Chapter Seven

Keyes

The Christmas presents Alec had purchased for Keyes were piled up under the enormous tree in the corner of the living room. Not to be confused with the much larger tree in their foyer or the smaller, more modest, slim tree in the corner of their dining room. All three were sparklers for sure, but nothing compared to the décor and spectacular light display outside their home.

Keyes ran the vacuum over the foyer’s rug, worrying again about the gifts he’d put under the tree. Two of the boxes were decoy presents. Empty of anything more than a smiley face he’d drawn on a piece of paper. Only one had a key fob inside.

That was most likely a bad call on his end.

So far, the number of presents wasn’t an issue, but how he’d wrapped them had caused another round of hurt feelings. Last year, he’d gotten so frustrated with wrapping Alec’s gifts that he’d pulled out the duct tape and secured those bitches to where they had to be cut out to open. While Keyes had wanted to improve on the visual aspect of his gift-giving, apparently, his duct tape wrapping style was a loving gesture that had meant the world to his mister.

He hadn’t known that until he’d placed the professionally wrapped presents under the tree, all in coordinating gift wrap to match each other and the decorations in their home. Alec had a mini meltdown when he saw them. Keyes had honestly believed he’d done good by making them pretty. He thought Alec would be impressed with his effort. Yeah, right. Alec only picked one up and confronted him like it was a muddy boot tracked through the house. He’d explained that those kinds of wrapped gifts held no love or warmth. The fact that Alec wrapped his gifts in the same way hadn’t been a valid response at all.

Thankfully, the front door opened, taking his mind off that argument. His and Alec’s gazes collided. Alec glared at him in the dramatic way he had of being put out. Outside, cars lined the street, driving slowly past the house as the lights flashed in sync with a happy holiday tune.

Alec shut the front door with force, drowning out the noise.

Since Keyes had upset Alec on many different levels over the last few months, he wasn’t sure what this round of anger or hurt was related to. As Alec walked past, Keyes turned off the vacuum and reached out a hand for Alec’s arm. His guy dodged the touch and kept going, staying off the perfectly vacuumed lines.

“I was just gonna say you look nice. I see how you chose clothes to match mine.”

Alec kept going, not offering any response.

Keyes let go of an unsteady exhale and reached a hand over his heart, absently rubbing the ache there. The pain shuddered his breath. He’d already decided never to do anything like this again, but after that last look, the pledge imprinted on to my mind.

Not.

Ever.

Again.

No more fun secrets that turn their relationship into a cesspool of doubt and deterioration. He might wind up in divorce court.

A soft instrumental tune began to play inside the house. Keyes made quick work of putting the vacuum away, then went in search of Alec. He found him bent over the fireplace, trying to start the fresh logs Keyes had put there earlier.

“Let me,” Keyes said. “I got it ready to go.”

Alec let go of a sigh and angled his head. “I can start a fire, Keyes.”

Keyes. Alec’s nickname for him was Key.

“Look, I don’t like what’s happenin’ between us—” Keyes was willing to throw in the towel. His confession was interrupted by a knock at their back door followed immediately by the door opening. He hadn’t heard Cash’s sports car pull up the driveway, but Dev had obviously gotten to the door a step behind Cash. As far as Dev was concerned, they were family who didn’t stand on ceremony like knocking and waiting for the person inside to open a door. Shut doors or manners were irrelevant.

“Hey, that line of cars out there’s a trip. The house looks great,” Dev said, not reading the room. Alec got to his feet and smiled, dusting off his hands while heading for the couple.

“Welcome,” Alec said. “I put an ad in the local magazine about the decorations and added a hot chocolate machine. One of our teenage neighbors agreed to pour the cocoa for me tonight. I’ve been manning the station myself the last few nights,” Alec said, happy and proud. “We’ve had quite a crowd. It’s been a lot of fun.”

“People are pulling off the road to take pictures,” Cash said with three bags gripped in his hands, he stopped off at the tree and set two gifts underneath. “I sent pictures of the house to my parents. They send their resounding approval.”

“You want me to get that fire started for you?” Dev asked. Without waiting for an answer, he dropped to a knee by the fireplace and got to work.

“I was just getting it started,” Alec said.

“Leave the fire startin’ to the professional,” Dev quipped and took over where Keyes had left off, igniting the small patch of kindling he collected.

“I brought a Bordeaux blush,” Cash said, lifting the third bag still in his hand. “Thank you for having us. Otherwise, we’d be in a hotel tonight.”

“Ah, a Bordeaux. Perfect. Thank you,” Alec said and went to Cash to take the gift. Another knock sounded at the back door, and Keyes went in that direction. Shanna, Dev’s sister was there, grinning and waving through the glass.

He took a deep breath and let it go slowly. The night was underway now. He wasn’t going to let this animosity go on, but now he’d have to play it by ear and hope for the best.