Winter Wonderland (4 page)

Kyle glanced up at Gabriel. “You aren’t the only one who noticed Paul wanted a real relationship.
I
knew Arthur was wrong for him, so I bided my time. I kept trying to catch the eye of Marcus or Arthur, thinking it might make him jealous or at least
see
me, but that was a bust. When he and Arthur broke up and Arthur got hung up on
you
…well, I thought, it’s now or never. But I still couldn’t ever get him to so much as notice me. So I tried seducing him online. A few times we sexted, but that was about it. I never had the courage to tell him who I was. Then one day on the way home from work it had snowed, and I had this crazy urge to put a penis on his porch. I don’t know why or what I thought it would do, but it got me more traction than anything else, so I kept it up. I thought maybe I’d lure him in slowly, then do a big reveal—but he caught me. And
recoiled
.”

“Not from
you
. From the
idea
of you.”

Kyle huffed. “How is that better?”

“Because you can still show him who you are. The real you, not the kid he imagines you still are—or the mincing fop you present.”

Kyle drew up short. “I’m not a
fop
.”

“I know. Stop acting all affected in front of him, so he can see it too.”

Kyle blinked. “I don’t act affected.”

Gabriel flipped a limp wrist and adopted a lisp. “
Darling
, every time I see you in public, you act like Carson Kressley.” When Kyle frowned in confusion, Gabriel rolled his eyes. “
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
. Look it up on YouTube.”

Kyle knew
Queer Eye,
vaguely. Carson must be the blond one who was a walking gay stereotype. “I’m not that bad. I just…play it up a bit because the act makes things easier. People expect it. It’s like a wall.”

“Yes. Tear it down for Paul.”

The very thought made Kyle’s stomach lurch. He wrapped his arms over it, slouching. “And be what? Don’t you dare say
yourself
.”

“Well, what is it you want him to be interested in?”

Kyle hunched more. “I was basically me when he caught me making the penis. He’s not interested, whatever I am.”

A silence expanded between them. Gabriel tapped his finger on his desk as he pondered something. “I’ll admit I don’t have an idea of how to help, exactly. Or rather, I have
one
idea. But I warn you. There’s no putting this gun back on the rack. And when I say gun, I mean siege weapon.”

Kyle raised his eyebrows. “Siege weapon?”

Gabriel’s eyebrows waggled. “How well do you know Arthur’s mother?”

Chapter Three

P
aul was on his back, head cocked sideways as he put a screw in the underside of a shitty prefab desk, when the bell over the door of the shop opened. Swallowing a curse because he’d almost had the damn thing finished, he smiled at the pressed wood so his tone wouldn’t sound pissed. “Be right with you.”

“Oh, don’t bother, sweetheart. Take your time, we’ll wait.”

That was Corrina Anderson’s voice. Arthur’s lovely but managing mother. With a
we
. Paul set the drill and screw aside and shimmied out from beneath the desk. “How can I help—?”

The words died on his lips.

Kyle, to his credit, looked uncomfortable. He smiled weakly at Paul before averting his gaze to land on anything but the man in front of him. Corrina, either oblivious or uninterested in this, carried on in her breezy, bossy way.

“I have the most wonderful news. Jane Parks talked Kyle into helping us with the Winter Wonderland project. He’s such an amazing artist—he can
paint
those lovely Scandinavian folk-art decorations instead of stenciling them.”

Kyle held up a hand. “Actually, they still need to be stenciled. But I can design the stencils, yes.”

Corrina beamed. “See? This is why we need a
real
artist on the team. And since you’re in charge of building, Paul, I wanted the two of you to get together as soon as possible to lay out your plans.”

Paul panicked. “Building? When did I get put in charge of that?”
I can’t get together with Kyle.

“Oh, darling, you’ve always been. Did Arthur not tell you?” She shook her head as if to say
, Isn’t that just like my son.

“Corrina, I’d love to help, but we’re slammed with orders, what with Christmas—”

“But don’t you see? That’s why Kyle is here.” She patted them both on the shoulder, beaming proudly. “I’ve already given Kyle your phone number, so you can set a time to get together and discuss. I thought maybe something at the café. Oh—Kyle, sweetheart, send a quick text to Paul so he has
your
number.”

Kyle pulled out his phone and obediently texted. Paul felt his own phone buzz in his pocket.

“
Wonderful.
” Corrina rubbed her hands together. “Well, I have some shopping to do before the grocery store runs out of everything. You two make your plans. But, Paul, don’t keep Kyle too long. He has his sister over at the library to think about.”

Waving over her shoulder, Corrina pulled the hood of her coat over her head and bustled out the door. Leaving Kyle and Paul to stare at each other. Awkwardly.

Kyle broke the silence with a heavy sigh. “Sorry. If I’d have known where she was dragging me, I’d have made an excuse to stay away.”

Paul blinked. He would have? “Oh—it’s okay. I know how Corrina gets.”

Kyle’s blush was pretty on him, which Paul had never noticed before, so why he’d started now was anybody’s guess. “It’s just that I hadn’t worked out how to apologize to you yet. For…everything.”

He was apologizing? Paul frowned. “It’s okay,” he said automatically, not exactly sure what he was offering reassurance about. It
wasn’t
okay for Kyle to sext him and leave penises on his porch. It confused him, though, that Kyle felt bad about it.

“No, it’s not.” Kyle squared his shoulders and stood straight, looking for everything like a schoolboy taking his lumps. Except…no. For once Kyle
didn’t
seem boyish. “If we’re going to work together, I don’t want any awkwardness between us. I apologize for being so pushy and inappropriate when I knew you weren’t interested. I took advantage of you, and I’m very sorry.”

Took…advantage? Pushy? Well—yes, but… “It’s not that I’m not interested, but you’re too young for me—”

Kyle held up a hand. “Please. It’s fine. You don’t have to make excuses. I’m a big boy. I can handle a guy not being into me.”

“But it’s not that at all, it’s just—”

Kyle lowered all his fingers but one, aiming his pointer at Paul. And winking.

Paul felt a funny hitch inside.

Kyle held up both hands, smiling sadly. “It’s fine. If you aren’t too upset with me, nothing more needs to be said, and I promise it won’t happen again.”

Paul felt dizzy and off-kilter. “I’m not upset at all, but I don’t want you to think…” Paul didn’t know how to finish his sentence.

Kyle had his phone out, swiping through his smartphone screens. “I apologize in advance for my schedule. Lots of night shifts. The best time for me would be Tuesday evening, but if you have plans, I can certainly find another window.”

No, Paul had no damn plans. “Tuesday’s fine.”

“Great. Would seven be okay? A little late for dinner, I’m sorry, but I don’t get off until six.”

“It’s fine.” He felt like all he said to Kyle is
fine
and
it’s okay
.

“In my calendar now. Where did you want to meet? The café, as Corrina suggested?”

That seemed safe and neutral, and it was public. “Sure.”

Kyle put his phone away and pulled his gloves from his pockets. “Wonderful. I can do most of the stencil cutouts at home, and at that point anybody could finish things off. Or I could come when you’re not working.”

Now Paul felt like an ass. “It’s not a big deal.”

Kyle was embarrassed and reluctant and…cute. Which Paul needed to stop noticing. “Thanks. That’s…kind of you.”

Despite his panic over whatever switch had been flipped making Kyle inappropriately attractive, Paul couldn’t stand how awkward Kyle felt. “Honestly, it’s not. The sculptures were amazing. And the—”
He
blushed as he stopped himself from saying the sexting had been hot. “It’s fine. It’s okay. I mean it.”

Now Kyle’s eyes sparkled, a secret, knowing manner that made him seem like the kind of guy who would send Paul texts detailing how he’d blow him until he couldn’t stand. A smile left Paul slightly hard and sent all his admonitions to not think Kyle was cute right out of his head. This wasn’t cute. This was…hot.

It wasn’t possible that campy Kyle Parks was hot, but fuck, he sure was.

Kyle saluted and winked. “See you Tuesday.” He left.

Flustered and confused, Paul pulled out his phone. Saw he had a new text from an unknown number. It was an Emoji—one of those picture things Frankie sometimes texted with. A little snowman.

Why the fuck that got Paul the rest of the way hard, he couldn’t even remotely begin to explain.

C
orrina appeared from beneath the overhang of the empty building beside Logan Design and Repair as soon as Kyle cleared the line of sight of the front door. She grinned at him like he’d escaped with a bag of money. “So. It went well, don’t you think?”

Kyle wasn’t sure. He rubbed at the back of his mitten as he glanced over his shoulder at the building. “It felt weird. Basically, I lied.”

“Oh,
pish
. Paul’s a bit of work, is all. You’re not lying. You’re laying pipe.” She took his arm and leaned in conspiratorially as they shuffled through the snow toward the library. “Now it’s time for phase two.”

Kyle still couldn’t get over how military this campaign was. “
Gleaning intelligence,
right? I’m still not sure what you mean.”

“It means you need to take a crash course in Paul Jansen. Learn his likes and dislikes.”

That was hard to argue with, especially since Kyle’s usual tactic of
wear something nice and flirt
wasn’t getting him anywhere. Except he almost thought Paul was interested, especially there at the end. “Okay. Where do we start?”

“Most of it I can send you in an email, but for a good chunk of it, we need the library.”

“The library?” Kyle repeated, but Corrina waved him forward, as if whatever waited for them would expire if they didn’t arrive fast enough.

When they entered the building, Gabriel rose from the circulation desk, grinning at them as they shook snow from their coats. “So? How did it go?”

“An excellent start.” Corrina draped her sodden stocking cap on the rack above the coats. “Did you prepare the items I requested?”

“I did indeed, and checked them out in Kyle’s name.” Gabriel gave Kyle a look over the top of his glasses. “I can’t give them to you, though, until you pay your fine, as it’s over ten dollars. Library policy.”

“What items are you giving me?” Kyle asked.

“DVDs.” Corrina patted Kyle’s shoulder. “Paul loves Lifetime Original Movies all year long, but he becomes very indulgent at Christmas.”

“Corrina made the selections—I don’t want you thinking I’d violate patron privacy by revealing his favorites myself.” Gabriel pursed his lips. “I’m quite serious about the fines as well. You owe, in fact, over
twenty
dollars.”

Kyle pulled his wallet out and handed Gabriel a twenty. “So I have to watch a bunch of sappy romance movies?”
And Paul likes those?

Linda Kay had watched a movie in Gabriel’s office while she waited for Kyle, thrilled at her special treatment, and she flirted with Gabriel as they said goodbye. Kyle left the library with his sister, his stack of DVDs and a receipt for his fines, a red circle around a notice that he still owed $5.65.

They stopped by the café for lunch, where Linda Kay alternated between relaying the plot of the children’s movies she’d watched while she waited and singing her favorite show tunes. Once they were in the car and heading back home, Linda Kay sifted through the DVDs Kyle had checked out. “Why do you have all these movies?”

Kyle wasn’t sure how to explain. “Gabriel wanted me to try them.”

“They look boring.”

Kyle had to agree. “I’m going to give them a try all the same.”

He began his first one that evening, as he thawed out from sculpting a fairy princess (with wand) to go with the snow dragon. Corrina said
The Christmas Card
was one of Paul’s top five. Kyle plugged it into the DVD player, curled up with an afghan and prepared to get to know his crush.

Twenty minutes later, he’d stopped trying to talk himself into it not being so bad and mostly did his best not to vomit. When his mom came in and asked what he was doing, he fumbled to quickly turn it off, as if he’d been caught watching porn.

He finished the movie in his room, and over the next few days he dry-swallowed the rest. He dropped them off on his way home from work on Tuesday, along with the money for his remaining library fine.

Gabriel wasn’t in, but Corrina was, and she beamed at him. “So. What did you think?”

Kyle tried to bite his tongue, but after days of garbage, he didn’t stand a chance. “What did I
think
? Oh my God. They’re
hideous.
Was this some kind of joke?”

“Not at all. These are some of Paul’s favorites. I even confirmed with Arthur, though I didn’t tell him why I wanted to know.” Corrina regarded him archly. “What didn’t you like about them?”

Where did he start? “For one, half of them were creepily religious. Going to church is fine,” he added quickly, as Corrina had taught him fifth grade Sunday school, “and you know I attend when I don’t work, but they’re so…
in your face
. And
cheesy
. And
cardboard.
These aren’t even cartoons, these characters. And what’s up with there always being a fiancé or boyfriend who gets thrown over? I mean, it happened in
every single movie.
” He tried to stop there, but he couldn’t. “How in the world are
these
Paul’s favorite movies?”

“Something for you to meditate on, yes?” Corrina nodded at the clock. “You’re still on for dinner with him tonight? At seven?”

“I’m running home to change now.”

“Good. Wear something nice but not too nice. Not too
tight
either, Kyle. Leave some things to the imagination.”

Kyle was starting to regret enlisting Corrina. “I wasn’t planning on club clothes. We’re only going to dinner at the café.”

“That’s right. But remember, darling.
No matter what
, I don’t want you to kiss him tonight.”

Kyle laughed. “I’m pretty sure it’s not something in the realm of possibility.”

She aimed a finger at his nose. “I’m serious.
No. Kissing.
You can come
close
, but that’s all. It’s of vital importance.”

“Got it.” It had
definitely
been a mistake to involve Corrina. He smiled his flirty smile and waggled his fingers. “Wish me luck.”

It had started snowing while he’d been in the library. Only a flurry, but after so many other snows it was demoralizing, doubling his drive home. During the blizzard a few years ago, his brother had snowmobiled him to work, and after that experience Kyle had ponied up and bought a Ski-Doo of his own. He’d only used it for recreation so far, but something told him this year things would change.

He didn’t take super care in dressing for his dinner not-date, but he did make sure his hair wasn’t sticking up, wore a dark gray sweater he thought brought out his eyes, and splashed just a
hint
of Kenneth Cole Reaction on his pulse points.

His mother sashayed her hips and made a
woo-hoo
noise as he dashed through the kitchen. “You didn’t tell me you had a
date
.”

“I don’t.” Kyle turned away and became busy wrapping his cream knit scarf around his neck, high so he could skip a hat. “I have a meeting for the Winter Wonderland thing.”

“So you’re teasing the old ladies by looking and smelling so good. I see. But you should eat quick. I saved you a plate in the oven.”

“The meeting’s at the café. I’ll eat there.” He kissed her on the cheek as he swiped his keys from the dish above the microwave. “See you later, Mom.”

He wished he’d have taken her up on the food as he drove into town, stomach grumbling. His only solace was that by seven the café would be starting to clear out, as most people would eat at six or even five. Except when he pulled into the parking lot, he found it full to bursting. In fact, he had to drive around twice before he could find a place to park.

Paul stood inside the front door, clearly flustered. Every single seat was taken, and people lined along the windows waiting to be seated.