Page 31 of Noel I Won’t
“Damn.” He wrinkled his nose. “Now I have to persuade Hunter to host it at his house so I don’t have to do it.”
I chuckled. “Sorry. Wish we could help you out.”
“That’s okay,” he said with a sigh. “We’ll keep looking for a place. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
It was a shame we didn’t have a good space for an event like that. Noel really was a great chef, and I was sure he could give Kevin’s family a dinner party to remember.
“We can barely keep up with the old Christmas events, unfortunately,” I said. “Mr. Grisold had to have a stent put in his heart a few weeks back.”
“Oh, no. Is he okay?”
“He is,” I said quickly. “But as you might imagine, we’ve fallen behind. Noel is a go-getter, though. He’s been baking up all kinds of Christmas goodies to sell in the shop.”
“Ooh. We’ll have to come back out,” Truman said, turning to Lyle as he returned to the table with a pitcher of pale beer and six glasses. “Right, babe?”
“What’s that?” he asked as he set down his load.
“We should go back to the tree farm. Noel’s been baking Christmas treats.”
Lyle’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, Noel has, huh? Well, we wouldn’t want to miss out on Noel’s goodies.”
Truman laughed. “Thatwouldbe a shame.”
I glowered. “Just stick to your own goodies and leave Noel be.”
“Hopper has acruuuuush,” Truman singsonged.
I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t bother denying it. Noel was a pain in the ass, but I wanted him to bemypain in the ass. Maybe literally. I shifted, a stray thought of how that might go flitting through my mind.
“Must you all act like we’re still in high school?” I complained.
“Of course we must,” Kevin said with a smirk.
“We’re all boring and settled,” Dawson added. “We have to live vicariously through you.”
“Boring?” Evan said, sounding offended.
Lyle laughed. “Watch it, Dawson, or you’ll end up sleeping on the couch.”
“Not boring,” Dawson said. “Just, uh, stable.” At Evan’s unimpressed face, he tried again. “Content? Super happy, I mean. So in love that I can’t possibly be happier. So happy that I have to ask Hopper about his life because I can’t evenrememberwhat it’s like to be single.”
Everyone snickered at Dawson’s backpedaling.
“Better,” Evan finally said, letting him off the hook with a grin. “We are pretty settled. I just like giving you a hard time.”
Dawson rolled his eyes. “And you look so sweet and innocent.”
“But you know better,” Evan teased, leaning over to kiss his husband.
“Speaking of being single,” Lyle said, looking back at me. “It has been a long time since you’ve dated.”
“Yeah, well, Heather was kind of a disaster,” I muttered.
“Mm-hmm. You click better with men,” Truman said.
I shrugged a shoulder. I did like being fucked, but the right woman could peg me just right. I’d had a one-nighter with Calista years ago, and damn, the woman knew how to wring outpleasure. But Heather hadn’t been comfortable with that—or the fact that I was bisexual at all.
Noel certainly checked all my boxes, though.
