Waiting for Christmas **excerpt**

Coming December 2103 in Love Lane Books' Christmas Anthology
***

 

“What’re your plans for Christmas?”

The question threw Dain for a moment. “No plans.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I have no plans with anyone.”

 “You’re going to spend Christmas alone?” Jake gasped as if Dain had uttered blasphemy.

 Dain shrugged. “Just another day,” he said, wondering how he might survive the day any less than falling-down drunk. 

 “Come to dinner at my sister’s house. My parents are away, so dinner’s at her house this year. I don’t want you to be alone.” There was a slight hint of desperation in his tone.

Was Jake feeling sorry for him?

As if he was a mind reader, Jake added, “My motives are purely selfish. I want to get to know you better. No pressure. Just dinner. Please.”

Dain’s stomach clenched and tears burned at his eyes. Dinner with Jake’s sister and her family. People who, if Jake’s demeanor was any indication, cared for one another, and wanted to be together. A real family dinner. It had been years since Dain had experienced the comfort and safety of a family.

You can do this. Just say—

Those damned friggin’ bells again!

“Father Ryan, you picking up the food for tomorrow’s dinner?” Steph asked.

Dain’s spine stiffened, hands balled in his lap, eyes wide as he watched Father Ryan walk to the counter.

“Sure am, Steph.”

Blood rushed through Dain’s ears and muffled Jake’s voice. What if the priest saw Dain and confronted him right in front of Jake about being at church? Two public floggings in one night would surely destroy him. Jake touched his forearm and the thrumming subsided. Dain hadn’t even flinched from the touch.

“Dain, what’s wrong?” 

What was wrong? Reality butting in with constant reminders of what Dain couldn’t have, wouldn’t have, didn’t deserve was what was wrong. Tonight, everything he’d lost had returned to mock him. “You’ll be visited by three ghosts.” Fuck, he’d been scrooged! Church, his father, and then Jake, a guy he could never have. Well, at least Mick, hadn’t shown up, or Dain might be spending Christmas in the hospital. No, Mick was long gone, but the remnants of that relationship, as well as his father’s abuse, had damaged Dain. He was no good for anyone. How could he have forgotten?

 “I have to go,” Dain said and bolted from the table. Flinging the jangling door open, he raced to his car. Jake called out behind him and Dain misjudged how quickly the sheriff could move that massive frame. A hand snagged Dain’s shoulder. Duh, the man chases criminals for a living.

Wait.” Jake’s face was a swirling mass of unrecognizable emotions. Dain wanted to stay, but his life was fucked up beyond repair.

Dain shook his head and managed to unlock his car and drive away with the ghosts of his past hot on his heels.

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