caught between Boone and Amanda was—well, Tad would pick Amanda.
“No, because he’savoidingme. I ran into Penny and kind of hinted around, but she didn’t say anything. Not that she would.”
Tad wasn’t going to say it, but he was pretty sure that Penny and Waylon would pick Amanda too. His mom sometimes joked that she’d hoped to have a daughter but ended up with two grubby boys. When she did, Waylon would always point out that she had sisters and her nieces were just as grubby as Boone and Tad.
“I don’t think he has cold feet,” Tad said, “because at the bonfire he told all of us he was planning to ask you. We all assumed he meant right away.”
Beside him, Dakota shifted his stance, moving closer to Tad’s side. Amanda’s gaze darted between them as if she only just clued into the fact that they’d been loading a Christmas tree into Tad’s trucktogether.
Friends could buy trees together, couldn’t they?
“Are you guys…” Amanda shot a brilliant grin Dakota’s direction. “Dakota Green, did you finally figure it out?”
“Amanda—” Tad said warningly. It was a Christmas miracle that he’d talked Kota into helping him find a tree, he didn’t need her enthusiasm scaring him off. Not that he didn’t want to shout from the treetops that they were—what were they? Boyfriends? Crap. He had no idea.
