Page 51 of The Christmas Accomplice

Chapter 13

Reece zipped up his coat and turned away from his employee locker to find Nick standing right behind him.

“What the hell? Announce yourself or something.”

“Heading home?” Nick smiled as she went to her own locker.

“Yep.” Reece focused on getting his fingers into his gloves to avoid looking at her.

“Liar.”

He pulled his hat out of a pocket and inspected it. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You’re going to see the hot gay nerd, aren’t you?”

He finally looked at her. “You know his name. And he’s more than just a type I may have.”

She assessed him as she zipped her coat. “I can see that. I’m really happy you feel that way.”

“Yeah?” Reece smiled, but it felt a little flat to him.

And, of course, Nick picked up on it. “You’re holding back with him, aren’t you?”

He felt flustered and edgy, and he yanked his hat on as he headed for the door. “I need to go. Be careful driving home.”

Nick caught up with him at the employee access door and grabbed him by the arm.

“Good Lord, how often are you working out?” Reece asked as he stared incredulously down to where she gripped him.

“Apparently more often than you. Look, all I have to say right now is open up to him. All right? Let him see who you really are.”

“I want to. I really do. But there’s this part of me that keeps saying, why bother? He’ll be gone soon anyway.”

“Because you two have a great connection. And that doesn’t just happen. When you feel that with someone, you need to open up to it and let it in, let everything he is complement everything you are.”

“Even if he lives over a thousand miles away?”

“Especially because he lives that far away,” Nick said. “That will keep your connection strong even at a distance.”

Everything she said made sense, of course. Reece wanted to relax, get to know Welton even better and let him get to know him, but that quiet voice in the back of his mind kept whispering, What if? He had been through this a few times already, and each time being left behind had hurt a little more. He felt a much stronger connection with Welton, more than he had with anyone he’d been with before. It was amazing and terrifying. What if Welton left and everything developing between them just faded away? Reece worried he might never recover from it.

“Go see him tonight. Be in the moment and enjoy it. Let the future take care of itself.”

“Thanks for the pep talk,” Reece said.

“I’m just returning the favor. You’ve done it for me many times in the past.”

Reece sighed dramatically. “So many times.”

Nick smacked him upside the head, but was grinning as she did it. “It appears you’re feeling better, since you’re able to be a smart ass.”

“I try to be consistent.”

He went out the door into the employee parking lot, Nick hot on his heels. Several inches of snow had fallen during their shift, and he used his arm to swipe some of it off his car door so he could pull it open. He started the engine and then helped Nick clear snow off her car. They laughed and tossed snow at each other, and when she finally got in behind the wheel, she pointed at him. “Stay in the moment. No looking farther ahead than tonight.”

“All right, I hear you.”

He waved as she drove slowly out of the lot, tires crunching over snow, then he returned to his car and shut the engine off, satisfied the lines wouldn’t freeze up overnight. Then he set off at a fast walk, barely feeling the air biting his cheeks and slipping icy fingers down the neck of his coat. When he reached Welton’s cabin, he paused on the step and shook out his arms in an effort to relax. Yeah, that wasn’t going to help, so he drew in a breath, let it out slowly in a cloud that broke against the door, making him think of dragons and wondering if Welton would see it that way too, since he played Dungeons and Dragons.