“I’ve seen the way Jack looks at you.” Merry let out a dreamy sigh. “I wish I had someone who looked at me that way. Like I hung the stars in the sky.”
“You could.”
“I’ve never had a serious relationship. I’ve dated, but it always ended the moment I didn’t…you know.” He leaned forward to whisper. “Have sex.” His cheeks flushed pink as he sat back.
“Then those guys weren’t for you,” Fitz said.
“Even if I could manage to get it together long enough to form sentences and speak to Noel, what if he wants to, you know, and it’s a disaster?”
“Does that mean you want to have sex with him?”
Merry’s face flushed bright red. “Um….”
“Have you thought about having sex with him?”
Fitz hadn’t thought Merry’s face could get any redder, but nope. He’d been wrong.
“Are you okay?” Noel asked.
They’d been so engrossed in their conversation that neither of them heard the bell above the door jingle.
Merry squeaked and jumped. “Yep! Not thinking about sex!”
Fitz slapped a hand over his mouth to cover his gasp. Oh, sweet Dolly Parton.
Noel blinked at Merry. “Um, okay?” He pointed to the counter. “I forgot to get a stirrer. I’ll, um, grab one and go.”
Merry nodded, his face looking like it was about to burst into flames at any moment. As soon as Noel had his stirrer, he was out of there.
With a groan, Merry let his head fall into his hands. “I’m hopeless.”
“We’re going to get through this,” Fitz promised. “I’d better get to the Ice Castle to help Jack, but as soon as I’m done, we’re going to devise a new plan.”
Merry nodded, and Fitz left. Maybe he could get Jack to help him.
The rest of the guys and several of the townspeople were back to decorating, and Fitz stopped by to say hello. Leo beamed brightly at him, and Fitz couldn’t take the cute. Today, he had on a double pom-pom knitted hat.
“I don’t know what you did,” Joker said as he wrapped lights around the garland on the lamppost. “But Jack wasn’t an asshole this morning. He was all smiley and in a good mood. He even apologized for being a dick yesterday.”
Ace snorted. “Duh, what do you think Fitz did?”
Fitz smacked Ace in the back of the head.
“Ow! What? You think we didn’thearwhat you did?”
“We talked,” Fitz growled. “And yes, we had sex, but we had a really good talk. He promised to take better care of himself and even talked about making some changes at work so he could work fewer hours.”
“Really?” King handed Leo one of the wreaths and lifted him like he didn’t weigh a thing so Leo could hang it off the hook on the lamppost. “What kind of changes?”
“Promoting Maury,” Fitz replied, fixing Leo’s hat when King put him down. “And hiring another person for the team.”
“Finally,” Joker said, shaking his head. He climbed back down the ladder. “Stubborn asshole.”
Red nodded. “I’m glad he’s finally listening to reason. We were all real worried.”
“Well, I need to go. Jack asked me to help him fix the Ice Castle.”
“He did?” Joker gaped at him. “Seriously? He…asked for help?”
