Page 31 of The Christmas Accomplice

Welton blushed again—God, he was adorable—and yanked off the cap, his hair crackling with static. He pawed at the coat Reece still held over one arm, searching, Reece assumed, for a pocket to stow the hat. Their hands touched, and Welton jerked away as if he’d been bitten. “Sorry, just looking for…” and then he found a pocket and crammed the hat inside before taking two steps back. “There. Thanks. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Reece laid Welton’s coat on top of his sport jacket and tie off in a corner. “I just want to make sure you’re doing this of your own free will. I’m not keeping you from the slopes or toboggan run or ice skating or anything.”

“Nope. My body doesn’t have the right shock absorbers for that kind of thing.”

Reece barely managed to keep himself from saying ‘Your body looks all right to me.’ Instead, he gestured toward the few strings of colored lights he’d hung from the ceiling. “This is what I’ve got so far.”

“It’s a good start.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not feeling motivated. This isn’t my activity, and I’m nervous about it.”

“I’m sure you’re going to do great. The decorations are a little anemic, though. Let’s look through what we have to work with.”

Welton’s use of the word we echoed in Reece’s mind as they pulled chairs out of the storage closet and sat on either side of the trio of storage bins. Each of them selected a bin and started digging through it. A short time later, Welton held up a long string of lights with big colored bulbs.

“I’ve always liked these big, old fashioned lights.”

“You’re too young to remember those kinds of lights.”

Welton laughed. “That is true. But a house in my neighborhood still hangs strings of these out every year.”

“Sounds like an electrical fire waiting to happen.” Reece made a face as he tried to untangle a string of lights.

“Is that your grumpy face?”

“You don’t want to see my grumpy face.”

“Oh? Is it super scary?” Welton said.

“People have seen my grumpy face and gone completely mad.”

“Sounds intense. Maybe it’s the high altitude?”

Reece directed a scowl his way. “I feel like you’re mocking me.”

“Do you?” Welton tried for an expression of innocence but it wasn’t working.

“And now you’re being insincere about it.”

“That’s a shame your only hope of assistance with this decorating is a mocking and insincere nerd who doesn’t ski or toboggan.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d say it was a shame.”

That blush returned, and Welton looked back in the bin. “Is Christmas your favorite holiday?”

“Second. Thanksgiving is my first.”

“Oh, yeah. All the food.”

“Yep. No pressure around giving gifts, just good food and either friends or family.”

“Or friends that feel like family,” Welton said.

“Exactly. You have friends like that?”

“I do. A group I’ve known for a long time. We role play on a regular basis.”

Reece’s mind went to the smutty side of role playing before he realized Welton was most likely talking about Dungeons and Dragons or a similar game. He forced the idea of Welton in a sexual role play out of his mind for the moment. “I’ve gone on a quest or two in my time.”