Chapter 23
twenty-three
*LEO*
Hector and I – or rather his wife, Valentina, and I – decide on gold and red as the dominant colors for this year’s holiday decoration.
Valentina is one of my new favorite people, right after Aspen, Soren and Robin.
This woman is amazing. It took me one call, and she had the biggest shopping trip I have ever had, organized.
Dragging me along on a two-hour drive to a warehouse where I picked the ornaments I wanted. She ordered it in bulk.
It should have been impossible for her to make them deliver it on time, but she bargained, and in the end, they faltered and said they’d make an exception for her.
“You would kill it in a marketing department,” I say when we have wrapped things up at the warehouse and move to the Christmas market, where I want to buy some Christmas trees for the town center.
“Oh, I did,” she grins. “It’s where I started out.”
“How did you end up here then?”
“It’s not because of Hector,” she says, making me blush. She probably gets that question asked a lot, and most people probably believe she moved here because she married. “I loved the job at first, but it’s stressful and draining.” She pauses. “Then my mom died, and I just wanted to change things.”
“Then you met Hector?” I ask.
“No,” she grins. “I worked on a cruise ship for a while, then on a naval ship that researched rare coral species. Because of bad weather, we had to stop at a shark-infested coast in Australia. That’s where I met Hector.”
“And then you moved here?”
“Not immediately. Hector and I did long distance first. Eventually, I met his family. That’s when I wanted to settle down.” She chuckles. “His mom is the sweetest, and she was so welcoming of me. She told me she thought her son would never find a woman.”
I snort. “No way.”
“Yeah, said, while we were long distance, she thought he made me up.” She shakes her head. “Hector is funny, smart and emotionally available. When you have gone through a toxic relationship once, you really know what you truly value in a partner, and he had it all.”
“And West Sunhaven is surprisingly fun for a small town,” I add.
“Right?” she exclaims. “And when it does feel too small at times, I will just travel and visit my family. But I like it here.”
“Me too,” I admit.
“You were a city boy?”
“Yeah, big city boy,” I say. “But I figured it wasn’t really for me.”
“What happened?” she asks.
For a moment, I waver, then I swallow thickly, deciding to go for half the truth. “I guess I landed myself in a severe burnout.”
“Marketing?”
“Yeah, with a focus on graphic design.”
“Project managers and marketing department,” she muses. “They really burnt through those colleagues in my old company. I never want to return.”
I think of my old job, of the suits and coffees, and the small talk, of the office I shared with four colleagues.
I think of the dinner parties, the deadlines, the secret hookups…
and the accusations. My issue wasn’t truly with the job or even with my boss, but with everything else.
“Me neither,” I say. “I guess part of me changed.”
It’s when I say it that I figure it’s true. 'Old‘ Leo loved the corporate world and the parties, the projects and even the stress, and that’s fine. It’s okay that I liked it, and that it was part of my world once, but it’s also okay that I needed a change and found something new for me.
“So, you are not here temporarily?”
“I want to stay,” I say, surprising myself by how confident I sound. “I want to stay here,” I repeat, my chest feeling warm all of a sudden. I have friends here, people who accept me, Aspen is here, Soren is here, and I might have found a way back to my creativity.
“I guess a certain dark-haired vet will be happy about that.”
My cheeks heat up in embarrassment. “Well… I… what?”
“Soren and you are a thing. We all know.” She laughs. “The whole town is talking.”
“Of course they are!”
“We all like Soren,” she says. “And we like you. We are happy for both of you.”
Obviously, they all know. It’s a fucking small town, and Soren and I weren’t exactly subtle. Fortunately, Barkley saves me from my embarrassment. He finds a humongous stick, deciding to carry it around and almost knocking over two passersby and three Christmas trees.
Five hours later, Valentina and I are back in town with a van full of Christmas trees. Hector, Soren and Aspen come to help unload and set everything up, while Robin provides us with hot chocolate and cookies.
“Should I put it here?” Aspen asks me while handling one of the mid-sized trees.
“No, that one needs to be next to the fountain,” I say.
Soren, meanwhile, helps to put up the biggest tree together with three other guys from town. “Careful, Doc,” one of them says. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I am fine,” Soren grins. “How weak do you think I am?”
“You are the only doc we have,” one of the guys argues. “And we are expecting two calves right after Christmas.”
“Yeah, we need you.”
They value him so much, it warms my heart. Something else that warms my heart is seeing how Hector arrives, immediately wrapping his arms around Valentina. He is a bit smaller than she is, but none of them gives a flying fuck.
Yeah, this seems to be my perfect place here.
This revelation pushes me to work harder too; soon, I am buzzing around to help where I can and to oversee the whole process.
I have always loved seeing my visions come to life.
Previously, it was through marketing campaigns and ads, now it’s more in 3D.
The best part is that it seems word has been going around that we are decorating everything for this weekend’s showdown with East Sunhaven.
The whole place is suddenly full of volunteers who want to help.
Valentina sends half of them off with exact instructions on how to decorate their storefronts, while the rest are on Christmas tree duty.
For the big tree in the town center, Valentina and I have decided to go all out.
One of the farmers comes in a tractor, with a platform he can extend.
He has me crawl up on it and heaves me up towards the top of the tree, so that I can spray gold glitter wherever I want and put the gigantic gold star on top of it.
A couple of meters below me, some townsfolk are cheering me on, and telling me where to put the ornaments and Leo, there is glitter missing!
Or, Put some more gold on the branch below.
In between, I can hear some people arguing, sounding suspiciously like Aspen and Soren…
and the farmer who has managed to lift me into the tree.
The guy seems to be on chill pills, though, and doesn’t bat an eye at the two going off on him. It’s kinda funny, but something tells me if I start hysterically laughing now, one of them or both might just climb up themselves and drag me down again.
“You two are ridiculous!” Robin’s voice reaches my ears. “Nothing can happen. There is a literal fence around him.”
“Plenty can happen,” the farmer says. “But he has good balance and footing. He is going to be okay.”
Aspen huffs. “What do you mean, plenty can happen? I swear, Carl, if my brother gets hurt, you will meet your creator!”
“Are you threatening me?”
“For my brother, definitely!”
“Boys, boys,” Hector’s voice suddenly mingles with them. “Calm down.”
I grin to myself while they keep bickering and arguing. They are preoccupied enough so that I can do my job up there. An hour later, the platform is lowered again, taking me back to the ground just to be met with Soren’s and Aspen’s death glare.
“Oh,” I blink, faking innocence. “I didn’t notice you were there!”
By the looks on their faces, they don’t buy it. Robin, who is right behind them, just giggles slightly. Yeah, time to change strategy. Good thing that one day spent with Queen Valentina has made me much bolder. I wrap my arms around Soren’s middle, blinking up at him. “Are you still mad?”
He falters immediately. I can see his whole expression shifting to something much softer, before he hugs me back.
“I cannot believe you, Soren!” Aspen exclaims.
“Hey, don’t take it out on Soren,” Robin chimes in. “He is whipped by his brand-new boyfriend, and wants to get his dick wet! Who wouldn’t?”
“You are not helping,” Aspen groans. “Stop sexualizing my brother.”
I am not sure if Robin truly planned on distracting Aspen or if he just said what came to his mind, but he helped my case, because Aspen’s full attention is on him now. Meanwhile, Soren nuzzles my hair. “He is right, you know?” he mutters.
“You mean you want to get your dick wet?” I tease.
Soren snorts. “I mean, I am whipped by my hot boyfriend, but I wouldn’t be opposed to getting my dick into you either.”
His words make me chuckle. “So romantic.”
“You started it,” Soren says, swaying from one foot to the other with me still in his arms. “But I like how bold you are. I thought you wouldn’t like to come out to everyone.”
“Valentina told me everyone knows anyway,” I say. “And suddenly… I figured it doesn’t really matter. My parents are not around, my old coworkers are not around. I am free here.” I look up at him, a sudden twinge of worry filling me. “Or is that bad? I didn’t think that you might not be ready—"
“I absolutely am,” he reassures me before I can even voice my doubts. “If it were me, I’d blurt it out to everyone."
Someone around us tests the lights Hector had attached to the Christmas trees, switching them on and bathing everything around us in a dim golden light.
It’s so beautiful. I have never truly looked forward to Christmas.
It was always a lot of pretending in front of my family, and overall drama.
But here, I feel like I can finally have the Christmas celebration I have always wanted.