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I couldn’t help myself, blame it on the colder weather and the nature of being human to seek out another, but I enjoyed spending time with Tommy. He had an energy to him that excited me in a way I hadn’t felt excited by in a while.

He remarked about how the house was much warmer than the cabin. I didn’t have the heart to tell him this place was well insulated and reinforced. We had the same log burning fire place in the main living area, but the heat didn’t leak through the walls like it did from the cabin.

As I made hot cocoa, he was busy getting dressed in something comfier. It broke a lot of ice talking about his little side. I didn’t want to reveal my whole deck of cards, like how I knew so much about that, or even why it appealed to me.

He came into the kitchen as I was topping large mugs of cocoa with whipped cream, sprinkles, and marshmallows. He had a brown onesie on with a hood, floppy ears, and a small bushy tail on his ass. “They look amazing,” he said. “My entire body aches so much.”

“Well, I can’t promise this will fix you, but they will help,” I said. “You promised me a comic book.”

“I did. Right. I did.” He skidded off on the tile floor with Pip on his tail. In the distance, all I could hear was Tommy tell him to get down or pleading for his life. Poor kid was already injured. I called Pip, but he’d locked onto his new friend.

Tommy came back to the kitchen, one hand on the fluffy tail on his back and another holding books to his chest.

“Made it back in one piece,” I said. “I thought you knew no sudden movements around him.”Pip had an eye on Tommy. “I’ll break up some chicken to feed him.”

He placed three books on the counter. “These are the first three volumes.”

The covers were incredibly well illustrated and full of color. The title a striking red. “Teddy Wars,” I read, grabbing the firs book. “Ok, I’ll give it a go and let you know how—”

“No, no, don’t give me your thoughts,” he said. “I don’t even read reviews. It’s just—all too much to happen in my brain space.”

I nodded. “Note taken. You wanna sit in the lounge with the cocoa, or—”

“Well, I was promised a blanket fort, better than the one I made,” he said. “And as you know, my legs are very weak right now.” He patted at his leg with his free hand and tssked his teeth. “Ouch.”

“I guess no more horseback riding for you then,” I noted. “Although I think Belle is gonna miss you.”

“Never say no more,” he said. “But if I had to, I would say that right now. It’s not just my legs that are weak, it’s my arms too.” He gave them both a little dramatic flop by his waist. “I can’t even draw.”

From the art I’d seen on those covers, I could tell that was an absolute crime. “Go sit in the lounge, I’ll bring the cocoa in, and then we can discuss where you’re setting this fort up.”

He squealed, all giddy. The first time I’d seen the little appear from behind his eyes. “Yay!” He skittered off, sliding around as he went off into the lounge.

On a tray, I put both mugs of cocoa and the comic books. While Tommy was showing a new side to himself, I was also showing a new side to myself. A side I’d kept to myself for such a long time, it was almost strange to feel those old emotions rear their head in my direction.

Tommy sat in front of the fire on the furry rug. Pip cuddled up beside him, still being playful and trying to bite at the tail he was sat on. “Do you decorate for Christmas?” he asked.

I placed the tray on the coffee table. “Not for many years,” I told him, relaxing into the comfy sofa. “It would mean cutting a pine down, hauling it back, and then pulling whatever decorations I could salvage from storage.” In general, I didn’t celebrate Christmas. It was just another day of the year for me. June often invited me to spend the day with her, or she’d threaten to come to the ranch. Thankfully, neither option came as the road got snow heavy coming in and out.

“I could help,” he said. “I can’t say I’ve used an axe.”

“Oh, here we go again,” I laughed. “I don’t think I want you wielding an axe.” I grabbed the first comic book from the stack. “And where would it even go?”

“In here.” He gestured to the lounge. “It’s the biggest room. It’s not like we’re missing out on any space. We could push that arm chair slightly to the side, and then with the view, we could have the tree set up, and—” he gasped. “You said you didn’t have outlets.” He jumped out, and once more, Pip was in hyperactive, chasing him.

My brows raised up my forehead as I stared at him, wondering where he was going. “We don’t have many, but we have them.”

He went right for the outlets in the wall. “What are these?”

“Not my doing,” I said. “The owners have their grandkids come with them on occasion in the summer, so they’ve got to charge their thingies.”

“Their iPads,” he said. “And why not in the cabins?”

“That would require a whole electrical rewiring for somewhere that isn’t always in use,” I said. “But if you want to charge you devices, you can.”

Tommy went quiet by the window, staring, he mumbled something under his breath.

“As long as you don’t plug them all in at once, the generator juice still runs the fridge,” I said.

“I think the storm might be here already,” he said. “Looks like there’s so much mist.”

I stood behind him, my chest close to his back, almost touching him. “It’ll take a couple hours to reach us,” I whispered to him.

Startled, he spun on the foot of his onesie, falling right into me. With an arm around his back, I held him in place, his bodies together. His heart beat echoed throughout his entire body. “We’ll be safe in here, right?”

Helping him upright on his two feet, I kept my hand behind his back. “Of course. I can put the radio on. We get that signal out here, before you go off about having no internet connection.”

“You’re right, I was going to ask about that again.”

The truth was, there were amplifiers that the owners installed for signal and internet, they sucked a whole lot of electricity, and I rarely ever needed to use it. The landline phone worked fine enough if I needed to call out or catch up with someone. And it wasn’t like I could even recall the password of my email address.

“You wanna call your friends still?” I asked. “You know, before the storm reaches. It’s probably best.”

“Sure, but you have to get me blankets for the fort,” he said.

I had mentioned that his fort was lacking, and I’d built much better ones before. It might’ve been my way of getting myself involved even if I wasn’t aware of what I was doing. There was a fun to be found in playing the role Tommy would soon look to assign me, but I wasn’t going to push it.

The telephone was on the wall, which he took a chair to sit beside it. I assumed that meant he would be taking his time, forgetting that he was still struggling with the pain from riding Belle. I felt mostly to blame for it, knowing I should’ve told him to stay on the saddle. I barely got to crack the front of the comic book as I was forced under the obligation of resourcing blankets and building a fort.

I was rusty at fort building. I might’ve helped with the construction of the cabins and parts of this house, but pillow and blanket forts were a beast that often defied all the laws. From the linen closet, I grabbed as many blankets as I could find, alongside spare pillows and throw cushions I never had out when the owners weren’t here. They cared about that kind of aesthetic stuff, while I found it to be yet another thing the dogs could slobber over and need washing.

Tommy caught me while on the phone. “Bring me my cocoa,” he said.

With a duvet bundled in my arms, I stopped in my tracks and stared at him. “I know there was something else you’ve got to say.”

“Uh.” He pulled the receiver from his ear. “Please.” He pushed his bottom lip out into a pout. “Or pretty please.”

“It doesn’t have to be pretty, but always please,” I told him. “How long do you think you’re going to be?”

His eyes swirled as he looked all around. “I’m not sure, I’m calling my mom next, and she likes to talk. If you need me to—”

“Take your time,” I said. “Just trying to figure out how long I have to build this fort.”

“Then I’ll take my time.”

And he did. Once I handed him his cocoa, he sat there for another thirty minutes, talking to whoever was listening to his distant excited squeals. I’d never sounded like that on the phone before, the pure joy in his voice was special. Whoever it was he was talking to, they were lucky to have that in their life.

With the help and hinderance of the dogs, I finally got a fort built with the use if an old hat stand as a central pole, holding blankets up around it and draped until they were reaching the coffee table of arm chair and secured in place with wood from the pile. There was a duvet layer on the ground, followed by a faux fur blanket and a couple cushions. It was less of a fort, and more of a tent, but the overall effect was still there.

There was an opening made where the blankets could be folded. Rusty was already inside it, laying down as if it was his new dog bed, while Pip was more curious about the structure, going around it, sniffing.

“You did all this?” Tommy asked, seeing it for the first time.

“I had to prove a point,” I said. “Now you know I can build a better one than the one you had.”

“It looks big enough for both of us.”

“Or just one of you and all your crayons and what-nots,” I said.

He shrugged. “You’re gonna look silly when the storm hits and it’s real cold and you’re sat outside my comfy fort, asking to come inside.” He little smile, almost hidden by the way he tilted his chin down to his chest.

“When that happens, I might rethink my response,” I told him.

As he ran off, once more skidding around with Pip chasing him. At first, I thought he was doing that accidentally because of how well kept the tile and wood flooring was, but now, I knew he was doing it on purpose. It looked fun, I’d admit.

I sat on the sofa unoccupied with holding the blanket fort taut. A moment of quiet to finally see what all the fuss about him was. I opened the comic book. Not my go-to choice of book, but I could enjoy art accompanied by words. And within the first couple of pages, it had me chuckling. There was an old western cowboy shoot out depicted with teddy bears.

Tommy came back to the lounge with crayons and paper clutched to his chest.

“And I thought you’d never met a cowboy before,” I said.

“Huh?”

I flipped the book to show him the page.

“Oh god. That’s not book one,” he said. “You’re going to ruin the surprises.” He threw his things inside the fort, disturbing Rusty to scurry out. “You’ve got to start with—this one.” He grabbed the book from the bottom of the stack on the coffee table. “This introduces the characters.”

Closing the book, I handed it back to him and he took what appeared to be the third book from me. “Ok. But still, the cowboys.”

“La la la,” he said. “You’ve got to read book one first.”

“But c’mon, you’ve got Bear Cassidy and the Sunbear Kid,” I said, a snort of laughter at the names. “I’m surprised. That’s all.”

He pressed his finger to my mouth, and then fell right into my lap, the floor here was somewhat to blame for it too. One hand near my crotch, and another on my face, we were inches apart from him being completely on me.

“That thing is a danger,” I whispered.

“What thing?” he asked, keeping composure as he tried his best with his upper body and weak legs to push himself. His other hand now on my other thigh.

“The one piece, it has no tack on the feet,” I said. “Are you going to—”

“I’m just—”

“If you stay there, I’m gonna have to buy you dinner, because nobody has been that close in a while,” I said, seeing the struggle on his face.

He bit into his bottom lip slightly and nodded. “Ok.”

Helping him back onto his feet as I stood taller. He looked at me. “So, is there any tack on those feet? Because you could seriously hurt yourself.”

“It came off,” he said. “It’s an old one.”

Something took over me. I brushed a hand right through his hair, and then pulled the hood up over his head. “It suits you, but please, be careful.”

“I promise,” he said softly. “Do you want to come inside my fort with me?”

It was impossible to say no to him now. “Let me get out of these jeans first,” I told him. “You want another hot cocoa? There’s still a whole lot in the pan.”

He licked his lips wet. “Please,” he said. “Or pretty please.”

“I told you already, it doesn’t have to be pretty.”

“It’s not, but I am,” he giggled.

Fuck. This was not how I’d intended to spend winter, but now it was impossible to think of spending it alone. Tommy had done something to me, and I was suddenly not against all the ideas he had.