by Jana Denardo
Quinn figured it had to be pretty obvious what it was, since the four wheels stuck out the bottom unwrapped. Caleb examined it from all angles, though, pretending bafflement before carefully removing the paper as if he were going to save it for next year. He was always like that. Quinn preferred to go at it like a document shredder.
Caleb’s eyes lit up seeing the hard-shell suitcase covered in the Batman symbol. He yanked Quinn into a bone-melting embrace and kiss. When he finally let go of a thoroughly puddled Quinn, he asked, “Where did you find such a magnificent suitcase?”
“Online, where else?”
“I love it.”
“Open it,” Quinn said.
Caleb did, letting the travel flyers flop out. He scooped them up. “Now I know you didn’t buy tickets for all of these.”
Quinn snorted. “I didn’t hit the jackpot at work. But we have more than enough for one or two trips. I thought we could go through these and pick the ones we want to do the most and plan at least one of them for the coming year. And I did book us a trip on a dinner cruise in the Dells, and an IOU trip to Door County to see the lighthouses whenever we both have off this summer.”
“Perfect. Thank you, babe. This is great.” Caleb stood, offering Quinn his hand. Quinn took it, shooting Caleb a quizzical look. “Put on your shoes and suit up for outside.”
Quinn arched his eyebrows. “What are you up to?”
“You’ll have to put on your winter coat to find out.”
Quinn all but flew into his winter gear, which proved more interesting than his rope toy to Vader, who barked and pranced until they opened the front door. He raced out into the night, which glittered from stars and Christmas lights. Vader made like a dark streak romping through the snow. He stopped to sniff the white-lighted reindeer on the lawn. Caleb led the way past them and their inflatable Bumble. Immediately Quinn knew his suspicions about the decorative boxes at the end of the drive being more than mere adornment were correct.
Caleb spread his hands. “Pick one.”
“What have you done, you sly man?”
“You’ll find out when you pick one.” Caleb beamed.
Quinn chose the bigger of the two, shredding the paper off it like a machine. His breath caught, and he stumbled back a step when he revealed a little library. “Oh, Caleb!” he managed to squeak past the lump in his throat. “Did you make this?”
Caleb nodded, his blond hair flopping into his eyes. “Keith helped. I made it from the tree.”
Tears pricked Quinn’s eyes as he threw his arms around Caleb’s shoulders, crushing him against him. Tears froze on his lashes like a fringe of salinity. “I can’t believe you did this. It’s beautiful. Thank you!” He pressed his lips to Caleb’s, drinking him in.
“You deserved it,” Caleb whispered when the kiss ended. “You were so sad when we lost the tree, and I saw a way of preserving some of it.”
“That explains that gleam in your eye when we were cutting it up. I knew you were up to something, but you’re too good at keeping secrets.”
“And so I am.” Caleb rested his hand on the box on the other side of the drive. “There’s one more.”
“I can’t even imagine what else you got up to. I wasn’t gone that long.”
“I was determined.”
Quinn tore apart the wrapper, discovering a smaller wooden box with a sign reading Little Seed Library. “Oh my God!”
“You’re always looking for ways to save and share seeds, and I saw something like this online. I honestly thought about making a greenhouse months ago, but there was no way of hiding that one. Like it?”
“Like it? No, I’m madly in love with it and with you, crazy man.”
Quinn captured him in another hedonistic embrace. He lost his footing in his enthusiasm, tumbling them both to the snow. Shocked they didn’t melt the snow down to the frozen grass, Quinn fluttered kisses over Caleb’s mouth and neck until Vader took them rolling around in the snow as an invitation to play. He grabbed Quinn’s boot, tugging hard.
Quinn laughed. “Vader! Stop that!”
Caleb rolled off of Quinn. “Does this count as canis interruptus?”
“Yes.” Quinn managed to shake free of Vader. “Just as well. My butt’s getting frosty from lying in the snow.”
Caleb snorted, pushing up to his knees. “I have a cure for that.”
“I just bet you do.” Quinn grinned.
“First, help me move them into the workshop. They need a few more treatments to really weatherproof them.” Caleb stood up and hoisted the library, revealing it had been resting on a few garbage bags to help isolate it from the snow.
Quinn gathered up the smaller seed library and the bags. They squirreled them away in the workshop, Quinn taking the time to examine them in the light. “I still can’t quite believe it.”
“I left them natural for now, but if you want them painted, we can do that too. They’ll have to live in here until spring when we can cement them in place.”
“I’ll think on it. It’s truly the perfect gift,” Quinn said as Caleb shut off the lights and locked up the garage.
“I’m glad, because until that tree went down, I still had nothing for you but vague ideas.”
“I’m not surprised you work well under pressure, but I hope you know all I really wanted for Christmas was you.”
Caleb tilted Quinn’s chin up, planting a soft kiss on his lips. “You always know what to say.”
Above, dark clouds played hide-and-seek with the moon and stars. Quinn took Caleb’s hand and tugged him gently out toward the back of their property, where it opened into the woods behind them. “A moonlight walk in the woods would be a romantic end to the night,” he said.
Caleb held up a hand, unlocked the garage again, and grabbed a flashlight. “Sounds perfect.”
“And then when we get back, you can show me those bun-warming tricks you have up your sleeve.”
“As you wish.”
Quinn locked fingers with him as they sauntered toward the gently rising woodland path, Vader happily trotting along with them. “Merry first Christmas, babe.”
“And what a wonderful Christmas it is.”
JANA DENARDO is Queen of the Geeks (her students voted her in), and her home and office are shrines to any number of comic book and manga heroes along with SF shows and movies too numerous to count. It is no coincidence the love of all things geeky has made its way into many of her stories. To this day, she’s still disappointed she hasn’t found a wardrobe to another realm, a superhero to take her flying among the clouds, or a roguish starship captain to run off to the stars with her.
Blog: www.janadenardo.com
Twitter: @JanaDenardo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jana.denardo
Email: [email protected]
By Jana Denardo
Crisis in Faith
If Two of Them Are Dead
Kept Tears
The Light of Winter
Once Upon a Time in the Weird West Anthology
Purrfect Holiday
Santa’s Little Library
SOLDIERS OF THE SUN
The Darkest Midnight in December
Snowbound
Soldiers of the Sun
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Santa’s Little Library
© 2019 Jana Denardo
Cover Art
© 2019 L.C. Chase
http://www.lcchase.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depi
cted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-765-0
Digital eBook published December 2019
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
