“Merry Christmas.”
Henry leant in to kiss him. He tasted of bubbles and happiness and Henry wanted to stay in that moment forever. Then a thought occurred to him, and his brow furrowed.
Dom smoothed out the lines with his finger. “Why the frown?”
“Should we have got each other a present?”
Dom laughed and moved his hand down to rub at the dried flakes of come on Henry’s chest. “You’ve been a bad, bad boy, Henry. No presents for you.”
“Pretty sure I’ve already got everything I wanted.” The words just slipped out, and Henry froze, hoping he hadn’t just ruined everything.
Dom’s intense gaze bored into him, and Henry took a quick sip of champagne to steady his nerves. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes.” They hadn’t known each other long if you counted in weeks, but Henry felt closer to Dom than he ever had Kyle. That gut feeling he ignored sometimes told him that this wasright.
They wereright.
And this time he was going to listen.
Dom set his glass down, so Henry did the same. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you enough to give us a chance at first.” He took Henry’s hand in his and twined their fingers.
“It’s okay.” Henry leant in and placed a soft kiss on Dom’s lips. “You had your reasons, and we got there in the end.”
“We did.” Dom chuckled then, shaking his head.
“What?”
“I was just thinking that we didn’t have a no-strings Noel after all.”
“No we didn’t.” Henry lay back down and pulled Dom with him, hands still clasped. “And I’m so fucking happy about that.”
“Me too.”
Henry fell asleep with Dom’s arm slung over his waist and Dom cuddled up behind him.
Just like he’d promised.
Epilogue
One year later
“Ican’t believe I let you talk me into this.Again,” Henry grumbled as he and Dom sidestepped their way up to the first platform on the aerial walkway.
“This was your idea. Just like it was the first time we did this.” Dom joined him on the platform and nudged him in the ribs. “And I told youbothtimes I would’ve been fine doing it on my own.”
Henry flashed him a bright smile, only a little forced, as he clung to the trunk of the tree. “I’ll be fine once I get into it.”
He so wouldn’t.
Fuck, why did I think this was a good idea?
But Henry had a plan, and where better to execute it than up in the trees fearing for his life. He rolled his eyes at himself and, taking a deep breath, prised his fingers out of their death grip on the tree.
Two youngsters skipped across the walkway in front of them, making it look easy. Of course they did, because Henry seemed destined to follow after the bravest children in the world. No hugging the tree trunks for them. Henry watched in muted horror as they leant back over the edge, laughing as their dad told them to pack it in.
“All right?” Dom asked, rubbing a hand along his back, and Henry nodded.
“Yep, never better.”
