“Excuse me,” someone said, tapping Vic’s shoulder. They spun around to see a dad and two little kids. “Do you mind if they get a picture? They’ve been walking behind you talking about Toy Story for about two minutes now.”
“Of course,” Vic said without hesitation. Tawson smiled and they introduced themselves as their characters. That one picture turned into a small line of kids wanting pictures. They both had fun with it, too. Vic said some of the tag lines from the character and, at one point, had to make up a story that the snake in their boot was sleeping and couldn’t come out. Vic even let a kid around six-years-old, dressed as a regular cowboy, wear the hat.
It took maybe ten minutes, but the parents all thanked them. One woman even commented that they made a cute couples’ costume before walking away. Vic thanked them and then turned to get in one of the lines.
Chapter Seventeen
~ Tawson ~
Tawson woke up with Vic curled up against his side. It was Saturday and they were officially on vacation for the next week. And it was way too fucking early. But Vic had to go help with the horses and do a few more things with their family before leaving tomorrow. They’d be back on Wednesday night, in time for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Which Tawson had officially been invited to by Patrick.
“Wake up, Princess.” Vic barely stirred. Which wasn’t a surprise considering they were awake until one in the morning. Tawson had tried to finish packing for their trip while Vic described all the things they had bought and packed. Vic may have ended up bent over the bed next to the half-filled suitcase.
Vic grunted but didn’t open their eyes. It was the same thing every time. Tawson laughed to himself and sat up, jostling the bed just enough for Vic to send a louder groan. “I don’t wanna get up,” they grumbled. One arm wrapped around Tawson’s waist and he laughed when Vic tried to pull him back to the bed.
“I promise to not make you wake up early our entire trip,” Tawson said. “But we won’t be able to take that trip if you don’t get down to the barn. Besides, I have things to do today that you can’t be around for.”
That seemed to get Vic’s attention. The alarm went off a second time and Vic reached behind Tawson to turn it off. There were soft kisses placed along Tawson’s bare back before Vic came back into his view. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Tawson responded with a soft smile. “Come on, let’s get you back down to the house. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Vic stood up and stretched their arms up, popping more than one joint. “Joe is picking me up at nine and meeting on campus.”
“I can’t wait,” Tawson said with a much bigger smile. “I’ll see you later.”
Vic gave him one more kiss before walking to their car. It was just after four in the morning and Vic learned quickly if they backed their car into a certain spot on the other side of the house, they avoided the motion light turning on and didn’t have headlights hitting any of the other houses. He stayed in the doorway until Vic’s taillights disappeared around the barn. There were at least thirty acres between the houses and the paddock so it was still within eyesight but took about twenty minutes or so straight across the yard to get to it.
Tawson meant to lay back down for a bit, but he couldn’t get comfortable. The bed smelt like Vic and he had a list of things going through his mind that he needed to do. First being a shower, something he should have done after their impromptu sex last night. Then he needed to finish packing. And head into town at some point once the jewelry store opened.
He decided to start with cleaning up. If they were going to be gone for a couple of days, he didn’t want to come back to a messy house. By the time he finished, he was on his second cup of coffee. The sun was starting to rise and he took a book out on to the patio to enjoy the cool morning. It wasn’t set to get higher than seventy-five. He’d probably throw on a sweater before leaving.
He made it through two chapters of the book before deciding to get ready to head out. And he may have gotten a text from Vic saying that they were heading out to the back end of the property where they kept the cattle to help with moving them from one field to another. It would be an all-day thing and they wouldn’t be able to use their phone much.
Don’t miss me out there. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Tawson pocketed his phone and grabbed his keys and wallet and headed to his car. The drive into the city wasn’t too bad, but there was quite a bit of traffic once he hit the limits. It didn’t click that most students were probably being picked up or leaving campus for the week. Tawson had spent the first couple of weeks in the area exploring, making his way this way and that to get the layout. He passed the grocery store he went to on Fridays, the laundromat that he and Vic may haveaccidentallyplanned to wash their clothes at at the same time one evening. Then there was the bar that he went to with Daniel and some co-workers. They’d gone back, sans Daniel, two more times. There were different faculty joining each night, but he and Yvonne were the constants.
The GPS led him to the local mall and he circled one of the lots to find a spot. It was crowded and he wasn’t exactly looking forward to fighting what seemed like quite the crowds. After three rows, he finally snagged a spot and headed inside, tryingto figure out where exactly the store he needed was.
“I’m on the total wrong side,” Tawson mumbled to himself when he saw the jewelry store on the map supplied on one wall. He tried to look around and orient himself. That was when he happened to catch the eye of none other than Clark, William’s husband. They hadn’t spoken but a handful of times when they joined for dinner or Clark tagged along with William and Brett doing checkups on the tenants.
“Hey, Tawson. What are you doing here?” Clark had a bag in one hand and what looked like a half-eaten pretzel in his other. His hair looked freshly cut, shaved on the sides and a bit longer on the top. He had a business casual style, which made sense because he grew up around politics and his current job required a lot of public relations.
“I could ask the same thing,” Tawson said. He didn’t want to say that he was looking for the jewelry store. That would lead to questions. Ones he didn’t want to answer.
“Early Christmas shopping,” Clark said. “William is in some meetings today so I figured I’d go out and see what I could get. Plus, I had a craving for a pretzel. But enough about me. I didn’t take you for a mall guy.”
“I’m not usually,” Tawson said. “Unfortunately there was only one store that had in stock what I wanted, so here I am.”
“Oh yeah?” Clark adjusted the bag in his hand. “What are you getting?”
“Oh, um.” Tawson tried to think of something on the spot. He wasn’t near as good at it as Vic was. “Just getting something personalized for a friend. Also a gift.”
“Wait to avoid the question,” Clark said with a small laugh. Thankfully, he changed the subject. “Have you been invited to the Thanksgiving dinner yet?”
“I was,” Tawson nodded. “Patrick let me know about it. I’ve been politely asked to bring the peach cobbler I made last dinner.” Which Tawson realized he would have to grab the ingredients for today because the stores would be closed by the time they got back on Wednesday.
“Can’t have too much dessert,” Clark said. “I won’t keep you. I actually have to meet my mom for lunch soon. I’ll see you on Thursday.”
