leak, she won’t wonder why I don’t come back before the end of the movie. I hate chick flicks.”
Chick flicks? God, what the hell are they reading to come up with this crap? But Robin couldn’t argue with his dad. Not on Thanksgiving. “We’re on our way.” He dug his elbow into Ryan’s ribs. “Aren’t we?”
“Ouch!” Ryan glared at him for a second but then got with the program. “Sure, Dad.”
He smiled. “You’re good boys.” Then he withdrew.
“Come on then.” Robin feigned reluctance. He loved romantic movies, not that he’d ever admit as much to any of his family. I guess Mom and I are more alike than I’d thought.
Ryan nudged Robin as they left the bedroom. “It’s not so bad. Think of it as research. If you’re gonna hook yourself a guy, you’ll need all the help you can get.”
Robin said nothing. He’d take a little romance if it came his way. Hell, he’d take a lot of romance if it came to that. Except what were the chances on finding a gay guy in Lake Placid, who was also a hopeless romantic at heart, and who would think Robin hung the moon?
Pretty fucking slim.
Then he remembered. Hey, it’s Christmas. Miracles do happen, right?
Sure they did—in a Hallmark movie about straight people.
Chapter Two
“I think this is what you had in mind,” Dean Quentin said as he handed a tall glass to his friend Suze. “Well, you said on the phone you needed a lot of booze.” The five friends were in Dean’s living room, soft piano music playing in the background. That was Kris’s choice. Next time, it would be Kate’s turn to pick the music, and with her taste, it could be anything from Beethoven to Rhianna.
A fire burned in the fireplace, adding the sound of crackling logs to the music, the flames reflecting on the varnished hardwood floor. Kris and Suze were on the small sofa, Kate was on the large one, and Diane was seated in Dean’s huge armchair, looking extremely mellowed out, a cocktail glass in her hand. Dean’s ragdoll kitty, Lady Marmalade—Lady for short—was curled up in Diane’s lap, her eyes closed, paws tucked under her chest.
Kate had the newest occupant next to her on a cushion. Thankfully, the kitten had worn himself out that afternoon, but Dean suspected he had one more burst of frenetic activity left in him before the evening drew to a close.
Suze snorted. “You’d need a lot of booze too if you’d had to put up with my family for a whole day. Thank God Thanksgiving is only once a year.” She sniffed the contents of the glass, then fanned herself. “Goddamn, how much alcohol is in that? You could get drunk by breathing in the smell alone.”
“It’s a Long Island iced tea.” Dean grinned. “They could’ve invented it for you.” Suze was the one who could drink them all under the table, and still appear sober. “Sorry about your Thanksgiving.” He’d spent the day alone. His parents didn’t expect him to travel to Indiana, and they’d had a houseful without him by the sound of it. His brother, and his two sisters and their respective partners had gone there. Dean would only have been one more person to find a bed for.
“There ought to be a law about that, you know,” Suze groused. “I mean, I’m twenty-eight, for Christ’s sake. Isn’t there a cut-off point when you don’t have to go home for Thanksgiving? You can simply give an excuse? Like, hello, I have a life?” She glanced over to where Dean stood by the cabinet that served as his bar. “You didn’t have to go home, right? You’re what, thirty-two? So is that it? I have to get to thirty before I get a pass for Thanksgiving? Besides, I moved out years ago when I went to college.”
“And speaking of which… did your parents pay your way through college?” Diane inquired. Dean recognized that tone. Suze’s remarks had clearly touched a nerve. Diane had worked damn hard to pay for her education; her parents were the proverbial dirt-poor.
“Sure. But that’s their job, right?”
Four heads jerked in her direction. Dean shook his head. “Nice attitude.”
Kris gave Suze a hard stare. “They love you, don’t they? At least they invited you. Be thankful.”
That shut her up for the moment. They all knew Kris’s parents had disowned him when he came out. Twenty-one years has passed since then, and now and again it was obvious the event still pained Kris.
Suze’s