Connolly didn’t answer, just grunted and wandered from the bedroom, not seeming to care if Jacob followed or got left behind. Jacob marched to the rocking chair in the corner, snatching the maroon blanket and wrapping it around himself before following after Connolly.
The cabin was small; there was just a sofa and a fireplace, a wooden table with two chairs, and a small kitchen where Connolly stood making coffee. When Jacob pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down, Connolly’s gaze snagged on the blanket wrapped around Jacob’s shoulders. “Be careful with that,” he grunted. “It was my daughter’s.”
Was? Oh, God. “I’m sorry. I’ll put it back.”
Jacob went to stand, but Connolly’s gaze pinned him in place. “I didn’t say you couldn’t use it.
Just be careful with it.”
Jacob gave a stilted nod, pulling it closer around him as if to show Connolly he understood the responsibility. They didn’t speak while Connolly made the coffee, and when it was finished, he watched as the man pulled a flask from behind a bread box and dumped what he could only assume was liquor in both the white mug and the delicate tea cup covered in blue flowers before handing it to Jacob. “I don’t drink coffee or liquor.”
The man scoffed. “Drink it. It will help with your hangover.”
“Is it that obvious?” Jacob asked, pushing his fingers through his reddish gold hair.
“Are you sore?” he asked.
“My head and my eyes are killing me,” Jacob said, taking a sip of the hot, bitter liquid.
The man’s gaze fell to Jacob’s lap. “No, I mean…sore. You said something about losing your virginity.”
“Oh.” Heat rushed to Jacob’s face all the way to the tips of his ears. “No. I feel fine.”
“I’m ninety-nine percent sure we didn’t do anything last night. Trust me, if it was your first time, you’d be feeling it today. Besides, I didn’t see any condoms, and I always use condoms.”
“Oh…that’s…that’s good, I guess.”
Jacob wasn’t sure why he felt disappointed over still being a virgin. It wasn’t like he wanted to lose it in a drunken hookup with a guy he didn’t know and couldn’t remember. Connolly sipped his black coffee as he gazed out the window. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think you’re going anywhere any time soon, kid. This storm is just starting. I remember stocking up for it yesterday before I let Wyatt talk me into attending that idiotic Christmas party as Santa Claus.”
Wyatt Hudson was a YouTuber and the husband of Lincoln, who was Jacob’s brother-in-law’s former boss. Wyatt was much younger than his husband. He and Jacob were the same age. “Wyatt is the reason you’re dressed up like a dirty Santa?”
Connolly gave a long look at Jacob’s body, like he could see through the blanket. “I was wearing the costume Wyatt gave me. There’s no way that elf get-up was family friendly, and your nieces and nephews were at that party. So, you’re the dirty one, little elf.”
“There’s no way I dressed myself like this,” Jacob assured him, pulling the blanket tighter. “I don’t even know where somebody would buy underwear with no butt in them. I don’t even understand why that’s a thing?”
Connolly leaned against the counter and grinned. “You don’t?”
“No. Like, what’s the point? Literally nothing is covered.”
“Exactly, elf. Easy access.”
“Easy access to wh—Oh!” Was it possible to die from humiliation? Why did he feel so stupid next to this stranger. “Oh, so, you’re saying I did this so you…so we…could… Oh, my word.”
Connolly burst out laughing. “My word, indeed.”
“You don’t have to make fun of me, you know?” Jacob said, sounding sulky to his own ears.
Connolly stared at the half-naked elf sitting at his dining room table, currently wearing the world’s
most adorable pout, his flushed face only drawing more attention to the smattering of ginger freckles across his nose and cheeks. “I’m not making fun of you,” he promised.
Jacob gave him a look that told Connolly he didn’t believe him. Connolly truly wasn’t trying to make fun of the boy, but he had no idea how this situation could have occurred. Connolly didn’t do one night stands, he certainly didn’t invite people to his cabin, and, most importantly, he never shit where he ate, and Jacob was Robby’s brother and Robby’s husband was one of Connolly’s closest friends. That was the definition of fraternizing. Fuck.
“This is all your fault anyway,” Jacob informed him, crossing his legs in a way that had Connolly dragging his gaze from dainty feet to shapely calves covered in those silky stockings.
“What?”
“This is your fault. Hey, eyes up here,” Jacob snapped.
