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Evan Buckley hates Christmas Eve. Not Christmas - Christmas is his and Maddie’s. He loves Christmas. Christmas Eve, though, belongs to his parents, and they use it to parade him and Maddie around Pennsylvania’s richest and most irritating. At least this year Doug’s gone. It’s just him and Maddie again, and for that, he’s grateful.
As he surveys the room, Maddie sidles up next to him. She’s beautiful, dressed in a stunning green velvet dress and the sort of delicate gold jewelry that their mom never thinks is enough for this sort of party.
“You ready for this?” Maddie asks softly.
Buck frowns. Ready to be shown off, like he’s an object to display? Or ready to go back to being nothing when it’s all over. He pastes on his trademark, winning smile.
“Aren’t I always?”
Maddie’s eyes go a little sad. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” she says.
Buck shakes his head. “I don’t know what you mean,” he says, voice deliberately neutral.
“Just… come find me when the party starts, okay?” Maddie says. “I’m going to go make sure catering has everything they need.”
Buck nods and watches her go, suppressing the sigh that threatens to escape his chest.
He’ll be fine. Christmas Eve just… isn’t his thing.
Not for the first time, Eddie wonders what the hell he’s doing here. He hands the keys to his truck to the valet, who looks vaguely disappointed not to be driving another Lamborghini.
Chimney lets out a whistle. “How the hell did Hen and Karen swing these tickets?” he wonders.
“And why the hell did they give them to us?” Eddie mutters.
Chim slaps his shoulder. “Lighten up, Diaz. You promised to have fun.”
Eddie did no such thing, but he keeps his mouth shut.
They step through the doors into the ballroom, and Eddie tries to keep his jaw from dropping. The party’s already in full swing, and the best word Eddie can think of to describe it is opulent . The chandeliers hanging from the thirty foot ceilings drip with crystals, outshone only by the sparkling Christmas tree in the center of the room.
“Wow,” Chimney says.
Eddie’s about to agree when he realizes that he’s not looking at the decor. Across the room is a beautiful brunette woman in a green dress, and Chimney’s clearly enamoured. Eddie smiles.
“Go talk to her,” he says, nudging him with his elbow.
Chimney frowns doubtfully at him. “Are you going to be okay on your own?”
Eddie shakes his head and laughs. “I’ll be fine. Go!”
Chim smiles brightly and hightails it across the room. And okay, sure, Eddie doesn’t actually want to be on his own at this fancy party, but Chimney deserves to meet someone. He’s spent more than enough time getting over Tatiana.
He waits long enough to watch the conversation begin to flow between Chimney and the mystery woman, then heads to the bar. He’s out of his depth, sure, but a bar’s a bar.
Eddie fiddles with his cufflinks as he waits for the bartender. They’re silver, and he rarely wears them, but for this occasion he figures they’re warranted. They were a gift from Shannon, the day Christopher was born, embossed with the image of the saint that shares his name.
It makes him want to be home, but he did promise Hen he’d at least stay an hour, and Christopher is asleep anyway, so he resolves to ignore the feeling as best as he can.
He finally catches the bartender’s attention and hesitates only a second before ordering their top shelf scotch, neat. Usually Eddie’s more of a beer kind of guy, but hell, if they’re serving Macallan 18 for free, he’s not going to turn it down.
“Good taste,” a man with a low gravelly voice says, stepping up next to Eddie at the bar.
Eddie casts an appraising glance in his direction and has to stop himself from doing a double take. The man beside him is stunning. He’s dressed in a maroon velvet coat that beautifully offsets the blue of his eyes.
“Good selection,” Eddie replies, tipping his glass towards the man.
He’s rewarded with a warm chuckle and a half smile that Eddie has a hard time tearing his gaze away from.
“He is so cute!” Maddie exclaims, tugging on Buck’s arm.
He follows her gaze, only to find himself looking at the most attractive man he’s ever seen. He has dark hair with even darker eyes that shine under the sparkling lights. He wears a sinfully tailored midnight blue jacket that Buck can just imagine pulling from his shoulders.
Cute isn’t the word he’d use. “Wow,” he says breathlessly.
“He’s coming over here!” Maddie says, slapping his shoulder excitedly.
Buck frowns. “He’s not-”
Maddie bites her lip and smiles softly. She’s not, Buck realizes, looking at the man he’d noticed, but rather at his similarly handsome companion who is, indeed, making his way through the crowd towards them.
“I love you, but go somewhere else, please,” Maddie says, not looking away from the man.
Buck chuckles good-naturedly. “Have fun,” he says, allowing himself to be pulled away in the currents of the crowd.
He notices, not much later, that the man in the blue jacket is now at the bar, alone. And, well, that simply won’t do.
The man is charming and attractive, and Eddie isn’t here to hook up, but he can’t help the way he’s drawn to the man like a planet orbiting a star.
He introduces himself as Buck, and before Eddie can return the favor launches into the cheesiest pick up line Eddie’s ever heard. It makes Eddie laugh, and when he does Buck’s expression erupts into a breathtaking smile.
It’s the kind of smile that Eddie thinks could be very dangerous.
He wants to kiss it off Buck’s face.
It gets worse though, because he’s not just funny, he’s kind and he’s smart, and when Eddie mentions Christopher he grins and tells him shyly that he loves kids.
So when Buck offers his hand and suggests that they dance, Eddie has no problem following him out of the ballroom. There’s more than one way to tango, and Eddie figures he’s had just enough liquid courage to try something new.
Buck pulls the handsome stranger into the hall behind the ballroom and slips his hands beneath that stunning blue jacket, just like he’s wanted to since the minute he saw it. Maybe, he thinks, sliding his fingers along the man’s waist, Christmas Eve isn’t so bad after all. He pulls the man flush against him, nosing at his jaw, and presses a kiss against his fluttering pulse point.
The man twines his fingers in Buck’s hair and tugs lightly, drawing a harsh gasp from Buck’s chest.
“You- you want to take this somewhere a little more private,” Buck pants.
“ Yes ,” the man says hungrily. Buck should really get his name at some point.
He pulls him farther into the manor, allowing his hands to roam as they go. Buck wants to touch this man everywhere . Thankfully, he seems amenable.
Buck sheds his jacket as they tumble into his bedroom, wrapping his fingers in the man’s lapels.
“Want this off,” Buck says, nipping at the bolt of the man’s jaw.
He shrugs his shoulders back, and the jacket hits the floor with a clink .
The man lifts his hand to cradle Buck’s jaw, impossibly gentle, and looks him in the eye.
“I’d like to kiss you now,” he says.
And well, who’s Buck to argue with that.
Eddie lips are a hairsbreadth from Buck’s when his phone rings. It’s on Do Not Disturb for everyone except Pepa, his abuela and his captain, none of whom would call him if it wasn’t an emergency.
“I’m sorry,” he says, stepping back and pulling the phone from his pocket. “Abuela?” he answers.
“Eddito, I’m sorry to call, but Christopher-”
“What happened? Is he okay?” Eddie cuts her off.
“He had a nightmare, and he’s asking for you.”
“I’m on my way, okay? I’ll be home in fifteen minutes.”
He hangs up the phone and turns back to Buck, who’s already holding out his jacket. “I really am sorry,” Eddie says regretfully. “But I have to go.”
Buck smiles sadly. “It’s okay,” he says. “Drive safe. I hope everything’s okay.”
The man practically flees the party, and it’s only when he’s gone that Buck realizes he has no name, no phone number, no way to find him again. That tracks, he thinks.
It’s stupid, to have gotten so invested, so fast. Buck doesn’t even know the man’s name. Something about him, though, felt different. Like maybe he and Buck were meant to find each other. Like fate, or the universe, maybe.
Obviously he was wrong, though, because the man is gone and Buck’s standing alone with no jacket and a rumpled tie.
He goes back to the party.
Yeah, Christmas Eve sucks.
Eddie dreams of blue eyes and strong hands and wakes on Christmas morning thinking of Buck. Buck and his cheesy pick up lines, Buck and his charming smile, Buck and that nervous way he ducks his head and looks up through his eyelashes, Buck.
It’s ridiculous. He doesn’t know the man. He doesn’t know where he’s from, what he does for a living - hell, he doesn’t even know his last name.
He finds himself wishing he knew more. To start, Buck’s phone number. Also, though, everything about him, from the way he takes his coffee to the make up of his dreams.
He pushes it all down, though, because it’s Christmas and he’s got a kid to make happy and a party to attend at Hen’s in the afternoon. He hears Christopher shuffling in the next room and smiles.
“Dad! It’s Christmas!”
Buck wakes with a massive hangover, and without a blanket. He shivers and reaches blindly for his comforter, but it must be on the floor because his bed is bare. Buck groans and pulls himself out of bed, cursing when he steps on something sharp.
“Fuck,” he mumbles, blearily blinking his eyes open.
His comforter is, inexplicably, on the other side of the room. On the ground is a small silver object, entirely unfamiliar. Buck picks it up and realizes it’s a cufflink, though not one of his. He frowns and places it on his bedside table, then gets out of bed and grabs his comforter off the floor.
Buck’s gaze falls to the cufflink again, and he wonders where it came from. He’s just about to crawl back in bed when it hits him.
His mystery man.
Buck has to find him.
He grabs the cufflink and stumbles into the hallway, practically running to Maddie’s room.
“You have to help me,” he says, barrelling through the door.
“Knock-knock, come in! Merry Christmas, Maddie. Merry Christmas to you, too, Buck,” Maddie says, grinning despite herself.
Buck rolls his eyes and smiles. “Merry Christmas, Maddie, you have to help me.”
Maddie pats the bed next to her, and Buck sits. “What’s wrong?” she asks.
“Not wrong, exactly,” Buck replies. He tells her about the man, leaving out a few of the more risque details, and shows her the cufflink. “I have to return it,” he says.
Maddie’s eyes sparkle. “Are you sure that’s all you want?”
Buck blushes. “He didn’t even tell me his name, Mads. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to see me again. I still need to give it back, though. It’s my fault he lost it.”
Maddie smiles a little sadly and pats him on the knee. “Come on, I’ve got the guest list somewhere. We’ll find him.”
They’re lucky, in a way. The party was a charity event, so they’ve got addresses for everyone who’d purchased a ticket. They mark out every person they’re sure isn’t Buck’s mystery man, and it leaves them with a list of twenty-six families.
Buck scans the list. None of the last names scream his mystery man, but who knows. He could be a McKinney, or a Fitzpatrick.
“Go get dressed,” Maddie orders, pushing him out of her bed. “Let’s find your man.”
Eddie’s distracted, and he knows the others have noticed. He’s surrounded by his family, of both blood and choice, but his mind is a million miles away. Or, more accurately, about fifteen miles away, at a makeshift bar in an opulent ballroom.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Hen asks him, settling beside him on the couch.
Eddie watches Christopher, Denny and Harry as they play a game called- concerningly- Exploding Kittens on the floor. “I met someone last night,” he says softly.
“That’s a good thing, right?”
Eddie shakes his head. “Maybe? I don’t know. I haven’t really dated since Shannon, except for Ana, and we both know how that ended. Besides, I had to leave in a rush. I didn’t even get his number.”
“It’s a good thing,” Hen says decisively, patting him on the knee. “Even if it doesn’t go anywhere, you put yourself out there. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks,” Eddie sighs. “I just wish…”
“What?” Hen prompts.
“I wish I could see him again.”
“You got his name, right? Maybe we could contact the organizers and they could pass along a message.”
“Maybe,” Eddie says. He looks down. In the moment, everything with Buck had felt magical. Now, though… maybe it’s for the best. He’s not built for romance or relationships. If he doesn’t find Buck, he won’t taint the memory. The idea of never seeing him again, though - the ache of that surprises him, intense in a way that longing shouldn’t be after a single night with someone.
The doorbell rings and Hen stands. “Just think about it,” she says kindly.
A few seconds later, she opens the door and Eddie hears a familiar voice.
“-not going to be here, Maddie, it’s the last house. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Buck,” Eddie breathes, standing. He drifts towards the door without meaning to, pulled as if by a magnet.
“Hi,” a woman says. “My name’s Maddie, and this is my brother, Evan.”
“Buck,” Buck interjects.
“We’re looking for someone Buck met last night at our parents’ holiday gala? He lost a cufflink, and Buck wants to return it.”
Eddie’s brow furrows. He hadn’t even noticed the cufflink missing, but if Buck’s here… Eddie steps into the front hall.
Buck’s eyes find his immediately. His mouth drops open and his lips curl into a small smile. “Hi,” he says softly.
“Hi,” Eddie replies.
Distantly, Eddie notices Hen lead Maddie further inside, leaving him and Buck, nothing but the door’s threshold between them.
“Hi,” Buck says again.
Eddie laughs, a soft, light noise that he probably hasn’t made since before Shannon died. “You already said that,” Eddie points out.
Buck blushes a pretty pink, then sticks out his hand. “You, uh, you lost this,” he says.
Eddie takes the cufflink and tucks it in his pocket. “Thanks,” he says, ducking his head. “Do you want to come in?” he asks.
Buck bites his lip and shakes his head. “I don’t want to bother you,” he says, looking away.
Eddie realizes suddenly that, for all his bravado last night, Buck is nervous, too. Eddie reaches out and wraps his fingers around Buck’s wrist. “Please come in?” He asks, catching Buck’s gaze and holding it.
Buck smiles that brilliant grin of his, and Eddie knows he’s done the right thing. “Yeah?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Eddie confirms. “One thing first, though?”
Buck looks nervous all over again. “What?”
“I still owe you a kiss.”
The corners of Buck’s lips tick up. “Well, we can’t have that,” he says, stepping across the threshold.
Eddie fits his free hand against Buck’s waist and pulls him close, shivering when Buck’s arms come to rest on his shoulders. He leans in slowly, giving Buck every chance back away. Buck closes the distance, and when their lips finally meet, it feels like the beginning of something. A forever kind of kiss.
And maybe it’s too early to say, but as Eddie pulls the door shut behind Buck and leads him to the rest of his family, he’s pretty sure that they’re going to live happily ever after.
The End.