Page 21 of Cookie

Charlie

I watched as Ryan tried to take in everything in the house, almost like he thought he’d never get the chance to see it again.

It had been so easy to fall into the routine of going to the store right after work and then driving home early to get ready for work.

But seeing him in my home made me want to have him here more often.

“Your place is so warm and inviting,” he said and finally sat on the couch.

“Don’t sit there too long. That couch has been known to take hostages,” I said, making him laugh.

“Let’s go see what we’re dealing with.” The two of us walked outside to where I hoped the firewood had been delivered.

I had plenty of wood stacked already, all of it covered with tarps to protect it from the elements, but on the other side of it was a massive pile of wood rounds. “Shit, they were supposed to split it.”

“Is that bad?” Ryan asked and walked closer to the enormous pile of logs.

“It’s more work for us. I have a wood splitter, so that’ll make it a little easier.” I glanced over at what he had on and knew he’d end up with pitch or mud, or who knew what, on his clothes. “Come inside first. I’m going to loan you something to wear, so you don’t destroy what you have on.”

“This is fine. It’s just jeans and a shirt, and it’s not one of my favorites or anything.” I looked again at his clothes, making him glance down, but if he was fine with it, then so was I.

“Come on then, you can help me move the splitter.” He followed me over to the side of the stacked wood and after I found two sets of leather gloves, we pulled the trailer with the splitter on it closer to the pile of logs.

“I’ll run the splitter if you stack the wood,” I said as he stood with his hands on his hips looking at all the wood.

“I don’t know how it’s supposed to be stacked,” he said without looking away from it. “I had no clue it was this much. How long does that usually last?”

I shrugged. “Depends how fast you burn it. But you haven’t used that much so far, and as long as we don’t get a bad storm and lose power for any length of time, you should be fine.”

He clapped his gloved hands together and met my eyes. “Let’s do this,” he said.

I started the splitter, which thankfully I’d used recently, so I knew it was ready to use.

Picking up one of the smaller logs, I set it on the splitter and watched as it slowly cracked in half.

I then repositioned one half of it to split that and on until they were a manageable size.

I tossed everything to the side and Ryan brought another round after one was completely split.

When we had a big enough pile to show him how to stack it, I explained how it was important to vary each layer so it was more stable and wouldn’t tumble over as we stacked it.

“Got it?” I asked and went back to splitting when it was obvious he did.

There were a few pieces that were still a little too big, so I took the ax and split them down to a manageable size and turned around to find Ryan staring at me. “What?” I looked down at myself, thinking something was either hanging out or looked weird, but there was nothing.

“You’re very good with that ax,” he said and continued to stare with a smirk.

“Did you already forget how bad I was at the throwing place?” I stuck the ax in the round I was using to split on.

“There is nothing wrong with what I just saw,” Ryan said, and after adjusting himself, went back to stacking. I smirked at him before gripping the ax and going back to splitting.

After two hours, we’d made a dent in the pile but were still not close to being done.

Some of the wood was still wet and didn’t split as easily as the drier pieces.

Every time I had to use the ax to split a round, I noticed Ryan stopped what he was doing and watched, which made me swing the ax a little harder.

“It’s getting cold. Why don’t we give it a break for the day and have some dinner,” I said, and he wrapped his arms around himself.

“It is getting a little chilly, and I could definitely eat,” Ryan said. The two of us put everything away where we could find it the next day and covered the wood with a tarp.

“Come on then,” I said and led him back inside. “Did you want to go clean up? I’ll get the fire going.”

“Sure. I wish I’d brought my toothbrush. I’d love to stay the night,” Ryan said and watched me open the woodstove and get busy making a fire.

“I have a spare, and I would love you to stay. We need to be at work in the morning and it’s not like we don’t work right across the street from each other.

Now, go take a hot shower. I’m going to start dinner.

I’ll put some clothes out for you in my bedroom.

” He grinned as I led him down the hall and showed him where everything was.

Even though he’d never been here, I’d hoped many times he would eventually, and I’d made sure I had all the things I knew he used at home.

“You’re amazing,” he whispered before kissing me and slipping into the bathroom. He waved at me through the crack in the door before closing it completely. When I heard the shower, I hurried off to the kitchen.

I wasn’t a great cook, but I had a few things I could do really well, and I had a few tricks up my sleeve.

I took two steaks out of the freezer and after washing two potatoes and putting them in the microwave, I turned on the air fryer to preheat.

Glancing out the window, I caught sight of the pile of wood we still needed to split and stack but didn’t have it in me to be annoyed. Ryan was here.

Once the steak was slathered in olive oil and spices, I placed them in the air fryer and started cooking them. A few minutes later, Ryan walked out of the bedroom wearing a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt. “Hey those don’t fit too bad at all,” I said, when he walked over to me.

“That smells amazing. What are you cooking?”

“Steak and a baked potato. I was about to make a salad too,” I said and opened the refrigerator.

“Give me everything. I’ll take care of the salad.” I watched as Ryan chopped lettuce and vegetables before the microwave dinged and turned off.

“These are done.” Using a towel, I took them out and placed one on each of the plates Ryan had used to assemble his salad.

“You put this together so fast. Were you expecting me to stay?” he asked.

“I was hoping,” I said, and kissed him. After checking the steaks were done, I put them on the plates and both of us added butter and sour cream to the potatoes and chose a salad dressing.

We decided on ginger beer to drink because it had been a long ass day, and we both had to work tomorrow. “Let’s eat in front of the fire.”

We took our plates into the living room and sat on the floor in front of the couch using the coffee table to eat at.

The fire crackled as we ate a good meal and chatted about the day.

“Charlie, thank you so much,” Ryan said and turned to face me, pulling his knees up while he relaxed back against the couch.

“For what?” I asked and kissed his cheek.

“For being you. You’re the best you I would have ever dreamed of,” Ryan said.

It sounded a little clumsy, but I knew exactly what he meant.

It was a perfect day, followed by a perfect night.

Even if the wood still needed to be split.

It gave us an excuse to have another day together, just like today.