Philautia || Amour Éternel Series BOOK ONE ||

Nine - SHANNON

December 2014

A week before Christmas, Shannon was in Long Beach at Ben's house. He was impressed with how much had been done in the short time since he had acquired the house. All of the gutted rooms had been rebuilt completely. The windows had been replaced and the electrical and plumbing had been brought into this century. The kitchen had been completely modernized, while still keeping with the style of the house. Light fixtures had been changed and the bathrooms were in the process of getting new fixtures. For only being able to come up occasionally, Ben had done remarkable work.

They were working in the back yard, planting flowers in the flower beds along the deck, taking advantage of the warmer weather. The last few weeks had been busy for him; he had finalized his blends and gotten approval to sell them, he had several people working on the website, and had selected models to use for a photo shoot he was planning to do in January. With Christmas looming, he was struggling to find something to do to keep himself busy. Bow that he was off until March and Black Fuel wasn't quite off the ground yet, he found himself with an inordinate amount of free time. Since he didn't exactly have anyone to spend his holidays with, he was trying to keep busy.

"What are you doing for Jared's birthday?" Callie asked, her voice slipping into his thoughts like  dew from a blade of grass.

He blinked. "Oh - I don't know. I think he's going somewhere with some friends or something."

She looked at him. "Wait - you're not doing anything with him?"

Shannon shook his head. "When we're on breaks from the tour, it's usually best if we take time away from each other."

"That's weird, but I guess I get it," she answered. "Close proximity, long hours, all of that. Still, you should at least get him something, even if you aren't going with him."

He shrugged. "I'll call him. But it's not like we don'st speak regularly. He doesn't really like doing things for his birthday. It's right after Christmas and all of that."

"Are you doing anything for Christmas, at least?" she asked.

He shook his head again. "Nope. Christmas isn't a big deal for us. I might go see my mom, but I will probably just stay home. One of my friends is going to be in town, so we'll probably see each other, but that's about it."

"That sounds so sad," she remarked.

"I'm sure you guys all have some cute family tradition," Shannon said. "But we never did stuff like that. We were poor, remember? We didn't have all the gifts and we weren't always around family. It was just us."

"We actually don't really do much. We usually help out at the pit bull rescue, then my dad likes to go to a homeless shelter near the garage where we volunteer for a few hours," she said offhandedly.

"Of course you do, Florence Nightingale," he teased.

"Hey, are you two almost done? I could use your help in the upstairs bathroom, Shannon," Keanu said, sticking his head out of the kitchen window.

Shannon nodded. "Yeah. I'll be up in a second."

He left Callie to finish planting the flowers and went through the house to the second floor. Keanu met him at the top of the stairs.

"So I need your help getting the vanity in," Keanu explained, running a hand through his hair. "It's in the bedroom, so all we have to do is put it in place."

"Sure, no problem," Shannon replied.

The two men walked through to a bedroom and stopped in front of a dark wooden vanity with three drawers on one end and a cabinet at the center.