Page 44 of Meeting Mr. Christmas
Noel cocked his head to the side, his smile turning coy. “There’ll be hot chocolate after, with extra marshmallows, and maybe an added little… something.” Noel wriggled, grinding down on Jed’s sleepy, spent cock, which, with every little movement of Noel’s hips, was stirring and waking up.
“We can do it later, I promise. Maybe after hot chocolate and that added something?” Jed went to wrap his arms around Noel, the promise of the added something lending an urgency to his movements, but Noel jumped up and backed out of reach. “Noel!” Jed whined. “What the hell am I meant to do with this?” He pointed down at his fully awake and ready for action cock.
“What do you think showers were invented for? Be ready in twenty.” Blowing Jed a kiss, Noel all but skipped out of the bedroom.
The snowman listed to the side, like a drunk who’d staggered out of Randy’s after an evening of Randy Red Rooster cocktails and too much line dancing.
“It’s not quite how I imagined it’d turn out.” Noel planted his gloved fists on his hips and stared at the banked up snow that in no imaginable way looked like any of the snowmen shown on all the Christmas cards they’d received. The old Santa hat flopped at a forlorn angle. The apples for eyes were okay, even if they did somehow make the snowman look crossed eyed, but at least the nose — a large, knobbly carrot — was?—
“Oh.” The carrot tumbled to the ground, and Peter, dressed in a festive Christmas super hero outfit, pounced upon it, snatched it up, and staggered along the pathway that Jed had cleared to the back of the house.
“At least it’s in our own yard, where nobody else will see it.” Jed wrapped an arm around Noel and pulled him in tight.
Noel sighed as warm bubbles fizzed inside of him. Their snowman, in their yard. Not his apartment, but his and Jed’s little house. The warmth spread to his fingers and his toes and everywhere in between. Their house, their home… They’d come a long way since that Christmas Eve in Odette’s, a year ago today. Tears prickled at Noel’s eyes, which really, absolutely, were all to do with the icy wind picking up and the snowflakes battering against his face.
“Maybe we can add building a snowman to our list of traditions. Like the tree lighting and the ugly sweaters.” Jed hugged him harder before planting a warm kiss on his cheek. “Hey, I think Peter wants to get back into the warm to cuddle with his boyfriend.”
Noel looked over at the house where Peter was pawing at the glass doors. Gomer, on the other side where the tree lights twinkled, and the flames danced in the wood burner, had his nose pressed up against the glass.
“Just like I want to,” Jed whispered into Noel’s ear, before taking Noel’s hand and leading him back to the house.
“I’m so glad we got in here before Christmas.” Sprawled on the couch with Noel, Jed looked around at their living room, a contented smile on his lips.
Noel’s rainbow Christmas tree stood by the window, almost as wonky as the snowman they’d built earlier. Against a background of twinkling lights, it dripped tinsel and an eclectic collection of ornaments. Some were new but most were old,including the two baubles with his and Noel’s faces crushed against each other’s.
One wall was mostly shelving, crammed with Noel’s rom-com DVDs and battered soft back books. Hanging from another wall was the huge collage Jed had put together, filled with photographs going back to when they were tiny babies, all the way through high school and beyond. Each photo told a story, each a step towards where he and Noel were today. But the photo which made his heart twist and stop the breath in his chest was the one, taken on a golden fall day, of them standing outside their house, as he hugged Noel tight from behind as Noel held up a bunch of keys.
“Our own home,” Jed murmured as he drifted his fingers through Noel’s hair. “If I hadn’t finally pulled my head out from my ass and owned up to what I’d always known?—”
“But you did.” Noel looked up and their gazes met; Jed’s heart did a little leap.
“I just wish I hadn’t wasted so much time, that I’d been honest enough to say something.”
Noel took hold of Jed’s free hand and laid a gentle kiss on the palm. “And I wish I’d summoned up the courage to tell you how much I loved you, and always had. We’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”
“The rest of our lives.” Jed’s voice caught in his throat.
In the quiet of their snug, cozy living room, lit only by the flickering flames from the burner, and the gentle pulse of the tree lights, Jed’s eyelids dropped to a close. Him and Noel, like this, just the two of them… he could get used to this… for the rest of their lives…
“We’re not the only ones who are happy we got things sorted. Look at those two.”
Jed opened his eyes, shucking off the light doze that had begun to claim him. In his old basket, Gomer was curled around Peter, gentle licks lapping at the sleeping dachshund’s head.
“Gay dogs. I guess if you can get gay penguins… I think Gomer’s got himself a new lease of life since Peter started humping his leg.” Jed laughed and Noel winced.
“I almost got my hand bitten off when I had to pull Peter off him last week, when I was in CC’s. Geraldine and Barbie-Anne were there too; I thought they were going to have a seizure. I think I need to make an appointment with the veterinary surgeon right after Christmas to have Peter’s?—”
“Ouch!”
“You won’t be saying that when he humpsyourleg. I’m glad your mom and dad let us bring Gomer to live here with us. Peter’s been in a better mood since he came.”
“Mom said he wouldn’t stop crying when I left home, but I think the deciding factor was the puppy they adopted. That scruffy little bundle of fur is way too lively for him.”
Noel pushed himself up to sitting. “How about hot chocolate with an eggnog—” The blast of a jazz trumpet cut through the quiet and Noel scrambled to pull his cell from the hip pocket of his jeans. His parents, calling all the way from a warm and definitely not snowy Florida.
After passing the cell to Jed to say hello, Noel took the call in the kitchen. Peter shook himself out of his sleep, barked, and tottered after him.
Gomer staggered up onto his skinny spaghetti legs and loped over to Jed, where he rested his head on Jed’s thigh.
