“W-what the…?” Joe said, dumbfounded.
Danny stepped closer. “Hi, baby.”
Baby. That shook Joe out of his thoughts. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Danny flinched, but quickly recovered. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Well, you did.” Joe set his jaw and folded his arms over his chest.
“Can I come in? It’s really cold out here.”
His stomach in knots, Joe’s anger roared through him. Silently, he stepped back, pulling the door wider and gesturing for Danny to enter.
Danny stepped inside and glanced around. “I tried to call, but you were out.”
Joe stayed silent, waiting for an explanation.
“I brought this for your family,” Danny said, holding up the poinsettia.
Joe placed it on the entryway table. “Thank you,” he said, his voice tense. And still he waited.
“I, uh, need to talk to you. I texted days ago, but you never answered.” He crinkled his brow. “Did you get it?”
“Why are you here?” Joe asked again.
“Like I said, I need to talk to you.”
“Shouldn’t you still be on your honeymoon?”
“Can we talk somewhere in private?” Danny asked, ignoring Joe’s question.
“Not in my house.” Why had his ex come so far on Christmas Eve to see him?
“How about a drive?”
Joe’s stomach clenched at the idea of being in a car with Danny, yet just weeks ago he would’ve loved to hear those words. Perhaps this would be good, though. He could get some closure over how Danny had dumped him.
“I’ll meet you outside. I’ll grab my coat.”
Danny grinned like the Cheshire Cat and hurried out the door.
Joe walked into the living room. One look at Kris’s pale face and Joe knew he had overheard the conversation. He’d have to explain later.
“Can you tell my mom I’m heading out for a few minutes?”
Kris wouldn’t make eye contact, but nodded.
Joe grabbed his coat from the recliner and slipped it on. He stared at Kris for a moment, but couldn’t think of anything to say. He turned and made his way outside, then climbed into the passenger seat of Danny’s car.
Danny tried to kiss him, but Joe leaned into his door, out of his reach. “What the fuck?”
“I missed you.” Danny reached to stroke Joe’s hair.
“Stop.” Joe pushed him away. “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”
“No, no. We need to talk.”
“Then talk,” Joe said, irritation prickling at him.
Danny pulled out of the drive and headed down the street. “Where to?”
Joe shrugged. He didn’t really care, but he didn’t want to go too far. “There’s a park a couple of blocks down. We could sit in the parking lot.”
Other than Joe directing him to the location, neither man spoke until Danny pulled into the empty lot and parked.
“I guess you’re surprised to see me,” Danny began.
“You could say that.”
“When I saw you on campus, I realized how much I missed you. Jamie is so young and immature.” He shifted in his seat to face Joe and gave him a smile. “I was wrong to break up with you.”
Joe chuckled. “Break up with me? You dumped me. It was quick and dirty and I never heard from you again. I believe you said you weren’t ready for a relationship?”
Danny sighed. “I was wrong. I think that I…loved you so much it scared me.”
Joe stared at him incredulously. Where the hell did he come up with that line? “You loved me so much you were looking for a threesome?”
Danny grimaced. “I only asked a few guys.”
Joe gaped. There had been others besides Kris? “And how many of them ended up in your bed anyway?”
“I was stupid, I admit it. But I was careful. I used protection.”
Joe’s jaw nearly fell to the floor. “And that makes cheating okay?”
Danny’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t cheating. We never talked ‘exclusivity.’”
“Isn’t that what dating is about?”
“It doesn’t have to be. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I thought we could start seeing each other again, but take things slow.” He patted Joe’s thigh.
Joe’s eyes narrowed. Something didn’t make sense. Weeks ago, Danny had been all over Jamie and looked happy. “Oh, my God. Jamie left you, didn’t he? Did he catch you cheating on him?”
Danny pressed his lips together in a thin line, all the answer Joe needed. It made sense now. The man couldn’t handle rejection and needed to feel superior—and someone he’d dumped crawling back to him would be good for his ego.
The weight of Joe’s worries lifted. He was completely over Danny. Now, he felt only disgust. Kris’s face flashed in his mind and he smiled.
Danny mistook that smile and cupped Joe’s face. “Baby.”
Joe’s skin crawled at the endearment. “I’m not your baby. Not anymore.” He pushed away Danny’s hand. “You’re lonely and you thought I’d come back to you, but Danny, what we had was never love. It was…” He shrugged. “It was me idolizing you and not seeing you for who you really are—a player. A cheater. A user.”
Danny pulled back as if he’d been slapped. He snarled and his eyes flashed anger. “I knew leaving you was the right thing to do. You’re just an immature child who doesn’t know a good thing when he sees it.”
Joe actually smiled at that. He did know a good thing when he saw it, and he hoped that “good thing” was still willing to give him a chance when he got home.
* * * *
A short time later when Danny dropped him off, Joe didn’t say anything. He climbed out of the car and walked inside without looking back. He left his past behind him, but hoped he’d find his future in the living room.
He did. But Kris wouldn’t look at him. Now that he was home, he had no idea what to say. “I was thinking of driving to the Plaza and seeing the lights. Want to come?”
Kris studied him a moment. “It’s not dark yet. Doesn’t it need to be dark to see the lights?”
“Not really, but it’ll be darker by the time we get there. We could grab something to eat first.”
“Okay.” He rose and grabbed his coat.
“Mom,” he called toward the kitchen, assuming his mom still slaved away over holiday food preparation, “Kris and I are going out.”
“What? No way!” She hurried into the room and glared at her son. “It’s going to snow tonight! A blizzard, they said on the news. And it’s Christmas Eve.”
Joe gave her a quick hug. “I’m just going to show Kris the Plaza lights and then we’ll be back.” He laughed at the look she shot him. “The snow isn’t supposed to start until later tonight or after midnight anyway.”
“Fine,” she huffed, giving in. “But be careful.”
Joe promised as he pulled open the door and waved Kris ahead.
With the drop in temperature in the past few hours, the car took a few minutes to warm up.
“What do you want to eat? There probably aren’t a lot of places open today.”
Kris shrugged. “McDonald’s is usually open.”
“True. Let’s check it out.” He headed toward the fast food restaurant. “Mind if I put on some Christmas music? I’m feeling festive,” he added with a smile.
“Sure.”
Joe flipped on the radio and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” poured out of the speakers. He grinned. “This was my favorite song as a child.”
Kris just stared out the window.
“Karen still out with Chase? I thought he was coming to the house.”
“He is, but they went to his place for a little while.”
McDonald’s was open. Neither had a big appetite, so they decided to split an order of ten-piece McNuggets and fries.
Once they’d nearly finished, Joe aimed the car toward the Plaza and turned up the music. Joe ate some more fries while he tried to figure out what to say. Finally, he turned down the radio and jumped in.
“So, Danny and I talked.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Joe saw Kris stiffen.
“I want you to know that I didn’t invite him.”
“Are you guys back together?”
Joe almost slammed on the brakes, the question surprising him. “Hell no!” He looked at Kris. “I was worried you’d thought I’d invited him. But no. No. No, we are not back together. He actually wanted to start up again, but I knew, with one glance, I never wanted to see him again.”
Kris faced him. “Really?”
“He even admitted cheating on me! Well, he claimed it wasn’t ‘cheating’ since we weren’t ‘exclusive.’ Which is wrong, because we were.”
“What an ass!”
Joe laughed. “I know, right? What the hell did I ever see in him?”
Kris took a bite of a nugget.
“The thing is, when I found out he was getting married—which he didn’t, by the way—it hit me hard. I thought that meant I wasn’t good enough for him. He’d told me he didn’t want a relationship, but he apparently did with someone else. Someone better than me, I thought.”
Kris shook his head. “He’s the one not good enough for you.”
Joe smiled. “I was dealing with hurt, but it wasn’t because I wanted him back. It was more that I felt unworthy. So my head got all screwed up.” He glanced at Kris. “But my head is clear now. I know what I want and who I want. But now”—he took a deep, shaky breath—”it’s all up to you. What do you want, Kris?”
Kris squeezed Joe’s thigh. “You. I just want you. But I didn’t want to be the consolation prize.”
Joe covered Kris’s hand with his own. “You could never be second to anyone.”
They neared the Plaza as darkness began to fall. When they drove over a hill, Kris gasped, bringing a smile to Joe’s face. Seeing the Plaza lit up for the first time had to be amazing. He couldn’t even remember when he’d first seen it, because while growing up, visits to the Plaza had been a yearly tradition.
“It’s beautiful,” Kris whispered.
Joe agreed wholeheartedly. He couldn’t wait to share this moment with Kris.