He went to the door and waved and banged a little, not willing to leave his bacon. It would burn in a flash. Coke looked up, all bundled up, gimme cap on. He got a nod, then Coke came in, bassets at his heels.
Dillon handed over the phone, stopping Jerome mid-leap to the stove.
“’Lo? Hey, son, what’s…? Oh, man. Man, that sucks. What do you need me to do?”
Dillon turned, making slashing motions across his throat with the tongs. They were not going down there early. AJ had, like, a bazillion siblings.
Coke’s eyebrow went up. “Huh?”
“We’ll come down after Christmas.” He didn’t shout it or anything, but he wanted to make sure Coke didn’t promise.
“I promised Beau I’d stop by, but then I’ll come help.” Coke sighed, shook his head. “I don’t know, AJ. Ask your momma.”
Poor Coke. The man hated to have to say no. Still, he had to learn. This was their life now, damn it.
Dillon kept one ear open and got the bacon out of the pan.Not burned. Yay.
“I… Son, you know you can call any time, but I’m way up north. I ain’t at my house.”
Go Coke. Dillon was proud. Of course he wanted to help AJ, but the man had a ton of family. They could see what Missy was actually up against, then make a decision.
“Yeah. Yeah, okay. You call, huh? Uh-huh. Good deal. Tell Jase to holler. Right.” Coke sighed, hung up the phone.
“You okay, babe?” He slid a plate of food down in front of Coke, hoping that would help.
“Smells good.” Coke grabbed a fork. “I’m fine. A little guilty for not helping, but…”
“But AJ has people.” Dillon grinned. “And we can’t help until we know what it is.”
“Right. And I’m here. With you.”
“You are.” He slid his arms around Coke. “Do you think I’m a bad person?”
“What?” Coke’s eyes went comically wide.
“I mean, for wanting it to be just us for Christmas.” He didn’t want Coke to think he was an ass. He was. He knew it. But still.
“Shut up, cowboy, and come eat. This looks perfect.” Coke drew him into a kiss that said a ton about whether Coke thought he was awful.
“Mmm. Okay.” He plopped down on Coke’s lap. Coke wrapped one arm around his waist. “Bacon?” He held a piece of bacon to Coke’s lips.
“Absolutely. I’m a fan.” Coke opened right up.
He fed Coke the bacon, then licked his fingers. “Me, too.”
Coke grinned, nipped at his fingers. “Then get you a bite.”
“I just did.” Dillon chuckled, but munched at the bacon, too.
Coke relaxed, and between them they cleaned the plate.
“I should put the other in the microwave, huh?” He’d learned that from Coke, just like he’d learned it was okay to leave the butter out on the table and not immediately stuff things in the fridge.
“Mmmhmm. I think so. We should go to town or something. Go see if we can’t find our Christmas tree.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.” He hugged on Coke for just a moment before hopping up. “Did your folks do a big tree?”
“They had a fake one, but I thought it was. You should see the one at Mrs. Gardner’s. It’s huge.”
