The Christmas Accomplice - Hank Edwards

Chapter 1

Everywhere Welton looked, he saw snow. Miles and miles and miles of snow. As the lodge shuttle growled along the winding mountain blacktop road—much too close to the drop-off for Welton’s peace of mind—he couldn’t help but be dazzled by the sparkling, shimmering muchness of snow. It had gathered in branch-bending heaps on the boughs of pine trees, and been plowed into dirty but somehow still beautiful mounds along the shoulder of the road. The seemingly endless white stood out against the brilliant blue of the cloudless sky, leaving him breathlessly impressed. Well, the view and the altitude, most likely. Whatever the reason, the view outside the shuttle’s window made a spot in the center of his chest ache with longing.

Just a week before Christmas, and he was about to arrive at the Snowcapped Mountain Lodge and Resort. On his own. He would be spending Christmas alone, but that was fine. He’d done that for years now, even when he was with Dean. This time, however, instead of holing up in his apartment like a hermit, he was going to spend the holidays at a mountain resort. For seven days, he’d rest and relax and enjoy all the activities the lodge had to offer.

Or, he was going to try his best to rest and relax and enjoy them.

Back in February when he and Dean made this reservation, everything between them had been fine and on track. At least Welton had convinced himself that everything was fine and on track. Now, with several months of quiet and solitary nights filled with too much thinking, lubricated by maybe a couple glasses of wine, Welton could see that there had been problems right from the start. What Welton had originally chalked up to an “opposites attract” relationship had actually proven to be their demise. It had taken three years for them to figure it out, but in early March they had both finally admitted what they had been holding on to in their relationship wasn’t enough to keep them together.

Welton had found a small one bedroom apartment across town, closer to his office for those rare times he had to go there in person, and packed up his things. Dean had helped him move into the new place, which Welton had originally thought had been kind of him to do. But in the weeks that followed, he’d started to wonder if Dean had just wanted to get him out that much faster. He especially reconsidered his thinking after seeing pictures Dean posted out in the bars with his arm around attractive men. Each picture was of a different man, but all of them looked the same: ridiculously good-looking, shirtless, with an open and laughing expression that seemed to be asking the question, What’s next?

Welton couldn’t help noticing none of them wore glasses or had brown hair that just laid across his head no matter how much he tried to style it. And none of them looked like they wished they were anywhere except the place they were at that exact moment.

None of them were at all like Welton.

After their time together, Dean had done what Welton had come to think of as a “brand relaunch” and reclaimed his status as an A-type extrovert to the gay population in and around Detroit. And that population had apparently grown in leaps and bounds since they had been together. And it seemed to have gotten a lot younger than Welton’s thirty-one, as well.

Sometimes Type A would only fit together with another Type A.

The shuttle driver slowed, and the shift in the transmission brought Welton back to the scenery and the moment at hand. It wouldn’t be long now until he finally stepped off the shuttle. This trip was going to be his turning point. He was going to work hard on making changes to himself during this time. He was going to participate in lodge activities, and from the emails he’d received, there were many of them. He was going to talk to people he didn’t know and push himself so far out of his comfort zone it would become his norm. After this trip, he wasn’t going to be quiet and nerdy Welton who thought fun equaled reading science fiction and playing strategy board games. He would be outgoing and conversational Welton who liked to change up his activities and experiences.

Neither he nor Dean had remembered the Christmas trip they’d already paid for until they’d each received the first of many reminder emails at the