Winter Wonderland (21 page)

Chapter Eighteen

P
aul woke up in Kyle’s bed alone. Or rather, he was in the bed alone, but a pair of eyes and the tip of a nose peered at him from the edge of the bed, blinking rapidly. He tugged the sheet higher up his naked body and cleared his throat. “Good morning, Linda Kay.”

Linda Kay rose to her knees. She looked worried. “Kyle isn’t here. His car is gone.”

“What?” Paul sat up straight, wrapping the sheet around himself as he searched for his pants. “Where’d he go?”

“I don’t know.” Linda Kay seemed upset. “Mom says I’m not supposed to worry, but
I’m worried.
”

Paul relaxed a little. “Does she know where he is?”

“No, but she says Kyle has a surprise for us. Except he’s been gone
all night
.” She pursed her lips and shook a clumsy fist at him. “If your crazy family kidnapped him, there’s gonna be blood.”

It was a sign of how much better Paul was doing that he was able to smile at that. “I promise you they haven’t kidnapped him. Besides. If they tried, Kyle would punch them out. Or stick them with his knitting needles.” He ruffled her hair. “How about you let me get dressed, and we’ll go talk to your mom together. Okay?”

“Okay. But if you don’t come out in five minutes, I’m coming in with an Uzi.”

Paul was, in fact, out of the room in less than two minutes, and he let himself be led down the stairs by an anxious Linda Kay. Jane waved at him from the stove.

“Good morning, Paul. Don’t let Linda Kay worry you. Daryl went in to see what Kyle was up to, and he called me all mysterious, saying he won’t give the surprise away, but Kyle’s making a new sculpture. He worked on it all night, all by himself, in the city square. He’s still at it, apparently. We get to see it when we go for the unveiling at nine.” She motioned to the table. “Have a seat. I remember how you take your eggs.”

Linda Kay took a little mollifying, which Paul eventually solved by whispering he’d take Kyle’s place at bacon-stealing. He wasn’t terribly good at it, but luckily Jane helped him by being deliberately oblivious. They ate their breakfast together, the three of them, and while Linda Kay and Jane finished getting ready, Paul checked his messages. There was one from Marcus, assuring Paul that Dale wasn’t upset. The mayor had been over at their house until midnight doing backflips as he promised to never let anything like that happen again. Arthur had left a voicemail asking Paul if he was doing okay, and Paul replied with a text, letting his friend know he’d stayed the night at the Parks’ place and was just fine.

The ladies weren’t yet ready, so Paul wandered outside, winding through the backyard until he stood in front of Morm
or and Morfar’s house. He took deep breaths of the cold as he imagined what it would look like painted and re-shingled, with the shutters repaired and stenciled. He thought of how wonderful it would be to wake up with Kyle inside that house, to have breakfast together there, unless they went over to the main house and let Jane spoil them. Thought about Linda Kay arriving armed with the DVD of
South Pacific
, swinging on a swing on their front porch singing “Valley High” at the top of her lungs because the overflowing joy in her heart demanded it.

Thought about living in that house and building a life together with Kyle. Forever.

“Hey, you!” Linda Kay’s voice belted across the yard from the garage, and she waved frantically at Paul with a hand-knit red mitten. “Come on, slowpoke, we don’t want to miss the big show.”

Grinning, Paul hurried across the yard to ride into town and see what the fuss was all about.

A large crowd had gathered already when they arrived, but the mayor himself greeted them, hugged Paul and Jane and Linda Kay, and ushered them to the front of the crush. “I was instructed to give Kyle’s family a front-row seat. Hello there, Dale.” He waved at the developer, who lifted a scarf off the bench beside him and motioned for Paul and the women to sit.

“This is so fancy.” Jane beamed as she nodded at the huge curtain circling the square. “That whole thing is full of Kyle’s snow sculptures? Have you seen them?”

“I have. Most of them.” Paul watched the curtain, eager to see this new one. He couldn’t imagine what it might be.

Marcus and Frankie wove their way through the front-row seats and took up the tail end of their bench. Frankie hugged Paul and kissed his cheek. “Wait until you see. Kyle outdid himself this time.”

“What in the world is it?” Paul asked, unable to stand it any longer.

“Love,” Marcus replied, his voice rumbly with emotion.

Before Paul could ask what he meant by that, Gabriel and Arthur stepped out in front of the curtain. Gabriel raised a microphone and began to speak.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention.” He used his story-time voice, smiling at the townspeople the way he did children at the library, mesmerizing them with his secret librarian powers. “We’re so glad you could come out on this cold morning. We’re hoping to have quite a crowd later today, and as I see some new faces, I think some of our city’s visitors have already arrived. Welcome to you all. We hope you enjoy this grand opening and all of the first annual Winter Wonderland festival. After this ceremony the shops will open, including the coffee shop and bakery, which I suspect will be doing some very brisk business. For those of you here from neighboring towns, I want to make sure you meet our guest of honor, Mr. Dale Davidson of Davidson Incorporated. He’s interested in helping us make not only this festival but this whole valley a vibrant hub of tourism and community. Please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself to him. He wants to hear
all
your ideas.”

Gabriel sobered. “You might have heard, sadly, about a little incident last night, where a few people said some insensitive things as they barged into a planning meeting for this festival. We, the planning committee and the mayor and the city council, want you to know this isn’t something you need to worry about. We understand some people have a hard time with change and aren’t afraid to embarrass themselves in an effort to keep it from coming. We want you to know change
is
coming—in fact, it’s already here. It’s a change for the better, though. It’s a change for hope and unity and possibility. And most of all, love. That’s what this festival is about after all, isn’t it? What this season is about? One of our festival volunteers certainly thinks so. He stayed up all night to craft the centerpiece of our sculpture garden, which it is my great pleasure to reveal to you now.” He smiled at Arthur. “Darling, will you do the honors?”

Grinning, Arthur tugged on a cord at the edge of the curtain—making it crumple to the ground in a rustling heap to reveal…

Magic.

The entire audience gasped collectively, all but Paul, whose heart filled to overflowing with affection as he stared at the man in the center of the amazing sculptures.

There was the Santa and Mrs. Claus, yes. And the town library, with Gabriel in front of it, welcoming a herd of children to story time. There was his and Arthur’s fix-it shop, the two of them waving in front of it. There was the beautiful snow queen, complete with a platform where children could pose for a picture with her. There were elves and candy canes and a nativity, and a little church at the end of a lane. Every statue he’d seen Kyle working on for a week, some he’d helped him craft.

But in the center of it all was Kyle, standing proudly behind a four-foot-high snow message.

Logan is love.

He hadn’t simply carved out the letters. He’d filled each one with people. Intricate, snow-and-ice-chiseled people. Men and women, children, the elderly, the newly born. Mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers, cranky neighbors and best friends. There were couples everywhere. Men with women, women with women, men with men. There were figures who could easily be Paul’s cranky, uptight family, scowling and frowning, unaware of the same-sex couple sneaking up behind them with a smile and a warm blanket to wrap around their shoulders. The old man shaking his cane at two men snuggling on a park bench had a woman who looked a
lot
like Corrina smiling as she offered him a cup of coffee.

Love. It was twenty feet of snow and art and love.

Oh, Kyle Parks. You’re brimming head to toe with magic
.

As the crowd clapped and cheered his lover, Paul rose and navigated his way through the garden of snow, until he reached the wall of love and was able to take the man he cherished more than anything in the world into his arms. In the distance the church bells pealed, signaling the official start of the festival with the same peals they’d sound on Christmas morning.

Kyle beamed, his cheeks red with cold as Paul brought him in for a kiss. “You like it?”

“I love it.” Paul kissed him again. “I love
you
.”

Kyle’s smile turned wicked. “I hid a tiny snow penis behind the sculpture of your mother. No one will see it, but I know it’s there.”

Paul took Kyle’s face in his hands, the love overflowing and making the words tumble out of his mouth. “Kyle Parks, I really need you to marry me. As soon as possible.”

Kyle looped his arms around Paul’s neck and beamed at him. “As long as we can have the ceremony on Sandy’s birthday.”

Paul’s laugh cracked through the town square like a whip. A blissful, giddy whip. “You’ve got a deal.”

In front of everyone, Paul kissed his fiancé, sinking deep into the joyful, perfect throes of his very own Christmas happy ever after.

About the Author

Heidi Cullinan has always loved a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. She enjoys writing across many genres but loves above all to write happy, romantic endings for LGBT characters because there just aren’t enough of those stories out there. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading, knitting, listening to music, and watching television with her husband and ten-year-old daughter. Heidi is a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and is proud to be from the first Midwestern state with full marriage equality. Find out more about Heidi, including her social networks, at
www.heidicullinan.com
.

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