Page 22 of Noel I Won’t
A delighted laugh filled the shop a few seconds later, and I jerked my head up in surprise. That laugh had been too low to be a woman’s. Sure enough, a cute twink with highlighted hair was smiling up at the hot man.
“Buy me one, Lyle,” he said. “NOW. I must have it!”
Lyle laughed and bent to kiss his…boyfriend?…on the nose. “Anything for you, babe.”
Wait. What was happening?
Wasn’t I still in the heart of the Bible Belt? I saw queer couples in Chicago all the time, and I knew well enough that big, masculine dudes could be as gay as cute, sassy twinks and everything in between.
But no one had been openly gay in this area when I lived here. In fact, it’d been really damn hard to be an obviously gay kid in high school.
I stared at them so hard they exchanged an uncomfortable look.
The cute twink raised an eyebrow. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” I said quickly. “You want me to fetch the gnome for you?”
“Oh.” He relaxed, lips quirking. “Actually, Lyle can climb the ladder and get it for me. We can enjoy the view from down here.”
He winked at me, and I laughed. Totally busted on drooling over his boyfriend, then.
“Sorry for staring. It’s just that I’m not used to seeing queer couples be so open in this neck of the woods.”
“Well, then you’ve been living under a rock,” he said while Lyle climbed the ladder. “They make jokes about there being something in the water in Granville. We’ve got queer couples coming out of our asses.” He chuckled. “Sometimes literally.”
I cackled, already delighted. “I’ve been away in Chicago, actually. But you need to be my best friend, like right now.”
“Sorry. Taken.” He waved to Lyle. “Lifelong besties.”
“No kidding? That’s awesome.”
“Yeah.” He smiled and held out a hand. “I’m Truman Scott. So, you’re from Chicago?”
“Uh, no. My parents run this farm. I went to Riverton High.”
“Ah, no wonder we haven’t met. Rival schools and all.”
Lyle climbed down the ladder and handed the gnome to Truman. “Anything else you want me to fetch?”
“Just the tree.” He glanced at me. “We’d like to go out and pick a fresh one to cut.”
“Okay, let me see where Hopper is. He can take you out.”
I found Hopper trudging in with a large family, two trees bound and balanced on a sled that he pulled. I waved my arm to get his attention.
He came over, face red with cold above his beard. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, got another couple who want to go out.”
He sighed and tugged at his beard. “All right. Let’s get them checked out first.”
He followed me inside, then brightened. “Lyle? Hey, man!”
He and Lyle embraced with a very dude-bro-type hug that involved more back smacking than affection.
“You still keeping him in line, Tru?”
Truman grinned. “When don’t I?”
