Dakota released his hips and Tad flopped onto the sheet, where surely there was a wet spot. Just for a minute, Dakota lowered himself down so he was splayed across Tad’s back and then shut his eyes.
“Kota.”
Dakota opened his eyes.
“I need to pee, and too much longer and we’re going to be permanently stuck to the sheets.”
“Damn.” He sat up. His cock had slipped out of Tad without him realizing. “I think I fell asleep.”
“I know I did. But now I really need a shower. And we still have to decorate the tree.”
Dakota was abruptly starving. “Can we order pizza?”
Tad’s stomach rumbled in solidarity as he sat up and swung his legs to the carpet. “Oh my god, pizza sounds fucking amazing right now.”
“You shower, I’ll call it in. The usual?” Dakota asked.
“Yes. If by usual, you mean my usualandyour usual,” Tad said, heading for the bathroom.
Chuckling, Dakota followed him. It was too weird to call Gustoso and order a late dinner when he was crusty with come. After wiping himself down with a warm cloth, he padded back out to the living room to find his phone.
“One extra-large with double olives and anchovies pizza coming right up.”
“Omg, you are so disgusting, why do I love you so?”
“What’s that sound?”Tad asked, his voice was raspy with sleep.
Dakota and Tad had slept in the same bed plenty of times, but last night had been different. Because he’d finally let Tad in. Comfortably spooned behind the man in question, Dakota sighed and rolled onto his back.
“Boo. Come back, I was comfortable.”
“It’s my phone,” Dakota said. “I texted Ben about our Boone-Santa theory. He thinks we may be on to something. I mean, it’ssomethinganyway.”
Releasing a groan, Tad sat up. Their shoulders brushed, sending a pleasant shiver down Dakota’s spine. “I forgot that Ben knows Boone and all his Boone-ness. I feel kind of bad. I don’t want Boone to get in trouble, but yeah, our theory does explain why he hasn’t popped the question to Amanda yet and was at the jewelry store. If we’re right, he’s going to be in so much trouble. Mom is going to kill him.”
“Maybe he’ll have to do community service with Jordan and Nick,” Dakota said. “He’d probably rather do a thousand hours of that than face your mom.”
Or the sheriff. Sheriff Morgan was even-tempered, unless he hadn’t had his coffee, but if Boone was behind this, it might just send him over the edge.
“Also true. I’m starting to feel sorry for him. Weird.”
“He’s going to have to face Morgan and your folks, then see if Amanda forgives him. But we still don’t know for sure that he’s responsible.”
“Oh, yes, we do,” said Tad, shaking his head. “Once you put it all together, this has Boone’s name written all over it. Anyway, what does Ben say?”
Dakota read through Ben’s text. “The department apparently owns a metal detector. He’s at the station now and will get the bags out for us. If we don’t find it, we can take the detector to where the toys were dumped and see if the ring fell out there. It’s a long shot.”
Tad hopped up. “Let’s get over there!”
“Showers and coffee first.”
“Shower—singular—and travel mugs.”
“Fine,” Dakota said with a laughing sigh. “But why do I think a shower together might take us longer?”
“The key word here ismight,” Tad said as he headed toward the bathroom.
“You were right. Don’t gloat.”Tad grabbed his keys and messenger bag off the kitchen counter. “Let’s go.”
