Remey followed his gaze and smiled. "You probably have to pick Willow up soon, huh?"
Aleks nodded. "Yeah. I mean, an hour or so, give or take. I'm sorry it can't be longer..."
Remey turned. "It's okay. I get that she comes first for you, believe me. I'll finish getting dressed, and if you don't have time to drop me back by the café, I can walk."
Aleks shook his head, pulling Remey down into his lap and kissing him briefly. "Don't be ridiculous. I'll drive you back."
It was very tempting to want to stay in bed, to drag Remey back down with him and remove all the clothes the young man had put back on. Very, very tempting. But there wasn't time.
So instead, he satisfied himself with another kiss before he let Remey up and they finished getting dressed. Aleks pushed to his feet, glancing around to make sure Remey hadn't forgotten anything. "Ready, then?"
Remey nodded, heading toward the bedroom door, and Aleks caught him there, pressing up against him from behind briefly. "Wait."
Remey's breath hitched and he glanced back over his shoulder up at Aleks. "What?" he whispered.
Aleks smiled and brushed a kiss against Remey's cheek. "Thanks."
Remey let out a breathy laugh, leaning back into him. "My pleasure."
Aleks let him go then and they went downstairs to gather up their strewn coats and scarves and spent a good five minutes looking for Remey's left glove. Ten minutes later, Aleks pulled over in front of the café and met Remey's gaze. "So I'll see you on Thursday? We usually eat around one, so come over any time after ten. Willow always watches the parade, so if you want to watch it with us..."
Remey grinned. "I'd like to." He dug his keys out of his coat pocket and turned them over in his hand, meeting Aleks's eyes. Aleks wanted to kiss him, but kissing in public at the lake was entirely different than doing so while parked in front of the coffee shop, with people hurrying by on the street. Remey must have decided the same because he only smiled. "Thanks for the date. I meant it... best first date ever."
Aleks laughed. "Me, too. Go on, before I'm tempted to bring you right back to my house."
Remey grinned as he opened the door and climbed down out of the SUV, turning to give Aleks a flirty smile. "Threaten me with a good time, why don't you?"
Before he could respond, Remey laughed softly and shut the door, turning to head for his car. Aleks watched him go for a few seconds, then forced himself to turn around.
Alright, Kelly, time to get yourself together.
Easier said than done. Remey Dufresne was turning more than his town upside down. He was turning Aleks's whole life on its ear.
The thing was... Aleks was starting not to mind at all.
Aleks hummed under his breath as he shoved bundles of fresh herbs and lemon slices and huge chunks of butter under the skin of the turkey.
Jess paused where she was peeling potatoes at the counter and looked over at him with a laugh. "Are you humming?"
Aleks glanced up. "What? No."
Jess laughed and pointed her peeler at him. "Yes, you were. You were humming one of
his
songs." There was the amused tone again, the same one Jess got whenever she talked about Remey ever since she'd heard rumors of their date out on the lake. Thank God, no rumors were flying about what had happened
after
said date.
"I was not," Aleks scoffed, even though he might have been. He sighed and glanced over at his sister-in-law, rolling his eyes at her knowing smirk. "So maybe I downloaded a few of them off iTunes. They're catchy as fuck."
Jess laughed and nodded, going back to peeling. "I know." She didn't say anything for a minute. "So, are you two..."
Aleks gave her a sharp look, and she held up both hands with a smile. "Sorry! I mean, you did invite him for Thanksgiving."
"Yeah, and Stevan invited him for a family dinner. Do you suppose that means your husband's..."
Jess snickered. "Point taken. I'll shush." Silence for another minute. "But you'd tell me if you were, right?"
Aleks laughed and shook his head. "I absolutely would not."
The doorbell rang then, and Aleks glanced up at the sound, heart kicking up. A second later, the door open and Willow let out a squeal.
"Remey! Daddy! Remey is here," she squealed.
Aleks straightened, glancing over at Jess and then rolling his eyes at her "this is so romantic" look. "Shut up," he muttered with a smile and washed his hands. He could hear Stevan and Remey in the entryway talking about pies, and when Aleks stepped into the hall, Remey broke off and to say his face lit up wouldn't be an understatement.
"Hey!" Remey grinned, Willow clinging to his leg, demanding to know what pies he'd brought.
"Hey yourself, Remey." Aleks grinned at him, eyeing the boxes. "Three pies?"
Remey nodded, lifting Willow off her feet to rub his nose, probably ice cold, against her cheek to make her giggle. "Yup. Pumpkin, of course, apple, and my mama's special chocolate pie."
Aleks's brows lifted and he peeked into the top box. "Mmmm," he hummed at the sight of a luscious looking chocolate pie. He pretended to stick his finger into the box. Willow let out a yelp and reached out from Remey's arms to try to grab Aleks's sleeve.
"Daddy! No pie yet! Gotta eat firs', 'member?" She giggled at his pretend sulk and patted his cheek. "Is okay, Daddy. You can have later, 'kay?"
Aleks laughed and swept her out of Remey's arms and into his own. "Maybe I need to nibble on you!" He bent his head and raspberried her tummy through her dress, and her shriek filled the entryway.
Stevan and Jess ducked back into the kitchen with the pies, and Aleks set Willow down. She ran back into the living room, chattering away about missing the Dora and Boots balloon in the parade. Which left him and Remey alone in the hall.
Aleks gestured to the bottle of wine. "You didn't have to go to the trouble. The pies are more than enough." Lord, Remey's lips were red today, from the cold no doubt. The temperature had dropped overnight and it was starting to feel like winter was right around the corner. Aleks had an insane urge to kiss Remey until his lips were warm.
Remey shrugged and picked up the bottle. "I didn't know if you guys drank wine with dinner or after maybe, but I figured if not, then you can keep it. It's a good year."
Aleks reached out and snaked an arm around Remey's waist, tugging him close with a grin.
Fuck it.
"What year were you born? I like that year," he murmured as he bent his head and kissed those chilly, soft lips.
Remey returned the kiss with a sigh. When Aleks eased back, Remey was breathless, eyes bright. "You're bad," he murmured, and Aleks's grin widened.
"You know it. Come on back. You can keep Jess and I company. Stevan's been watching the parade with Willow."
Aleks led Remey into the kitchen, ignoring the speculative look Jess gave him before she pulled a potato from a bag on the counter and started to peel it.
Remey met Aleks's eyes, spreading his hands with a smile. "Is there anything I can do to help? I'm pretty good in the kitchen, you know."
Aleks glanced around, then gestured to a couple of wrapped loaves of bread off to one side of the counter. "You could start cubing the bread for the stuffing, if you want."
Remey nodded and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, going to the sink to wash his hands. "Homemade stuffing? I'm impressed, Aleksander."
Jess shot him a sly smile. "Aleks's always doing unexpected things. I hear he surprised you with a trip out to the lake over the weekend."
Remey laughed and met Aleks's eyes across the kitchen, his smile teasing. "True. Jeez, the gossips here are as know-it-all as the paparazzi."
"But nicer," Jess assured him, grinning.
"Well, thank God." Remey laughed, drying his hands and going to the table with the loaves and a cutting board. He looked at Aleks expectantly. "Bread knife?"
Aleks gestured to the far counter. "Knife block right there." He sat and grabbed a basting brush to slather the turkey with the herbed, melted butter. Remey eyed it as he came back and sat across from Aleks.
"That's going to be so good."
Aleks laughed. "Not if it's not done in time. I'm nearly half an hour behind already."
Remey shrugged one shoulder, unwrapping the bread and setting it in stacks of four slices on the cutting board. "So we eat a little late. More time to spend together, right?" He blinked, glancing up at Aleks, then over at Jess. "I mean... with everybody."
Jess tried to hide the smirk. "Oh, yeah. Totally. Everybody."
"Everybody what?" Stevan asked, as he poked his head into the kitchen. "Willow's hungry."
"Everybody nothing, nosy, and here, take one of those and help her not make a mess, huh?" Aleks pointed with his basting brush at the bowl of apples in the center of the table. "Wash her hands after or there'll be sticky prints everywhere."
He and Remey's eyes met across the table, and Aleks smiled at the way Remey blushed a bit, then ducked his head to focus on cubing the bread. It was especially cute when Remey got flustered. Aleks got the feeling someone like Remey didn't get flustered very often and it made Aleks feel a little powerful, knowing he affected the other man so much.
* * * *
Remey could feel Jess's interested gaze flicking back and forth between him and Aleks, but he kept his head down, both to keep his eyes from lingering on Aleks and to hide his flushed cheeks. Plus he had no desire to slice his fingers off; he was kind of attached to them.
"Remey, where's your family for the holiday?" Jess asked, and Remey glanced up.
"Ah, my parents left Sunday on a two-week cruise for their wedding anniversary, and my brother's in Baton Rouge, meeting his fiancée's parents."
Jess grinned. "So Aleks didn't invite you because he's stuck on you, then?"
Remey let out a laugh as Aleks glanced up, a mock-fierce expression on his face as he brandished the turkey baster at Jess. "You, hush and get those potatoes peeled sometime today, or I'm feeding Willow Remey's chocolate pie and sending her home with you."
Jess stuck her tongue out at Aleks, and Remey laughed again, going to get a bowl to put bread cubes in. He realized when he opened the cabinet maybe he shouldn't have, it was an very familiar thing to do. Granted, Aleks was busy and Remey
had
been in his kitchen once before, but still, Jess was eyeing him with a small, sly sort of smile on her face.
"Come on. I'm sure he knows you're smitten by now. I'm also pretty sure you two didn't spend ten minutes bonding over art last week in my attic," Jess teased.
Remey snickered as he sat back down. It was fun, listening to Jess tease Aleks. She didn't miss a trick, and she reminded him a little bit of Allison, at least in personality. It made him feel even more comfortable than he already did.
"We're not discussing this, okay? Or the trip to the lake," Aleks ordered, getting up and covering the roasting pan with the lid, then sliding it into the oven and setting a timer. "Now give me some of those potatoes, slacker."
He leaned his hip on one of the kitchen island stools as they peeled, and Remey couldn't help but notice how Aleks's gaze kept wandering over to him, their eyes meeting every so often. Jess, thank God, didn't comment. Aleks would stop if she did. A few minutes later, she abandoned her potato-peeling duties with some muttering about needing to check on Stevan.
Remey didn't think Stevan was in dire need of his wife's help while watching a parade with Willow, but he didn't mind. Alone with Aleks was always good.
A second after she'd left, Aleks turned toward Remey. "Did you at least get to talk to your family, wish them Happy Thanksgiving?"
Remey glanced up and nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I talked to my parents before they set sail on Sunday and I called Dan and his fiancée last night. Thank you for inviting me, Aleks. If you hadn't, I'd have done something pathetic like go to the café for dinner and let Mona tsk and feel sorry for me."
Aleks chuckled. "No, you wouldn't have."
"No?" Remey raised his brows. "Why not?"
"Because the café is closed on holidays. They've got family, too." He smiled and shook his head. "I know how you feel, though. I felt the same way when I came back here from New York at first. It was hard to remember Haven isn't like a city, where everything's open twenty-four/seven and people work on Sundays and holidays. Here... things close. Like they should. People don't live to work. They work to live."
Remey smiled. "A nice idea. But then again, it's different when your work is your life or vice versa. I don't think of music as a job, at least not most of the time. I mean, yeah, I work my butt off, but the vast majority of the time, it doesn't feel like work. Unless you catch me when I'm fighting with writer's block or stuck at an industry thing where I have to schmooze or, God forbid, network."
Aleks laughed. "Isn't it a requirement for you to be good at rubbing elbows or whatever it's called? The schmoozing?"
Remey lifted a shoulder as he finished cubing the bread and slid the last of the pieces into the bowl, going to rinse and dry the cutting board and knife. "It is. And I guess I am, to a point. It doesn't mean I like it, though." He turned and met Aleks's eyes. "What can I do next?"
Aleks smiled and shook his head. "I didn't invite you to put you to work..." he began, and Remey smiled.
"Don't be ridiculous. I don't mind at all. Plus it's giving me a chance to be alone with you." Remey winced as Jess came in, just in time to hear him, her eyes going bright with glee as she turned on her heel without a word and left again, probably off to tell Stevan. Remey pressed his hand to his mouth and met Aleks's eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."
Aleks shrugged, a small smile playing around his lips. "Not your fault. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Anyway, if you're insistent on helping, the celery and onions are in a plastic bag in the fridge. They need to be chopped for the stuffing."
Remey nodded. "Got it." He went to the fridge and bent inside to get the bag, glancing back over his shoulder and grinning when he caught Aleks's eyes on his ass. "You're so not subtle, Aleksander," he murmured.