Page 34

Story: Call It Home

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“DON’T YOU THINK it’s fucked up that we all assume that every dog is a guy until someone says they’re a girl?” Ryan asks. “I mean, isn’t that… is that sexist?”

“Please stop,” Louie says.

Ryan giggles. “Wow, this eggnog was a terrible idea. I can’t…” He holds up the dog stuffie he bought for Maja. He’s currently trying to wrap it with snowman paper and has tape stuck to his nose, where he put it so he wouldn’t forget about it. He absolutely forgot about it.

“What if you just put it in a bag?” Louie suggests. He always puts everything in bags.

“But little kids love wrapping paper,” Ryan says, pouty. “They think bags are boring. It’s not fun when you can just pull your present out of the bag.” He sighs and lies down flat on his back. “I can’t do it.”

“Do you want me to wrap your present in wrapping paper?” Louie asks.

Ryan grins. “You got me a present? Even though you said no presents?”

“You got me something,” Louie says, narrowing his eyes at Ryan. “I know you did. You weren’t subtle about it.”

“It’s just a teeny-tiny thing,” Ryan says and pinches his fingers together. “Teeny-tiny.”

“Well, mine’s just a card, so…” Louie shrugs.

“And you’d wrap that card in wrapping paper? That’s so cute. But you don’t have to, honestly. Does the card sing?”

“Thankfully, it does not.”

“It’s fine, I’ll sing,” Ryan says and starts humming “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” “You can play the piano.”

Louie does know how to play some carols on the piano. And he’ll play them if Ryan asks because Ryan is extremely hard to say no to. Sometimes, that’s a problem.

“So,” Ryan says, rolling onto his side to face Louie. “What’s in the card?”

“You know, you’re not supposed to know what’s in there. That’s the whole point.”

Ryan sticks out his bottom lip. “I need to know why you broke the no present rule.”

“It’s not really a present anyway,” Louie says. “It’s more of a… suggestion.”

Ryan bites his lip and bats his eyelashes at Louie. “Oh?”

“Not that kind of suggestion, oh my God.” Louie rolls his eyes. “You’ll just have to wait and see what it is.” They spent Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family because it’s not that far of a drive and Ryan spent half the day snuggling with his cat Chicken on the couch.

Louie checked the local shelter’s website on a whim and found a pair of tabbies. He printed out the listing at Liam’s house because his wife has a printer and stuck it in a card. As a suggestion. He wasn’t going to put an actual cat under the tree.

“Well, I got you a teeny-tiny thing,” Ryan says. “And it’s not my dick.” He smirks. “As you know.”

“Uh-huh,” Louie says, stretching out his leg to nudge Ryan’s side. “Come on, wrap that present, we need to get started on dinner.”

“But, Lou, I can’t.” Ryan grabs Louie’s ankle. “Help. ”

Louie scoots down carefully and joins Ryan on the floor. He takes the half-wrapped dog and carefully folds the wrapping paper so it’ll cover the whole thing. He pulls the tape off Ryan’s nose.

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Ryan says, rubbing the tip of his nose.

“Here,” Louie says and hands over the present. He even stuck a bow on it. “How’s that?”

“I’m so in love with you,” Ryan says and sits up to wrap his arms around Louie.

“And a little bit drunk?” Louie ventures and gives him a quick kiss.

“Yes,” Ryan says, “no. Tipsy maybe. A little.” He kind of melts against Louie’s chest; fits himself there perfectly. “But I also love you when I’m not drunk.”

“Love you too,” Louie mumbles into Ryan’s hair. He doesn’t know why he still feels so awkward about saying that. It’s like he’s admitting something nobody is supposed to know.

“I think I need a nap,” Ryan says.

“Hmm-hm.” Louie carefully strokes his hair, slowing down when his fingers get tangled. “I’m pretty sure we still need to take care of dinner.”

“Five-minute nap?”

“Yeah, okay,” Louie says. Five minutes won’t delay them too much. And he’s still not entirely confident that they’ll be able to cook a proper dinner, but they’ll try. If the chicken Alfredo is for some reason inedible, they have frozen ramen. And if nothing works out, Ryan will drive to Wendy’s. It’s a solid plan.

Louie leans back against the couch, Ryan moving with him, sighing softly as he gets comfortable again. His breath is warm against Louie’s neck, his fingers at Louie’s side curling into the fabric of his shirt.

Louie grabs his phone from the coffee table and considers the family group chat. The last message is from him, replying to his mom who asked him and Dominic if they’re sure they can’t make it to Boston to celebrate Christmas with them. Bastien’s home; he’s still on IR and seeing some specialists their dad found in the new year. Then there’s Dominic’s reply— sorry, like I said, we’ve made other plans . And Louie’s. He didn’t even say sorry when he told Mom he wasn’t able to make it.

With a sigh, Louie closes the chat and pulls up the camera instead. He snaps a picture of their tree—warm white lights and the twenty hockey ornaments Ryan ordered online at the very last minute. Plus the paper candy canes Ida made them. It’s the most ridiculous tree Louie has ever seen, but he still stops and looks at it a few times a day because it’s their tree.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees something move outside the window. He squints. “Ryan,” he whispers.

“Hm, that wasn’t five minutes,” Ryan grumbles.

“No, but… it’s snowing,” Louie says.

Ryan shoots up straight. “Really?” He gets up, almost tripping over Louie’s foot on his way to the window. “Aw, it’s not sticking, though.” He smiles at Louie over his shoulder. “You know, I’m so glad I get to stay here and don’t have to drive anywhere to demand an in-person break-up.”

Louie snorts. “Aren’t you lucky.”

“So lucky,” Ryan says. “Oh, and—”

The doorbell rings.

“—the doorbell’s about to ring.”

“I’ll get it,” Louie says and shuffles into the hallway to open the door.

“Merry Christmas!” Dominic shouts and pulls Louie into a quick hug. He’s wearing a scarf that has bells on it and he jingles into the house. “Where’s Ryan?”

Cameron follows, handing over a bottle of wine. “Thank you for having us,” he says, “and for giving us a good excuse why we can’t go to Boston.”

“You’re welcome,” Louie says and takes Cameron’s jacket. He did feel bad for half a second that he invited them but not the rest of his family, but Ryan threatened to go to Liam’s for Christmas if he had to do Awkward Christmas with Louie’s parents .

If Louie had invited his parents, he’s sure Ryan would have stuck around, but Louie just couldn’t deal with having them here. This is his home, the kind of home he never had with them, and they can’t come here and ruin this place for him.

“Do you wanna put your stuff in my room?” Louie asks and takes the small suitcase Dominic brought.

Dominic hands it over and follows him down the hall. “Do you even sleep in your room anymore?”

“Shut up,” Louie mumbles. He does sleep in Ryan’s room on most days. Unless he’s nervous about a game, then he sleeps in his own bed where he doesn’t keep Ryan awake by… being awake and thinking very loudly. Or at least that’s what Ryan accused him of the day before they left for Boston. For the game Louie’s parents had tickets for.

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with sleeping in another guy’s bed.”

Louie sets down Dominic’s suitcase. “I know,” he says. “I don’t know why I…” He shakes his head. “It’s just new. It’s not but it is. I know that didn’t make any sense, but…”

“No, I get it. I mean, how long’s it been since we last did Christmas together?” Dominic says.

It’s been literal years. “Yeah…” Louie says. “Everything’s different.”

Dominic smiles. “You’re growing into the life you chose for yourself. That’s not a bad thing,” he says. “And, for the record, I’m glad you made a choice that was totally your own.”

“Hm,” Louie replies.

Dominic ruffles his hair and retreats back to the kitchen where Ryan and Cameron are comparing pots.

“We’re cooking,” Ryan says. “For real.”

“Does Cameron know how to cook?” Louie whispers to Dominic.

“I do,” Cameron says and takes the bigger of the two pots. “And, yes, we’re cooking. ”

Dominic grins and steers Louie into the living room. “Good tree,” he says.

“Yeah,” Louie says, glancing back into the kitchen where Cameron is holding up two knives, probably explaining what they’re for. Ryan will have to tell Louie because he never knows which knife to use for what.

Ryan is staring at Cameron with wide eyes, nodding along with rapt attention.

Dominic gives Louie a clap on the back. “Good.”

A year ago, Louie didn’t have a Christmas tree. Or friends. Or a family he wanted to spend the holidays with. He didn’t really care about having any of those things either. All he cared about was that roster spot. Now that he has all those other things, he wouldn’t give a single one back .