20. Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
Axel
T here was a biting chill in the air as I waited for Cooper to pick me up. I heard him before I saw him. The slightly muted sound of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas pumped through the speakers of his navy blue work van.
When I climbed in the passenger seat, I had to chuck some empty packets of biscuits into the glove box to make space. Cooper was one of the messiest people I’d ever known.
“Ready for our annual Christmas shopping extravaganza?” he asked cheerfully, his lips stretching around a huge grin.
“Never am,” I replied.
“That’s the spirit.”
Cooper drove us to a big shopping centre in the nearest city. Stepping inside was like entering my idea of hell. A litany of trashy Christmas songs filled the air with a backing soundtrack of screaming toddlers.
I really need to get my shit together sooner so I can do my Christmas shopping online.
We headed for the homeware section first to pick out gifts for Abbie. She was always easy to buy for because every year, she provided a specific list of what cookware she was after and which shop to buy it from.
“Who’s that for?” I asked Cooper as we queued for the till. He was holding an apron with Shrek on the front, saying, ‘Merry Shrekmas. Now get outta my swamp’.
“Just a… friend,” he replied suspiciously, not making any eye contact.
“What friend?”
“Nobody you know.”
“You have a friend who doesn’t live in Foxwood Hollow?” I asked sceptically.
“Remember that time you started banging my brother?”
My face must have been as red as a tomato.
“Touché.”
Once we’d bought gifts for his mum, we went our separate ways to get presents for Dylan. I think he was worried I might buy him a lace jock or something.
Now that I think about it, though…
I was like a fish out of water when I stepped inside ‘Needle Little Help From My Friends’, a small yarn shop in the far corner of the shopping centre.
There were a couple of people milling around inside, and I startled when a woman behind the counter shouted a very enthusiastic, “Happy Holidays! Needle any help today?”
The very friendly American woman grinned as I walked over to her.
“Hi. Um… I’m looking to buy a gift.”
“Awesome! Anything in particular in mind?”
“So my Dyl— I mean, my boyfriend is an avid knitter. He makes a lot of jumpers and nesting material mostly. I wanted to get him maybe a really nice yarn he could make something special with?” I suggested.
Her infectious smile suggested my answer was perfect, which was reassuring, although she seemed as though she’d be easily pleased no matter what I had said.
“Fantastic, well I have plenty of options for you. Have you got a budget in mind?”
“I’d been thinking around ￡100, but I honestly have no idea how much this type of thing costs.” I was trusting this woman not to take full advantage of me because I was truly clueless. She didn’t seem like the type to prey on a man’s ignorance, at least.
“I might have the perfect thing for you. It came in last month. Give me a sec.” She disappeared through a beaded curtain behind the counter, and I stared at a wall of yarn while I waited.
I really had no idea there were this many different types of wool. I figured you just picked a colour you wanted, and that was that. I wondered if she might have a book on wool types I could read so I had any idea about Dylan’s hobby.
He’d been knitting ever since he was a teenager, always drawn to soft things. I’d lost count of how many times I’d arrived at his house and spotted him in the front window in a world of his own as he worked on his latest creation.
The shop assistant reappeared with a few different balls of yarn in her arms, but I zeroed in on one in particular. It was forest green and reminded me of Dylan’s bright eyes when they sparked with life.
“You have good taste,” she said when she spotted the one I was fixated on.
“What type of wool is that?” I asked despite the fact her answer would mean very little to me.
“That’s hand-dyed 100% merino wool. I had it in this green colour and in a dark copper, but someone bought the copper the day it arrived. You look like you have your heart set on the green anyway?”
She held it out for me to feel, and it was the softest thing I’d ever touched. Dylan would adore it. I nodded. “Yes. That’s perfect. Um… how much of it will he need?”
“To make a sweater? I’d say about five skeins would do the trick.”
“I don’t even know what a skein is, so I’ll take your word for it.”
Relieved that I’d been able to find something for Dylan I knew he would love, I was content as the lady rang it through the till and bagged up whatever five skeins were.
I still had half an hour before I said I’d meet Cooper in the food court, so I popped into the gaming store to pick out whatever latest zombie-killing game they had on offer for him.
In the bookstore, I found a fantasy trilogy for Milly she hadn’t read yet and was grateful that Milly was organising a joint gift from the two of us for Pippa because I was fairly certain I’d never bought her anything she hadn’t ended up exchanging.
Taking the escalator up to the top floor, I found Cooper queuing at the Jamaican Jerk Chicken stand.
“All sorted?” he asked when I joined him.
“Yep. Far more painless than last year.”
“An hour and a half, mate. That must be a new record for us,” Cooper said, looking pleased.
It dawned on me then just how long the two of us had been friends. Almost twenty years. And we’d been doing this Christmas shopping trip for more or less the past decade.
I looked at my total doofus of a best friend fondly. Losing my dad last year had been brutal, but Cooper had never left my side.
“Love you, Coop,” I said, knocking my shoulder into his.
“You aren’t dying or anything, are you?”
I snorted. “No, I’m not dying.”
“Okay, good. Well. Love you too then, I guess.” He then got immediately distracted by ordering enough chicken to feed a small family.
Fuck, he smells good.
I buried my nose further into the back of Dylan’s neck and inhaled deeply. He wriggled a bit, and I stilled his hip with my hand.
“Merry Christmas, love,” I said.
“You know what would make this a really merry Christmas?” he asked breathily.
“I’m not fucking you. You think I want to face your mum, Abbie, and my best friend on Christmas morning after they’ve overheard me railing their son? No. Not happening.”
“Spoilsport,” he muttered but finally stopped trying to wriggle back into my morning wood.
He spun to face me, and I kissed the tip of his nose.
“How are you feeling?” he asked sincerely as he brushed the pad of his thumb along my cheekbone.
“I’m okay, just focusing on getting to spend our first Christmas together.”
“This is only an idea, and we totally don’t have to do it if you’d rather not, but Cooper told me you’d scattered your dad’s ashes by the duck pond, and I thought maybe the three of us could go there for a walk after breakfast?”
My eyes filled, and I merely nodded, knowing I’d probably sob if I tried to reply with words. Instead, I ducked down and buried my face in his warm chest, letting him soothe me as he threaded his slim fingers through my hair.
We cuddled like that for a while. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever let anyone comfort me this way. I loved my dad, but he’d always had a gruff type of love. My dynamic with Lauren had generally been me taking care of her, and I’d been content with that because it was what I was used to. I took care of the people around me; I was someone they could rely on, and I’d taken pride in that fact.
So, I was shocked at the relief I felt at being held by Dylan. Small, delicate-looking Dylan who managed to make me feel like he’d tucked me away in a storm shelter where nothing could touch me as we rode out the tempest together.
I pulled my head back up so I could look into those breathtaking green eyes of his and told him what had been almost bursting from my chest for weeks now.
“I love you, Dylan.” I stroked a thumb along his bottom lip and watched as the words landed, his eyes widening in surprise before his lips curled up in a smile that I had to kiss.
“I’ve never not loved you,“ he replied.
I peppered his whole face with kisses until he was laughing and trying to get away. My heart felt like it might explode, like the organ wasn’t designed to hold this much love and happiness within it.
The smell of chicken sausages wafting up the stairs finally lured us out of bed. Dylan had bought us a pair of matching bright red Christmas pyjamas that were pretty embarrassing but seemed to make him happy, so I conceded and kept them on.
We ate breakfast with his family, and it felt less uncomfortable than I’d expected. I’d imagined a lot more weirdness from Miss B and Cooper, but they both acted like it was perfectly normal that Dylan was plastered to my side and didn’t really settle until I wrapped an arm around him and ate one-handed.
Afterwards, we all got dressed, and Dylan, Cooper, and I wrapped up to take a walk to the duck pond like he’d suggested that morning.
The streets were serenely quiet as most families remained tucked away in the warmth of their homes. The large oak trees that lined the streets were shrouded in mist as we made our way to the park, Dylan’s gloved hand in mine the entire time.
When we arrived at the pond, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t frozen over and the ducks were still swimming around. Dylan retrieved a sandwich bag from his coat pocket and removed a glove so he could reach a hand inside and pull out some of the contents.
“What’s on the menu for them?” I asked.
“Oats and raisins. Don’t tell Abbie I raided the pantry without asking.”
He passed me the bag, and I tossed a handful of food to the now very eager ducks that had swarmed us.
“Do you remember that time when we’d been playing footy, and it landed in the middle of the pond? You got in to get it, and your dad hosed you down in your undies before you were allowed back in the house.” Cooper chuckled.
I laughed, remembering it well. “One of many times he ended up hosing me down in the garden.”
Cooper grabbed a handful from the sandwich bag and popped a few of the raisins in his mouth to chew before tossing the rest to a goose.
“Remember when we got drunk at Lei’s sixteenth birthday party, and he had to come pick us up? The next morning, he started to bash the kitchen pans with a spoon as punishment. I thought my brain was gonna leak out my head,” I said.
“Oh god, I think I’d blocked that out. I haven’t touched Sambuca again since that night.” Cooper shuddered at the memory.
I squeezed Dylan’s hand in mine. “I wish he could have met you as my boyfriend, Dyl. But I’m glad he met you all the same.”
“He used to ask me why all Mum’s common sense had skipped me, and Dylan had inherited it all.” Cooper laughed.
“I never told you this, but my first box of yarn was from your dad. He’d popped around with it one day when it was just me and Mom home. Said he’d been gifted it by a customer but had no use of it and thought I might like it. Mom found an old set of my omega mum’s knitting needles, and I pulled up some tutorials on YouTube. I might never have knitted a thing if it wasn’t for your dad,” Dylan said with his gaze on the water.
“I never knew that,” Cooper said, and they both smiled.
I stepped behind Dylan and wrapped my arms around his chest, resting my chin on the top of his head.
“Thank you for this,” I whispered into his soft hair.
How did I get so lucky? And why had I waited so long to make him mine?