Page 365

JINGLE MY BELLS

Dean and Sloane’s first Christmas together is funny, cozy and deeply romantic. But, of course, not all plain sailing.

Sloane:I think I can safely say I’m not straight, right? Dean and I have been together for six months now and Christmas is coming up. I want to make it special for him and I have a great idea but it’s going to take some covert operations. Being in the army I’m good at that and I don’t think he suspects a thing!

Dean:Christmas with Sloane’s family will be great if we can just get through the damn airport! I’ve met them all before so I’m not nervous. Of course, we were just best friends then. Now I’m the boyfriend! One thing is making me nervous. Sloane is spending a lot of time on his phone, secret texts and conversations…I shouldn’t really be worried…should I?

DEAN

Traveling during the holiday season was hell.

Dean had always been fond of Christmas, even if his parents had treated it as one more perfunctory task. For them, the bright lights, garish, though sometimes thoughtful decorations, gift-giving, and holiday parties for the sake of coming together should all be done for the sake of appearance. Yet Dean had always found a certain charm in the abundance of colorful trees, wreaths, and strings of lights and had even grown to love the music. While he’d never been big on the parties, a few he’d attended had been fun, full of festive cheer and warmth.

But not when it came to traveling. He was learning that quickly.

Oh sure, the airport was decorated heavily. Fake trees dotted the place, complete with colorful lights and shining garlands. Music pumped out of speakers, and everywhere he looked, there was the veneer of Christmas. Joy littered around to the point that he wondered if he might ever see colors other than red and green again.

Yet, after an almost ninety-minute trip in an Uber to the airport when it should have taken thirty, he began to wonder if there was a reason many of the men on the base didn’t go homefor the holidays. By the time he’d waited another thirty minutes to check in his luggage and another hour and a half at security, he was beginning to wonder if he hadn’t made a mistake.

And now he’d lost Sloane.

“Damn it,” Dean muttered, turning around, feeling like a complete idiot as he desperately tried to find his boyfriend.

The man was well over six feet and built like a tank. How Dean could have possibly lost sight of Sloane was beyond him. They needed to get to their gate soon, or they’d be left behind, and then Dean would be grumpy.

After a few minutes of desperate searching, he finally spotted him leaning on one of the pillars against the terminal wall. Sloane was slumped forward, staring at his phone and frowning. For a moment, Dean was at war with himself. As always, just the sight of Sloane was enough to ease the tension in Dean’s chest and bring a small smile to his face. And yet he was annoyed to find the man staring at his phone again.

Sighing heavily, Dean marched over to him. In all their years of friendship, Dean had never seen Sloane so attached to his phone as he had been for the past few weeks. The only people his boyfriend talked to were his family, and they wouldn’t bother either of them since Dean and Sloane were supposed to be boarding a plane soon to visit them.

His boyfriend looked up when Dean got within five feet. Sloane was an impressive specimen of a man, in Dean’s unbiased opinion. As one of Sloane’s fellow guards at the base had said, Sloane was six-plus feet of pure muscle, tattoos, and growly barking man. While it wasn’t the most poetic way to put it, Dean had to agree. Sloane was tall and strong, and his entire left arm was covered in black ink tattoos. And he was most certainly prone to growling when he spoke and tended to bark orders rather than speak them, especially when irritated, which Sloane was with most people.

Yet, at the sight of Dean, Sloane’s dour expression melted into a smile of pure warmth. It was enough to make Dean forget every annoyance and frustration. Sloane was a grumpy asshole, but he was Dean’s grumpy asshole, and even when they’d been just friends, Sloane had always made Dean feel special and wanted.

“I lost you,” Dean informed him.

“How did you lose me?” Sloane asked, looking around the crowd in confusion, all shorter than him.

“Because I hate the holidays. I hate airports. I hate crowds. And I lost you,” Dean grumbled.

“You like Christmas,” Sloane pointed out.

Dean flopped his arms at his side, the only expression of frustration he could muster. “Yes, Christmas, not this over the top, fake as hell, corporate shit they have going on here. And I especially don’t like crowds of assholes who don’t know the meaning of Christmas or its spirit.”

Sloane tucked his phone away, with Dean’s eyes trailing the device. He really wanted to know who Sloane had been talking to so much over the past few weeks. Sloane had even been taking a few calls out of earshot from Dean on purpose. That Sloane kept skating around the topic with all the grace and subtlety of a drunken elephant wasn’t helping.

“Dean,” Sloane said softly, taking hold of his wrist and pulling him closer. “We’re gonna make the plane. And we’re going to land, my family will be there waiting for us, and we’ll have a real Christmas experience.”

Dean sighed, nodding his head. He was stressing, which was normal when he was out of his element. It was the first Christmas he and Sloane were going to have together as a couple, and he wanted it to be a good one. It was the entire reason he had fought so hard for him and Sloane to get leave at the same time.

“I know,” Dean groaned. “I’m just...anxious.”

“Why? This is normal for traveling at this time of year.”

“Because it stresses me out.”

“Dean.”

Dean rolled his eyes, looking at the floor. “I don’t want to miss the flight. I don’t want to screw things up when we get there. It’s our first Christmas together. I want it perfect.”