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

I know I should get out of bed, get dressed, go home. But it’s so comfortable here among the sheets, among Dave’s manly scent. I feel safe here. I feel loved. Again, finally. If nothing else, I want to savor that feeling, that emotion. Lord knows I haven’t felt it enough.


I pull the covers up over my body, hiding my nakedness. Not because I’m afraid Dave will look—hell, he helped me undress, and we used to be in the same P.E. class, so he’s seen all there is to see. No, it isn’t the bare flesh I’m worried about at all, but rather what’s still hidden from view. Thinking of that kiss—and his arm around me, and his tenderness this morning, and the softness in his eyes when he looks at me—thinking of that has gotten me hard, despite my hangover, and the last thing I want him to see when he comes back into the bedroom is the front of my underwear tented over morning wood. He might get the wrong idea…


Chapter 14