Page 70 of Welcome Home for Christmas
Chapter 16
Merry fucking Christmas.
Troy was back in the humbug spirit. He slammed the door to his house and went straight for his tools. He had a long list of to-dos for his renovations. Maybe after hammering a few million nails he’d feel better, but he doubted it. He’d started to dream about adding a woman’s touch to this place. Allison’s touch. Guess that wasn’t going to happen now.
After a couple of hours of work, Troy grabbed the other gift he’d purchased this morning and headed to Camp Leon to see Bear.
“It’s over,” he told his K-9 partner.
Bear’s brown eyes peered up. He had his new rawhide between his paws.
“Don’t ever fall in love, bud,” Troy said, squatting down to run his hand over the dog’s fur. His hand paused.Love?Had he really just said that? Is that how he felt?
He sat on the dirt in front of Bear. “Damn.” He’d fallen in love and somehow managed to screw things up before he’d even realized it. “What should I do?” he asked his dog. He liked a counselor who just listened, as opposed to Allison’s mom who vomited her opinions all over the free world.
“What’s up, man?”
Troy turned to see Griffin coming toward him. “Bah humbug.”
Griffin laughed. “Thought Allison would’ve changed all that for you by now.”
“Well, you thought wrong.”
“You screwed it up?” Griffin asked, shaking his head. “Please tell me it’s not because you’re so hell bent on skipping Christmas that you skipped getting her a present.”
Troy glanced over. “I got her a present.” He’d even gotten Bear a present.
“Yeah?” Griffin lifted his head in question. “What’d you get her?”
Troy thought about Allison’s reaction to the pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs. Hurt had glimmered in her green eyes. He’d thought it was a fun gift. And it was the best he could do on short notice.
He blinked up at Griffin. “A gift, all right? We’ve only been together a couple weeks.” And most of that time they’d been pretending. But, really, they’d been pretending only to each other. He’d lied to himself that he didn’t have real feelings for Allison. He’d lied to himself that he’d be able to walk away after Christmas.
“So your gift told her how special she is to you?” Griffin asked.
Troy frowned.
“It told her how important she is to you? How deep your feelings run? How much you love her?”
Troy looked up. Even Griffin knew. Everyone around him knew but him. “I got her fuzzy handcuffs, okay? Now shut up,” Troy said through tight lips.
Griffin started laughing so hard that Bear went on alert.
“Fuck,” Troy muttered under his breath. “I got her a shitty gift.”
When he finally caught his breath, Griffin nodded. “Yeah. You definitely did. Fix that, bro. I’m off shift. Going to go see Val and give her my gift.”
“What’d you get her?”
Griffin smiled proudly. “I’ll tell you what I didn’t get her. Fuzzy handcuffs, that’s what.” He laughed again, enjoying himself just a little too much. “Good luck,” he called behind him as he walked away.
Troy stood and started to lead Bear back toward the kennels. The gift he’d gotten his dog was more meaningful than the one he’d gotten the woman he’d fallen in love with this Christmas. And he needed to fix that ASAP. Or risk having Allison believe whatever her mother had told her about him, whatever was going through her mind since he’d given her his shitty gift. The only thing she needed to believe was whatever came out of his mouth next. Because now he was done pretending and lying to himself.
—
Allison had been in a funk all afternoon, ever since seeing Troy at midday. She’d returned to her parents’ house because she didn’t want to spend Christmas all alone, but she might as well have. She was miserable.
“I’m so sorry,” her mother said, sitting across from her at the kitchen table with a hot cup of cocoa.
