Six months after his wife leaves him, Bob Jansen finds himself spending the holidays with his parents in the town where he grew up. With him is his seven year old daughter, Jenna, who sometimes seems to be handling her mother's absence better than Bob is himself. But he's worried that, in her letter to Santa, Jenna has asked the jolly old elf for something Bob knows he can't pull off. He's afraid she wants her mother back for the holiday.<br><br>While shopping for his daughter's Christmas presents, Bob runs into Dave Knarr, an old friend. They used to be best buds in high school, before Julia, Bob's soon-to-be ex-wife, came between them. The two men catch up over drinks, and before the evening ends, Dave makes his real feelings for Bob known.<br><br>If Bob is shocked to learn Dave has always been attracted to him, he's more surprised by his own reaction. Even if he's willing to take another shot at romance, what will his daughter think of his old friend?

A Present for Daddy

They click off, leaving me momentarily disoriented. I hear a car door open, then a man calls, “Didn’t you see me trying to get your attention back there?”


My hand curls around my cell. “Where, at the light?”


Coming closer, the man grabs my free hand and pulls me into a one-armed hug. “Holy hell, Bobby Jansen all grown up.”


I recognize the voice—not just the words from the bear this afternoon but the voice, it rushes at me from my past and whatever apprehension I had disappears in a surprised laugh. “Fuck, DaveKnarr? That’s not you, is it?”


The arm around my shoulders tightens and Dave laughs. “Who else would it be? And you just blew me off—”


“I thought you were some crazy, road-rage redneck!” I step back but he still holds my hand in his, so I shake it over and over again like a politician.


Dave laughs, a booming sound I remember vividly. “I was! I was all like damn fucker, going so slow. Then I get to the light and I looked over and shit, it’s you!”


Chapter 6