Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Buck first drives into Pine Creek, he doesn’t know yet that one day, he’ll wonder if it was fate that got him here at this exact point in time: at 10pm, after he’s already driven for almost 10 hours today, the motor of his jeep starts making an odd sputtering noise just outside the town limits. It’s pitch black outside and started snowing about half an hour ago, the road so quiet that it’s covered in a thin white layer in front of him. So when he passes the sign saying “Welcome to Pine Creek, Colorado”, he breathes a sigh of relief. Clearly it’s time for a break, for both him and his jeep.

He’s not running or anything – but being broken up with by the first woman he loved and realizing that he definitely doesn’t want to be a Navy SEAL in the same week means he wants to put some space between himself and California. 

So last week, after he dropped Abby off at the airport, where she told him she doesn’t want him to wait for her, Buck grabbed what little stuff he owns and started driving. He stopped in LA for a few days, but didn’t last very long there either. He doesn’t have a plan for where he’s going, but it’s not like he forgot what this life is like in the four months he spent in San Diego. He’ll find a place to stay and work for a while, he always does. 

For tonight, it’s gonna have to be this small town in the middle of nowhere, high up in the Rocky Mountains.

He drives along the main road, past a grocery store, a library, a brick building marked “City Hall”, a diner, a coffee shop and an inn, which seems to make up the town center. He pulls over to the side of the road to check Google Maps. Apparently, there’s a Target, a Lowe’s, a gas station, a Chipotle and a McDonald’s at the edge of the town, and they seem to have an elementary school, a church and a park, but that’s pretty much it. There’s a mechanic, thank god, but it’s obviously closed this time of night – and no motel. There are some more skiing lodges outside of town, but Buck doesn’t want to end up stranded by the side of the road if he overestimates what his jeep is still up for. He sighs, and looks over his shoulder at the inn he just passed. Hopefully, they have a vacancy, and hopefully a night there won’t stretch his budget too much. He hopes that whatever is wrong with his jeep isn’t serious, but he’d rather not spend too much money on accommodation when it should be going to his car.

He makes a U-turn and parks the jeep in a free parking space right below the big “Pine Creek Inn” sign. The building looks well taken care of, natural stone and wood accents making the façade more interesting. There’s a light on the porch, and in the lobby as well, so Buck gets out of the car, grabs one of his bags, and walks up the steps to the entry.

The lobby is warm and looks even nicer than the outside, thoughtfully decorated, cozy and welcoming, but it’s completely empty, and no one is at the reception desk either.

Buck goes up to it anyway, and finds a small sign telling him to ring the bell if no one is there, so he does, as carefully as possible. 

He waits until a door behind the desk opens, revealing a woman with a shaved head and big glasses, giving him a smile.

“Hi, sorry,” she says. “The couch back there is more comfortable. Welcome to Pine Creek Inn, I’m Hen, how can I help you?”

“Hi,” Buck replies with a smile, instantly taken by her. “I’m Buck.” Connor and the guys gave him the nickname in Peru, and it stuck, he’s been going by it ever since. “I was hoping you had a vacancy for tonight?”

“It’s just you?” Hen asks, already looking at her computer screen.

“Yeah, just me.”

“Sure, yeah, we have a couple of single rooms left.”

“Um,” Buck starts, uncomfortably. “How much, uh, how much is the cheapest one?”

Hen gives him a scrutinizing look, but it doesn’t feel judgemental. “It’s 80$, including breakfast.”

Buck is pretty sure she just made that up, especially considering ski season must have started in some resorts already, and he’s pretty sure they’re not that far from one. Granted, it’s only early November, but some of the other cars in the parking lot definitely looked like they could be here for a skiing vacation.

“Thank you,” he says earnestly, and she gives him a warm smile.

“Of course.” She slides a form across the counter for him. “Just fill this out and show me your ID, and we’re good to go.”

Buck does, and takes the key she hands him with a grateful smile.

“Oh, hey, do you know if there’s a mechanic in town?” he asks, just in case whoever’s at this desk tomorrow morning isn’t as nice. “My car was starting to sound weird, and I think someone should take a look at it before I keep driving.”

“Yeah, you don’t want to break down outside of a town in this weather,” she says, nodding towards the window through which they can still see the snow coming down. “Come see me tomorrow morning, and I’ll give him a call for you, I know him well.”

“Thanks so much,” Buck says again, and Hen smiles. “So you’ll be working tomorrow, too?”

“Well, I own this place,” Hen says with a shrug. “So I’m pretty much always here.”

“Oh! Okay, then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you, Buck,” Hen smiles. “And goodnight.”

“You too!” Buck calls, heading in the direction she pointed him in earlier.

His room is on the second floor, small and with a view of the parking lot, but it’s clean and has its own bathroom, so he’s more than happy with it.

He takes a quick shower and then slips under the covers of the surprisingly comfortable bed, and he’s pretty sure he’s asleep before his head hits the pillow.

The morning greets him with the particular bright light that only a thick cover of snow can create, and Buck rubs at his eyes. It’s been a while since he’s seen this kind of weather. He left Big Sky Country before it could get really cold, and then went all the way to Peru to flee the cold in Oregon. From there, he followed Connor to LA, but once he realized that he would never really fit in with these guys (and that Connor would never be interested in anything serious, at least not with him), he moved to San Diego to join the Navy SEALs. And well, that got him here, eventually.

Which makes this the first time he’s seen real snow since he left Pennsylvania, and that’s not something he wants to dwell on, so Buck sits up and swings his legs over the edge of the bed.

Downstairs, the breakfast room is just as lovingly decorated as the lobby, and the buffet is small, but very tasty.

After breakfast, he goes to find Hen, but instead of her, there’s another woman at the front desk, wearing a flowy dress and a name tag saying “Karen”. Her smile is just as warm as Hen’s.

“Uh, hi,” Buck says. “I’m, uh, looking for Hen? I talked to her last night–”

“Oh, you must be Buck,” Karen interrupts him, her smile growing. “I’m Karen, it’s nice to meet you.” Over her shoulder, she calls, “Hen! He’s here!”, and then turns back to Buck. “Sorry, she told me you were coming already. What brings you to Pine Creek?”

“Oh, I’m just passing through,” Buck answers.

“For which you need a working car,” says Hen, who’s bursting through the door behind Karen, a piece of paper in her hand. Her other hand settles on Karen’s shoulder. “I see you’ve met my wife already.”

Buck had no idea they were married, obviously, but tries not to look surprised. “Thank you both so much for letting me stay here, it’s a beautiful place.”

“Thank you,” Karen says, one hand pressed to her chest. “We’re always happy to help out the people who get stranded around here, if we can.”

“Does it happen a lot?” Buck asks.

“In the winter, yes. You’d be surprised how many people can’t drive in the snow.”

Buck laughs. “Well, I’ve mostly lived in LA and San Diego this year, so I can imagine.”

“We’re actually from LA!” Hen exclaims. “I was born and raised in Inglewood. Angelenos can’t even drive in the rain, who knows what they’d do if it ever snowed there.”

“That’s a long drive, though,” Karen says. “Where did you say you were going?”

“I don’t really know yet,” Buck admits. “Wherever the road takes me, I guess.”

“Well, I called our town mechanic and told him you were coming and to be nice to you, hopefully he can help get you there,” Hen says, handing him the note in her hand. “His name is Tommy, this is his address.”

“Thanks,” Buck says. “Is– is he not always nice?”

Hen laughs. “He’s an alright guy, don’t worry.”

Only half reassured, Buck leaves them at the inn and frees his jeep from the snow that’s fallen overnight. It takes a few tries for the engine to start, but eventually, he gets the car on the road and three streets over to the address Hen gave him.

Tommy, the mechanic, is a handsome guy and significantly less warm than Hen and Karen, but he lets Buck look over his shoulder while he checks out the jeep, and explains to him in detail what is wrong and what he needs to fix it.

“I don’t have all the parts here,” he explains, “but I’ll call the garage one town over, and if they don’t have them either, I can order them.”

Buck leaves his number with Tommy, who promises to call him as soon as he knows more, and walks back towards the inn. Most of the sidewalks are cleared from the snow, the air is clear and cold, and the clouds are letting the sun peek through every now and then, so it actually feels really good to be outside. 

Buck's wearing his sherpa jacket over a hoodie and a pair of sneakers, which is fine while he’s moving, but he can already tell that none of the clothes he owns are really made for this kind of weather.

He hopes Tommy can fix his car quickly.

He passes the diner and the coffee shop again, both open now as opposed to last night, and they look nice, from what he can tell. If he ends up having to spend another night here, at least he’ll get something to eat.

Back at the inn, Karen is still at the reception desk.

“How’d it go?” she asks him, and Buck shrugs.

“I don’t know yet, Tommy said he’d call when he knows how long it’ll take for him to get the parts he needs for the repair. Sorry – you probably need me to check out as soon as possible, I can–”

“Nonsense,” Karen interrupts him. “The room is free all week, so we’re in no rush to throw you out on the street. You can check out whenever you want.”

“Thank you, Karen,” Buck says, for what feels like the hundredth time. “You and Hen are being so nice to me, it means a lot.”

“You don’t have to thank us, this is our job,” Karen smiles. “And, please don’t take this personally, but you seem a little like you need some taking care of.”

“How do you mean?” Buck asks. He doesn’t think he or the jeep look that bad, actually.

“Well, you just seem…sad. Lost.”

“Oh.” Buck drops his head, looking down at the scuffed, wet tips of his white sneakers. “I– my girlfriend just left me, so uh. I guess that makes sense.”

“I’m so sorry,” Karen says, reaching over the counter to squeeze his arm. “And I’m sorry for being nosy, if you didn’t want to share that with a near stranger.”

“No, it’s–” Buck hesitates, then looks up at her with a small smile. “It’s okay. It’s kind of nice, actually. I haven’t really talked to anyone about it yet.”

“Well, if you’re still here around lunch, Hen and I would love to take you to Bobby’s diner,” Karen offers. “And we can talk some more, about whatever you like.”

“That would be great,” Buck says, “thank you so much.”

She tuts. “Stop thanking me. It’s our pleasure.”

Buck salutes her with two fingers, making her laugh, and heads back to his room to get out of his shoes. The melting snow is starting to soak his socks, and it’s getting uncomfortable.

Tommy calls him right before lunch, and he doesn’t have good news. 

“He said it could take two to three days until the parts arrive,” he tells Hen and Karen while they shrug on their coats to head over to the diner.

“You’re more than welcome to stay that long. Actually,” Hen exchanges a look with her wife, “we were thinking, since you might be stuck here with nothing to do for a few days – if you’d be willing to help us out with some small jobs around the inn, we could let you stay for free.”

Buck stops walking. “Are you serious?”

“Only if you want to,” Karen hurries to say. “We don’t want to offend you, but you’d be helping us out, too.”

“I mean,” Buck says. “That would be great, actually. I– I have money, but I don’t really know yet when I’ll get paid next, so saving some of it would, uh, be nice.”

“Perfect,” Karen says, squeezing his arm. Hen holds the door to the diner open for them, and Buck is hit with the warmth and mouth-watering smell from inside.

They find a free table, and it doesn’t take long until a woman walks up to them with three menus.

“Madam Mayor,” Hen crows in a way that tells Buck she knows the woman (the mayor?) very well, “you, serving us? What an honor.”

“Hey, Hen,” the woman says with an eye roll, and then smiles at Karen. “Hey, Karen, good to see you. And who’s this?”

“This is Buck, he’s staying at the inn until his car is fixed. Buck, this is Athena, she’s Pine Creek’s mayor.”

“Nice to meet you,” Buck says politely, and Athena smiles at him.

“You’re in good hands with these two,” she says, nodding towards Hen and Karen. “How long are you here for?”

“Two or three days, probably. Tommy had to order some parts.”

“Well then, welcome to Pine Creek. I’ll let y’all look at the menu for a few minutes.”

“Why does the mayor work at a diner?” Buck whispers once she’s turned around, and Hen grins.

“Well, technically she and her husband – Bobby – own it together. Sometimes she still helps out, when she can make the time.”

To Buck, that seems like a cooler way to be a mayor than holing up in an office and talking at people rather than to them. The menu is cool too, diner classics but with a twist, and a lot of healthier options too.

Hen and Karen have some recommendations but insist that everything Bobby cooks is great, and also keep waving and smiling at people passing outside the window.

“Does everyone know each other around here?” Buck asks, after they’ve placed their orders. “I mean, I’m from a small town, but this one…How many people even live in Pine Creek?”

“Just over a thousand, I think,” Karen says. “1,015 or so? So not quite everyone, but we know each other around here.”

“What’s it like, living in a small town like this when you grew up in LA?”

“Very different,” Hen laughs. “But I love it. Karen inherited the inn from her great aunt, because she used to spend every vacation here when she was a kid, and we weren’t even sure we were gonna keep it, but we just fell in love with the inn and the town.”

“I loved it here as a kid,” Karen adds. “So I liked the idea of raising our son Denny out here, too. This is a great place for a kid to grow up, fresh air, peaceful and neighborly and walkable in a way that LA isn’t.” She gestures towards one of the large windows and the view beyond it. “The nature out here is incredible, and we still have everything we need nearby, you know? The next town over is a little bigger and has some more stores, a cinema, a pool, that kind of stuff. And the county seat is only half an hour away, we can get pretty much anything there. Even Denver is just an hour and a half drive from here.”

“That does sound nice,” Buck agrees.

“We were worried at first, of course,” Hen continues. “Two Black lesbians, that can’t be too common around here. But everyone was so welcoming, and in all our seven years here, we haven’t regretted it once.”

“Last year, Hen’s mom and her husband moved out here, too, so we’ve got all the support we could hope for.”

“That sounds great,” Buck says, and it comes out sounding wistful.

“So what about you?” Hen asks. “If you’re from a small town, how did you end up in LA and San Diego? And why did you leave?”

Buck spreads his hands out flat on the table, looking down at them rather than at Hen and Karen. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“You don’t have to tell us anything,” Karen reassures him, and Buck smiles up at her for a second before looking back down.

“No, I’ll tell you.” No one’s ever genuinely wanted to know, and Hen and Karen have been so open with him about their own life – it makes him feel safe.

So he tells them in rough strokes about leaving home to get away from his parents who never really seemed to care anyway, about his travels and jobs along the east coast and then across the country, his stint as a bartender in Peru, and about following a group of people he met there to LA.

“And I liked it there, but after a while I started feeling like I still wasn’t where I was supposed to be, and I realized that I didn’t have that much in common with the people I was living with. But I’ve always loved the ocean, and I figured since I was this close, I could try out for the SEALs. Passed the physical exam and moved to San Diego, where I fell in love with an amazing woman, and I started thinking that was it, you know? That I’d, uh, finally found my place.”

“But it wasn’t?” Hen asks gently.

Buck shakes his head. “No. They wanted machines, and I can’t do that. I– I have all these feelings, and I can’t just shut them off.”

“That’s a good thing, though,” Karen says.

“Yeah, maybe,” Buck says. “But not in the Navy SEALs. I lasted over three months before I decided I had to quit, and then a few days ago my girlfriend broke up with me and literally fled the country, so. Here we are, I guess.”

“She…what?”

“I mean, it didn’t have anything to do with me, I guess,” Buck shrugs, and tells them about Abby’s mom and her travel plans. “But it kind of sucked that she never even considered me in all of it. I thought she loved me, too.”

“It definitely sucks,” Karen says. “But at least she was honest with you about it.”

“Yeah, right before she walked through the airport doors,” Buck murmurs, a little bitterly.

“And this was…a week and a half ago?”

“Yeah,” Buck nods. “Drove back to her apartment from the airport, packed my stuff, and left. I mean, there wasn’t anything holding me in San Diego anymore.”

“But where are you going now?” Karen asks worriedly. “Not back to your parents, I assume?”

“Definitely not,” Buck says. “I don’t know, usually I just stop somewhere I like that has work for me for a while, and then I move on.”

“That sounds lonely,” Hen says quietly, and Buck shrugs.

“I’m used to it.” 

He’s been lonely since he was 12 years old and his big sister left to live in Boston with a guy who hated Buck. So he’s used to it, no matter how much he hates it. But he doesn’t know how to find somewhere, someone, to stay. No one’s ever wanted him to stay, not for long. No matter how hard he tried.

Hen and Karen look at him sadly, and Buck smiles with a shrug. He doesn’t want to be pitied. “It’s fine, really.”

He’s not sure they believe the lie, but thankfully their food arrives and moves the conversation in another direction for the rest of lunch.

Back at the inn, Hen and Karen start making suggestions for things Buck can do in exchange for the free room: helping with the dishes in the breakfast room and kitchen, taking over reception when no one else is available, especially at lunchtime, keeping the porch and steps free from snow.

When he offers to do any repairs they might need, too, Hen shakes her head.

“Thank you, but my best friend is our handyman and he would take that personally.”

She says it with a smile, but Buck takes it seriously anyway. He’s not here to step on anyone’s toes.

Since it’s neither breakfast nor lunchtime, there’s no heavy lifting to be done, and it hasn’t snowed all day, Buck has a free afternoon ahead of him. 

He decides to use it to discover the town a little bit, and to fill his lungs with as much fresh air as he can, just in case wherever he ends up next has less of it. 

One street over from the inn, there’s a small park with a playground that’s covered in snow and empty today. There’s a few benches that are probably great for sitting around and admiring the view of the surrounding mountains, but it’s definitely too cold for that now. 

The rest of the street seems to be residential, so Buck returns to the main street. He ends up in between the grocery store and the library he saw last night from the car, and because his feet are cold and wet again already, he decides to check out the library. 

Inside, it’s warm and cozy, and a woman with curly red hair smiles at him from a desk that seems to be an information center, reception and check-out at the same time. He smiles back and steps further inside, looking around. 

To his left, there’s a glass wall partitioning off three smaller rooms filled with desks and chairs, kind of like a small classroom. On the right, there’s a computer area that reminds Buck of the library in Hershey he used to go to as a kid, in the late 90s and early 2000s. There’s a stand for newspapers and magazines, and a mismatched collection of comfortable looking couches and armchairs. The back half of the room is filled with shelves, all of them labeled to indicate what type of books they hold. 

Buck heads over there and brushes his fingers along the spines of the books gently. He’s always loved libraries. Maddie used to take him as a kid, and after she left, he sometimes went by himself to get out of the house. 

Down here, they’ve got nonfiction, and there’s a set of stairs and an elevator leading upstairs, next to a sign indicating that fiction and children’s books are one floor up. 

Curiously, Buck takes the stairs, looking around once he’s reached the top. The entire floor is open, but the shelves are arranged in cubicles, so that they form small rectangular areas, almost like separate rooms. 

He’s not a huge fiction reader, but just as he’s about to turn around, he hears a kid’s voice call out: “Abuelita!”

In a cubicle to his left, Buck finds a small boy sitting in a beanbag chair, wriggling around and trying to get up unsuccessfully. Next to him, there’s a stack of books and a pair of crutches. 

“Hi,” Buck says, “would you like to wait for your abuelita or can I help you get up?”

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers, mister,” the boy says politely, and Buck nods. 

“That’s good advice, actually. I’ll just wait over here until your abuelita arrives, alright?”

The boy nods warily, and Buck takes another few steps back, looking around to locate the grandma.

It doesn’t take very long – she was at the other end of the room, apparently, but when the small old lady rushes over, Buck quickly assumes she must be “abuelita”. 

She gives him a smile and a wary once over at the same time, and he smiles back, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. 

“Hello, ma’am,” he says. “I heard your grandson call out, so I thought I’d wait with him until you got back.”

“Oh,” she says, looking towards the boy, who gives her a sunny smile. “He’s my great-grandson.”

“I told him I’m not supposed to speak to strangers so he waited over there,” the boy chimes in, and his grandma, no, great-grandma, gives Buck another look, this one much warmer.

“That’s kind of you.”

“I had the time,” Buck shrugs. “I’m Buck, by the way, Evan Buckley. Can I help you at all?”

He can’t help noticing that in addition to the books on the floor next to the kid, she’s already carrying what looks like a heavy bag.

“We don’t have far to go,” she says, but the kid interrupts her, “Abuelita slipped and fell last week.”

She sighs. “Ay, niño.” Then she turns back to Buck. “If you could help Christopher up, that would be great.”

So Buck helps Christopher out of the beanbag chair and hands him his crutches, then bends down to pick up the books. 

“Are you taking all of these?”

“Yes,” Christopher says, “we read a lot.”

“I can tell,” Buck smiles. “That’s awesome.”

On the way down, he learns that they’re Isabel and Christopher Diaz, and that they stopped at the library on the way from school to pick up their weekly load of books. 

Mrs Diaz allows him to carry her bags, and he accompanies them down the road, past small city hall, Bobby’s diner where he went for lunch with Karen and Hen, and then into the coffee shop just past it. 

“My grandson and I run it,” Mrs Diaz explains over the jingling of the bell above the door, and Buck takes in the interior. 

It looks well-loved – a little rundown, but well taken care of, clean and cozy. There are two window seats, and armchairs as well as regular chairs are grouped around small tables. 

A display case holds delicious looking cakes, sandwiches and pastries, and the area behind the counter holds baskets for bread, a big coffeemaker, and shelves with colorful mugs. 

Frowning at them from behind the counter is probably the most beautiful man Buck has ever laid eyes on. 

“Who are you?” he asks, and okay, his tone is a little rude. 

“That’s Buck, Dad,” Christopher says. “We met him at the library.”

The guy’s whole face changes when he looks at his son, and he hurries around the counter to give him a hug. “Did you have a good day at school, buddy?”

They talk for a moment, until Mrs Diaz steps up to them and pats her grandson’s cheek, saying, “We’ll get started on homework. Now go and say thank you to the nice young man who helped us carry all the books your son wants to read.”

Mr Diaz kisses her cheek and then the top of Christopher’s head with a loud “mwah!”, but when he faces Buck, he’s frowning again.

“So what were you doing at the library meeting kids and elderly ladies?”

“Woah,” Buck says. “Don’t say it like that. I was just looking around, and I thought I’d help if I could. I don’t expect a thank you, but I don’t like what you’re insinuating either.”

“Sorry,” Diaz says, and has the decency to look guilty. “I don’t actually think you’re – I just haven’t seen you around here before.”

“You won’t have to, much, either,” Buck shrugs. “I’m not staying for long.”

He turns his back on him, waves once more at Mrs Diaz and Christopher, who call out more thank yous and wave back, and leaves the café.

It’s a shame someone that pretty is such a dick. 

Buck spends the next two days doing everything that he can to help Hen and Karen, and they keep introducing him to more of their friends. He meets Chimney, Hen’s handyman best friend, Hen’s mom Toni and her husband Clive, Bobby of the eponymous diner, Michael, Athena’s ex-husband and his new partner, David, who’s the town doctor, Hen and Karen’s son Denny, Mrs Lee who used to run the inn with Karen’s great aunt and is now mostly retired, only helping out two times a week, and Athena and Michael’s daughter May. 

After his last few stops, Buck started considering himself a big city person, vaguely considering Atlanta for his next stop, or maybe Chicago once the winter is over, but he finds that he’s really starting to like Pine Creek and the small town way of life. He’s walked the whole of it by now, has met many wonderful people, and would love to hike some of the nearby trails, if it wasn’t for the thick layer of snow everywhere.

So when, on his third day, Tommy calls him to say that the delivery containing the parts for Buck’s jeep is delayed, Buck isn’t too upset. He worries a little that he’s inconveniencing Karen and Hen, but they assure them that the inn isn’t fully booked until Thanksgiving, and that they’re happy to have him for as long as it takes.

So Buck only vows to do whatever he can to make their lives easier, and waits for Tommy’s next call.

That afternoon, after Buck’s spent most of his morning shoveling some of the snow that just won’t stop falling, Hen and Karen’s son Denny comes to the inn after school and brings two of his friends. One of them is Athena’s son Harry – the other one is Christopher Diaz. He greets Buck cheerfully by name, and Buck catches the curious look Hen throws him before he crouches down and matches Christopher’s grin.

“Hi, buddy,” he says. “How have you been? Have you started reading any of the books yet?”

“Yes,” Christopher answers proudly. “We already read more than half of the first one.”

“Wow,” Buck says, impressed. “It’s only been two days, you must be a quick reader.”

“Yes, and my daddy reads to me every night. But I’m getting too old for that now.”

“Who said that?” Buck asks. “How old are you?”

“I’m eight.”

“That’s not too old to be read to,” Buck protests immediately. “My big sister read to me for much longer.”

Christopher narrows his eyes. “Really?”

“Really,” Buck promises. “I think it’s great that you and your dad read together.”

Even if the guy was kind of a dick to him, he got the impression that he loves his son very much, and this only adds to that. It makes Buck feel slightly more forgiving towards him.

“How do you know Christopher?” Hen asks, stepping up to them.

“We met at the library the other day,” Buck says, and Christopher nods, grinning up at Hen.

“Buck carried abuelita’s bags.”

Hen smiles. “Yeah, he’s nice like that.” Her hand nudges Buck’s shoulder and Buck smiles up at her before standing up. “Hey, since you know both Denny and Chris already, and you’re clearly good with kids – would you mind watching the boys while they do their homework? I wouldn’t mind getting through some of this paperwork without having to keep an eye on them.”

“Sure, yeah,” Buck says, but his mind goes back to Christopher’s dad. “If you think their parents will be okay with it?”

Hen rolls her eyes. “I’m sure they will. Besides, I’m only in the back office, just call if any of you need anything.”

So Buck spends his afternoon watching three eight- and nine-year-olds do their homework, doing his best to help them anytime they have a question.

He only leaves them once for the ten minutes it takes him to clear the porch steps and path from the fresh snow, and after they finish their homework, Buck colors with them and plays boggle until Athena shows up first to get Harry. It’s honestly a lot of fun.

Hen comes out of the back office to greet Athena and the two of them start talking about people and things Buck doesn’t know, so he helps Christopher pack up his things instead, knowing his dad is supposed to show up any minute now too. 

He’s almost a little nervous to see him again – maybe he was a little harsh too, last time they met. Sure, that implication was horrible, but he’d genuinely seemed sorry immediately. And it’s not like Buck gave him much of a chance to explain.

“Got everything?” he asks Christopher, who nods.

“Yes. Can I go to the bathroom before my dad comes?”

“If he gets here before you make it back, I’ll let him know where you are,” Buck promises.

Christopher rushes off as quickly as possible, his crutches clacking on the clean floor, and Buck watches him go with a smile. He’s a really sweet kid.

Of course, Christopher’s dad arrives barely a minute after Christopher has disappeared, and Buck gets out of his seat when he sees him approach. He waves at Hen and Athena but keeps looking around for his kid, his gaze snagging on Buck.

His face does something funny, like it can’t quite settle on an expression, and then he gives Buck a polite nod.

“Christopher just went to the bathroom,” Buck speaks up when Diaz’ eyes move past him. “But we already packed all of his stuff.”

He lifts Christopher’s backpack, and Diaz takes a step closer to grab it from him. He gives him a slightly uncomfortable smile.

“Thanks,” he says, then clears his throat. “Look – I shouldn’t have said that the other day. I was just…I can be a little overprotective, I guess.”

Buck nods, shrugging. “I kind of brushed you off immediately, too. Didn’t give you a chance to explain or anything.”

He gets a wry smile in response to that. “Can’t say I blame you.”

“Well, Christopher’s a great kid. Can’t blame you for wanting to protect him, either.”

“Start over, then?” Diaz offers, and Buck feels a more genuine smile tug on his mouth as he takes the hand he offers him and shakes it. “I’m Eddie.”

“I’m Buck,” he says. 

Eddie’s hand is warm and the handshake firm, and they smile at each other for a moment after letting go. Okay, maybe he’s not a dick at all. His smile is really nice, actually, and Buck is reminded of how the first thing he thought, before they ever said a word to each other, was that Eddie might be the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. Up close, that’s still true.

“So you’re staying with Hen and Karen?” Eddie asks, pulling Buck from his thoughts.

“Uh, at the inn, yeah. My car started making weird noises while I was passing through the other night, so I’m waiting for it to be fixed.”

Eddie’s eyebrows rise. “Oh, so you don’t even know the Wilsons?”

“I mean, now I do,” Buck says. “But I didn’t when I stopped here, no.”

“Huh,” Eddie makes. “The way they talk about you kind of made it seem like you’ve known them for ages.”

“He’s just that lovable,” Hen chimes in and swings an arm around Buck’s neck. He didn’t hear her approach, but wraps his own arm around her waist immediately.

“Aw, Hen.”

“I see you two have met,” Hen says. “I wasn’t sure if Buck only knew Christopher and Isabel, but I’ve been meaning to introduce you anyway.”

“How long are you here for?” Eddie asks.

“As long as it takes Tommy to get the parts he needs for my jeep. Shouldn’t be more than a few days now.”

“Well, if you’re ever in need of a coffee until then, you know where to find one,” Eddie says, looking vaguely uncomfortable. “I kind of feel like I owe you one.”

“Oh, thanks,” Buck says, and spots Christopher making his way over to them. “I’m sure I can stop by.”

Maybe it's best to really make up with Eddie Diaz, even if he’s leaving soon. The thought of skipping town without having made sure that Eddie doesn’t remember him as someone he was at best uncomfortable around leaves a bad taste in his mouth, for a reason he can’t quite articulate. Something in him is yelling at him to fix this, still.

Eddie gives him a half-smile and a nod and then lifts his son up in a hug that looks like they haven’t seen each other in much longer than the probably less than 12 hours it most likely was. The way they so clearly adore each other makes something tug in Buck’s chest.

Once everyone has left, Hen returns to Buck’s side.

“Eddie’s a nice guy,” she says. “He and Christopher only moved here at the beginning of this year, and he’s kind of private, but he’s mine and Karen’s friend anyway. I thought you two might get along.”

“It’s not like we’ll get to spend that much time together,” Buck says. “I can’t block one of your rooms forever.”

“But maybe for three more weeks,” Hen suggests. “And even after that – we’re fully booked for Thanksgiving, but if you wanted to stay for longer, I’m sure we could find you a couch or even a guest bedroom to stay.”

“That’s really nice, Hen,” Buck says, genuinely touched. “But I don’t want to take advantage of your hospitality for that long. And I think it’d be good if I settled somewhere else before Christmas, find a job, that kind of thing.”

“Well, if you think so,” Hen sighs. “I just want you to know that you’re welcome here.”

“I really appreciate that,” Buck says, squeezing her arm gently. “Thank you, Hen.”

The next day, after Buck has spent the lunch hour at the inn reception, he heads over to the café. Eddie is alone in there, and he looks almost surprised to see Buck come in.

“Hey,” Buck greets him. “I’m here for that coffee, but I can pay for it, too.”

“Hey, Buck,” Eddie says. “It’s on the house. What can I get you?”

“Just a latte, please.” Buck looks around. “Is your grandma not here today?”

“I’m trying to get her to take some more time off,” Eddie explains while he’s working the coffeemaker. “She’s 80 years old, she shouldn’t be standing behind the counter all day. And it’s not like we ever get a rush of customers so big that I can’t handle it by myself.”

“Is that why you moved here?” Buck asks, and regrets it immediately when Eddie stiffens. Hen told him Eddie was a private guy, he should’ve stuck to superficial smalltalk. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that – I just, uh. Ignore me, sorry.”

“Yeah,” Eddie says, and Buck doesn’t realize it’s an answer to his question until he keeps talking. “Part of the reason, at least. She opened the café after my abuelo died, and she loves it too much to give it up. But she needed help, and I needed to get out of Texas, so.”

“I didn’t know you were from Texas,” Buck says dumbly, and the corner of Eddie’s mouth lifts.

“What, did you think we all wore cowboy boots and hats?”

Buck tries very, very hard to keep himself from conjuring up that particular image. “Oh, so you think you’re funny?”

Eddie smirks. “Maybe sometimes.”

It’s unfairly hot, but Buck manages to laugh anyway. “And no, I’ve met Texans before.”

Eddie grins and sets the latte down on the counter. It’s not in a to-go cup, Buck notices, and is secretly pleased.

“Pine Creek is a good place for Chris to grow up, too,” he continues, “and he loves my abuela, so it’s nice that they get to spend this time together.”

Buck nods, and even though he would love to know, he doesn’t ask why Eddie needed to get out of Texas. “Where in Texas are you from?”

“El Paso,” Eddie answers. “What about you, where are you from?”

“Hershey, PA, originally,” Buck says. “But I’ve been moving around a lot for the past, uh, 7 years or so? I lived in LA and then San Diego for most of this year, but it was time to move on.”

Eddie frowns. “Why?”

“It’s just what I do,” Buck shrugs. He doesn’t need to tell a near stranger that he’s on the search for something, especially not when he’s not completely sure what that is. “I don’t stay anywhere for long, I take temporary jobs and then, eventually, I uh– I move on.”

“Oh,” Eddie says. He’s leaning on the counter now, and it gives Buck a great view of his forearms. He tries not to stare. “So you like traveling, then?”

“Yeah, I guess. I like meeting new people and seeing new places. I– I like being free.”

And he does – he likes not being stuck in a house that’s too quiet and cold, likes being able to do what he wants and when he wants it, likes being able to leave when he doesn’t want to stay in a situation. But, in the years since he left home, what’s changed is that he kind of likes the thought of being more settled. Now, he wants to find someone to love, someone who loves him and wants him to stay. Somewhere he belongs. He’s never had that.

But he’s not gonna drop all of that on Eddie.

“Being free,” Eddie murmurs. “Yeah, I get that.”

Buck has so many questions, but he’s afraid of scaring Eddie off, so he just says, “This place is good, though, right? Everything’s so…open. So much nature and fresh air.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees, smiling a little again. “I don’t think I’ve felt more free anywhere else.”

For the second time, Eddie’s answer feels almost like it’s inviting questions, and Buck thinks of the way he reacted to Buck’s first question earlier, and then answered it anyway. Maybe a little gentle prodding can’t hurt.

“So— did you not feel free in Texas?” The thing is – Buck’s noticed that so far, he hasn’t met – or even heard a mention of – Christopher’s mother. He can’t help but want to know if she’s here too, or if she stayed in Texas, or if it’s something else. 

Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose, but he doesn’t look angry.

Of course, that’s when the bell above the door jingles, and a new customer enters the café. 

Buck takes his coffee and sits down in one of the chairs to wait while Eddie serves the customer. It’s the first time he really has the time to take in the details around him: the soft pillows, black and white pictures on the wall that look like old family photos, the chalkboard with today’s specials, carefully written in cursive. He takes a closer look at the photos – one man is featured in all of them, and there’s something about him that reminds him of Eddie, so Buck figures it must be his grandfather. It would fit with the story of how Mrs Diaz opened this place, too. There’s a wedding picture among them, and Buck finds himself smiling at it a little wistfully. They look really happy.

“That’s my abuelo and abuela on their wedding day,” Eddie says, suddenly from beside Buck. He must’ve stepped around the counter while Buck wasn’t watching.

“He’s in a lot of these pictures. Almost all of them.”

“Don’t tell her I said this,” Eddie smiles a little, “but I always thought this place was kind of like…her shrine to him. He died pretty unexpectedly, so I’m glad she channeled her heartbreak and all the love she had left over into this, and not something that couldn’t give her any joy back.”

“That’s beautiful,” Buck breathes, and he could swear Eddie blushes before he turns away and waves him off.

“Anyway. Do you want anything else? A cupcake? Sandwich?”

“Do you make all of this yourself?” Buck wants to know. 

“Oh, no,” Eddie says. “I mean, I assemble sandwiches sometimes, but I don’t do any of the baking. I’m not great in a kitchen, but Linda’s been here way longer than I have, and she’s amazing.”

“So Linda is…your baker?”

“Sort of, but she’s also here every morning until 9. She’s the reason I can take Christopher to school.”

“That’s amazing, I’m glad you have her,” Buck says. “And I’ll try one of the cupcakes, then. But please let me pay for it.”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “If you insist.”

“I do.” Buck takes the cupcake with a grin. “Thanks. Oh, I noticed that the door sticks a little bit – I could fix that for you.”

Eddie crosses his arms. “I know how to fix it, too.”

“Yeah, but I bet you never have the time. How– how about tomorrow, I come by and get it done? You’d be doing me a favor, I don’t have enough to do at the inn to keep me busy.”

Eddie looks at him for a long moment, and Buck can tell that his pride is telling him to say no. Eddie doesn’t seem like someone who asks for help much or at all, no matter how hard it must be raising a kid and running a business at the same time.

“I’ll let you pay me in coffee,” he offers, and Eddie’s mouth quirks up.

“Okay, okay. If it’ll make you feel better.”

“It would,” Buck grins. “Thanks for the coffee, Eddie. I’ll be back tomorrow!”

So Buck comes back the next day after breakfast cleanup at the inn, and fixes the café’s door. Eddie has a coffee and a sandwich ready for him by the time he’s done, and Buck takes both with thanks.

When Eddie isn’t busy with customers, the two of them talk – mostly about meaningless stuff, but considering how they started out, that seems pretty meaningful to Buck.

When Buck mentions the scratches on the wood floor, Eddie rolls his eyes.

“This place has been open for over 15 years, with people walking over this exact floor almost every day. Of course there are scratches.”

“Exactly. But I could–”

“They’ll come back, even if you fix them for now.”

“But it’ll take years,” Buck insists. “You’re closed on Sundays, aren’t you? I can make that work, this isn’t a huge space. I could sand it and–”

“Where would you get a sander from?” Eddie asks incredulously, just as the bell above the door jingles.

“From me,” a voice says from the door, and Buck turns to find Hen’s friend Chimney there. “If you can prove to me that you know how to use it.”

“I can,” Buck promises, and Eddie keeps shaking his head.

“You’re not even gonna be here long enough to make use of the next day we’re closed,” he says, and it comes out sounding almost like an accusation.

“I might,” Buck disagrees. “Tommy still hasn’t called me about the parts.”

“A day might be cutting it close,” Chimney pipes up. He’s stepped inside fully now, looking at them curiously. “In a heavily frequented area like this you’ll need to add four coats of varnish afterwards, and even with the quick-drying ones…”

“He’s not doing it anyway,” Eddie insists, and Chimney’s eyebrows climb up his forehead.

“I noticed your door doesn’t stick anymore.”

Buck grins. “Just fixed that, actually.”

“So you let him help you, even though I’ve offered multiple times?”

Eddie groans. “He bullied me into it. And no one is sanding my floor!” Buck and Chimney exchange a grin, and Eddie groans again. “I don’t like what’s happening here.”

“Just accept it, Edmundo,” Chimney says, and Buck tries not to show his surprise at the full name. Judging from Eddie’s scowl, he’s not a big fan.

Buck and Chimney leave the café together half an hour later, and even though it doesn’t lead to them convincing Eddie, it leads to Buck finding another thing to keep him busy.

Turns out Chimney could use a second pair of hands for some of his jobs, and that Buck is stuck here for at least another week, according to Tommy. 

“If you’ve got anywhere to be, you should consider a rental instead,” he said on the phone, but that isn’t an option for Buck.

If he had an actual destination, then maybe. But he can’t imagine continuing on without his jeep, with no idea when and how to get it back.

Chimney offers to pay him fair and square, which means that maybe Buck can finally start giving Hen and Karen something back for their generosity.

So even before lunch, the day is already turning out pretty good, all things considered. Buck catches himself thinking it and then wonders when he started considering having to stay here for longer a good thing. 

But it’s true – Pine Creek and its people are really growing on him. And it has nothing to do with the fact that Eddie smiles at him more now, no matter what a nice smile it is. Buck’s not that kind of guy anymore. 

After Abby, he swore to himself that he was gonna be better, to stop sleeping with everyone who looked at him twice, in his search for a connection.

He doesn’t even know what Eddie’s deal is, what’s going on with Christopher’s mom, he could be straight, and even if he isn’t, why would he be interested in someone like Buck? Eddie deserves so much better than some fucked up guy who’s just passing through.

Anyway, it’s not just about Eddie. It’s about Hen and Karen, who have taken him in like it’s nothing, it’s about Chimney, and Bobby and Athena, and Mrs Diaz, and every other nice person he’s met in his time here.

Pine Creek is filled to the brim with those.

*

Eddie didn’t expect Evan Buckley. He didn’t even know to expect someone like him.

He wasn’t even sure what to make of him at first. This tall, bumbling, 20 something guy, with an unmissably impressive physique, who seemed to make everyone he met fall in love with him within minutes. Hen and Karen had practically made him their little brother before Eddie ever met him, and Christopher and Abuela didn’t shut up about him either, which made Eddie feel even worse for his overprotectiveness. 

But he couldn’t help it – none of them knew this guy. He showed up overnight on the way from one mysterious place to another, because he apparently didn’t like staying anywhere for long. It was okay to be suspicious about that, right?

But then he and Buck got talking, and kind of never stopped.

It’s weird, because Eddie isn’t that much of a talker, usually, at least not about himself. He keeps things close to his chest, has done so most of his life. He’s personable, he knows he can be charming and that most people perceive him as a friendly guy. But he usually keeps things superficial. 

The only people he’s opened up to at all in this town are Hen, Karen, Bobby (and by extension Athena) and Chimney, who for some reason seem to have adopted him into their friend group. It took him months to get there with them. 

And yet, within a week, Buck has started to dismantle most of the walls Eddie has spent years building.

He’s not even doing anything special to get Eddie to talk, he actually talks way more than Eddie does. But every now and then he asks exactly the right question, and for some reason, Eddie wants to answer him.

Buck usually shows up at the café at least once a day, in between his ever-growing list of little jobs. He still helps out at the inn, helps Chimney, says he’s tricked Bobby into teaching him how to cook by offering to help out in the kitchen (which Eddie doesn’t believe, because he knows Bobby. If he lets Buck into his kitchen, it’s because he wants him there) and apparently helps Sue at the library with some of the heavy lifting. 

He seems to try and time his visits so he gets to see Christopher too, which Eddie can’t help but find sweet. Watching the two of them together has eradicated any and all suspicions he might have had left deep down. His son has always been his soft spot, and seeing someone making him laugh like this, being so genuinely interested in him as a person – apparently it makes Eddie a little weak.

Turns out that you don’t stop learning new things about yourself, even at 31.

He learns more about Buck in bits and pieces. Through his actions, it very quickly becomes obvious that Buck is a curious, good-natured person who loves helping people, and not because he likes the attention he gets for it (though he doesn’t seem to hate attention either, when he gets it for other things). Through his words, Eddie finds out that Buck has just gone through a bad breakup, that he doesn’t have much of a relationship with his parents, has a sister but hasn’t seen or heard from her in three years, isn’t sure what he wants in life and has tried more jobs than Eddie can count on both hands. He’s funny and smart and empathetic and kind. He likes documentaries and deep-dives on Wikipedia, reads almost exclusively non-fiction and listens to true crime podcasts. He’s an endless well of random facts. He starts every morning with a workout. He has a sweet tooth and a weakness for reality TV.

In his head, Eddie keeps up a running list of things they have in common, and it just keeps growing. He’s having so much fun finding all of them that he’s not even embarrassed when Hen catches them arguing about what is more entertaining, The Bachelor or Love Island.

“You too?” she asks Buck incredulously, shaking her head. “Am I the only sane person around here?”

“Why?” Buck frowns.

“Because Eddie, Chimney, Karen and Athena and Bobby all religiously watch that crap, and I was hoping to pull you to my side.”

“It’s fun, Hen,” Eddie protests, and Buck laughs.

“We’ll get you eventually.”

“Ew, it’s the second hand embarrassment for me,” Hen says, cringing. “I just can’t watch them make fools of themselves.”

“But that’s what makes it fun,” Buck insists. “It’s not you that’s embarrassing yourself, you get to feel superior about that.”

Eddie nods in agreement, laughing at Hen’s exaggerated shudder.

“I’ll let y’all have fun with it,” she says, “but I’m not changing my mind.”

And because Buck has got the whole Diaz family wrapped around his fingers, apparently, Abuela invites him over for dinner along with Eddie and Christopher. Not that Eddie minds – and Christopher is over the moon to get to spend some more time with Buck.

He insists on being the one to open the door for him, his excited “Hi, Buck!” audible all the way to the kitchen.

“Go and say hello,” Abuela says, stirring the soup and checking the oven at the same time. “I’ve got my hands full here.”

“I can help–” Eddie tries, but his abuela interrupts him with a short but meaningful, “Ah!”

Eddie laughs, lifting his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay.”

“Be polite,” she reminds him, and he kisses her cheek in passing.

“Always am.”

He’s still grinning at the disbelieving sound she makes (she has not let him live down the way he acted around Buck at first) when he rounds the corner to the hallway.

Christopher is already in the middle of telling Buck all about his day at school, while Buck is toeing off the white sneakers he’s still wearing, despite the snow. He’s holding a potted poinsettia and looks up at Eddie with a smile when he hears him.

“Hey, Buck,” Eddie says with an answering smile when Christopher takes a breath. “My abuela is still in the kitchen, but she says welcome.”

“Oh, can I help?” Buck immediately asks, and Eddie shakes his head.

“I don’t think so, she just kind of kicked me out.”

“Well, I at least need to say hi and give her this,” Buck says, lifting the plant in his hand. “Is the kitchen…?”

“Back there, yeah,” Eddie confirms, and follows him down the hall a little helplessly.

He watches as his abuela and Buck greet each other and she accepts the poinsettia with a hand pressed to her chest, sets it down on the kitchen table, and kisses Buck’s cheeks like she’s known him for years.

And then, she actually lets Buck help, and Eddie watches, stunned, as Buck rolls up the sleeves of his (very tight) dress shirt to wash his hands in the kitchen sink. Christopher sits down at the kitchen table, apparently happy to continue the conversation he and Buck started here.

“You can set the table, Eddito,” Abuela says, and Eddie startles a little at being addressed.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” he says, “of course.”

It’s pretty obvious that Eddie isn’t the only one who feels surprisingly comfortable with Buck, because their entire evening feels like they’ve had hundreds exactly like them. Like Buck’s been here at Eddie’s abuela’s house many times, like they spend most of their evenings together.

It should be weird, maybe, but Eddie just feels warm and comfortable in a way he hasn’t in a long time.

After cleaning up, when Abuela and Christopher are in the living room picking out a game to play, Buck stops in the hallway to look at the gallery wall of photos there. Eddie stops next to him, looking at the pictures too for the first time in a while.

There are baby pictures of his dad and his aunt Pepa, wedding pictures, more baby pictures of the next generation, family pictures and graduation portraits. 

His eyes snag on a picture of him, Shannon and Christopher from his last leave before he came home for good. They look happy, happier than he remembers them being at the time. But a picture is just one moment, and both he and Shannon had learned to pretend by then.

Seeing her doesn’t hurt as much anymore, but Eddie still feels the familiar pinch in his chest.

Buck’s eyes have followed his gaze. “Is that Christopher’s mom?”

His voice is quiet, careful – of course he’s noticed that there’s a story there.

“Yeah,” Eddie sighs. “Shannon. She died last year.”

“Oh, god.” Buck sounds genuinely shocked. “I’m so sorry, Eddie.”

“Thanks,” Eddie says, and smiles at him a little. He doesn’t want Buck to think he wants his pity or needs to be handled with kid gloves. “Another part of the reason we needed a change.”

“I can imagine.” Buck bites his lip and looks back at the pictures. He seems a little unsure how to handle this, which is probably Eddie’s fault.

He could explain the whole story, but it’s long and not very fun, and Eddie doesn’t like talking about it, so he keeps quiet.

But Buck finds another picture Eddie forgot was up there. “Hold on, you were in the Army?”

“Oh.” Another topic Eddie doesn’t love. “Uh, yeah. Two tours in Afghanistan.”

Buck clearly picks up on the fact that Eddie doesn’t want to elaborate on it, because he turns away from the picture with his entire body. “Hey, did I tell you what I did in San Diego before I came here?”

“No,” Eddie frowns, confused by the topic change.

“I was in training to become a Navy SEAL,” Buck says, and huffs out a laugh like something about that is funny. “Took, uh, took me longer than it should’ve to get that it’s not what I want to do.”

“Doesn’t seem like something that would fit with your personality,” Eddie agrees.

“Yeah,” Buck says with a self-deprecating shrug. “I’m not great at following orders.”

“No,” Eddie shakes his head. “I just meant that you’re kind, Buck. And that doesn’t seem like a quality the SEALs look for a lot.”

“Oh.” Buck goes bright red, and it makes Eddie feel a little breathless.

They’re standing pretty close in the dim hallway, he suddenly notices, and goes lightheaded with it.

Buck clears his throat. “I– should we, uh, should we see what games they picked?”

Eddie blinks and takes a small step back, trying to get the oxygen to move all the way to his brain again. “Um. Yeah, sure, let’s go.”

He’s a little bit distracted for the rest of the evening, but thinks he manages to seem mostly normal in front of the others. He just can’t stop a small part of his brain from constantly replaying the scene in the hallway, Buck’s face in a close-up. What the hell is happening to him?

Over the next two weeks, they keep spending time together. Whether it’s at the café, at abuela’s, or at Eddie and Christopher’s house, there isn’t a day where Buck and Eddie don’t see each other.

A week and a half into Buck’s time in Pine Creek, Eddie forces him into his truck and drives them to the next town over so Buck can buy a pair of boots and a real coat.

“You’re gonna freeze to death if you keep walking around in your wet sneakers,” he says, and Buck rolls his eyes with a laugh.

“You’re such a dad, Eddie, seriously.”

Of course Buck eventually gets his way too, and together with Chim, the two of them sand the floor of the café and seal it with multiple coats of varnish. It means closing a little earlier than usually one Saturday so they can store all the furniture in Chimney’s workshop, and get the sanding and the first coat done in the evening. Three more coats go on over the course of the Sunday, and even though Eddie was reluctant, he has to admit the floor looks way better after. 

He and Buck also end up giving the counter, the walls, the door and window frames new coats of paint, usually in the evenings after Eddie closes the café. They don’t change the color scheme much, just freshen everything up a little, and Eddie keeps getting compliments from customers.

Abuela, who’s been supportive of their renovation from the start, tears up the first time she sees the finished project.

“Es tan bonito,” she says, hugging them both in turn. “Now it looks like it’s supposed to again.” She looks around, a hand covering her mouth. “You know how things change so slowly that you don’t notice them? And when you do, there’s never time to fix them. But this is…this is exactly what I wanted.”

Sometimes, Buck and Eddie also spend time with Eddie’s other friends, or their friends, more likely, considering how quickly they welcomed Buck into their circle. It’s funny, because all of them are Eddie’s friends, and yet, within just three weeks, Buck may have become his best friend.

Every time Buck gets another phone call from Tommy and his leaving gets postponed, Eddie feels equal amounts of relief and dread. Relief, because Buck gets to stay. Dread, because it’s a reminder that he still intends to leave.

Eddie can’t deny it – he wants Buck to stay. But how would he ask for that? How could he? It’s Buck’s life, and Buck doesn’t stay anywhere for long.

He worries about Christopher, too. It’s not hard to see that his son thinks Buck is the coolest person in the world, and Eddie knows that he will take Buck leaving hard. He’s been left too many times in his short life already.

But there’s no point in worrying about that – he and Christopher both know that Buck isn’t here to stay. When he inevitably leaves, they’ll have to deal with it, but he’s here now, and Eddie intends to make the most of it. He’s never really had a best friend before.

So he sits next to Buck during game night at the Wilson’s, knees knocking because there’s so many people around the table, he talks and laughs with everyone, and he spends evening on the couch with Chimney and Buck because Chimney thinks Buck’s movie knowledge is abysmal and has made Eddie his accomplice in rectifying that. 

One Saturday, he, Karen and Buck take the kids to the rec center in their neighboring town so they can go to the pool, and Buck comes up with the idea to start a reading group for the kids to make their reading exercises more fun. (This one is a hit – Christopher, Denny and Harry talk about it at school, and suddenly Buck’s got five more interested kids and their parents knocking at his door. He talks to Sue at the library, and they decide to make it an official club that meets weekly in one of the rooms of the library.)

When they’re not hanging out with someone else, Buck is at Eddie’s house almost every evening. One time, he suggested cooking dinner as a thank you, but it turned out he and Bobby hadn’t made it past breakfast foods yet, which meant he wasn’t any better at cooking than Eddie – Eddie would argue he was worse. So instead, they decided to just learn cooking together. 

Since then, many evenings have been spent in Eddie’s kitchen, meticulously following the recipes they get from Linda and Bobby. Christopher relentlessly makes fun of them for everything that goes wrong, but slowly but surely, as steps get repeated and come up again in a new context, they improve. 

With all the renovation work and the cooking, they’ve got plenty of opportunities to realize that they make a pretty good team.

And then, one night after Eddie has tucked Christopher into bed and returned to the couch, where Buck’s lounging, finally looking completely comfortable in Eddie’s house, Buck sighs.

“Tommy said the delay in the delivery of the parts to my jeep is now down to the snow,” he says. Eddie’s hands curl up into fists and he gets the same sinking feeling in his stomach he gets every time Buck brings up his car. “I hope they make it here in the next few days anyway.”

“Why?” Eddie blurts out. 

Buck bites his lower lip. “It’s almost Thanksgiving. The inn is fully booked and everyone is gonna wanna be with their families–”

“You can stay with us,” Eddie interrupts him, the words out before he can even think them. “We’ve got a guest room and Christopher would love it.” So would Eddie, but he’s got just enough control not to blurt that out too.

“Eddie, I can’t–”

“Yes, you can.” Eddie turns on the couch until he’s facing Buck. “You’re here almost every evening anyway. If it makes you feel better, you can start paying for the groceries, but it’s no big deal.”

“It is a big deal,” Buck insists. “You’ve already done so much for me.”

“And you’ve done way more for us.” Eddie grins at him. “Abuela would smack me if she found out I had the option and didn’t offer you a place to sleep.”

Buck laughs a little. “Okay. Okay, on one condition: you let me ask Christopher for his permission first.”

Eddie feels his grin soften, and he rubs at the corner of his mouth, embarrassed by what his face is doing. “Yeah, of course. You can ask him tomorrow, and then you can pack your stuff and move into the guestroom. He’s gonna be thrilled.”

It’s not until Buck leaves for the night, that Eddie fully realizes what he’s just offered Buck. Buck will be here every single evening, he’ll sleep one door over from Eddie, he’ll be here every morning for breakfast. The thought doesn’t bother Eddie, he likes having Buck around and doesn’t think that’ll change if they add breakfasts in his kitchen to the mix. He rubs at his chest absentmindedly, wondering why the hell his heart is racing anyway. So Buck will live with them – there’s nothing to worry about.

Eddie makes up the bed in the guestroom and takes a box from the closet into his own room so Buck can put his clothes in there instead. It’s a very small room, but he doubts that Buck has much stuff, and Eddie knows the bed is comfortable. 

By the time he gets into his own bed, his heart is beating normally again. 

Buck asks Christopher if he’s okay with him staying with them for a while first thing when he comes over the next evening. 

“It’d just be for a little while,” he explains. “I still have to leave soon, but if you’re okay with it, I’ll stay with you and your dad at your house for a few nights.”

“You can stay forever, if you want,” Christopher says simply, lifting both of his arms towards Buck to ask for a hug. 

Eddie watches from the kitchen door as Buck’s expression goes from stunned to touched, and as he very gently puts his arms around Christopher. Chris isn’t as careful, throwing his arms around Buck’s neck and squeezing tight.

“Thanks, buddy,” Buck whispers, and Eddie turns around and stands in the middle of the kitchen, wondering why his entire body feels like it’s tingling. 

Buck joins him not much later, pulling out a pot and setting it next to where Eddie’s collecting everything they need for tonight’s recipe. 

“Told you he’d be thrilled,” Eddie says, and Buck knocks their shoulders together once before straightening up again.

“I already talked to Hen and Karen today, just to give them a heads up. Didn’t want them to feel like they had to throw me out, you know?”

“I’m sure they would’ve offered up their couch before throwing you out,” Eddie grins, and Buck blushes a little.

“May– Maybe, yeah.”

Well, Eddie knows it. In fact, if he hadn’t basically staked his claim without giving Buck a choice, he’s sure all of their friends would’ve offered up a guest room or a couch. 

But he did, and Buck moves in with them the next evening, two days before Thanksgiving. It’s not a big process – Buck has a backpack and two duffel bags, and that’s it. Given his lifestyle, it makes sense that he doesn’t own a lot of stuff, but it’s still a little jarring to think that his entire life is in those few bags. 

He disappears into his room for a few minutes but leaves the door open, and when Eddie knocks on his door frame, he looks up from where he’s sitting on the bed, stacking a few books on the bedside table.

“Everything okay?” Eddie asks. “Do you have everything?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Buck says. “It’s great, seriously Eddie, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Towels are in the linen closet in the hallway, just make yourself at home.”

“Thank you,” Buck says again. “I think I’ll change into sweatpants and then we can get started on dinner, okay?”

It already all feels very domestic, but it only gets more so when Buck joins Eddie in the kitchen wearing sweatpants with his hoodie, socked feet quiet on the floor.

“Good thing I already know my way around your kitchen,” he grins. “I don’t even have to learn anything new.”

“Only how to make this six cheese lasagna.”

Buck laughs. “Exactly, so let’s get started.”

If Eddie thought their evening felt domestic, it’s nothing against their morning. He’s in the kitchen brewing coffee and getting Christopher’s breakfast ready when Buck stumbles in, sleepily rubbing at his eyes.

He’s wearing sweatpants again and a thin t-shirt, his hair is messy. He’s still got pillow creases on his face, and Eddie’s heart trips in his chest.

“Morning,” Buck says, voice rough from sleep.

Eddie’s pretty sure he says something back, standing frozen with the cereal in his hand while Buck grabs two mugs from the cupboard without having to think about it, and starts fixing their coffees like this is something they do every morning.

He looks at home here in Eddie’s kitchen, like he belongs, and Eddie thinks, oh shit.

That’s what it is, that weird breathless feeling he sometimes gets around Buck, or the way his stomach will flutter with – well, butterflies, when Buck’s hand brushes his or he gives him that slow, sweet smile.

Yeah – Eddie is falling in love with his best friend. His best friend who just moved in with him. Why did he think this was a good idea, again?

Thanksgiving is a family affair. Hen and Karen have their hands full at the inn and plan on joining Toni, Clive and Denny for dinner if they can, while Athena’s hosting her whole patchwork family, her kids, Bobby, Michael and David. Chimney is spending it with the Lees and his younger brother Albert, who’s home from college for Thanksgiving break. Eddie was already planning on making dinner with Abuela and Christopher, and it’s easy to add Buck to their plans.

Abuela doesn’t question it at all – not that Eddie expected her to, knowing how much she likes Buck. The three of them all cook together, with Christopher as their enthusiastic helper whenever he’s not watching cartoons or the parade on TV.

Yesterday, Eddie sat down with Christopher and explained to him that while they’re going to use the free day to spend it with family and have delicious food, they shouldn’t forget the real history behind Thanksgiving. At first, Buck was watching from the doorway, but eventually, he joined them on the couch and helped Eddie explain why they shouldn’t celebrate the pilgrims, and that they should learn about the injustices against Native Americans, and mourn those who lost their lives because of it.

At eight years old, Eddie thinks he’s old enough to understand it, and he doesn’t want his son to have to unlearn as many things when he’s older as Eddie himself has to.

Later, after Christopher was in bed, Buck went on a rant about how much it sucks that so many teachers still teach kids that Columbus was some kind of hero, and Eddie listened to him, trying not to look as lovesick as he felt.

Now he’s in his abuela’s kitchen, feeling just as lovesick as he watches Buck interact with the two people he loves most, and still hoping his face doesn’t give it all away. He’s honestly not sure how it took him so long to catch on – he’s pretty sure he’s been falling for Buck since the first real conversation they had.

Eddie doesn’t quite know what to do with it. In a perfect world, he’d tell Buck, Buck would feel the same way and decide to stay in Pine Creek with them forever. But in real life, Eddie knows that Buck got his heart broken by a woman named Abby just over a month ago and is probably straight as an arrow.

Not that being with a woman automatically makes you straight – Eddie was married to one, and yet he’s never felt like this before. Which is crazy anyway, considering he hasn’t even known Buck for a month.

He and Shannon were friends for almost a year before she asked him on a date and he said yes, thinking of the assumptions everyone made about them anyway. Eddie doesn’t think he ever would’ve asked her of his own accord, if he’s really honest with himself. He loved her, but it never felt like this.

When she left him to take care of her dying mother, he was hurt, but a lot of his anger was on Christopher’s behalf rather than his own. It made trusting her again when she eventually came back impossible, and they’d already agreed to get a divorce by the time she got hit by a car in broad daylight and died.

Her death still hit him hard, and not just for Christopher’s sake. As soon as they’d agreed that they shouldn’t be together romantically, Eddie had started hoping they could eventually go back to being friends, the kind they’d been before they started dating. He still loved her as a friend, underneath all the hurt and bitterness, but they never got the chance.

Almost a year later, it still hurts.

And now there’s Buck, who Eddie thinks he could love in a way he hasn’t loved anyone before, but he’s not available to him. Whether he’s straight or not, why would he want Eddie? Buck is free and untethered, the opposite of Eddie. Why would he want to change his entire life to stay in a remote small town with a single father who’s got more metaphorical baggage than Buck has literal one? He’s going to leave, and it’s going to break Eddie’s heart, and somehow, Eddie still doesn’t want to take any of it back.

He didn’t know he was capable of this kind of love, and he’d rather let it hurt him than give it back.

After Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations go up all over town. Eddie used to like it, the warm lights illuminating the dark, but now all he can think about is the Christmas decorations on the store Shannon died in front of, the bag of Christmas presents she’d just bought spilling onto the street, soaking up her blood.

One of Eddie’s jobs had been just down the road, he’d heard the crash and ran over to help, and now the image is gonna be stuck in his brain for the rest of his life. 

It’s why the café stays bare while everyone around them pulls out all the stops, and why his decorations at home stay in the attic, too. He knows he’s gonna force himself to get them down eventually, because Christopher deserves to have a nice Christmas. He shouldn’t pass his trauma onto his son, he knows it, but right now, the thought of opening those boxes still makes Eddie feel sick.

It doesn’t take Buck very long to catch on.

“So,” he says on the couch next to Eddie, curling one of his long legs under himself to face him. “You’re not a big fan of Christmas, huh?”

Eddie gives him a look. “Very subtle, Buck.”

Buck laughs. “What, I had to start somehow. But seriously, how come you’re not putting any decorations up? I, uh, I was gonna ask Christopher, but that felt too much like going behind your back.”

Eddie is silent for a moment, rubbing his temple before he speaks again. “It’s not that I hate Christmas.”

“It’s because mom died last Christmas,” Christopher’s voice says from behind them, and Eddie spins around to see his son standing in the doorway to the living room, blinking at them sleepily.

“Oh, hey, buddy,” he says softly, walking over to him and squatting down in front of him. “What are you doing up? Couldn’t sleep?”

“I’m thirsty,” Christopher mumbles, and Eddie cups the back of his head to kiss his forehead quickly.

“Why don’t you get back into bed and I’ll get you a glass of water, hm, bud?”

Eddie waits until Christopher has nodded and turned around before he straightens up. Buck is still sitting on the couch, looking wide-eyed and panicked.

“I’ll just…” Eddie says awkwardly, gesturing towards the kitchen and then half running there to get some water for his kid – and maybe to escape the look in Buck’s eyes just a little bit.

He sits with Christopher while he drinks, and then tucks him back in.

“Hey, Chris,” he says quietly. “I know we haven’t talked about mom much lately, but you can always come to me, okay? Do you want to look at pictures again soon?”

“I don’t want you to be sad,” Christopher says, and Eddie swallows harshly.

“I’m always going to be sad that we lost your mom. But talking about her doesn’t make me sad.”

“But Christmas does.” He doesn’t say it like a question, but a statement.

“Well…” Eddie made a promise to himself not to lie to his kid, but he’s not sure how to handle this. He’s incredibly grateful Christopher didn’t have to see his mother on that street, and he doesn’t want to tell him about it. “A little bit, yes. Maybe we can pick out the decorations together so you can remind me of the good things about Christmas. I don’t want this to be a sad time for us.”

“Yeah,” Christopher mumbles, blinking sleepily. “Okay.”

Eddie nods and presses another kiss to his forehead. “Okay. Goodnight, buddy, I love you.”

“Love you too,” Christopher says, and Eddie sits by his side until he falls back asleep.

When he returns to the living room, Buck is standing by the fireplace and fidgeting nervously.

“Eddie,” he says, sounding frantic. “I– I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to–”

“It’s okay,” Eddie interrupts him, and because none of Buck’s nervous energy fades, he places a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Buck. It’s okay.”

“If– If I’d known, I wouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have pressed.”

“Or I could’ve told you,” Eddie says gently, maneuvering them back to the couch. “I should’ve just told you the whole story when I told you Shannon died, but it doesn’t make me look very good, so I didn’t.”

“You don’t have to–” Buck starts, but Eddie squeezes his wrist and shakes his head.

“I want to tell you. Honestly, it’s probably time I talked about it.”

“You haven’t talked to anyone about your wife’s death?”

“I’ve talked about her death some, but I haven’t really told anyone the full story. What was going on between us at the time, you know, that kind of thing.”

“You don’t have to tell me either,” Buck says again. “It’s none of my business, and I won’t judge.”

“We got married pretty young,” Eddie starts, and Buck falls silent. “We were 22, and Shannon was pregnant. We’d been together for a while, but I wasn’t really thinking of marrying her until she told me she was pregnant. I was working with my dad at the time, sort of an internship, but it didn’t pay much, so I made the decision to enlist. Didn’t talk to Shannon about it.”

Buck winces and Eddie laughs a little. “Yeah, basically. She was mad, but I got housing for us, insurance, steady pay, you know, it made me feel like I could provide for a family. I didn’t really get why she was so angry, so we fought a lot even before Christopher was born.”

“You were so young,” Buck says quietly. “When I think of myself five years ago…I made choices that were a lot worse.”

“Now I know that I should’ve talked to her, that she didn’t want a provider, but a partner. But I guess I just did what I thought I was supposed to do. It’s what my dad did – provide for us by working so much we barely saw him. Anyway, I became an Army medic, got deployed and ended up on two tours in Afghanistan for over four years because I re-enlisted without talking to her, too. But with Christopher’s diagnosis and the extra bills…it felt like my only choice. I missed out on so much of Christopher’s life.” He pauses and gives Buck a grateful smile when he squeezes his shoulder. “He was four by the time I got injured and honorably discharged, and Shannon was struggling with his diagnosis and the life we had in El Paso. My parents…they can be a little overbearing, and Shannon wanted us to move to LA, where her mother lived. She was really sick at the time – Shannon’s mom, I mean, cancer, and Shannon wanted to be there to take care of her.”

“That’s a lot at once,” Buck says carefully, and Eddie rubs his face with both hands.

“Yeah. I was…it took me some time to adjust to civilian life again. I wasn’t really in a position where I felt like I could just move someplace new, and I wasn’t…I think, at the time, I wasn’t really able to empathize in the way I should have.”

“You’d just gotten back from a warzone,” Buck says. “You said you were injured over there?” Eddie nods. “Eddie, I’m sure you were traumatized. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“Maybe not,” Eddie allows. “But anyway, because I didn’t want to go, Shannon left on her own. I woke up to a note, and she didn’t come back for over a year. I was angry at her, especially for leaving Christopher, and it took me a while to trust her enough to let her back into Christopher’s life.”

“But you did?” Buck wants to know.

“Yeah,” Eddie says. “Mostly because I didn’t want to keep Chris from his mom, you know? I’ve never told anyone this, but we agreed to get a divorce.”

Buck makes a surprised noise, and Eddie runs a hand through his hair.

“We didn’t even get to file it before she died.”

“What happened?” Buck whispers, and Eddie buries his face in his hands, taking a few deep breaths to steel himself.

And then he tells Buck the whole story of why he doesn’t feel like he can put up their decorations this year.

By the time he’s finished, Buck is gripping his wrist tightly, his thumb stroking circles on Eddie’s skin.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmurs. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Eddie.”

“I don’t want to ruin Christmas for Christopher too,” Eddie says. “She died the week before Christmas, but I don’t want him to connect the holidays with her death forever. I have all those boxes in the attic, but I just…the thought alone makes me feel sick.”

“So is it the getting the boxes that’s the problem, or putting up the decorations? Do the decorations on the other houses make you feel sick?”

Eddie has to think about that for a while. “I don’t love them, and seeing them makes me think of the accident, but it’s when I think of putting them up myself that I…I don’t know, I kind of lock up?”

“Okay,” Buck nods. “So the problem is that we don’t want to make you uncomfortable in your own home, but we also don’t want Christopher to associate this time of year only with grief, right?”

Eddie nods. Buck is still holding his wrist, and Eddie isn’t going to remind him of it. It’s a small touch, but it comforts him anyway.

“What if I helped you get the boxes down? Would it help if we went through them together? You and Christopher could put them up and maybe, I don’t know, create new good memories with them? Or we could go out and buy new decorations. And you don’t have to go all out, you can only put up a few small things so it doesn’t feel overwhelming–”

“Yes,” Eddie interrupts Buck’s rambling. “I mean, I think it would help if you were there to help us, yes.”

Buck smiles. “Okay, then we’ll try that. Let’s just see how it goes.”

It ends up going alright – Buck and Eddie get the boxes down from the attic, and together with Chris, they sort through them. Some things make Eddie feel less sick than others, so they pick those to put up.

Buck has put on Christmas music and suggested baking a batch of cookies too, so the smell of them wafts through the house. Christopher is in a good mood, and his and Buck’s laughter take the edge off Eddie’s anxiety. All in all, it’s not as bad as Eddie thought it would be, and he thinks that, as much as he hates to admit it, talking about it with Buck helped already.

They take some lights to the café as well, and hang a wreath. It’s simple but looks nice and doesn’t stand out as much among the rest of the decorated town.

“Thank you,” Eddie tells Buck when they’re standing on the snow covered sidewalk in front of the café. “I don’t think I could’ve done this without you.”

Buck jostles him a little when he nudges their shoulders together. “Anytime.”

Once the decorations are up, Christopher opens up too. It’s like he was holding back before, but his old Christmas cheer from before his mom’s death is back. Eddie feels horrible for causing him to withdraw like that, but he feels like he – with Buck’s help, most of all – managed to turn it around just in time. 

December comes with even more snow. Buck stays in the guest room at the Diaz house but still helps out at the inn when he can, as well as at the library, the diner and with Chimney. He and Sue start brainstorming ways to get more children to read, and Buck begins planning events and courses at the library, for the youngest children up to teenagers. He doesn’t talk about leaving much anymore, which Eddie doesn’t dare bring up for fear of reminding him or making Buck think he wants him to leave.

So the days pass, and the Diazes and Buck become even more of a package deal. No one questions it anymore when Buck picks Christopher up from school, people assume that when they invite one of them, the other will be there too, and just generally start referring to them as a unit. Eddie doesn’t mind at all.

Athena and Bobby host a Christmas party at their house in mid December. They’ve gone all out with decorations, a huge tree, lights everywhere, garlands and wreaths, stockings hung on the mantle. 

Since they asked everyone to bring along food and drinks, the table is now absolutely loaded with it, sweet and savory foods in quantities they’ll never be able to finish, even with how big of a party this is. Eddie’s been to one of Athena and Bobby’s parties in the summer, and he’s heard that it usually means everyone gets to take leftovers.

Buck asks Eddie about ten times if he’s okay with all the Christmas cheer, and Eddie finds that he’s not lying when he says yes. This is a joyful place filled with people he cares about, and somehow that seems to win over the horrible memories from last year. And maybe it’s Buck, too, always sticking to his side, often close enough to feel his warmth, always there to check in on Eddie in a way that feels caring and not suffocating.

Christopher is off playing with his friends, and Eddie gets to hang out with his own friends, eat good food and even drink some alcohol in the form of mulled wine and eggnog, he’s warm and comfortable, so it’s a good evening.

When he rounds a corner on the way back from the bathroom, he literally runs into Buck, who’s coming the other way. Buck catches him to stop him from stumbling with one hand on his arm and one on his waist, and the butterflies in Eddie’s stomach are back immediately.

“Whoops,” Buck says, “careful.”

He lets go of Eddie – much to his unspoken disappointment – but doesn’t step back. Eddie clears his throat. “Sorry.”

Buck squints at him, a teasing grin on his face. “Are you drunk, Eddie?”

“No,” Eddie says, but something that sounds a lot like a giggle spills from his lips. Whether that’s from the alcohol or the way he is stupid over Buck isn’t clear.

Buck’s grin widens. “Mhmm, sure.”

“I’m not,” Eddie insists and tries shoving at Buck’s chest, to no avail. He drops his hand, but it somehow gets caught in the fabric of Buck’s sweater at his waist, and he ends up kind of holding on to it.

Buck’s grin softens into a smile that Eddie answers with one of his own. And then he spots it, right over Buck’s head: mistletoe.

His eyes must widen, because Buck tilts his head back and looks up, too.

“Oh,” he breathes, and then his gaze drops from Eddie’s eyes to his mouth, just for a second.

Eddie wants to, he wants to so much, but he has just enough clarity to think, not like this . He wants his first kiss with Buck to be because they both want it, when it’s just the two of them and they can talk about what it means, not when he can hear their friends around the corner, talking and laughing. Not because of a silly tradition someone made up.

He blinks and steps back at the same time that Buck does, both of them letting out a nervous half-laugh.

Eddie opens his mouth to say…something, he’s not sure yet, but then Karen yells Buck’s name from next door, and Buck takes another step back, looking almost regretful. Eddie gives him a smile, nodding towards the door to tell Buck that it’s okay, that he can go. Buck still hesitates, eyes dropping to Eddie’s mouth once more, but then he turns around and disappears around the corner.

Eddie leans against the wall, taking a deep breath. He just almost kissed Buck, and Buck definitely seemed to want it, too. Eddie bites his lip to tamp down on his smile.

Tomorrow, he’ll do something about it. He’s gonna ask Buck on a date, and then, hopefully, he’s gonna get to hold his hand. Maybe he’ll kiss him goodnight in the doorway to his bedroom, and maybe, someday soon, they’ll get to sleep in the same bed and wake up to each other.

All evening, Eddie keeps smiling, and he’s still smiling when he climbs into bed.

But Eddie should’ve known that it was too good to be true, because then Buck leaves without a word.

He doesn’t believe it at first. When Buck isn’t there in the morning, Eddie figures he forgot to tell him about some early job, or maybe he’s outside shoveling snow, or maybe he’s out getting a surprise for Christopher.

But the more time passes without seeing him, the more Eddie worries. Chimney comes to the café and says he hasn’t seen Buck since last night, and when Eddie dips over to Bobby’s diner for a few minutes, Bobby says the same thing. Eddie texts him around lunch but doesn’t get a reply, and then calls Hen to ask if she knows where Buck is.

“No,” she says, “and he didn’t tell you what he was up to today?”

“He didn’t,” Eddie answers, worry gnawing at him. “Can you call me if you see him? He’s not answering his phone either.”

“Yeah, of course,” she promises.

When no one has seen Buck by 5pm, Eddie asks Abuela to take over for him at the café, and heads to the last place he can think of: Tommy’s garage.

“Oh, yeah,” Tommy says when Eddie asks if he’s seen Buck today. “He called me at 5 this morning and asked if he could pick his jeep up early. Sounded important, so I let him.”

“But,” Eddie stammers, trying to wrap his head around what Tommy’s saying, “when did you even fix it?”

“It’s been ready since the week after Thanksgiving,” Tommy shrugs. “At the time he asked if he could leave it here for a little longer, and I had the space, so…”

Eddie shakes his head. Nothing makes sense anymore.

“Thanks, Tommy,” he manages to say, and then he walks home in a daze.

He opens the door to Buck’s room, staring in disbelief at the bed that’s been made in a rush, the one open closet door revealing empty shelves.

Buck is gone, and he didn’t even leave a note. Eddie should have known this would happen at some point, after all, Buck told him this is what he does. He doesn’t stay anywhere for long, and he’s already stayed here for longer than he ever planned.

Still, over time, Eddie has grown to hope that things would be different this time. It hurts even more than he expected, and Eddie curses himself for his stupidity. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up the way he did, and he shouldn’t be surprised, because he brought this all on himself.

Eddie almost kissed Buck, and Buck’s response was to run.

*

He said he’s going to kill me.

Maddie’s words have echoed in Buck’s mind ever since she called him in a panic a little before 5am this morning.

She was scared out of her mind, but from what he gathered she finally left Doug and took a flight to Los Angeles to find Buck, following the postcards he kept sending her over the years. But Doug called her to tell her knew where she was, so Maddie had gone to the LA address she had from Buck and got his current number from Connor.

After they hung up, Buck grabbed a stack of his clothes, threw them in a bag and left Eddie’s house as quietly as possible, trying not to wake anyone. He called Tommy on the way to the garage and was on the road back to LA just after 5am.

He called Maddie again from the car, telling her to go to the police and that he was coming to get her, and she promised she would.

Now he’s been driving for five hours already, fuelled by the worry for his sister. It’s been three years since he’s heard from her, and he can’t help blaming himself for not trying harder to reach her. He knew Doug was awful, but he had no idea it was this bad.

Eight hours into the drive, Maddie stops answering her phone. Buck should probably take a break at some point, but it feels impossible with the panic now coursing through his veins. If Doug found Maddie–

He has to stop at a gas station a little outside of Las Vegas, and his hands shake so much he can barely fill his tank. Some of it probably has to do with the fact that he hasn’t eaten anything since last night, so he buys a couple of energy bars and a bottle of water, and then gets back on the road.

He tries calling the LAPD, but they say that they can’t tell him whether or not a Maddie Buckley came to them for help.

“You can file a missing persons report,” the person on the other end suggests, and Buck nods before remembering they can’t see him.

“I’m still in the car and won’t be in LA for another five hours,” he explains, “can I do it on the phone?”

His call is transferred to someone else, who takes a description of Maddie from him, as well as her contact details and his, and the reason for why he believes that she’s missing. He hopes the fact that he doesn’t know what Maddie’s hair looks like right now, what she was wearing or where she was last seen won’t be too much of a problem.

The officer he’s speaking to assures him that they take his report seriously, and that they will try to find Maddie as quickly as possible.

“Please don’t attempt to do anything on your own, Mr Buckley. Let the police do their job, we’re the best chance your sister has. You will be contacted with any news.”

“Thank you,” Buck says, and knows that sitting around and waiting for his phone to ring will be the absolute last thing he does.

Ten hours into the drive, Buck’s eyes are burning, but there is enough adrenaline running through his body to keep him from feeling tired. 

He goes through an area with poor cell service near Mojave and, for the first time in his life, prays that he isn’t missing any important calls.

When his phone eventually lights up with another call, it’s from an unknown number. Buck swipes at it so quickly he nearly knocks his phone off its holder on his dashboard.

“Hello?”

“Evan,” Maddie’s voice comes through his car’s speakers, out of breath and sounding so scared it makes something drop in Buck’s stomach. “Big Bear. He killed someone, Evan.”

“Maddie,” Buck says, horrified. “Are you in Big Bear? Or going–”

The call drops and Buck yells in frustration. If he takes the next exit, he can drive to Big Bear instead of LA, but he’s not sure whether Doug is just planning to take Maddie there, or if they’ve already made it, and it’s a pretty big area anyway.

Still, he takes the exit and dials the number the police officer gave him earlier to call with any further information. He tells them exactly what Maddie said, including that Doug killed someone (which makes bile rise in his throat, his poor sister), and that she called from a phone that wasn’t hers. He gives them the number and hopes to god that they’ll be able to trace it somehow.

Once he’s hung up, Buck is alone with his thoughts again, and they all revolve around Maddie and what she must be going through right now. His mind comes up with worst case scenario after worst case scenario, and he steps a little harder on the gas pedal.

If he were a violent abuser, where would he take his ex-wife who ran from him? Probably not somewhere with lots of people around. But it’s ski season in Big Bear, and this close to the holidays, it’s probably pretty busy in most places. So it would have to be somewhere remote that isn’t being serviced right now.

Buck pulls off to the side of the road and starts googling. Since the two big ski resorts are on one side of Big Bear Lake, he figures that the other, less populated side might be a better bet.

Next, he calls the biggest rental agency he can find and asks if they have any rentals that they don’t rent out this season, and gets an answer before the guy on the other end thinks to ask why. He hangs up without answering, aware that he only got this information through sheer luck. But he figures he deserves it, since all of this is to save his sister.

Maddie and Doug probably have a head start in getting to Big Bear, but hopefully it’ll take Doug some time to figure out where to go. He wouldn’t have called someone the way Buck did, risking someone getting suspicious and checking up on the place, so Buck figures he’d just drive until he found a suitable cabin.

He decides to drive to the small resort the guy on the phone gave him first, and if they’re not there, he can still keep driving around to look for them. It’s six pm now and dark outside, though the snow reflects what little light there is. Still, it’s not gonna be easy to find someone who doesn’t want to be found.

When Buck gets to the small road leading up to the resort, he pulls the jeep over to the side of the road. If he drives in there now, he’ll announce himself from far away, and if Doug is really holding Maddie in one of the cabins, he’ll have plenty of time to move them.

So Buck grabs his jacket, glad he’s actually got boots now, too, and leaves his car behind. He takes a flashlight, his phone, and a wrench from his toolkit – just in case he might need a weapon.

He can already see the resort – a collection of seven or eight cabins around a square that’s lit by a few street lights – when he suddenly hears sirens from afar, but getting closer. He sees the lights next, and then three police cars are coming up the road behind him at high speed.

Buck feels a mix of terror and relief. If they’re coming here too, he must’ve been right with his guess, and this really is where Doug took Maddie. 

He steps into the forest to let them pass, but one of them screeches to a halt next to him. Buck grimaces and lifts his arms to indicate he’s got nothing to hide. He remembers the conversation from earlier very well, an officer telling him not to do anything on his own.

“I’m Evan Buckley,” he says as soon as the car door opens, “I’m the one who reported my sister missing. Maddie Buckley, or Kendall.”

“Mr Buckley.” Buck can’t see the officer’s face clearly with the flashlight pointed at his face, but her voice sounds exhausted. Her partner stays in the car. “What are you doing here?”

“I was nearby,” he says, “and I need to find my sister.”

“Let us do our job,” she says, and then adds, “Can I see some ID?”

He grabs his ID from the inner pocket of his jacket and hands it to her. “Can I ask how you knew to come here?“

“We found a rental agreement for a car at a gas station where the attendant was killed earlier today. Someone had started writing “Help” on the back, and we were able to track the car here. Your sister is very smart, she tried leaving us clues wherever she could. But how did you figure it out?”

Buck explains his thought process as quickly as possible, but his eyes keep straying towards the cabins up the road. “Can I?”

The officer sighs again. “Get in the car.”

So Buck gets into the back of the police car and lets them drive him up the road.

“Stay here,” the officer tells him sternly, “your sister’s abuser is highly dangerous.”

Both officers get out of the car, and Buck watches as they reunite with their colleagues and everyone updates each other.

One of the officers outside points towards the forest, and Buck’s stomach clenches. If they’re all standing here, it probably means they didn’t find Maddie and Doug in one of the cabins.

He opens his door carefully, just enough so he can make out the words being said.

“There are footprints leading into the forest,” someone says, “and traces of blood.”

That’s all Buck needs to hear. There is no way he’s leaving his sister alone in these cold, dark, snowy woods. What if she’s hurt? What if Doug finds her?

Buck doesn’t think, just bolts from the police car and towards the forest, in the direction the officer was pointing in.

Behind him, he can hear someone calling his name, but he ignores it. He needs to get to Maddie.

He fumbles with his flashlight, but even once it’s on, visibility is low. It’s hard to run on the uneven ground covered by snow, but if Maddie did it, so will Buck. He tries following the footprints, but it’s not always obvious where they went. Sometimes they lead in a circle, or sometimes they hit a patch without snow and he loses them for a moment.

“Maddie!” he calls, voice echoing in the dark. “Maddie!”

Behind him, he can hear the police approaching, but he doesn’t slow down. They’ll stop him from going on, but he has to find Maddie, he has to.

Buck keeps calling out for Maddie until his throat feels raw, and then, finally, he hears it.

Her voice sounds weak and far away, and Buck only hears it because he’s just stopped again to figure out where the footprints lead next, but it’s Maddie, and she’s calling his name.

He whips around into the direction it’s coming from, calling out for Maddie again. She answers, closer now, and Buck trips over tree roots and gets hit in the face with branches, but none of that matters.

The light from his flashlight finds Maddie between the trees. There’s blood all over her and she’s crying, but she’s alive and moving towards him, and Buck drops the flashlight to catch her in his arms.

“Evan,” she sobs. “I didn’t give up.”

“I’ve got you,” Buck murmurs into her hair. “I’ve got you, Maddie.”

What follows after that is a bit of a blur.

The police talk to Maddie while they wait for the ambulance and she stays tucked into Buck’s side the whole time, wrapped in a blanket. 

She tells them how Doug found her in LA and grabbed her from her hotel room. How she regained consciousness in the car outside of LA, and tried to influence Doug’s decisions on where they were going. How she tried to leave clues wherever she could and managed to call Buck from a payphone. How Doug killed a gas station attendant because he got suspicious and tried helping Maddie. How she managed to take Doug by surprise in the cabin when she hit him with a poker and fled outside. How she eventually had to kill him with the knife he was trying to kill her with. 

Buck holds her tight, horrified, and wishes he’d gotten to her sooner. 

The ambulance that eventually arrives takes them to a hospital in Big Bear, where Maddie’s cuts and bruises and the stab wound on her thigh get treated. Buck must have twisted his ankle while running through the woods, but he’s fine apart from that and some scratches. He gets a cot in Maddie’s hospital room and sits by her side until she falls asleep. 

Looking over at his sister’s sleeping form in the hospital bed, Buck suddenly wants to hear Eddie’s voice more than anything. He wants to tell him about everything that happened, but he thinks that simply hearing Eddie’s voice would make him feel better right now.

But when he gets up to get his phone from his jacket, he finds that it isn’t there. He checks every other pocket and even asks a nurse if a phone has turned up somewhere, but he doesn’t find it.

“Fuck,” he murmurs to himself. He must’ve lost it in the forest, or maybe in the ambulance or the police car.

It’s been around 20 hours since he left Pine Creek without a note or a message to anyone. Eddie will have noticed by now, because he lives with them, and maybe Hen, because Buck usually shows up at the inn at least once a day to shovel snow. 

Maybe he should’ve called one of them from the car earlier to let them know where he was, but he honestly didn’t even think of it. The whole drive, he didn’t think of anything but Maddie. He vaguely remembers seeing a text from Eddie pop up at some point, but he didn’t even read it.

But now that he is thinking of Pine Creek and Eddie, Buck suddenly remembers last night, which he hasn’t had time to process yet at all.

His mind conjures up an image of Eddie under the mistletoe, and his stomach flip flops. He can’t believe he almost kissed Eddie and ruined it all. Or maybe he ruined it all anyway, because Eddie definitely knew he was about to kiss him, and he took a step back.

The expression on his face was hard to read, but all evening, Eddie smiled suspiciously much, like he was trying to seem normal and ended up overcorrecting. Or maybe he was just drunk.

Maybe he won’t even remember the mistletoe incident? Maybe a few days where he doesn’t hear from Buck are just what he needs to get over the awkwardness.

Buck still doesn’t know why he let it get so far. He should’ve just laughed it off immediately and let Eddie return to the party. But Buck is a weak man; he can't take a step back whenever Eddie is near, can’t stop himself from reaching out to touch whenever he can. He’s been wanting to kiss Eddie since pretty much the beginning, and that need has only grown with everything he’s learned about the man. Somehow, against everything Buck thought possible, he’s fallen in love with Eddie over the six weeks he’s known him.

A grieving widower and single dad, who is kind and stubborn and funny and will never feel the same way. But Buck loves him, and he loves Christopher, even though he thought Abby broke his heart for good. But he’s starting to suspect that he just didn’t know the kind of love his heart has the capacity for. 

He’s fallen in love with all of Pine Creek, and all he wants to do is bundle Maddie up in his jeep and drive them right back there. But Maddie needs to heal, and Buck needs to sleep, and he doesn’t even know where Maddie wants to go from here. They haven’t had the time to talk about much else yet.

Buck settles into his cot, closing his burning eyes. Tomorrow, he needs to figure out his phone situation, he wants to sit down with Maddie and really talk to her, but for now, he needs to let his body rest as much as he can in a hospital. He can worry about the rest later.

36 hours later, Maddie is released from hospital with instructions on how to treat her stab wound (as if she, a nurse, doesn’t know), Buck still doesn’t have his phone back even though he spoke to the police and told them to keep an eye out for it if they spend any more time out in those woods, and between them, have maybe one change of clothes.

Maddie has borrowed sweats and a hoodie from Buck, both way too big on her and rolled up multiple times, and Buck has also changed into different clothes, but he didn’t exactly pay attention to what he was throwing into his bag when he packed it. Most of the clothes aren’t made for cold weather and he’s only got one more spare pair of boxers, so he either needs to go shopping or go back to Pine Creek quickly.

Yesterday, he and Maddie agreed to drive back to LA first, where all of her luggage should still be at the hotel she stayed at. Afterwards, they’ll both head to Pine Creek. Maddie was hesitant to agree when she heard that Buck doesn’t have his own place there.

“I can’t just show up and demand to stay with someone I don’t even know, Evan,” she said.

“They’ll be happy to have you,” Buck assured her. He’s absolutely willing to share his bed with his sister, but he’s also pretty sure that someone else will offer up a guest room for her. “These people took me in with no questions asked, if we explain what happened they’ll probably start fighting over who gets to host you.”

Eventually she agreed to come with him, but she still seemed reluctant.

They spent most of yesterday catching up, only interrupted by one more police visit. But there isn’t any doubt that Maddie was acting in self defense, so she didn’t even have to come to the station for a statement. 

Buck was worried his postcards weren’t getting to Maddie at the hospital, but apparently she did get them all this time. She was just scared of contacting him because she worried he would find out how bad things really were with Doug.

“I never wanted you in the middle of all of that,” she said, tears in her eyes, and Buck squeezed her hand.

“Standing in between you and anyone who thinks they can hurt you is exactly where I wanna be standing,” Buck said, and she cried some more. “I’m glad you called me yesterday. I just wish you’d come to me a little earlier. But – Maddie. I’m so proud of you for leaving him, and I’m so proud of you for fighting.”

When they weren’t crying together or talking about all the awful things Maddie had to go through, Buck told Maddie about his own adventures, and talked a lot about Pine Creek.

And now, on their way to LA, Buck finds himself telling even more stories about the small town and the people he found completely by accident and fell in love with in a way he’s never done before.

“You really love these people, don’t you?” Maddie asks, a smile on her face when he glances over at her. “You haven’t talked like this about any of the other places you’ve been.”

“Yeah,” Buck shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, but they’re just– They’ve become family in a really short time.”

He just hopes they’ll still feel that way about him too, after he’s gone and disappeared without a word.

“And this Eddie,” Maddie continues, “are you and him…?”

“Oh, no,” Buck says quickly. “We’re friends. He’s probably the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Maddie hums. “You can tell me, if it’s more than that. I won’t judge.”

Buck laughs. “Thanks, Mads, but I’m pretty sure that Eddie is straight.”

“But that’s all that’s keeping you from it being more?” Buck must look caught out, because she laughs. “Well, have you asked him?”

“No,” Buck mumbles, and she boxes his arm gently.

“You have to! Evan, you talk about this guy like…like he hung the moon.”

“I can’t just ask him if he’s into guys,” Buck protests, face hot.

“Well, then just tell him how you feel. He might surprise you.”

“You say that as if it’s easy.”

She smiles at him. “I just want my little brother to be happy. And if this man and his kid can do that, I think you should try to hold onto them.”

“But what if I drive them away if I tell Eddie how I feel?”

“Well,” Maddie says, “I can’t tell the future, but would it be enough for you to just be in their lives as Eddie’s friend? Would that make you happy, long term?”

Buck groans. “I forgot what it’s like to have a big sister.”

Maddie laughs a little. “I don’t know if I’m the best person to be handing out advice right now.”

“You are,” Buck assures her. “I really missed you, Maddie.”

“I missed you too.” She smiles sadly. “I’m sorry I left you alone for so long.”

“It’s not your fault,” Buck says. “And now that I’ve got you back, I’m not letting you go again.”

“Staying away wasn’t what I wanted,” Maddie says. “I won’t let it happen again.”

They make good time and are back in LA in the afternoon. Maddie’s hotel room, considered a crime scene because Doug kidnapped her from there, is kind of a mess. But Maddie doesn’t want to stay there anyway, so they just get her luggage and check into another hotel for the night.

Buck would love to show Maddie around a little more, but his ankle is still sore and Maddie is healing from a stab wound in her thigh and cuts and bruises on her whole body, so it’s not the right time. Instead, they just go out for dinner and go to bed early, both of them exhausted.

In the morning, they get into the jeep again. It’s a long drive to Pine Creek, but they stop at a motel in Utah for one night because Buck can’t drive for that long again, and Maddie still gets uncomfortable after too many hours of sitting in the same position.

All in all, it’s a surprisingly nice time, considering Maddie has just gone through hell. They have a lot to talk about, and even when they don’t talk, it never gets uncomfortable. And even though they haven’t spoken in three years, nothing between them has changed.

When they approach Pine Creek, Buck’s heart starts beating faster. He feels like he’s coming home, but he can’t help being nervous, too. What if they’re angry at him? Or, even worse, what if they were fine with him being gone?

“I think I’ll take you to Hen and Karen’s first,” Buck tells Maddie to distract himself from his spiraling thoughts. “They’ll know who has a spare room, and they were the first people I met, too. Unless – you’d rather not stay with strangers on your own?”

Maddie gives him a smile that’s only a little shaky. “I feel like I know all of them already from your stories. I’ll be fine.”

“And I’m never more than a phone call away,” Buck assures her. “Pine Creek is small enough that I’ll be there within a few minutes, day or night.”

She laughs quietly. “I’ll be fine, Evan. Buck. Sorry, I’m still getting used to that.”

“It’s fine,” he waves her off. “I don’t mind it when you call me Evan, it’s o– it’s only mom and dad.”

“But you prefer Buck.”

“Yeah,” he admits, and she nods.

“I’ll try to use it more often, then.”

“Thank you, Maddie,” Buck says earnestly, and then they’re suddenly crossing the town line into Pine Creek. He swallows. “Here we are.”

Maddie makes a small noise of surprise and turns in her seat to look out the window.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous!” she exclaims. “You really weren’t lying about the location, the view is incredible.”

It’s nearing sundown now, and the snowy tips of the mountains are glowing orange. It really is beautiful.

Buck parks the jeep in front of the inn, and it kind of feels like a déjà-vu. He takes a deep breath and smiles at Maddie.

“They’re gonna love you,” he says.

She says, “I hope so,” and opens her door.

Buck follows her and then leads her inside the inn, where Karen is sitting at the reception desk.

When she spots them, she yelps, pressing a hand to her chest and jumping up to round the counter as quickly as possible.

“Hi, Karen,” Buck starts, still not sure what to expect.

“Oh my god, you’re safe,” Karen says, and then she throws her arms around Buck, squeezing tightly. “Eddie’s trying to convince himself and everyone else that you just moved on, but we’ve been so worried.”

Buck’s stomach drops. “He is? I– I wouldn’t do that. Not anymore.”

Karen leans back and smiles up at him. “You should tell him that.”

Buck face burns. He’s getting the impression that maybe he hasn’t been as good at hiding his feelings as he thought he was.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” he says, changing the topic. “It’s a long story and I’ll explain everything, but I didn’t think you’d worry.”

“Of course we did! Buck, we care about you, and you just disappeared and didn't answer your phone for days, anything could’ve happened.”

“I’m okay,” Buck assures her, “but I did lose my phone. But first – this is my sister Maddie.” 

He stretches out an arm to pull Maddie closer, and she smiles at Karen warmly.

“Hi Karen, it’s so nice to meet you,” she says. “I’ve heard a lot about you over the past few days.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Karen says, and looks back at Buck. “Your sister who…?”

“Yes,” Buck confirms, knowing that she’s thinking of how he told them all he hadn’t heard from his sister in years. “I found out why she hasn’t been in touch.”

Maddie winces a little, and Buck wraps his arm around her shoulder.

“Buck?” Hen’s voice says from behind them, and Buck spins around just in time to accept her hug, too. “I knew you wouldn’t just disappear! Where have you been, we were so worried!”

“It’s kind of a long story,” Buck says. “Do you guys want to sit down?”

Karen gets them all coffee and they sit in some of the lounge chairs in the lobby while Buck and Maddie explain what has happened over the past few days. Hen and Karen look horrified and immediately warm up to Maddie, forgiving her for not answering Buck’s calls.

“You were so brave,” Hen says. She and Karen are holding hands, their grip looking tight. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, but so happy you got out and are here with us now.”

“Thank you,” Maddie says, wiping under her eyes. “Buck has told me so much about you and how nice you have been to him, I can’t thank you enough for taking care of my little brother.”

“Oh, he’s been taking care of us right back,” Karen says, squeezing Buck’s knee and smiling at him. “He’s part of the family, which means that you are, too.”

That makes Buck tear up a little too, and he blinks rapidly to dispel the tears. “Don’t make me cry, Karen.”

Karen pats his knee with a wink.

“So what’s the plan now?” Hen wants to know. “I assume you don’t want to go back home, Maddie?”

“No,” Maddie says. “I don’t want to constantly be reminded of…him.”

“We were–,” Buck starts, “or I was hoping she could stay here in Pine Creek for a little while. I know it’s a lot to ask, since I already live in Eddie’s spare room, but we don’t really have anywhere else to go.”

“I think I speak for our entire group when I say that it’s not too much to ask,” Karen says. “You went through hell, Maddie, of course we’ll help you.” She exchanges a look with her wife. “I think maybe Bobby and Athena’s place would be the best. They’ve got plenty of space, it’s peaceful, and you’ll love them.”

“I’ll ask them to come over so you guys can meet,” Hen adds. “We only have a pull-out couch right now, but you’re welcome to it of course, if you’d prefer that.”

“I don’t want to put anyone out,” Maddie says, but both Wilsons wave her off.

“And you,” Hen says to Buck, giving him a pointed look, “have someone else you should talk to.”

Buck winces. “Is he angry?”

“I think he’s hurt,” Hen says gently, and Buck’s heart drops again.

“We’ll take care of Maddie,” Karen promises him. “Eddie’s at the café.”

Buck looks at Maddie, who nods. “Go. I’ll be fine.”

Buck kisses her cheek, hugs both Hen and Karen once more, and takes the few steps over to the Diaz’s café.

When Buck walks in, Eddie drops a mug. The two customers inside jump and look at him, but Eddie doesn’t move, doesn’t even take his eyes off Buck.

A little nervously, Buck smiles.

“You came back,” Eddie says. His voice sounds hoarse, but it’s his voice, and Buck missed him so damn much.

“I’m sorry,” he blurts out. “I’m sorry I left without a note or anything. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I– I have a good explanation, and I’d like to give it to you, if that’s okay.”

Eddie blinks, looks down at the shattered mug and back up at Buck.

“Not here,” he says, which isn’t a no, but his face is still harder than it has been around Buck in weeks.

“Okay,” Buck agrees. “But later, at home?” He catches himself too late, rushing to add, “or, or, at yours, I mean. Later?”

But Eddie’s expression has gone a little softer at his mistake, and he nods. “Yeah, at home.”

“Thank you,” Buck says. His heart is racing again, and he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans so they don’t shake. “I’ll see you later, then?”

“See you,” Eddie says, turns around and disappears into the kitchen.

The two people at the table by the window are still looking at Buck, so he gives them a slightly awkward smile and steps back outside.

He breathes in the cold air for a moment and then decides to head back to the inn. He’s got at least an hour and a half until Eddie comes home, and he wants to make sure Maddie is comfortable tonight before he just disappears. 

It also can’t hurt to keep busy, so he can’t start overthinking what Eddie’s reaction to him leaving means, or to him coming back. It almost feels like Eddie might not have wanted space after their almost kiss. Like he’s–

But Buck shakes his head at himself, and starts walking. It’s better not to overthink, not to get his hopes up.

Athena and Bobby have arrived by the time he gets back to the inn, and both of them greet him with relieved hugs too. It all makes him feel very loved, and he feels a little bit stupid for doubting that he might mean as much to them as they do to him.

He and Maddie tell their story one more time, and Bobby and Athena immediately offer up their spare room for Maddie. She accepts gratefully, and twenty minutes later, Buck parks in front of Eddie’s house.

It’s dark except for the Christmas decorations, so he uses his key to enter. He feels like he’s coming home, even though he knows he doesn’t have a right to that. Buck drops his bag in his room but doesn’t unpack it. It feels weird to do that when he doesn’t know for sure if Eddie still wants him to stay here.

Instead, he goes to the kitchen and checks the fridge to see if he can come up with something to make for dinner. Yes, he’s not above bribery via food.

*

The last hour until closing has never dragged as much as it does today. It’s the fifth day since Buck disappeared without a word, five days during which Eddie has tried not to think about him too much, to hide the hurt and anger he was feeling. The anger was mostly at himself, for letting himself get far enough to get his heart broken, even though he knew that it would come to this.

But Buck came back, out of nowhere, and when Eddie saw him, all he wanted to do was rush forward and wrap him in his arms. Despite everything, there’d still been that worry in the back of his mind, that voice telling him that something could’ve happened to Buck. He’s safe.

Thankfully, Eddie has some sense of self preservation left and stayed where he was, the counter a safe barrier between them.

There won’t be a barrier when he goes home, and Eddie is both nervous and impatient. He asks abuela if Christopher can stay with her tonight because he needs to take care of some things, which she accepts easily. And even though he saw Christopher earlier, he spends ten minutes talking to him on the phone in the kitchen, while listening for the bell above the door, in case a new customer comes in. He doesn’t hang up until someone demands his attention at the counter, and even then he takes his time to say goodbye to Chris. He promised himself that he will never be absent from his son’s life again, and that is a promise he intends to keep.

At six pm, he cleans the coffeemaker, wipes all the surfaces and sweeps the floors, and then he locks up. It looks fine, and he doesn’t have the patience for anything else.

Buck’s jeep is parked in his driveway, the light is on in the kitchen, and Eddie’s heart gives an embarrassing lurch. There was a part of him that didn’t believe Buck was really back, or would stay.

But he’s here, at Eddie’s house, at home .

“Buck?” Eddie calls when he enters the house, bending down to unlace his boots.

“In the kitchen,” Buck calls back, and Eddie follows his voice and the delicious smell to the kitchen.

Buck is at the stove, stirring a pot, and Eddie is once again hit over the head with how well he fits here. He wants to walk up to him and wrap his arms around him from behind, tuck his cold nose against Buck’s neck to warm it up. He wants to come home to him every night, the way he did for weeks, only better.

And Buck came back, but Eddie has no idea anymore if he wants the same. Back at Athena and Bobby’s place last week, he felt so sure, so hopeful, but now…

“Hey,” he says, and Buck spins around.

“Hey,” Buck echoes, a nervous smile on his face.

“You’re cooking,” Eddie says. He’s not sure how to do this, what to say, where to put his hands.

Buck nods and shrugs at the same time. “Yeah, I figured since I had the time – but it has to simmer for a while now, so if you want, um. We could talk now?”

He’s wringing his hands and Eddie feels a little soothed by the fact that Buck is clearly just as nervous and uncertain as he is.

“Okay, yeah,” Eddie says. 

He pulls out a kitchen chair and sits down on it, waiting for Buck to sit opposite him. This doesn’t feel like a couch kind of conversation, but he doesn’t want to keep standing around. This way, he can at least hide his hands under the table.

Buck sits and presses his hands flat to the table, staring down at them for a moment.

“Okay,” he says, taking a deep breath. “First, I want to say that I should’ve at least left a note or called from the car, or anything, and I’m sorry I didn’t do that. Like I said, I don’t want this to be an excuse, I just want you to know what happened.”

Eddie nods. It kind of sounds like Buck practiced this speech, and he can’t help finding that adorable.

“Alright, so you know I have a sister?”

“Maddie,” Eddie nods again, and Buck looks surprised, like he didn’t expect him to remember her name.

But Eddie listens to Buck, and Buck misses his sister, so.

“She called me early that morning, telling me her husband was– he was threatening to kill her.”

Eddie sucks in a sharp breath, but it only gets worse from there. Buck tells him how he searched for Maddie, how he involved the police and how Maddie tried helping them as best as she could, and how she had to kill her abuser in the end anyway, fighting to survive him.

At some point, the side of Eddie’s knee knocks against Buck’s leg and neither of them moves away, the small point of contact a reminder that they’re both here and fine.

Eddie doesn’t interrupt Buck while he tells him everything that has happened over the past few days, and he doesn’t really know what to say once he’s finished, either.

He just looks at Buck’s hands, still pressed against the table, for a moment, and then blurts out, “I forgive you.”

Buck makes a surprised noise, and Eddie presses his leg against Buck’s a little harder.

“I don’t even know if there’s anything to forgive,” he amends. “I understand why you didn’t stop to leave a message. I have sisters too, I can only imagine how you must’ve felt.”

“I’m still sorry I put you through five days of not knowing.”

Eddie shrugs, embarrassed. “I’m starting to think I should’ve had more faith in you, the way everyone else did. They all told me something must’ve happened, and they were right. I’m just glad you’re both okay.”

Buck gives him a look. “You’re not everyone else, though.”

His gaze feels heavy, and Eddie can feel himself blushing. “I guess not.”

“Eddie–” Buck starts, his hands flexing on the table. Eddie’s heart speeds up.

A timer goes off behind them and Buck jumps, then curses quietly and jumps up.

“Hold that thought,” he tells Eddie, as if Eddie has any idea what Buck was about to say.

He watches as Buck lifts the lid of the pot and stirs again, then turns the burner off and gets two plates. Eddie wants to ask what Buck was about to say, but the smell from the pot wafts over to him and his stomach growls loudly.

Buck turns around and grins at him. “Hungry?”

“Apparently,” Eddie says, getting up to take the plates from him.

He sets the table and they start eating in companionable silence, their knees knocking under the table.

Eventually, Eddie asks about Maddie and how she’s doing now, which somehow leads to a lot of stories from Buck’s childhood that he hasn’t heard yet, many involving Maddie and some not.

Still, in the back of his mind, Eddie keeps thinking about the look in Buck’s eyes earlier, before they were interrupted by the timer. It was the same as that night under the mistletoe, when Buck glanced down at Eddie’s lips – because he’s sure that happened, he wasn’t that drunk.

Buck came back, and Eddie is pretty sure he wants to kiss him. And Eddie very, very much wants to kiss Buck. He doesn’t know why they aren’t currently doing that.

He’s considering just saying “fuck it” and kissing Buck over the dirty dishes in his sink, when his phone rings. Eddie silently curses the second interruption of the night, and then takes it back when he sees that it’s his abuela.

“Abuela?” he answers the phone, and Buck turns to look at him a little worriedly. “Is everything okay?”

“Hola, Eddito,” she says, “everything is fine. But Christopher wants to go home, he says he misses you.”

Eddie should’ve expected it – Christopher’s had some separation anxiety for the past few days. He even slept in Eddie’s bed with him for a few nights, clinging to him like he was scared he was gonna leave too. It had made the hurt of Buck’s leaving even worse.

“Sorry, Abuela, he’s been feeling a bit off these past few days, I can come pick him up.”

“Are you sure it’s not a problem?” she asks.

“No, it’s fine,” he assures her. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Is Christopher okay?” Buck asks as soon as Eddie has hung up.

“Yeah,” Eddie says, “he’s just been a little bit clingy these past few days.”

Buck winces. “Because of me?”

Eddie gives him a half smile. “Turns out us Diazes like having you around.”

“I’m sorry,” Buck says again. “I didn’t think– I’m sorry.”

“You can start thinking of a kid friendly way to explain where you’ve been on the way over.”

Buck’s face lights up. “I can come along?”

“Of course,” Eddie laughs, reaching out to squeeze Buck’s shoulder. “He’s really missed you, I couldn’t keep him waiting any longer. And Abuela will be so happy to see you, too.”

Buck basically skips over to the door to get his shoes and coat, and Eddie follows, smiling.

They’ll get to the kissing later – it’s probably best if they talk first, anyway. Buck clearly still doesn’t know how much he means to them, and Eddie needs to get that through his head before he kisses him. He doesn’t want to be sending any kind of mixed signals.

They walk to Abuela’s house because it’s only two streets over, snow crunching under their boots. They’re walking close, shoulders bumping, and neither of them moves to the side. It feels exciting, kind of, sparks flying down Eddie’s arm every time they touch.

He’s had his hands in his coat pockets until now, safe from the cold, but Eddie keeps catching sight of Buck’s hand, swinging between them. So he takes his own hand out of his pocket, and on the next step, along with their shoulders, their knuckles brush, too.

From the corner of his eye, Eddie can see Buck glancing at him, and he smiles, doing it again – this time more deliberately.

He meets Buck’s eye and smiles again, and on the third brush, Buck catches his hand. It feels like someone’s let loose a whole cage of butterflies in Eddie’s belly, and he intertwines their fingers, biting his bottom lip to tamp down on his smile.

But Buck is smiling too, cheeks pink, and Eddie can’t make himself look away.

They keep holding hands, keep glancing at each other and smiling all the way to Abuela’s front door. Buck squeezes his hand once more and then lets go, which Eddie allows reluctantly.

His abuela opens quickly after he knocks, and when she sees Buck, she says, “Ay, Dios mío,” and throws her arms around him.

“Hola, Isabel,” Buck says, sounding surprised, but his arms come up around her to hug her back gently. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell anyone where I was going.”

“But you came back.” She leans back and takes Buck’s face in her hands. “We were so worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” Buck says. “I had to help my sister and a lot happened in a short time, but I really wanted to be back here the whole time.”

“Christopher will be so happy.” She tugs Buck inside by the arm, and Eddie follows them with a smile. “He’s in the living room.”

Buck and Eddie both take off their boots so they don’t track in all the snow, and then Eddie leads the way to the living room, where Christopher is sitting in front of the TV.

“Hey, buddy,” Eddie says, “look who I brought with me.”

Christopher turns around curiously, and his entire face lights up when he spots Buck.

“Buck!” he yells, arms stretched out towards them, and Buck rushes forward to scoop him into his arms before he can lose his balance in his excitement.

“I missed you, buddy,” he whispers into Christopher’s hair, so quietly that Eddie can barely hear it.

His heart feels like it’s beating right out of his chest, and Eddie has to lean against the wall to steady himself. Buck loves Christopher, and Christopher loves Buck, and Eddie doesn’t think he loves anyone as much as he loves the two of them.

Maybe that thought should scare him, but Buck held his hand all the way here, and he came back to them, and when he looked at Eddie earlier…well, Eddie’s not all that scared anymore.

The three of them walk back home together not much later. Christopher pretty much demanded a piggyback ride from Buck, who happily gave in, and now he’s telling a kid-friendly version of what he’s been doing these past five days.

Eddie keeps looking over at them, at their matching smiles and the way Christopher clings to Buck like he’s never letting him go again. 

He feels incredibly lucky.

It takes a long time to get Christopher into bed, which isn’t a surprise considering his excitement at Buck’s return. Buck has to sit with him until he falls asleep and has to promise at least six times that he’ll still be there in the morning, and when they finally close the door to Chris’ room, he looks devastated.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him, Eddie,” Buck says. “I should’ve thought of that, I was in the car for so long. I should’ve called.”

“Your sister was in danger,” Eddie reminds him. “We don’t blame you. I’m not denying that we were hurt, but you came back. That’s what matters.”

Buck wipes his eyes. “Did you really think I’d just leave like that? I mean, I even left most of my stuff, and I don’t have that much to begin with.”

“What?” Eddie frowns. “No, I went into your room. You only left the library books.”

Now it’s Buck’s turn to look confused. “Eddie, I only took a few clothes.”

He pushes the door to his room open. On the floor, there’s one packed duffle bag, the rest is exactly the way Eddie left it five days ago. He hasn’t had the heart to put anything away, hasn’t even stripped the bed.

“Look,” Buck says, opening both doors of the closet.

Eddie can’t help but laugh. He saw the side with the open door, which is still completely empty. The other side, however, still holds what is most of Buck’s belongings, the things he brought when he first arrived here, and the things he’s bought since.

“What?” Buck asks, still confused.

Eddie explains what happens, shaking his head at himself. “I feel so stupid. If I’d opened that second door, maybe I would’ve been less convinced.”

“So you really thought I’d just run without a word?” Buck asks again, and there’s hurt in his voice that Eddie needs to get rid of. “I wouldn’t do that. Especially not to you.”

Eddie turns to face him, to look into Buck’s sad, earnest eyes. The room is small, and they’re standing very close.

“I know you wouldn’t,” he says. “Or a part of me knows that, at least. But the night before, at the party…I almost kissed you, and I thought that maybe I had scared you away.”

Buck’s lips part in surprise, and Eddie can’t help glancing down.

“I thought I almost kissed you,” Buck says. “And that I overstepped with it. I thought you didn’t want me to.”

Eddie shakes his head too quickly. “It wasn’t that! I just thought we should talk first. And that our first kiss shouldn’t be somewhere all of our friends can walk in on us.”

Buck is still staring at him, dumbfounded, but there’s a smile slowly spreading across his face. “So you do want to kiss me?”

Eddie laughs quietly, and takes another step closer to Buck. He has to tilt his head up just a little to keep looking Buck in the eye, and he likes the feeling.

“I tricked you into holding my hand like a teenager earlier,” he murmurs, “and I had to hold myself back from throwing myself at you every single second since you came back. How can you even ask me that?”

“I– really?” Buck’s hand twitches, like he wants to reach out but still doesn’t quite believe he’s allowed to.

Eddie takes the leap for both of them, cupping the side of Buck’s face tenderly.

“Yes, really.” Buck’s eyes flick down to his lips again, but there is one more thing Eddie wants to say. “Buck, I – I want you to stay. I’ve wanted you to stay this whole time, but I wasn’t brave enough to ask. So I’m doing it now: stay here. Be with me. I know it’s a lot to ask, it’s a whole different life from what you’re used to, but I think we could be really happy.”

“You already make me so happy,” Buck whispers, and finally reaches out, his hands settling on Eddie’s waist.

“I love you,” Eddie says, even though it’s probably too early, but Buck’s entire face lights up and he pulls him closer.

“I love you, too,” he breathes, his forehead pressed to Eddie’s. “Of course I’ll stay.”

Hearing him say it feels better than anything Eddie could have imagined, and he lifts his other hand to place it on the back of Buck’s neck. He strokes his thumb up the side of his neck to the hinge of his jaw and Buck shivers, his eyes falling shut.

Eddie brushes their noses together and then finally, finally closes the small gap between them.

Buck’s fingers tighten on his waist and he slips one arm around Eddie’s back to pull him into his chest. His lips turn up in a smile under Eddie’s, and Eddie can feel his own mouth following suit. 

He pulls away a few inches and opens his eyes to find Buck grinning back at him, and they just stay like that for a moment, smiling at each other. Eddie is so ridiculously happy he doesn’t know what to do with it. He’s never felt this way before.

Still smiling, he slides his hand upwards so he can card his fingers through the hair at the back of Buck’s head, and Buck’s smile drops as he shivers again.

“Come here,” he murmurs, and then he kisses him for real.

Eddie’s toes curl in his socks and he makes a noise against Buck’s mouth, opening up for his tongue. They’re as close as they can be, but Eddie still presses closer, wrapping his arm all the way around Buck.

One of Buck’s hands slips under the layers of clothes at his back, big and warm against Eddie’s skin, and Eddie feels like he’s flying.

It’s not quite the date and goodnight kiss he dreamed of, but he wouldn’t change it for the world. And he does get his wish of sleeping in one bed with Buck.

On Christmas Eve, everyone gathers at Bobby and Athena’s again. It wasn’t the original plan, but with Buck’s return and the addition of Maddie to the mix, it felt like the right choice.

Over the past three days, Buck has moved from the guest room into Eddie’s bedroom (Eddie put his duffle bags in the attic, as a sign that he wouldn’t be needing them anytime soon. Buck just laughed and kissed him until he forgot everything else around him, so Eddie’s pretty sure he approves), Eddie has met Maddie and, much to Buck’s mortification, has received her seal of approval, and Buck has made his move official.

He’s notified everyone who needs to know of his change of address, including the DMV and voter registration, has gotten a new phone, and even a job.

Sue at the library has offered to make his job there an official position, where he would get to plan and organize events and groups at the library for kids and teens, to help them improve their reading and/or find joy in it, and courses to teach them how to research.

It won’t be a full-time position, but Buck has accepted it happily anyway. In private, he confessed to Eddie that he was considering going back to college and becoming an elementary school teacher.

Eddie has of course been completely supportive of that idea, knowing Buck’s thirst for knowledge and having seen how he is with children, he thinks it would be a perfect fit. A permanent job Buck has a passion for works in his favor too, considering Eddie has no plans to let Buck go ever again.

Athena insisted that they had so much to celebrate on top of Christmas, they should all spend Christmas Eve together, having another party. As far as Eddie knows, no one argued with that – a party at the Grant-Nash house is everyone’s favorite.

Now, she taps her spoon against her glass, the sound ringing out clear and loud enough to stop every conversation around the room.

“Welcome, everyone,” she says once it’s quiet. Bobby is standing beside her, watching her with a smile. He’s had the same smitten expression around his wife since Eddie has known him, and he thinks it’s beautiful to see.

“This year has had its ups and downs like every year, but Bobby and I wanted to take the time to talk about this family,” here she gestures to envelope the whole room, “and how it has grown since last Christmas.”

Buck, who’s standing next Eddie, slips his hand into Eddie’s. Eddie takes it, squeezes once, and leans into Buck a little more.

“Early in the year, Eddie and Christopher moved to Pine Creek. I’m sure you all remember that Eddie was a bit of a hard nut to crack,” laughter around the room, and Buck presses his lips to Eddie’s temple, “but we got him to open up eventually, and I can’t imagine the town without both of them anymore.”

“We love you, Diazes!” Karen calls, and Eddie blows her a kiss.

“And then Buck showed up here in the middle of the night.”

“It was ten pm,” Buck mutters, and Eddie snorts.

“And he had no intention to stay for longer than it took to fix his car, but once again, we all collectively did what we could to convince him otherwise.”

“I know who tried the hardest,” Chimney hollers, and everyone laughs again.

Eddie refuses to blush, just moves even closer to Buck, who presses his forehead to the back of Eddie’s shoulder.

“I’m not ashamed of that,” he shouts back, and Buck squeezes his hand again.

“We’re all grateful,” Athena says with an amused smile. “Because we happen to like Buck and are very, very glad he’s decided to stay.”

Buck is blushing bright red, still half hidden behind Eddie who has to turn his head to get a good look at his face.

“Buck also brought us Maddie,” Athena continues, and Eddie looks over to where Maddie is currently tucked against Hen’s side, Chimney smiling at her from her other side, “who we haven’t known for very long but love already.”

Maddie wipes at the tears falling from her eyes, giving Athena a watery smile.

“Thank you for taking me in the way you have,” she says. “I really can’t thank you enough.”

“It’s our pleasure.” Athena takes Bobby’s hand. “I think all of us felt a little lost, but we found each other just when we needed it. If I’ve learned one thing over the past few years, it’s that family is so much more than just blood. It’s about people loving and accepting you as you are, about being there for each other, a shoulder to lean on. It’s people who choose to love you. We consider all of you our family, which is why we wanted to spend tonight with you. I don’t want to keep you from the food and drinks for too long, so – here’s to us, and our growing family!”

Maddie isn’t the only one wiping away tears when Athena finishes her speech, and for a few minutes, everyone seems to go around hugging everyone and confirming her sentiment. They really are a family of choice, and Eddie doesn’t know how he got this lucky.

To find a group of people like this, to have a son who’s happy and healthy, to love Buck and be loved by him.

Only a year ago, everything about this seemed unreachable.

“Hey,” Buck smiles when they eventually reunite. “I love you, you know?”

“I do,” Eddie says. It’s the truth – Buck tells him every day, and he shows him in every way. “I love you, too.”

“Enough with the love confessions,” Maddie interrupts them. Chimney is by her side again, and Eddie is pretty sure he’s never seen him this enraptured by someone. “We’re here to have fun.”

“Telling my boyfriend I love him is fun for me,” Buck protests, and still, Eddie’s heart trips in his chest at the words.

“Ugh, you two are so disgusting,” Maddie complains, but when Eddie rips his eyes away from Buck’s face, she’s smiling. “Fine, be sappy, me and Chimney are gonna find some wine.”

When they’ve disappeared, Eddie turns to look at Buck with raised brows. “So, do you think anything’s gonna happen there?”

“Not yet,” Buck says. “But I think they’d be perfect together.”

“Yeah.” Eddie kisses the corner of his mouth, just because he can. “Okay, do you wanna get food and I’ll get Christopher? If we don’t force him, he’ll forget to eat over all the fun he’s having.”

“Yeah, I’ll get some of those dumplings he loves, I saw them on the food table earlier,” Buck says, and Eddie has to kiss him again, for knowing his son’s food preferences.

It’s hours later, after they’ve separated to talk to other people, had enough food to burst and enough to drink to feel loose and giggly, have danced and laughed and hugged even more, that Buck drags Eddie into the hallway with him.

“What are we doing?” Eddie laughs, letting Buck pull him by the hand happily.

“Making something right,” Buck says cryptically, and stops in the middle of the hallway.

Eddie opens his mouth to ask, but in that moment, he sees the mistletoe dangling above their heads. 

He laughs again. “Seriously?”

“I’m not saying we should’ve kissed then,” Buck says. “I’m glad it happened the way it did, that we were sober and talked about everything. But I’ve been wanting to kiss you under this mistletoe since the first time we got caught under it, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since we walked in tonight.”

Eddie grabs a fistful of Buck’s – so tight it’s bordering on indecent, if you ask him – dress shirt and pulls him in, grinning up at him. 

“You’re ridiculous,” he tells him. “I love you so much.”

Buck kisses him, the feeling of it growing familiar but still new enough to set each of Eddie’s nerve endings alight.

He wraps his arms around Buck and kisses him back, feeling drunk on more than just alcohol.

Eddie Diaz, drunk on happiness, making out with his boyfriend like teenagers in the dim hallway of their friends’ house. If only his past self could see him now.

Buck walks him backwards, one hand on the back of his head to protect it when his back hits the wall.

“I love you so much too,” he says against Eddie’s lips, then starts kissing down the side of his neck.

“What if someone sees us?” Eddie asks, but it’s a weak protest given how he tilts his head to grant Buck better access.

Buck pulls back just enough to grin at him. 

“We’ve got a good explanation,” he says, pointing towards the mistletoe, not quite above their heads anymore.

Eddie laughs, and nearby, the church bells toll midnight.

He stretches up onto his toes to kiss Buck’s birthmark, then wraps his arms around him to hold him close.

“Merry Christmas, baby.”