Cole’s excitement was infectious as he flew around the penthouse, yanking on thermal socks and trying to find his missing glove. Theo could not keep the smile off his face if he tried. One would think the man had never seen snow, like he was from Florida. Maybe he was. Theo had not asked him back where he grew up when Cole asked him that question. He hoped that did not make him seem awkward. His social skills still weren’t really the best, although Cole made him feel comfortable.

“What did Gideon want to talk to you about?” He asked.

Abel finished tucking Theo’s scarf into the collar of his jacket. The action made Theo feel small and childish, but Abel seemed on edge, and doing things like that for Theo sometimes calmed him down. He glanced at Gideon with a frown.

“Is it something bad and scary?”

The Bartas were generally bad and scary people, so Theo figured it probably was.

“No,” Abel sighed. “Well, maybe. He’s just a dickhead who thinks the whole world revolves around him the same as the rest of his family, that’s all.”

Theo rolled his eyes and buried a smile into his scarf. Abel thought that about pretty much everyone.

“Well, I like Cole,” he offered.

Abel pursed his lips and glanced at Cole as he raced by, overturning things and muttering that he and Gideon had only been here for a day and a half, so how could he have lost his glove already? He was probably wondering what was wrong with Cole for him to end up with someone like Gideon Barta. He sighed again.

“He wants to know if we would be willing to put Cole up if he ever needed to go off the grid for a little while.”

“Oh,” Theo pulled his mouth out of the scarf because breathing was getting a little hot. “That’s not a bad idea. I doubt anybody would think to look with us for him.”

Abel eyed him. “You’d be okay with that?”

Theo shrugged. He was not sure why he wouldn’t be okay with it. Perhaps Abel thought that he and Theo had gotten out of the city and come to the beach to escape all the violence, and this could potentially invite that nonsense back into their lives. He probably should say fuck no. But after everything, it felt nice to be a safe place for someone else.

“What are the chances Gideon needs to ship him here?” Theo said. “My guess is we would be his last resort. He probably just thought, you know, that you got me out of the life and brought me out here where we’ve been safe from all the psychos who wanted to get their hands on me after Ken died, but he also doesn’t know us so…last resort.”

“You are the one who got yourself out of all that shit,” Abel groused like he always does. “You got away from Ken, and that asshole, and this house at the beach is yours. I’m…” he waves a hand, “Just here for moral support.”

“Well, if it’s bad enough that Gideon wants Cole to stay with us, he’ll probably need some support,” Theo said sagely.

Abel shook his head, put his hand on Theo’s neck, and stroked his thumb along his hairline. “Whatever you say. I told him it was up to you.”

“I’m okay with it.”

“Found it!” Cole shouted, popping up from behind one of the couches and fisting the second glove high in the air. “Hell, yeah. Let’s go.”

Theo popped up on his toes to kiss Abel on the cheek, then abandoned him to link his arm through Cole’s so they could walk down to the beach together. The elevator ride down was filled with his chatter, bubbling and bouncing around them in the small space. Theo had to fight not to laugh at how stoic both Abel and Gideon looked in comparison.

They stepped out into the chill, and Theo huddled closer to Cole, who slid his arm out of the crook of Theo’s arm and put it around his shoulder. The wind whipped snow into his face, which was about as unpleasant as the snow was pretty falling all around them.

“Do your piercings hurt when it’s this cold?” Cole asked.

“Not really,” Theo said, tugging his hat down over his ears so that they wouldn’t start hurting. “I always wear a hat when it’s cold.”

Cole quickly moved on from that train of thought to sticking his tongue out and catching snowflakes on it as they walked.

“Are you from Florida or something?” Theo asked him.

“No,” Cole let out a surprised laugh. “It’s just the first time I’ve seen snow this year. And it’s at the Beach! I hope we get enough that it’s a white Christmas.”

By the time they got to the boardwalk, the snow had been falling long and hard enough that at least half an inch lay on the dunes and the sand. Cole broke away from Theo and crunched excitedly across the beach toward the waves, which swept the snow away whenever they could reach it. He left behind twirling footsteps.

Abel and Gideon trudged along behind, talking in low voices. It seemed like Cole was being left deliberately out of the loop for whatever reason. Theo frowned and licked his teeth, which had grown achy with the cold while he was smiling at Cole’s excitement. Cole seemed extraordinarily young at that moment, dancing around and pointing excitedly at the waves.

Theo liked Gideon well enough, but he was the type of man who dwelled in the shadows and did bad things. It did not sit right with Theo that he would keep something from Cole. Why hadn’t they all discussed it as a group over dinner?

A wet splat colliding with his chest broke him out of his thoughts. He glanced down to see a snowball, with no small amount of sand in the mix, plop to the ground after colliding with his jacket. About ten feet away, Cole cackled as he bent down to make another one. Theo scooped up his own handful of snow, although it was difficult to get enough to make a snowball when it was barely an inch thick.

He caught sight of Cole winding back to chuck another one at him and ducked to the side, then aimed his snowball at Cole’s chest. Soon enough, they were pelting each other, moving along the shoreline for fresh snow. One snowball flew over Theo’s shoulder, and he heard a grunt from behind.

It had caught Abel right in the side of the face because, of course, it had. Cole stood straight up, holding his hands over his mouth, eyes all big in his head. Theo lost his mind laughing as Abel wiped his face off. And that was how Abel and Gideon got involved in the nonsense as well, because Abel picked up a bunch of snow and had to retaliate against Cole, which meant Gideon had to step in and start raining down snowballs on Abel.

Somehow, it ended up him and Cole against Abel and Gideon, which hardly seemed fair. They slid across the slick snow and wet sand, the surf crashing in the background, everything muted by the blanket of heavy flakes drifting down from the sky. Cole knocked shoulder with him and made a strange noise.

“Are you okay?” he asked, brow furrowed as he looked at Theo’s hands while he packed another snowball. “If your fingers are getting numb, we should probably go inside.”

“Oh,” Theo looked down at the two fingers he could no longer move the same as all the rest. They stuck out awkwardly when he curled his hands around the snow. “No, I just have nerve damage. Got stabbed.”

Cole’s lips parted in horror. Theo probably should be nicer, but he never got out of the habit of shocking people with all the nasty details of his life so that he could somehow feel like he had control over the things that had happened to him (or whatever his therapist was always talking about). So, he grinned with all his teeth and said, “Don’t worry, I stabbed him back.”

Before Cole could say anything in response to that, Gideon loomed behind him and grabbed his scarf away from the back of his neck to dump a handful of snow down it. Cole shrieked and jumped away. Theo swung around and glared at Abel, daring him to try to do the same, which had him putting his hands up in surrender.

Cole took his scarf off with a pout and shook the snow off it. Some of the excitement of the snow suddenly seemed to bleed away, replaced only by the pervasive, wet chill. Theo shivered and sniffed.

“Do you guys want to come back up for some hot chocolate or something before you go home?” Cole offered as he wrapped the scarf back around his neck.

Before Abel could say anything, Theo chirped, “Sure!”

So, they trudged back up, leaving wet footprints through the lobby of the hotel and in the elevator. Abel excused himself to go to the restroom as they all shucked off their boots and gloves and coats. Gideon wandered over to the bar again. Cole made a beeline for the kitchen to start making the hot chocolate. Theo trailed after him, a pit of anxiety swirling hot and uncomfortable in his belly.

“Cole,” he murmured, leaning against the counter beside the stove so he could watch Gideon as he spoke. Cole hummed as he put a pot on one of the burners and poured milk into it. Theo chewed on his lip.

“Um, maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I was just wondering if you knew why Gideon invited us over.”

Cole paused as he reached into a cabinet for the hot chocolate to furrow his brow at Theo. “Because he ran into Abel and wanted to have him over for dinner since he’s family?”

Theo realized he was gnawing at one of his fingernails and crossed his arms so he would stop doing that. “Well, he came here specifically to see Abel and I. Did you know that?”

“What are you talking about?” Cole put the box of hot chocolate down and turned to give Theo his full attention.

Theo stared at Gideon as he bent to shovel ice into a cocktail mixer. He swallowed and glanced at Cole. “Um. I just…it’s just been kind of weird that he’s talking to us about it, but only when you can’t hear and I just…”

He did not want to give a whole lecture about how Cole looked young as hell and had no business being with someone over a decade his senior who held all the fucking power and was withholding information from him. Maybe that was just Theo projecting, but the whole situation kind of gave him the ick, even if Gideon was a nice enough guy.

“What is he talking to you about?” Cole demanded, all frowny and serious now. Shit. Theo realized he had uncrossed his arms and started chewing on his nail again. He tucked his hands between his back and the edge of the counter.

“He asked us if we would be okay with him sending you to us if shit ever hit the fan,” Theo told him. “Like if we would be a safe house for you.”

Cole blinked at him. “Oh.”

“I mean, I don’t think it’s a big deal, and we said yes, but I just thought it was strange that none of us were talking to you about it.”

“No, that’s…” Cole pinched the bridge of his nose. Steam began to rise from the milk in the saucepan. “We’re working on him being more open about stuff like this.” He dropped his hand with an exasperated sigh. “Why would he be all secretive about this? The fucking idiot. Unless he thinks something bad is about to happen and is trying not to freak me out. What the hell.”

Theo drummed his fingers against the underside of the counter edge as he watched Cole process all this. He did not seem too upset, and maybe he and Gideon were already working on this communication issue. So maybe Gideon was just a fuck-up with relationships instead of actively sinister like Toran had been.

“Thanks for telling me,” Cole smiled at Theo. “Don’t worry, I’ll yell at him once you guys are gone.”

“Okay,” Theo nodded, glad he had not ruined the whole night for everybody. Cole struck him as the type of person to go off the rails a bit, so he was relieved that would not happen. “You, um, you are trying to have better communication with him?”

The words felt strange, like his therapist was talking through his mouth. Cole did not pick up on the awkward cringe of them, though. He wholeheartedly rolled his eyes and nodded. “Yeah. He’s terrible. It’s all for my protection and blah, blah, blah. But I think it would be safer if I, you know, knew stuff. That way, I’m not walking around stupid. He’s my husband, not my mob boss. I shouldn’t be on a need-to-know basis.”

He dumped the chocolate into the milk. Theo figured this was all stuff he’d probably thought about a million times already, maybe even said straight to Gideon’s face before.

“I was with a guy who tried to keep me stupid to control me,” Theo admitted to him.

“Yeah, and I’m sure that worked out great for him,” Cole said. “That’s why you are now with Abel instead of him.”

Theo opened his mouth to say it worked out that he ended up dead but thought better of it. He wanted Cole to like him, not think he was a deranged murderer. So, instead, he said. “No, it didn’t work out. I ended up hiding a bunch of shit from him so that he would think I was stupid and controlled. Better if everybody is just on the same page.”

Cole snapped his fingers and winked at him. “Exactly.”

Abel crossed the room toward them, which effectively cut off the conversation. The entire time they drank hot chocolate and wound down from their excursion in the snow, Theo wondered if it was even possible for someone like Gideon to have a normal, healthy relationship. He wasn’t a sadistic abuser like Toran had been, but he sure as hell was a mob boss. Even if Cole didn’t think of himself as a part of the criminal organization, by marriage, he was and so his statement of Gideon being his husband, not his boss, was not entirely correct. Theo shook his head at the thought and felt relieved to be putting on his coat and going back to his simple little beach house when it was finally time to leave.