Jingle My Bells — Chris Cox

A Bayou Boys (Sean and Rusty) novella:
Holidays are a time for happiness, right? Not just everyday happiness, but extra-special, bordering on manic happiness.
So what happens if you can't dredge up those holiday feelings of being deliriously overjoyed that your family, friends, and most of all, your lover, expects from you.
If you're Sean Delahunt, you sacrifice to give your lover what he wants most, a trip home to New Orleans, even when you feel shredded by razor sharp pains in your soul every time you think of returning to the Crescent City and all the heartache you've tried so hard to escape.
Knowing Rusty is ecstatic to be going home for the holidays, Sean unsuccessfully tries to be of good cheer, driving himself farther from finding his own happy place, and farther from his long-time lover Rusty Duchene.
Rusty has devoted his whole life to making Sean happy. But this time -- this time Rusty is going home.
But home isn't the same as when he left it so many months ago. Or maybe he's not the same boy who left to make his own home in Boston with Sean.
In this Bayou Boys novella, Jingle My Bells, Sean and Rusty explore the seasonal intricacies of making merry, gift giving and extreme expectations.