Two Doms for Christmas (3 page)

Her eyes lost their humor as she
stared at him. “What are we doing here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m quite a bit older than you.
That doesn’t lend well to getting involved.”

“Your age doesn’t matter to me. I
like you. I feel drawn to you. I thought you liked me back. Don’t you?”

“Liking you, and thinking we have
any kind of future, are two different things.”

He shrugged, not wanting her to
bolt because she felt he was trying to push her. “If we are meant to have a
future, we will. Otherwise we can have some fun for now. Is that so horrible? I
think we could both use some time outside of our personal grief.”

That made her think and she leaned
forward, kissing Ginger on the head. “Okay. Sledding it is. Give me a time and
a place, and I’ll be there.”

“Would you let me pick you up? The
roads might not be so good.”

“Good point. Okay, what time?”

 
“Ten? That should get us past rush hour.”

“Fine. If I’m going out tomorrow,
then I need to get some work done tonight.”

“I guess I’m being asked to leave.
Can I have your phone number?” Haley rose and got a piece of paper, writing it
down. He was glad she hadn’t said no. He disagreed that they had no future,
because suddenly the prospect of having a future with her was making the
present seem brighter. He accepted her number with a smile. As he walked to the
door, he stopped to look into the ceiling high glass curio case. It was nicely
arranged to display a wide variety of snow globes. “These are beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she said, walking up
beside him. “I have always had a thing for snow globes. Many of them have been
gifts over the years of my life. My favorite ones are the ones on the center
shelf. I like the ones with wild jungle animals in them. The snow leopard is
magnificent.”

“I agree. My grandmother had a few.
I would always shake them up and sit mesmerized as the tiny, glittering flakes
swirled around and then settled. I miss her. I was closer to her than I was to
my parents. She lived to be a hundred and one years old, and died on Christmas
Eve. Another reason I don’t look forward to Christmas.”

“That sucks.”

He nodded thoughtfully. That seemed
to be a popular phrase between them. He could say it again, or agree, but he
didn’t. He didn’t want to leave her on a dour note. “Then I guess I’ll see you
at ten. I’ll have an ambulance standing by. Okay?” She giggled and he was glad to
hear it.

“Okay.”

 
Chapter
Three

Haley climbed out of bed around
six. It was much too early, but her body wasn’t what it had once been and she
was too sore to stay in bed any longer. She wandered to the back door and
groaned. It was snowing hard, the white flakes being blown into tiny tornadoes
by the wind. “Oh shit.” She spoke to the two dogs as they sat waiting for her
to pull the door open. “You two aren’t gonna like this. Let mom go get her coat
and boots.”

She would normally let them go out
by themselves into the fenced in yard. From the looks of things, she was going
to have to shovel them a path. Having small dogs could be a challenge at times.
She tugged her boots over her fleece pants and tucked her flannel shirt into
her coat before tugging up her hood. Trudging to the back door, she unlocked it
and opened it for the dogs. They raced down the stairs, hopping into the snow
and swiftly sinking.

Ginger was a bit higher, but Sammie
with his squat body and short legs was having a real time moving around. It was
worse because he couldn’t get his leg lifted and clear of the snow to pee. She
grabbed the shovel from beside the door and with a sigh, walked outside. Haley
began at the bottom of the stairs and shoveled a straight line out into the
yard. Sammie was on her heels, following her and only stopping to go to the
bathroom.

She continued in a circle, throwing
the snow outside the fence when she could. When she got back to the sidewalk,
she cleared her way to the stairs and shoveled the snow from them before going
back inside. She turned to call Ginger and Sammie, but they were right behind
her, trying to shake the snow from their fur.

Going to the closet, she grabbed a
towel and dried them off. They hopped up on the sofa together and she covered
them with a blanket. Haley put the shovel in the front breezeway and then went
to make herself a cup of coffee. She couldn’t handle the snow if it got too
thick. She would go out once an hour or so, to clear the walk, and the driveway
until it slowed down. It was all she could do.

With a sigh, she gave the dogs a
kiss and headed out the front door. The blowing snow was icy, hitting her face
painfully before she could tug her hood up tighter. She tied her scarf around
her face and began to task of doing the walk.

By the time she was done with the
driveway, the walkway was covered again and she scooped it off on the way back
to the door. Her coffee was calling, her body feeling chilled to the core.
Shivering, she hung up her coat and scarf, shucking her boots and putting them
in front of the radiator. They would hopefully warm up and dry off before she
had to go out again.

She fed the dogs and tried to
convince herself to go back out again when she saw headlights in the driveway.
Frowning, she stood and walked to the window. It was a large pickup truck, and
she watched in surprise as Austin got out and pulled a shovel from the back. He
began to clear her driveway with it. It was a sweet thing to do and she really
appreciated it. Quickly heading to the bathroom, she looked at her hair and
groaned. It was a complete disaster. She hated to pull it back. A ponytail was
not a good look for her, but it was sticking up all over the place and there
was no calming it down. She brushed it and wrapped it in a holder before she
hurried to get her coat and boots. She certainly wasn’t going to make him do it
all himself.

Grabbing her shovel, she headed
outside. Austin looked up from his shoveling. “What are you doing?”

“I’m assisting you. I’m not
helpless.”

“I didn’t think you were. Do you
know how to make French toast?”

“Yes.”

“Would you teach me? I always fuck
it up and end up throwing it out because it tastes horrible.”

“No problem. It’s the least I can
do to repay you for shoveling for me.”

He grinned and went back to shoveling.
Between the two of them, they made quick work of it and then went inside. The
dogs greeted him joyfully and then settled back down on the sofa. The house was
warm and they had thoroughly dried off, so she didn’t bother covering them
again.

Austin made himself a cup of coffee
and she showed him what to mix to make a tasty, fluffy French toast that would
certainly get eaten. Once it was cooked, she dished it onto plates and dug out
the Vermont maple syrup she had gotten online. It was a sweet and delicious way
to accent the slightly spicy toast.

Austin held a cube up on his fork
and swished it in the air as if toasting her. A single taste left him groaning
with pleasure. “This is perfection. I have been craving French toast for so
long. Thank you.”

“Now you know how to make it
yourself.”

“And I will.”

 
His smile was honest and somewhat radiant. She
was glad he was in a good mood and surprisingly, so was she. Haley realized how
lonely the house had been with only the dogs for company. She adored them, but
they weren’t much on conversation or compliments. Cooking for herself had long
ago lost its thrill, and she rarely bothered to make anything fancy. Under
normal circumstances, it would have been instant oatmeal or maybe two eggs with
cheese. At one time, in what seemed the far distant past, she had enjoyed
cooking holiday meals. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she always tried new
recipes and meal plans to keep the festivities going. She chuckled softly, and
he tilted his head in question.

“I was just thinking how much my
daughter used to love it when I made pancakes into different animals.”

“I wonder if my ex makes pancakes
for my sons. She used to make them for me and they were good. I’m an okay cook,
but it’s nothing spectacular.” He flexed his eyebrows again. It seemed to be
one of his signature accents to a thought. “I’ll make you a deal. If you’ll go
shopping with me, I’ll buy whatever you want, as long as you cook it with me.”

“Do you like pork chops?”

“Love them.”

“How about cabbage, potatoes, and
stewed tomatoes?”

“My mouth is watering.”

Haley giggled. It felt so good to
laugh with a real human being. She often felt the emotions of her book
characters as she wrote them, but having him smile back was incredible. “I have
a recipe for a crockpot meal with those ingredients. When you’re done cooking
it, you scoop out the stuff and make gravy with sour cream and a bit of flour.
It’s so good. Actually, it’s perfect with sliced cucumbers that are chilled
ahead of time with sour cream and dill.”

“I don’t have a crock pot, but I’ll
buy one.”

The honest exuberance in the
statement was adorable. “I have one.”

“How about we go shopping, get the
stuff, put it together, and it can cook while we are sledding. I want to build
a snowman.”

She laughed at his adorable
expression. His eyes sparkled like a child with just the simple idea. “Are we
suffering from a bit of childhood regression?”

Laughing, he shook his head. “No. I
was lying in bed last night thinking of things we could do that were completely
ridiculous for adults. I would actually love to do a snow sculpture rather than
a simple three ball snowman. The snow would be perfect for it. It’s not too wet
to be icy or too dry not to stick together. I just can’t decide what to
sculpt.”

“You can sculpt? Seriously?”

“It’s more of a hobby than a
profitable endeavor, but yes I can. I would love to sculpt you.”

“In snow?”

He chuckled. “No, in clay. You have
an amazing face. Your eyes are very symmetrical. Your nose is thin, but not too
much so that it looks beaky. It is upturned just a bit, but not too much to be
piggy. I love your cheeks and your chin. They are slightly rounded like a
lioness and would be wonderful to sculpt.”

Using beaky, piggy, and rounded in
a description of her was not particularly flattering, although, she had a
feeling he was trying to be complimentary. The boy was slightly lacking in the
concept of having a way with words. She got up to dig out the crockpot.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No, not really. It was just in
your descriptive terms. I suppose it’s a good thing that my nose is not beaky
or piggy.”

He frowned for a moment and then
burst out laughing. “I’m sorry. I certainly didn’t mean to insult you. I think
you are beautiful. I just compare human traits to animals sometimes. I mostly
sculpt animals.” He suddenly looked as if he had been struck with a wonderful
idea. Austin rose and walked into the living room, tugging his phone from his
pocket.

She watched him through the open
wall between the two rooms as he began to snap photos of the dogs from
different angles. “What are you doing?”

“I just had an idea. My secret,
okay?”

“I guess. I suppose I should let
them out again before we leave. Let me know when you are done.”

It was slightly weird that he was
taking photos of her dogs, but she supposed there was no harm in it. Haley went
into the bathroom to wash up and do something with her hair. When she came back
out, he was just coming inside with Ginger and Sammie.

“I shoveled their path again.
Sammie is funny in the snow. He doesn’t like getting his dick wet, does he?”

“Not particularly. How would you
feel if you had to walk around with your dick dragging in the snow?”

He snorted with laughter. “I think
I would make a fortune as a porn star.”

Laughing, Haley rolled her eyes.
“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant. Damn it
feels so good to laugh.” He tried to compose himself, but continued to chuckle.
Austin was also right. It felt amazing.

She went in to cover the dogs and
make sure their fur wasn’t too wet. Sammie didn’t have too much fur, but Ginger
would be a matted mess if Haley didn’t take care of her. She had bought them
cave beds for Christmas, but maybe it would be a good idea to give them to them
now. It wasn’t like they would know the different. “I just want to get
something before I leave.”

“Okay. Do you need help?”

 
Haley replied with a shrug. “I guess. They are
kind of bulky.”

Heading to the basement, she went
down the stairs. The beds were in the guest room that her husband had built in
the basement. She lifted one and Austin picked up the other. “I guess you used
to have a lot of company?”

“Yeah, when Jack’s family would
come to visit they would stay for a week or two. He is closer to them now.”

“Oh. Sorry I asked.”

“It’s okay.” Walking back up the
stairs, she threw the bed in the corner of the living room. It had once held a
cabinet with Jack’s stereo in it, but now it was empty. She really hadn’t done
much with the house to fill in the blank spaces that had once contained Jack’s
stuff. Now she had an opening for the two beds. Austin set his down next to the
other one and the two dogs got up, suddenly curious about the new additions.

They both walked over, sniffing and
then stepping up onto the foamy cushions. Sammie lay on the outer edge, but
Ginger nuzzled up the cave overhang with her nose and walked inside. After a
few turns to fluff it properly, she snuggled down into it. A minute later,
Sammie got up and joined her in the single bed.

“I guess they like each other?”
said Austin.

“They do. They were dropped off at
the pound together and I adopted them together. I didn’t have much history on
them. They have proven themselves to be great little dogs. They are for the
most part well behaved and unlike Ginger yesterday, don’t normally run out the
door. They are cuddly and sweet.”

“They are also
very
attuned to your emotions. My dogs are the same way.”

“What kind of dogs do you have?”

“They are whippets. I know a guy
who breeds them and these two were undersized and not to breed standard. I got
them as puppies and they have grown up together. They just turned three and
hate the snow. I have parkas for them to wear. Luckily, I also have an open
basement and I put that soft walking surface on the floor so they can run down
there. It’s like a doggie playroom.”

“Cool. Do you do lure coursing with
them?”

He nodded. “I have. Last year April
took a corner wrong and fell. Luckily she didn’t break anything, but she got
scraped up pretty badly. They have very sensitive skin. Jake is the male, but
they have both been fixed.”

“I can’t wait to meet them.”

“Then if your two are settled,
let’s go.”

Haley walked over to the bed and
knelt down to pet her puppies, giving them a kiss goodbye. She was lucky they
kept each other company and didn’t suffer from separation anxiety. “Mommy will
be back in a while. You two be good.”

They both looked at her with
baleful eyes and she sighed. She felt bad leaving them as she always did. Today
would be different though. It would be the first time since she adopted them
that she would be gone for a whole day. Haley had no idea how they might react,
but she was about to find out.