Page 26 of Meeting Mr. Christmas
Hot kisses… tongues… Noel swallowed hard. He really, really didn’t want to think about kisses and tongues, not with Jed standing just a foot or two away from him.
“Glad somebody’s pleased to see me.” Jed gazed at Noel over the top of Peter’s head, the unasked questionare you?louder than the tiny dog’s excited barks.
Noel smiled and the stiffness that seemed to hold Jed tight melted away like the snow caked on his coat did. “You’re making a mess on the floor. Take your coat off. I’ll get some hot chocolate on and you can tell me why you tried to call.”
“They’re only away for two nights. I can sleep on the couch.” Jed sipped on his chocolate, his gaze flitting away from Noel’s.
Noel shot him a glance. Everything about Jed was awkward and strained. Everything was just wrong, and Noel didn’t like it, he didn’t like it one little bit.
They were friends, life-long friends, even if he did want so much more. The kiss, that had been everything he’d fantasized about, everything he’d jacked off over… Oh, god… Now it was his turn to look everywhere but at Jed. But he — they — couldn’t let it get in the way, coloring everything they were, which first and foremost, was friends.
Noel drew in a silent breath, holding it for a beat, before letting it go. Not allowing himself to think, not allowing himself to back off, he let the words tumble from him.
“Look, what happened at the party. It was just that stupid game, okay? They wanted a show, so we put one on for them. I don’t want it to cause awkwardness between us.”
Awkward?Awkward?How could anything bemoreawkward?Please let a hole open up right here and now and swallow me up…
“Sure, just a show.” Jed glanced away before his gaze settled back on Noel. “We gave them what they wanted. It’s why we went in for the kill.”
“You’re right. Like you say, we gave them what they wanted.” Noel smiled, but it felt like the corners of his mouth were held up by wires. But what about what he wanted? His pasted-on smile was ripping him in two.
Peter, rolling around on the rug in front of the fire, farted.
“Ah, that is so gross.” Jed covered his nose and mouth as he started coughing.
“Jesus.” Noel’s long ago lunch curdled in his stomach. “To think it was a choice between you and the cutest little cockapoo.” Noel leaped up and slung open the window, not caring about the snow flurries as Peter wandered out, leaving chaos and a gut churning stench in his wake.
“That’s the worst of it gone,” Noel muttered, pulling the window closed.
Jed started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“Only you could have chosen a dog that likes to fart more than it likes sleeping and eating treats.”
“He’s not that bad.” Except Peter was. Noel’s lips curved up in a genuine smile that turned to a grin and all the awkwardness and the weirdness that had sat on the couch with them like anunwanted guest decided it was time that it, too, needed to go. A dachshund with an over active fart muscle had some uses.
“Dinner?”
Jed grinned.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“You want to go to the town bash tomorrow?” Jed asked as he stretched out after a dinner of out of date frozen lasagna, some limp lettuce, a few wrinkly tomatoes, and a packet of Oreos. “Just the two of us,” he added. “I’ll buy you dinner after.”
“Why, is that an invitation to a date, Mr. Mason?” Noel said, putting on his best terrible, Southern belle accent. He’d watchedGone with the Windinto double digits.
Jed snorted. “It’s an invitation to beer and take out. To say thanks for letting me crash and feeding me stuff that’s older than my parents. Just thought dinner sounded better.”
“You weren’t complaining when you were stuffing it down.”
Jed laughed. “True. So, how about tomorrow? Unless you’ve got something better to do.”
Unless I’ve got a date, you mean.Noel shook his head. Even if he had, he’d be canceling.
“No, nothing better.”
The town bash. It had an official name, but to everybody in the Creek, it was just the bash. Always held on the last Saturday evening before Christmas, it was the final big public event before the day itself.
