Seeing Jett’s face had him laughing until his stomach ached, but he pulled himself together and ruffled his boyfriend’s hair. “And it’s a fucking Jeep, Fraser, not a car.”
He got out before Jett could regain his senses enough to hit him and took a quick survey of his property. There were no tracks in the knee-deep snow, which meant nothing had been in the area recently, but he was unsurprised to see his last camera missing from its spot.
“Wow,” said Jett as he got out and bundled his jacket tightly around himself. “This is like a paranoid person’s worst nightmare. You gonna be okay, buddy?”
Harrison scoffed at his shitty joke. “I don’t give a fuck as long as they didn’t touch the expensive equipment in my gym or my house.”
The outside of the house looked untouched, but they could have broken in through the back door or tampered with a window.
Harrison stepped through the snow up the porch steps, being careful in case ice was hidden underneath. He had a shovel next to the door that he used to remove the snow drift blocking the entryway before he tried the door.
Stopping inside, he saw that nothing had been touched. None of his things were disturbed, and there were no broken windows.
So just kids being fucking kids then.
The squeak of Jett’s boots slipping on the deck behind him let him know he was there. Jett popped his head inside timidly, like he was worried he might see roadkill dangling from the ceiling in some abandoned ritual.
“Anything?”
Harrison shook his head. “You start bringing things in, and I’ll get the fire going. It’s freezing in here.”
“Yeah,”said Jett. “That’s because we’re in the middle of the fucking woods with no power.”
“I have to flip a switch in the basement.” Harrison kept his boots on so he could do that. “And then baby will get his power back so he can charge his phone and talk to his friends.”
Jett laughed but still flipped him off, stepping back outside to get their things.
Once the lights were on, the pipes were checked, and the fire was started, Harrison helped Jett put the food away and unpack. Jett tried to get cheeky and put his stuff in the spare room, but he didn’t make it to the door before Harrison was dragging him away.
“Don’t want to roleplay our first week living together with added sex parts?” Jett asked, grinning.
“In the words of your father,does a bear shit in the woods?”
Harrison handed Jett the remote to distract him while he started dinner, telling him to find something for them to watch later. That lasted all of ten minutes before Jett got bored and wandered into the kitchen, poking at him like an impatient cat.
“Out,” Harrison said, grabbing a coat and tossing it at him. “Get dressed.”
Minutes later, Jett was blinking in the cold, shovel in hand.
“Clear a path to the woodpile,” Harrison told him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “The less snow I have to walk through, the less my leg will hate me.”
“Oh,nowhe uses the sore leg excuse,” Jett muttered, but he left without further protest.
Harrison smiled faintly and turned back to the kitchen. He was making pizza tonight—Luca’s favourite Christmas meal. The thought tugged something in his chest. It hurt, sure, but this was part of the process. He wanted to start sharing the little things, the memories that still ached, with Jett. Maybe if he let someone else hold them too, they wouldn’t feel quite so heavy.
The house was so quiet, Harrison thought he heard the faint click of the back door. He paused, listening carefully, and half-expecting Jett to sneak up on him, but then a curse rang out from the front of the house.
Jett was still out there, shovelling snow. Harrison exhaled and shook his head, brushing the sound off. Probably just a snap from the logs settling in the fireplace.
Jett didn’t finish his chore until the pizza was in the oven and the house smelled like baking peppers and onions. He came inside, shaking snow out of his hair, and let out an exhausted sigh.
“A path from the gym to the front of the wood storage is clear. Nothing has been touched in the gym, so I think we’re good on the vandalism front.” He paused and looked around. “What smells so good?Holy.”
“Pizza,” said Harrison. He went to Jett and helped him out of his jacket so he could hang it up to dry. “Shower and warm up. It will be done by the time you get out.”
Arms grabbed him before he could walk away, and he grunted as Jett jumped onto his back and clung to him like a koala.
“I could think of other ways to warm up.”
