Turkey in the Snow Read Online Free PDF

you—”
    Justin brightened while he was talking, like the light that made him Justin from the inside had been flipped on.
    “I’d totally love to!” he said, keeping his voice quiet, even if his gestures started to get a little loud. “And don’t worry, Henry, I turned twenty-one in November, so you’re totally safe. Not corrupting a minor or anything.”
    Hank had been leading him down the hall and he turned around and looked at him sharply over that. Justin returned the look cheekily, and Hank turned back around, resolute.
    “Why ‘Henry’?” he asked as they got to the kitchen, and Justin didn’t miss a beat.
    “Because Mr. Calder’s too formal, and that other guy called you ‘Henry’ and it pissed me off.”
    Hank was in the kitchen by now, and he turned slightly, looking at Justin wryly. “Well, people do that when you’ve got history. The only two people to call me ‘Henry’ have been Alan and my mother.” And his sister, but he wasn’t going to mention that.
    “And now me,” Justin said, waggling his eyebrows.
    Hank had no choice but to laugh. He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two microbrews. “I’ve got pizza, if you like. Slightly higher quality than Chuck E. Cheese.”
    “Please?” Justin begged, holding his hands up like a puppy dog. “Please please please please pleeeze! I’m dying for something to wipe the taste of Chuck E. Cheese pizza outta my gullet… I’d mug your mother for a decent piece of pizza!”
    Ah, gods, laughter, quiet laughter.  It really was a luxury. “Don’t mug my mother,” Hank said, the chuckles freeing something inside him. He handed Justin the plate with the last five pieces on it and added, “She never had money for pizza.”
    “Now tha’s a cwyin shame,” Justin said through a full mouth. He closed his eyes for a blissful moment and chewed. After he swallowed he said, “Omigah—is that Mountain Mike’s? Us broke college students never eat at Mountain Mike’s!” He took another bite, his face lit up and happy in total ecstasy over the pizza. For a moment, Hank let himself bask in the pleasure of a completely happy human being.
    “Come sit in the living room if you like,” Hank said. He moved across the little hallway and pulled the coffee table in front of the brown corduroy couch, getting two coasters and a placemat from the compartment underneath for the beers. He took the recliner and put his coaster on the end table next to it. He had one of those little organizers on the arm of the recliner, and had just pulled out the remote when Justin came in and settled down.
    “No, no,” Justin said hurriedly. “Don’t turn the TV on. Let’s talk.”
    Hank paused midclick and wondered what his expression must have been. He didn’t have to wonder long.
    “ Ohmygah! Jeee zus, Henry! I’m not going to torture you with tongs! I just get distracted by anything pretty, and I’m more in the mood to be distracted by you!”
    Henry looked at him. “Because I’m not pretty?” It was more for clarification than because he was fishing for compliments, and he was unprepared for the adult, predatory look to cross Justin’s baby face.
    “You’re plenty pretty, Hank. But right now, I’m more interested in your mind.”
    Hank snorted. “That’s a switch.”
    “We’re not all like your… whatever that was… Alan.”
    “We’re?” Hank asked, flummoxed for a moment.
    “Us drama queens,” Justin said with a wicked grin. “We’re not all like your friend, ex-friend… okay, what is he to you? Cause whatever it is, I don’t see it!”
    Henry took a swig of his beer and swiveled the recliner so he could see Justin instead of the television. “He was my boyfriend. My first serious one, actually.” Sigh. “More serious for me than him I guess.”
    “What makes you say that?” Justin took a dainty bite of his new slice of pizza, as if to make up for stuffing his face from the last one, and washed it down with a sip of