“I didn’t want to believe it when you said it before. I have a feeling it might be more than last year. It’s got to be lucky,” he said.
“Or global warming,” I said earning me a punch. I took his hand and kissed his knuckles, once again amazed how light the scars were from his injury.
“Whatever it is I love it. When I was a kid, I wished for snow every year and I think we had it one time. Which reminds me, I need new gloves,” he said.
“I’ll get you some for Christmas,” I said.
“You don’t have to. I can get them from Jack.”
“Babe, you haven’t given me any idea of what you want. Now please, let me get you some gloves.” I’d asked Hudson for ideas, but he was no help at all and told me to ask Jack. I still hadn’t had a chance to do that since anytime I went to their store Isaac was usually with me.
“Well, if you insist.”
“I do,” I said, and kissed his nose. “I do insist.”
“Okay, well we need to get going to work. If we’re late they’ll make us stay late and it’s our last day before we have a week off, so I don’t want to work any later than we need to,” he said and hurried to dump the rest of his coffee and finish getting dressed.
Seven
Isaac
The days seemed toboth drag and fly by all at the same time. I was still trying to figure out a gift for Tig, and he was probably buying way too many for me. Any time I mentioned I needed to buy something I noticed him looking at his phone. Which was very sweet, but also a little intimidating. Gift giving was not something I was great at.
“Hey, I saw a flyer for a food drive. I thought maybe we could buy some extra stuff the next time we go shop out of town to donate,” Tig said as soon as he walked in the door.
“Jack has a donation bin at the hardware store. They’re also planning a big dinner at the firehouse on Christmas Eve for anyone who wants to go. Maybe we can donate something for that too,” I said. I remembered how it was when I was really little and Mom and Dad had to make everything last, or we had to do without.
Tig sat next to me on the sofa and kissed me softly. “I like that idea,” he whispered. “We could make a crockpot of soup or something warm.”
“That sounds great. Now, what are we doing this weekend?” It was Friday night and usually we went to Tig’s house, but this week we’d decided to stay in town. There were a lot of holiday activities nearby and both of us wanted to check out some of them, but we also wanted to go shopping.
“Well, I know we’re going shopping tomorrow. There’s a farmers’ market and lots of handmade goods, we might find something different there,” Tig said.
“We can have lunch there too. Sounds like a date,” I said and loved how it sounded. Things with Tig were different than when we’d first met a year ago and all I could think about was how to get the hot old dude to fuck me. Sometimes Jack and I would go to a movie or maybe go to Hartsville just for a different view, but going with Tig wasn’t just hanging out with a friend.
“We can stop at your sister’s restaurant if you want,” Tig said.
“Maybe on the way back. I want to have time to shop and hopefully get most of my shopping done,” I said. I’d ordered a few items online, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Since we have tomorrow planned, want to go have a beer at Pints n’ Pool?”
“Sure.”
“So, what are you guys doing this weekend?” Jack asked as the four of us sat at the bar. They saw us walking to the bar just as they were closing and decided to join us.
“Tomorrow we’re going to Hartsville to do some shopping. Are you working?”
“Yes, Jonah is going to work for the afternoon, so we have some time off,” Jack said.
“Jack’s not sure that’s a good idea,” Hudson said.
“Why? Jonah ran it himself for like fifty years,” I said.
“I didn’t think he’d be working there again once he sold it to Hudson.” Jack gave Hudson a side-eye which he ignored.
“He said we need to have time to do some couple things. We have been working a lot,” Hudson said. “Plus, Mom will be there, and you know Mr. Atkins knows how to run it as well as we do. Don’t worry, it’s only one day.”
A game of pool and another beer later, we were both ready to leave, so after saying goodbye to Jack and Hudson we walked home. “I’m glad we stayed in town this weekend. It really does feel like Christmas,” I said and Tig took my hand with a squeeze.
