I was going to make a joke about him acting like what normal parents probably did when their kids first started driving. But his comment about not being ready to live without me surprised me. I had to swallow hard to get past the lump that had formed instantly in my throat. The desire to kiss him hard was becoming more urgent as his words repeated over and over in my head. I could hear his parents in the kitchen and thought I might be able to sneak in a kiss. I needed it, especially after hearing that kind of a comment from him.He wasn’t ready to live without me.
“I will. I promise.”
“Good, that pleases me. Otherwise, I’ll have to take you out around the back.” He winked at me.
His wink always got me. I wrapped my hand around the back of his head and pulled him close to me. I crushed my lips against his and pushed his tongue around. While our mouths were locked, Russell’s hands went to my hips. As both of our tongues fought for the upper hand, he guided me to take a few steps backward. Our tongues and lips continued to move passionately against one another as my heel hit the bottom of the front door.
He did it again. How the hell does he do this?
Realizing that he had effectively taken the upper hand by pinning me against the door, I smiled as we kissed.
“What are you smiling at, my boy?”
“Just that no matter what I do, no matter how many times I think I have the upper hand, you show me that you’ve already taken it,” I whispered and went back to kissing him.
“My dear boy, you’ve always had the upper hand. Everything you do dictates how I react. You move, I move. I love you more than anything, and I will do anything to keep you safe and happy.”
That fucking lump appeared in my throat again out of nowhere. Normally these kinds of situations and heartfelt sentiments would push me to hide. It would have been easy for me to bury my face against his neck to hide, but Russell deserved to see that his words affected me and made me feel good. Granted, he probably already knew; he knew everything. I leaned my head back and out of Russell’s mouth’s reach. When my eyes gravitated toward his chest, I forced myself to look into his eyes. Our eyes were locked on to one another’s for a few moments.
“I love you, Russell,” I whispered.
“God, I love you, Ryan.” Russell stole another kiss as his hands reached around and squeezed my ass. “Get going, my boy. That way you’ll be home at a good time before it snows this afternoon.”
Russell walked outside with me and reminded me the SUV would automatically adjust to the weather conditions on the road. It was his subtle way of telling me to relax and not worry about feeling like I needed to mess with the settings.
On my way to Indianapolis, I found myself singing along to the Christmas music channel. Most of the songs were ones I had heard before but didn’t know all the lyrics. It didn’t matter, though. I was in a great mood and just made words up as I went. I was going to have fun on my outing. I was excited and on my way to pick up the perfect gifts. I had put thought into them, and they weren’t just “have to” gifts. Like, gifts that I felt I needed to buy someone.
Every now and then I’d pass a semi-truck going the other direction and would occasionally pass a car. But the cars were fewer and farther between. As I got close to Indianapolis, though, I had a feeling that would change. After all, I was among the last-minute shoppers. I glanced at the display when I heard a very familiar and overplayed Christmas song. I turned it up because it was so over the top and dramatic that I had to sing along … at least to the parts of the song that I knew. I hummed and sang along and laughed because April, Kim, and I laughed about how overplayed and over the top dramatic this song was.
Snow flurries were coming down as I parked as close to the Walgreens as I could get. I hurried inside and stood in the short line at the photo counter. I overheard the associate tell the lady in front of me that her order had arrived this morning and was in one of the boxes behind him. He said it would take them about another hour to two hours to open them and sort the orders out.
Shit. Was my order in there?
“Hello, how may I help you?” he asked me as the lady in front of me moved away from the counter.
“I’m picking up an order. It’s under Ryan Hudson. It’s supposed to be here today.”
“Okay, one sec and I’ll check.”
He went over to the stack of boxes and checked a clipboard that sat on top of one of the boxes. He turned a page, then another page before he came back to the counter.
“You’re picking up a photo book, a framed photo, and two prints?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Okay, they’re here and in the boxes back there. We’ll need some time to go through the boxes and organize the orders. The delivery truck arrived about thirty minutes ago with them. Can you come back in two hours?”
I nodded and confirmed that I’d be back. It was slightly inconvenient, and I was a little annoyed. However, it was just two hours to wait, and it was better than my items not being here at all. I decided to go ahead and pick out a gift bag for the photo book and the frame now so when I got back into the car with everything, I’d be able to put it all together. Then when I’d get back to his parents’ house, I could put them under the tree and be done with everything.
I found gift bags and tissue paper and then I turned around to face the aisle of cards behind me. I took a deep breath and then a step forward to begin my search. I found two humorous ones with snowmen commenting about one another’s smaller snow mounds for boobs and a carrot for a pecker. These were perfect for April and Kim. And I was pretty sure the photo prints I got for each of them would fit. I found a card with a home on the front and a Christmas wreath on the door. There was glitter on some of the snow on the roof and on the ground in front of the house. The inside simply said, “Merry Christmas,” and I thought this was a nice card for his parents. I’d write something in there for them.
Russell’s card needed to have lots of blank room inside because I planned on writing a message. I had been thinking about it off and on during our trip. Russell liked things like that. Actually, he loved things that I either wrote for him or about him. I found a card with more glitter on a ski slope, and there was a man on skis, but he was made of felt. I opened the card and it said, “Warmest Holiday Wishes” on one of those ivory-colored pieces of paper. But the best thing about the inside of the card was that the page with the words on it could lift up, and I could write what I wanted to on the card behind it.
While I waited in line, I turned the SUV on with the app on my phone. I hated the feel of an ice-cold car even back out west where it was mild. This Midwest weather was killing me. I had eaten off fifteen minutes of the two hours I needed to kill. From the line, I spotted the pizza restaurant that Russell and I had eaten at a few times. That would be perfect. I could grab something to eat and work on my cards. I paid for everything and even remembered to get two stamps for the cards to mail April and Kim. I drove the short distance in the parking lot to the pizza place, grabbed a pen from the center console, and headed inside with my cards.
I considered ordering the smallest pizza, but I had cards to fill out and lots of time to kill in here. After I ordered the medium pizza and sat down with my Coke, I sent a text to Russell to keep him in the loop on my shopping trip. I didn’t want him to worry.
Ryan: I’m going to be a little longer than I first thought. My gifts won’t be ready to be picked up for about another two hours. The pizza place we’ve been to is in the same parking lot, so I came in here to eat and kill some time working on my Christmas cards.
