Page 60 of The Christmas Accomplice

Chapter 16

“Tell him it was my idea. Let me take the blame for it.”

Welton waved a hand behind him, trying to fend Dean off. It didn’t do any good. Dean continued to follow him along the path, talking a mile a minute. His voice hammered against the mental walls Welton was trying to put up, denting them, cracking them. Dammit, why couldn’t Dean just go away for a while and allow him to retreat? Allow him to pull inside himself and let him wallow in guilt and self-pity?

He’d ruined everything. Things with Reece had been amazing, and it had all blown up in a matter of seconds. His chest felt hollow, like a gaping maw had swallowed his heart and other organs, leaving behind cold empty air. What could he do? He’d lied, there was no denying that. A simple apology seemed grossly inadequate. At that moment, he couldn’t see any way to fix things between him and Reece.

And I’d been falling for him pretty hard.

A fresh round of tears blurred his vision. Welton pulled off his glasses and pressed the knuckle of his glove into each eye to sop them up. He would get into the cabin and lay in bed for the rest of the trip. He had two days left. It would be a nice change to be able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day lying in bed instead of running to fit in gatherings with family and friends.

Plus, if he stayed in bed, he wouldn’t have to risk running into Reece. That hard, cold stare from across the lobby had been burned into the front of his mind. He hated that he’d seen it; hated worse that he’d been the cause of it. If he could do it all over again, he’d definitely do things differently. He would have admitted his and Dean’s relationship right from the start and explained about the misunderstanding over who would take the trip.

And tell Reece how much you really care for him?

Well, maybe he wouldn’t go that far.

Welton opened the cabin door with a swipe of the keycard. Dean had gone silent the last stretch of pathway, and Welton hoped it meant he’d turned around and headed back for the main building to give him some time on his own. Alas, that wasn’t the case. Dean came through the door behind him before it had a chance to close.

“Let’s talk about this,” Dean said.

“I don’t want to. There’s nothing to talk about. Reece overheard us and knows I lied to him. It’s over. End of discussion.”

“But you can try to fix it.”

“You didn’t see the glare I received across the lobby. He doesn’t want to talk to me. It’s over. I just need to accept that, live through the last two days here, and go home and forget all about him and this place.”

“So, you’re just giving up?”

Welton slid his coat off and threw his arms in the air in mock surrender. “What do you want me to do? Go back and beg him? He doesn’t want to see me. He’s too angry with me right now.”

“Don’t shut down,” Dean said, taking a step closer. “Please don’t revert back to the silent sufferer you used to be. I was so happy to see you acting differently when I showed up here. How can we get you back to that version of Welton? You were talking and sharing feelings and listening without looking like you wanted to run from the room.”

“Well, I did want to run from the room,” Welton said. “I just managed to conceal it better than I used to.”

“Like you are now?”

“No. I’m completely reverting now, so I’m going upstairs and get in bed and cry myself to sleep.” Welton headed for the stairs. “Merry Christmas.”

“This may be your only chance at happiness, and you’re throwing it away.”

That stopped Welton with his foot on the bottom riser. He glared over his shoulder. “You’re not going to change my mind.”

“What if you thought about this like Dungeons and Dragons?”

“You can’t do that,” Welton said, turning from the stairs and taking a couple of steps toward him. “You can’t start bringing up my interests and the things I love to do and use them to try and manipulate me into doing what you want me to do.”

“Okay, that was a lot of words, and I only listened to half of them because I was thinking about it. But what if we could frame it like a quest? What if Reece needs your protection and he’s refusing you? How would you get him to hear you out?”

Welton crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. “I’d roll a d20 to find out my damage from his icy stare and deadly silence.”

“Cute. Come on, work with me a bit here.”

“Why are you so invested in my love life all of a sudden? You didn’t care this much about it or my feelings when we were a couple.”

Dean looked hurt. “That’s not fair. I cared about you. A lot. I still do, dammit. But you never let me in. It was like you were afraid you only had so much energy for joking and fun and saved it up to use with your friends instead of me.”

That really hit home. Welton took a step back, his heels bumping against the bottom step. His face went numb and before he realized it, tears ran down his cheeks. Whoever had started the phrase “the truth hurts” really knew what they were talking about.