Chapter Thirty
Taine
Pulling up the drive to the inn, Taine realised with a sense of dread that all of their friends had gathered for Christmas. He recognised the collection of vehicles parked outside of it. Bollocks. Given how much they’d all harassed him to contact Freddie, he had no doubt the entire group would be insufferable.
The inn had been completely decked out for Christmas, both inside and out. A smug, grinning BC and Caddock stood on the steps waiting for them. Shite. He would rather have faced Remi or the foul-mouthed Scottie.
“Happy Christmas.” Caddock waltzed over to take Freddie by the arm and lead him into the inn. “Don’t take long, BC, we want Tens mostly unfrozen.”
Taine watched the Brute swan off with Freddie. “What won’t take long?”
BC glared at him with all the ferocity that he’d used to stare at their opponents on the rugby pitch. It might’ve worked if he hadn’t been wearing a cardigan with a reindeer on it. “The nurse is a nice kid.”
“The nurse has a name.” Taine made a show of perusing the cardigan. “Does the reindeer have one? Is it perhaps ugly?”
“We like Freddie.” BC strode down the steps towards Taine. “Not sure how I feel about you at the moment. Who ignores someone they just buggered for over two months?”
“Almost every friend of ours at least three times over the course of our sex lives?” Taine pulled his mobile out of his pocket. “Would you like me to list your own alphabetically?”
“Never texting you again.”
“Liar.” He walked around the man to head up the stairs towards the inn. “Why exactly did you waylay me?”
BC adjusted his cardigan and shrugged. “Graham thought I should be the one to impress the importance of you not acting like a fuckwit again.”
“Duly noted.”
He threw an arm around Taine’s shoulder. “Rupert brought every type of beer he could find. Bet you a hundred quid at least one of us runs starkers on the beach by the end of the day.”
“Nothing says Christmas like frozen bollocks and public indecency.” Taine remembered several other occasions in their long history as friends that had ended similarly. “Put my money on Scottie.”
“Cheater.”
The two laughed their way through the inn until they found everyone in the library. Taine caught the beer tossed across the room. Even if his friends thought he’d been an arse, the atmosphere felt overwhelmingly welcoming compared to what had happened at the Whittle farm.
Over food Mrs Morgan had prepared for all of them, everyone shared their nightmare stories of holidays with the family. They universally agreed the Hodson twins, Rupert and Graham, had the best of the worst. Their mother had forced them into matching elf costumes one year—they’d been fourteen.
Francis had photos—ones that Graham in particular fought to throw into the fire.
Taine sank into one of the larger armchairs. He tossed an arm out to grab Freddie when he wandered past. They both studiously ignored the wolf whistles around the room.
“We should snog,” Freddie remarked casually. “They’re all far too interested in me sitting in your lap.”
“Snogging won’t help.” Taine grabbed a pillow to wing at Scottie, who’d started making kissy faces at him. Arse. “Is this how we’re spending Christmas? Shit beer and appetisers?”
Pushing Freddie out of his lap, Taine led the younger man out of the room. He caught his hand to guide him out the back door and into the brisk night air. The snow had picked up considerably in the past hour.
Freddie raced out into the winter storm. He twirled around with his head tilted up towards the sky. “Hate the cold. Love snow.”
“Snow is cold,” Taine pointed out helpfully. “I believe it’s one of the requirements in the making of it.”
“Don’t be difficult. I’ve only just forgiven you.” Freddie grabbed a handful of snow to fling into his face. “We could slow dance.”
“In the snow?” He didn’t think it would be the safest decision to dance around on a slick and icy surface. “Now? With drunken friends watching and ready to mock me for it?”
“Yes.”
They danced slowly, slipping and sliding on the frozen ground. No music aside from the wind, ocean, and rambunctious twits inside the inn. Taine’s arms wound tightly around Freddie, mostly to conserve warmth, while the brisk night air cut through them.
“We’ve an audience.” Freddie gestured behind them. “In the windows.”
Taine rolled his eyes but chuckled at his friends. The lot of them had written numbers on cards to score their dancing. “We’ve averaged a seven out of ten.”
Freddie leaned up on his tiptoes with his cold fingers sliding around Taine’s neck. Their lips brushed together. “This seemed far more romantic in the movies.”
“What movie?”
“Don’t remember. It had cheese in it.”
“In a romantic movie? You remember the dancing in the snow and the cheese?” Taine pulled his head back with his arms still around the younger man. “Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?”
“I have a present for you.” Freddie ignored his question and drifted out of his arms to trudge up the hill. “It’s rather small.”
“Is it cheese?”
He kicked snow at Taine in response. “No, though I could give you some if you like.”
“What’s this present?”
Freddie eased a velvet bag out of his pocket and tilted the contents into Taine’s hand when he held it out. “It’s jade. Graham has a friend who travelled to New Zealand recently. The design is traditional. It’s called a manaia carving? I think he said. It’s supposed to signify a connection to the Maori—to New Zealand—and also protection.”
Taine clutched the carved jade symbol in his icy fingers, careful not to crush it. He’d read about the manaia, a mythological creature in the Maori culture often shown as part man and part animal. The one Freddie had gifted him with happened to have the body of a human and the head of a serpent. The pendant hung from a thick leather cord.
The gift touched him deeply. Aside from his adoptive father, no one usually acknowledged his dual heritage. He barely did himself.
“I… thank you.” Taine couldn’t take his eyes off the dark green carving in his hand.
“You’re wel—”
Taine threw his worries over their audience to the brisk wind. He caught Freddie by the hair to drag him into his arms, cool shivering lips crashing against one another. The kiss would doubtlessly leave them breathless with swollen lips and demonstrate his appreciation for it. “Thank you.”
Freddie grinned broadly at him, licking his lips. “Happy Christmas, Taine.”
“Happy Christmas, Frederick.”
“Oi! Love-twats, get your arses inside before you turn into popsicles,” Scottie yelled from an open window. “BC’s opening the whisky. Since Francis and Caddock left, we can finally have a decent-sized drink.”
“You’ve got some genuinely classy friends.” Freddie shivered when the wind picked up. “Whisky does sound brilliant.”
Taine twisted around to start down the hill only to lose his footing and slide on his arse through the snow. “Bollocks.”
“Frozen ones, I’d imagine.” Freddie crouched beside him. “Let’s get inside before you break something. Old people are so fragile.”
“Arse.”