Christmas Perfection
“ You hate me, don’t you?”
Stunned, Derek looked up from his study of his morning coffee and turned his attention to his lover. Sky was up to his elbow in the largest turkey that Derek had ever seen. His brown hair was a mess and his brown eyes were snapping. Derek was fairly certain that no one should look that hot stuffing a turkey. “Sorry, babe, what did you say?”
“You hate me, don’t you?”
“No, I love you. Why would you think that?”
“Do you want your family to stop liking me?”
“No.”
“Then why the fuck am I cooking Christmas dinner for your family and mine? I mean, seriously, why would you want to put your nice, normal family through the horror of spending the holiday with mine?” There was a slightly plaintive note to Sky’s voice. He pulled his arm out of the turkey with a faint slurping sound and grabbed more stuffing out of the pan by his elbow.
“I happen to like your family, babe. Your mother is really nice.” Derek smiled at his coffee. “She makes me cookies.”
Sky snorted. “My mother is a hippie who named me Skylark and she’s bringing her new girlfriend to dinner. At least she didn’t make you ‘special’ brownies.”
“Your mother has a new girlfriend?” Derek’s eyes widened as the second half of Sky’s comment sank in. “Wait, special brownies? When did your mother make you special brownies?”
“I was in the third grade. She didn’t do it on purpose. She gave me the wrong pan to take to school.”
“That must have been an interesting time. Now, tell me all about the woman your mother is bringing to Christmas dinner.”
“Well, she’s…” Sky trailed off. “Not the point, Derek!”
“What does she look like? What’s her name?”
“My God, Derek, you are so lucky I have my hand up a turkey’s ass.”
“There are better things you could be doing with your hands.” Derek leered at his lover’s back. His eyes traveled down the T-shirt clad back to rest on the round and perky ass encased in pajama pants.
“The only reason I’m not throwing this thing at you is because it weighs twenty-six pounds and then we would have nothing to eat.” Sky shot him a dirty look over his shoulder and went back to stuffing the turkey.
Smothering a grin, Derek pushed away from the table and walked over to his agitated lover. He wrapped his arms around a trim waist, rested his chin on the thin shoulder, tucked a strand of brown hair behind a ridiculously cute ear and pressed a soft kiss to Sky’s cheek. “Calm down, pretty boy. Everything will be fine.”
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.” Sky sounded disgruntled, but he was starting to relax in Derek’s arms.
“No, I believe it.” Derek gave Sky’s neck a nip. “Plus, I don’t want you to ruin the food.” He danced away from Sky before his lover could swat him.
“How did I let you talk me into cooking Christmas dinner for fifteen people?” Sky glanced away from stuffing the turkey long enough to give Derek a half-hearted glare. “Not only that, but Christmas dinner in our brand new house that we’ve only had for six months.”
“I asked you during sex. You say yes to anything I ask you during sex.”
“I get in a lot of trouble that way.”
Derek grinned at Sky as he headed over to the fridge. Passing the counter, he noticed what he thought were stuffing ingredients. “Hey babe?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you putting in the turkey?”
“Stuffing.”
“Did you forget this stuff over here?”
“No. That’s for the other stuffing.”
Other stuffing? Okay, that’s a little odd. “You’re making more than one stuffing?”
“Katie refuses to eat anything that once had a face, and that includes food that has been inside something that once had a face. So, she gets her own stuffing.”
“Isn’t Katie nine?”
“Yep.”
“And she’s decided to not eat meat?”
“Yep.”
“And your sister is okay with
Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers