A Certain Kind of Holiday (2 page)

“So what you’re saying is that you had to take a trip to go to a party,” Howard said as he raised an eyebrow. “Sounds horrible. I don’t know how you ever survived.”

I gave him a playful nudge for that steaming pile of sarcasm, and he laughed. “It was hours of me standing around in uncomfortable clothes, listening to a bunch of obscenely wealthy people try to one-up each other,” I huffed. “I only hope it translates into more donations. If that happens, then it was worth the trouble.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” Howard promised before finishing his wine. He looked around before returning his attention to me, his head cocked. “I think the crowd is actually getting worse,” he noted. “But I’m rather enjoying our conversation. Would you like to come back to my room?”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked bluntly. There was no point in beating around the bush, after all. “Because you may not be a total stranger, but I’m not comfortable enough with you for me to lose my clothes.”

“Just to chat,” he assured. “I’m old enough to appreciate actually getting to know someone better before falling into bed with them.”

I nodded, happier with that answer than I let show, and gathered up my laptop. “In that case, I’d love to join you.”

“E
XCUSE
ME
,
may I sit here?”

I startled out of my memories and peered at the source of the voice over the top of my glasses. An incredibly handsome man, his hair silver and his face on the right side of scruffy, was grinning at me. His eyes were warm despite their stormy gray hue, and he was holding a drink in each hand.

“I’m sorry,” I told him playfully, my lips quirking up into a matching smile. “I’m saving this seat for my boyfriend.”

“You don’t think I could make you forget about him?” the man asked, taking the seat next to me before offering me one of the drinks.

“I could never forget about you, Howard,” I said, my voice full of love.

It was amazing the difference a year made. That trip home from Seattle and my subsequent reunion with Howard had been the start of much bigger things.

When Howard stepped off the train in Santa Barbara, it was with my phone number and a promise on his lips that he would call me soon. Those lips had also been on mine before he left. I’d barely had time to sulk in my room before my phone chimed with a message, inviting me to spend New Year’s Eve with him.

It took less than a month before I knew I was in love with him. It only took a couple of weeks after that realization for us to say the words.

I still lived in Thousand Oaks, but we’d begun to explore the possibility of moving in together. While neither of us had any objections to cohabitating, Howard already owned a very nice house in Santa Barbara. It would make more sense for me to move out of my crappy little apartment and in with him, but then my commute to work would be an hour, minimum. We’d figure it out eventually.

When it was time for Howard to make his usual Christmas plans, he asked me to join him.

“It would mean the world to me,” he’d said over dinner at our favorite restaurant. “I haven’t had anyone to spend the holidays with in so long. Hell, just you going with me would be the best Christmas gift I could possibly receive.”

How could I say no to that? So, much to the surprise of my employers, I’d requested the time off and fretted over what I could possibly give a college professor as a gift. I ended up buying him a rather nice leather messenger bag to replace the briefcase he had that looked like it was in danger of falling apart—it was the same one he’d used when I was still at college, and I was fairly certain that the rusty, battered hinges remained on the bottom of the thing purely by wish and prayer—and managed to find a book from the late 1800s on early civilizations. It didn’t feel like enough, though, and I was still unsettled about that. Yes, I’d put genuine thought into the gift, but would a bag and a book really show how I felt about him?

Nial, Howard’s former partner and now my friend as well, had laughed when I broached the topic with him. I still didn’t see what was so funny about it.

“I’d be crushed if you could forget about me,” Howard said, interrupting my somewhat chaotic train of thought.

I smiled, leaning against him as he rested his arm against the back of my seat. “You’re pretty memorable,” I said. “I mean, I hadn’t forgotten you after ten years, had I?”

He smirked a little before dropping a kiss on my temple. “Does it count if you remembered me because you wanted to do bodily harm?”

“Absolutely,” I said, poking him in the side. “So, when are you going to tell me where we’re staying?” He’d insisted on making reservations at his usual hotel, and always managed to avoid telling me where exactly that usual hotel was. It wasn’t like I thought we were going to end up in some roach-infested, pay-by-the-hour motel, but I was dying of curiosity and he knew it. He’d even arranged the dates so we’d hole up in the unknown hotel all Christmas Day and step back on the train the day after instead of his typical day of departure.

“In another….” Howard looked at his watch. “Nine hours, give or take a few minutes.”

I narrowed my eyes and grabbed his wrist so I could look at the time. “We’ll be at the hotel in another nine hours,” I pointed out.

He grinned, raising his glass to his lips. “Exactly.”

Damn the man. He was lucky he was cute.

“Y
OU
’
VE
GOT
to be kidding me,” I said, giving Howard a look of complete disbelief as I stepped out of the cab we’d caught at the station. “This is your usual hotel?”

“Well, yes,” he replied, as if he had no idea what the problem was. He thanked the cabbie for his help with our rather minimal luggage and paid the man.

We were standing in front of the Four Seasons. One of the top luxury hotels in the country. During the Christmas season.

“How about the fact that you probably paid a thousand dollars a night for this, and one of those nights is such a late check-in as to be a waste? Really, Howard?”

“I didn’t pay a thousand dollars a night,” he assured. “It was more like five hundred.”

I gave him a look that shrieked my lack of amusement, and he wrapped an arm around my waist.

“Really, love, I do this every year. It’s Christmas Eve. Just nod, smile, and say, ‘Thank you, Howard, you’re such a sexy beast.’”

I sighed. “Thank you, Howard.”

He tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow at me.

I cocked my eyebrow in return before laughing. “You really are a sexy bastard,” I admitted, a wide grin splitting my face.

“Close enough,” he chuckled. “Come. Let’s go check in so we can get comfortable.”

It became very apparent that the hotel did not have a high turnaround rate on staff at the front desk when a woman in a neatly pressed uniform greeted us with, “Dr. Wise! Welcome back, sir. It’s lovely to see you again.”

“Amanda, how many times have I asked you to call me Howard?” he asked fondly, smiling as he reached over the counter to clasp her hand. “Merry Christmas. How is your family doing?”

“Very well, thank you for asking,” she answered before tapping something into the terminal in front of her. “Your usual two nights?”

“Yes, thank you,” Howard said. “There should also be some notes under my reservation.”

She raised a curious eyebrow at him, but the keyboard clacked a few more times before her smile widened farther. “Yes, I see them here.” She turned her attention to me, still smiling. “Mr. Knapp?”

“Yes?” I half said, half asked.

“We hope you enjoy your stay,” she replied, and this time I could have sworn her voice held a barely restrained giggle.

“Thank you,” I said, wondering what exactly the notes on her screen had told her. I didn’t get a chance to ask, though, since Amanda made quick work of handing over keys. We were already in the elevator by the time my brain finally caught up. “Are you always on a first-name basis with hotel staff?”

“I’ve learned over the years that it pays to be very polite to the people who work where you want to relax,” Howard said. “Especially when it’s a place you frequent. Amanda started working here three years ago, and I found out that she was a university student trying to take care of her sick mother and her younger brother, who has Down Syndrome. She had pretty much come to the conclusion that she was going to have to put aside school because she couldn’t afford the tuition with her mother’s medical bills, and I helped her secure funding.”

“Ah,” I said, my heart warming. “She’s an honorary student of yours, then.”

He grinned and leaned over to give me a quick kiss as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. “That’s a very good way to put it.”

He led me down the hallway before coming to a halt in front of our room’s door and unlocking it. He held the door open with one hand and made a grand sweeping gesture with the other, motioning me to go in first.

I didn’t even see the room once I walked in. My gaze was stuck on the massive picture windows and the view of the bay. “Okay, I can see why you like it,” I conceded. “The view is incredible.”

Howard wrapped his arms around me as he leaned against my back. The warmth coming from him was bliss after the cold outside, and I turned my head to smile at him. “It’s even better during the day,” he said. “I’m glad you like it. I’m kind of hoping you’ll also like the nice big bathtub that I think we could both fit in.”

“Yeah?” I asked, hiding a grin.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, nuzzling against the side of my neck before biting playfully. I laughed and tried to shoo him off, but he kept a firm hold on me. “And after that, I’m kind of hoping you’ll also like the nice big bed that I’m positive we’ll both fit in.”

“We’d better,” I said dryly. “I refuse to sleep on the chaise.”

He laughed and gave me a squeeze. “Come on,” he said, his voice low and inviting. “Let’s go get clean before we get dirty.”

I
WOKE
gradually the next morning. It was far too early when I opened my eyes, but considering the first thing I saw was Howard’s sleeping face, I was okay with that. He was so close, we were almost nose to nose, and he was making adorable, quiet snuffling sounds in his sleep. I stayed where I was for a while, appreciating just how lucky I was as I watched him snooze.

“You’re staring,” Howard mumbled, not opening his eyes.

“I’m allowed,” I said, pressing a kiss to his lips.

He hummed approvingly and opened his eyes, a groggy smile on his face. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”

“Merry Christmas,” I murmured against his lips as I kissed him again. “It looks to be….” I looked out the enormous windows that overlooked the bay. “Well, it looks to be a typical Seattle day, from what I can see from here. One of us appears to have been dreaming of a wet Christmas, not a white one.”

Howard looked over his shoulder, squinting a little as he looked out the window to see the water that was currently sheeting from the sky.

I was grateful we hadn’t really had any plans to leave our room.

Howard, however, groaned. “I’d kind of wanted to take you to the Space Needle, but not in this weather.”

“What, so I could feel like I was going to plunge to my death at any given second?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “You’ve got to be joking.” He had to have been, considering he was well aware how terrified I was of heights. Inside a building? I can do that. But standing on a walkway that far up, no matter how good their railing was? That ranked right up there with airplanes on my
Oh Shit, I’m Going to Die
meter.

“Actually, no. I was thinking more along the lines of eating there. Perhaps that’s a bit touristy, but I wanted to give you something special to remember.”

“You give me something special to remember every day,” I said, then laughed with delight when he grabbed me and pulled me into a crushing hug. “Today you’re giving me cracked ribs, for instance.”

“Sorry,” Howard said, not sounding sorry in the least. He didn’t let me go, though he did ease his grip a little. “I can’t help myself when you say things like that.”

“But really, Howard, why on earth would you want to go anywhere today? We can spend all day in bed and order room service.”

His head shot up, his eyes wide. “Room service! What time is it?”

I gave him a confused look and glanced at the clock. “Seven,” I said. “Far too early for a day off. Why?”

He gave me a sheepish look. “I had the foresight to order breakfast for us. It’s not supposed to be here for another hour, though.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, giving him a confused look. “Why is this an emergency? And when on earth did you have time to order breakfast?”

“It’s not an emergency so much as I didn’t want to oversleep,” he said as he pulled back the covers, climbed out of bed, and stretched. It put his beautiful body on display, and suddenly I was much less interested in the whys and hows of what he’d planned. He looked over his shoulder and smirked at me knowingly. “As for when, I did that when I made the reservation. Do you want some coffee? I think I’ll go start a pot.”

“I think you should come back to bed,” I said. There must have been a hint of pout in my voice, because he laughed.

“Don’t sulk, love. It’s Christmas. Let’s have some coffee, exchange gifts, and then have breakfast. We can go back to bed afterward.”

And there he went, reminding me about gifts, and my stomach lurched a little. “Um, about your gift….”

“I know you have one for me,” he said as he headed for the bathroom. “I saw you pack it.”

I sighed and shoved the blankets aside so I could follow. “I do have one for you, but it’s… it’s not much, really. It feels inadequate.”

“Did you put thought into it?” he asked as he took care of his bladder.

“Yes. Of course I did.”

“Was it done with love?”

“Absolutely.”

“Is it a neon pink glow-in-the-dark dildo?”

I burst into laughter as he flushed and began to brush his teeth. “No,” I said, making use of the toilet. When we’d first gotten together, I’d been a touch unnerved about how casual he was about sharing bathroom space with me when one of us was using it, but I’d long since gotten over that. “It is not a neon pink glow-in-the-dark dildo. You already have one of those.” Nial and his partner had given it to Howard for his most recent birthday, and I’d nearly died laughing at the look on his face when he’d opened it at the upscale restaurant we were having dinner at.