Farraway Mist ?A Wattpad featured story?

Chapter 27: A Happy Christmas

"On the porch?" He stopped moving, stopped kissing her skin. "It's freezing out there, you and the baby will turn into icicles."

"Jesus, George, you do love your hyperboles," Scout laughed softly, rubbing his arms. "I'll bundle up. It's snowing."

"That's sort of my point, darling."

"Pansy."

"I hope that doesn't mean in America what it means over here."

"I never said you had to come with me," Scout responded with a soft laugh, the laugh that melted George's insides.

"Well, now you've challenged my masculinity, I have to come, don't I?" he replied, squeezing her.

So they made tea and wandered out to the wide porch, sitting down on the comfortable benches, which had steamer rugs hidden in them. It was indeed snowing, a light, beautiful snow, just enough to give everything that silent dusting of magic. Jess, Bandit and Buttercup came with them, eager to explore the yard.

It was Scout who found the switch and flipped it, causing the heating elements which had been laid along the baseboards of the porch to heat up and glow. She smiled as she settled back against George under the rug.

"How did you even know that was there?" he asked in amazement.

"My parents' house has them," she answered briefly.

After they'd been silent for a bit, George remarked, "It's kind of unbelievable how much a person's life can change in a year, isn't it? I mean, a year ago, I was all alone at Farraway Mist with just the dogs, hating the world."

Scout was silent. This was the first time he'd volunteered any information about the time before they'd met, about the time after Tessa's death.

"My family was so worried about me. They'd offered to come to me, to do Christmas there, but I'd turned them down cold. I spent Christmas Eve listening to music and watching movies, getting drunk."

"What movies?" Scout asked.

"Lord of the Rings marathon," George replied promptly. "I played a game where I'd take a drink every time I thought I saw a homoerotic moment, you know?" Scout could hear the smile in his voice. "I was pissed in about an hour. Was really fun.

"What about you, darling?" he asked, giving Scout a squeeze. "What were you doing one year ago tonight, hm?"

Scout considered, then stiffened. "Oh, not much, just the usual. You know, Christmas in Connecticut with the family." She shrugged.

"No, Scout, don't do that, please," George begged quietly, taking a sip of his tea. "Please let me in? A little bit? We've known each other such a short amount of time, you know? And life is barreling toward us like a freight train, literally." He patted her tummy. "We need to get to know each other as much as we can, darling, please."

Scout sighed. "Okay. It's not a big deal, honest. It was Christmas Eve, obviously, and we were baking pies, for dinner the next day, you know? And we ran out of something, evaporated milk or something, so Chipper, my brother Chipper? And me, and Will, who was with us, we volunteered to walk to the corner drug store to grab some real quick." Scout sighed again, snuggling into George's shoulder.

"It was snowing a little bit, kind of like this. It was pretty. So the three of us were walking, talking and laughing. God, I don't even remember what we were talking about, and Will said something, and I disagreed with him. Not in a mean way, but he was wrong, so I disagreed, and he was upset, kind of pissed off? He could really hold a grudge, like a little kid. You'd think he let it go, but he'd store it up, and remember for later.