The Christmas Deal

Yet no matter how many times he told himself that, guilt lingered. With Brandon, Seth had assured himself it wasn’t sinful because they’d loved each other. But now Brandon was long gone, and Seth should be able to admire another guy without feeling like he was doing something wrong. It was… Well, it was a work in progress.

Logan climbed into the passenger side. He opened his mouth, but then his rough face creased. “You okay?”

“What? Oh, yes! I’m fine.” Seth’s cheeks flamed hot, and he was glad it was relatively dark in the SUV. “Uh-huh.”

“I gave the keys to Jun. Jenna’s busy getting the kids down, and I don’t feel like talking to her right now.”

“Oh. Sure.” Seth headed down the street. Truthfully, it was getting late, and he didn’t much feel like talking to her either.

“Not that I don’t love my sister. She’s amazing. But sometimes she’s…”

“A little exhausting?”

Logan smirked. “Damn right.” He quickly added, “But she’s the best.”

“Absolutely! She’s been so kind and supportive of me since I moved here.” Seth stopped for a red light, glad the snow had tapered off. “I don’t know what I would have done without her last year after Brandon… After we split.”

“Right.”

Silence fell, and Seth was about to flick on the radio when Logan asked, “It was only a few months after you moved here that you broke up?”

Seth’s fingers tightened on the wheel before he fiddled with the wipers even though the windshield was clear. “Yes. Four months. The renovation had been dragging on, and it was stressful for both of us on top of moving across the country, but it was almost finished. Things hadn’t been great, but I thought the light was at the end of the tunnel. We’d been together so many years.”

He sprayed fluid on the windshield, the wipers thumping across before he turned them off and tried to laugh. “Turns out he’d blasted a hole through the side of the tunnel and made his escape with some guy he met at the gym who’s not even thirty yet.” Seth winced at how bitter he sounded.

“Fuck. That’s brutal.”

“Yeah.” Seth did flip on the radio then, scanning past endless Christmas songs until he found someone talking about global warming. “This okay?”

“Whatever you want.”

The planet’s doom should have been more depressing than his failed relationship with Brandon, but Seth decided it was a tie. It was strange to be with Jenna’s brother driving back to the house—which wasn’t really home the way Seth had dreamed it would be when he’d planned the renovation.

He should have known back then that Brandon had one foot out the door. Brandon had let Seth make all the decisions, like he’d known deep down he wouldn’t be around to live in the final product.

As the people on the radio talked about islands of plastic in the ocean, Seth turned onto the 87, careful of the slush that was accumulating. He peeked at Logan from the corner of his eye. Odd to think that Logan would be staying at the house.

Odder still to think that they’d be posing as loving partners. How were they going to pull it off? He supposed they should come up with a plan, but he stayed silent.

How much PDA do we need to make it look real?

Heat flowed through Seth, very much in a southerly direction. Logan was like his secret young fantasies about Dylan McKay come to life, but minus the nineties hair and sideburns.

Seth swallowed through the pang of hurt as he remembered huddling late at night with his big sister, Christine, the volume down low on their secretly recorded VHS episodes of 90210 after everyone had gone to bed.

Now she won’t even acknowledge I’m alive.

He exhaled sharply, annoyed at himself for thinking about Logan and PDAs and teen fantasies in the first place. This was a deal he and Logan had made, and he had to stay…professional, for lack of a better word. Logan was going to be sleeping in his house. Seth had a responsibility to be a good host.

Does he sleep in underwear or pajamas? Or maybe in nothing at all… And what kind of underwear does he wear? Is he hairy?

No. It was wrong for Seth to be thinking about that, even if it was only in his screwed-up head. He shifted, blowing out a long breath. Yes, Logan was handsome—fine, incredibly gorgeous and sexy—

“You okay?” Logan asked.

“Huh?” Seth said too loudly. “Oh, yeah. Just frustrated about all this plastic in the environment. It’s terrible.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

Seth turned up the volume and put all thoughts of Logan, leather jackets, and especially underwear firmly out of his mind.

Boxer briefs.

Black and clinging to a spectacular rear and meaty thighs. Seth stood frozen atop the two steps down into the sunken great room, gripping the mug of coffee he was bringing Logan.