“Well, before you deal with that mess, I have something for you.”
Dare turned to see Steven holding a small box wrapped in red foil.
“You got me a present?”
“No.” Steven frowned. “I found this on our kitchen table.”
“Weird.” Curious, he accepted the box. He sniffed at the paper, trying to get a sense of the sender.
“It smells like snow,” Steven said.
“It does.” Anxiety had him tearing off the wrapping without care, despite the beauty of the paper. His hands didn’t get any steadier when he opened it to find a Christmas card with a Santa driving a sleigh and a small object wrapped in sparkly tissue paper. He unfolded the card. A message shimmered at him, written in gold ink.
Dare,
Thank you for believing in me. If you talk to Steven, I’m sure you’ll get your Christmas wish.
Santa.
Dare’s mouth dropped open. “What the fuck?”
“What’s in the box?” Steven asked.
“I don’t know yet.” He handed over the Christmas card, then pulled out the tissue-wrapped item. He now knew what fear tasted like when it coated his tongue and threatened to drown him. The object had little weight to it. He only relaxed when unwrapping revealed an ornament of clear glass. A small tiger sat on its haunches wearing a red Santa hat. Through the top of the tiger’s hat was a gold ring with a red satin ribbon threaded through it.
“Huh.” Dare stared at the statue for a bit before lifting it up to show his mate.
“Pretty!” Steven admired the ornament. “But what did he mean your Christmas wish?”
Dare bit his lip and hesitated.
Steven took his hands. “Love, what is it you wished for?”
“A child.” Dare took a deep breath. “I want us to adopt a child.”
“That’s not something I can get you for Christmas,” Steven warned.
“No. But even considering it will be enough this year.” Dare infused as much sincerity as he could, baring his soul.
“All right. If it means that much to you, I’d be willing to look into adoption.”
Dare’s breath hitched. “It can’t be just because I want to.”
“No, I know,” Steven insisted. “I won’t be positive about adoption for sure until I meet the right kid. But I’m willing to look into it. That’s all I can promise right now. Is that enough?”
“Yeah.” Dare blinked back tears. “It’s enough.”
“Good.” Steven hugged Dare before stepping back with a teasing grin. “Do you want to go and tell Anthony and Silver that their Santa for the day might be the real deal? Or do we sweep it under the rug and move on.”
“Let’s tell them tomorrow. If the guy claiming to be Santa shows up again, we’ll take him down and force him to talk. If he doesn’t, there is little we can do to find him. I’ll have to tell Anthony what happened. With all the weirdness in his life, Anthony might believe me.”
Steven kissed him. “Let’s eat dinner, then go to bed. Everything will look better in the morning.”
Dare hung his ornament from one of the nails holding their string of lights up. The tiger sparkled back the many colors surrounding it.
“Merry Christmas, Santa,” Dare whispered before going to join Steven in the kitchen.
Meet Amber Kell
Author of the bestselling Moon Pack and Dragon Men series. Amber lives in Seattle where the sky is cloudy, the coffee is good and there’s always a comfortable chair to read a book.
Website: amberkell.com
Newsletter: bit.ly/AmberKell-NL
Spending the holidays with his college roommate beats spending Christmas alone. Except the snowy Nebraskan landscape and the old house they find themselves alone in, is more romantic than Jace can handle. Especially as he's been in love with CJ from the day he met him. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if CJ felt the same way. But that would be one hell of a coincidence.
A contemporary addition to the Homestead Universe.
Homestead for the Holidays
First published November, 2020 © 2020 Alex Jane
Edited by Kiyle Brosius
Homestead for the Holidays
“Come on, buddy. Wake up. We're here already.”
Jace grumbled and smacked at the large hand shaking his shoulder, mumbling, “Five more minutes, Mom,” purely as he knew it would make CJ laugh like it always did. Not the big belly laugh that came from his boots, or the small snorting thing he did when something amused him, rather Jace was after the barking 'ha' of surprise that made CJ's eyes go wide and then crinkle at the edges when he smiled after. That special amusement was what Jace got by the sounds of it, so he grinned himself and opened his eyes.
Under normal circumstances, Jace would only be half joking about sleeping in, but on this occasion, he didn't want five more minutes. Or five more seconds. Being scrunched up in the front seat of an SUV and using his coat as a pillow against the window, no matter how high-end the rental, wasn't the way he'd wanted to spend the start of his winter break. He was too tall and too old to be sleeping in cars anymore.
His neck cracked as he unfolded himself, pulling the seatbelt away from his chest so that he could straighten up against the headrest a bit easier. He blinked out of the window with unfocused eyes at the scenery scudding by. Not that there was much of that. Mostly it was sky as far as he could tell, the great gray dome above them so empty it made him feel like he was under water. The ground spread out low and flat, and the path of the cold wind blew a light dusting of snow horizontally across the highway, unimpeded by trees or any signs of life. The word barren sprang to mind, even if it was strangely beautiful.
Jace blinked, yawned and stretched as best he could in the cramped space, then asked, “Where is here exactly? 'Cause it looks like we're in a field.”
CJ laughed, his hazel eyes sparkling with mischief as they often did. “Not here here,” he said, before lifting one hand from the steering wheel and pointing out of the windshield. “There here.”
In the distance, a dark shape looked more like a house the closer they got as they drove down the road. It was old and little spooky, just sitting there in the pale landscape. It had what appeared to be a small barn and a couple of other buildings for company—all ancient but still in good shape—corralled by an old wooden fence. Still, with the windows dark and the sun going down, the place didn't exactly look inviting.
“This,” Jace said tentatively, as CJ pulled the car down the dirt track that took them off the main road and then up the last couple of hundred yards to the house. “Was not what I was expecting when you said 'cabin.' “
“Yeah.” CJ sighed and parked up in the large square of dirt next to the barn. After he sat there for a second staring, he turned off the engine. “I guess it's too big to really be a cabin. We only started calling it that since the folks started renting it out. Before that it was just… the house, I guess.”