52 Panhead - 37. Chapter 37

Sunday dawned hot; I could feel it even before I opened my eyes. The sheet and cotton blanket we’d gone to sleep under now felt like a pile of quilts – heavy and oppressive. At some point in the night, I’d rolled onto my stomach and Evan had followed along, lying on his side with one arm flung across my back. I pinched a fold of the sheet between my feet and tried to pull it down off us, but Evan must have been laying on part of it, because just as I gave a harder tug, he dug his fingers into my ribs and mumbled, “I’m trying to sleep.”

Unfortunately, I twitched when he tickled me and clunked him on the head with my elbow. He groaned and rolled onto his back. “God… so should I expect Kenny to nail me in the balls today? He’s the only guy left and that’s the only part of me that doesn’t already hurt. And ya know… I love you.”

“Sorry.” I pushed up on one elbow to face him. “So you gonna tell me that five times a day now?”

He opened one eye and peered at me. “Maybe. Will it dilute it or something if I say it too much?”

I couldn’t stop a self-conscious smile. “Not if you mean it.”

“I mean it.” He opened his other eye and gave me the full benefit of his smoky gaze. “God, do I mean it.”

We stared at each other for a long moment and then both rolled away to hop out of bed and head for the bathroom. I brushed while he pissed, then we swapped places and ended up back in bed within seconds of each other.

“My lip’s too sore to use, so no kissing or blowing – sorry,” he murmured against my neck as he gathered up my nuts in one warm hand.

“Not a problem,” I assured him as I returned the favor. “Roll over.”

Evan on his back was equally enticing as Evan on his stomach, but since I’m an ass man and his mouth was out of service anyway, I pushed him over until he was face-down on the bed. Nudging my knee in between his, I rolled onto him, settling my stiffening cock into the V of his thighs and sliding my hands up under his chest. Rising with him as he breathed, I licked along the bumps of his spine, bit the long stretch of muscle on either side, and nuzzled between his shoulder blades as I thrust slowly, bumping into the mound of his balls on each stroke. For the first several minutes, he lay still as I got fully hard, but it wasn’t long before we were moving together, our respiration increasing with the movement of our hips. Evan mumbled something into the sheet.

“What?”

He didn’t reply verbally, just quickly bumped his butt up into my belly several times, and I got the idea. Our room was dim, but not so dark that I couldn’t see him well enough when I pushed up onto my knees, grabbed my cock, and aimed it at the darkest part of his pale ass. He shifted slightly to accommodate me, humming with pleasure as I slowly pushed my way into him. In a little, out a bit, in a little further, until I was scrubbing my pubes against his butt. God, what a great way to start the day.

Forty minutes later I was drying off from the shower as Evan examined his face in the mirror. The bruise on his cheek had blossomed into a palette of blues and purples that went from under his eye across his temple to his hairline. His lip looked better, though, as if it had closed up some during the night.

“Relax, you’re still gorgeous,” I told him, laughing when he puckered up and blew a kiss at his reflection. “Your hand looks like hell, though. Does it hurt?”

He looked at the oozing scrape and flexed his fingers a bit. “Not much, but I don’t wanna get it all over everything.”

I sprayed some Bactine on it while Evan hopped around making faces like a little kid, and then put a light bandage over it. As I was putting the first aid stuff away, my stomach growled, which made me think about breakfast, which reminded me that we didn’t have any food in the house. “We have to eat out.”

“Cold pizza.”

“Oh, yeah…” Not exactly what I had in mind, but, “All right.”

Chewy came to the door of the bathroom and stared at us with an urgent expression. Evan patted my shoulder on his way out of the room. “I’ll let him out. You’ll feel better after coffee – I’ll go get it started.”

I dawdled around in the bedroom, gathering up clothes so that I could get laundry going and digging my swim trunks out of my dresser. I had just finished yanking the sheets off the bed when I heard Evan’s voice, loud enough to be clearly heard from the other end of the house. “Shit! Shit! Son of a fucking bitch!”

He sounded more angry than hurt, but I jogged down the hall anyway and rounded the corner into the kitchen just in time to see Evan trying to catch a river of grainy brown water as it erupted from the coffee maker and flooded across the counter and onto the floor. He swabbed at the flow with a handful of paper towels as he continued to curse a blue streak. I grabbed a couple old towels from the cupboard and made dams along the edges of the countertop. “What the hell happened?”

“Fuck if I know!” He flung the soggy mess in his hand at the trash can, but he was so angry that his aim was off and it splatted against the wall and slid slowly toward the floor, leaving behind a smear of coffee grounds. “God damn it to hell!”

I had unplugged the coffee maker by this time and tipped the whole thing into the sink where it gurgled and sputtered as the last of the water drained away. When I swung open the little filter holder basket, guess what was missing?

“Um… Did you maybe forget the filter?”

Evan stared at me for a moment, fists propped angrily on his hips, before realization spread across his face and he dropped his head in defeat. Unfortunately, that was the moment the whole thing struck me funny and I started to chuckle. Evan’s head came up and he glared at me while his face got redder and redder. By then I was clutching my gut and holding onto the counter for support. When I got hold of myself, I went to the fridge, grabbed the bag of carrots and tossed it to him. “Go out and,” chuckle, snort, “feed the horses while I,” ha-ha-ha, “clean up.”

I finally had to push him out the door, but once he was gone, I got myself under control and went to work wiping down the counter and floor, cleaning up the coffee maker, and rinsing out the sink. When I had cleaned practically the whole damn kitchen, I started to reach for the filters, but just didn’t feel like bothering any longer. When I walked out the back door, Evan was sitting on the step with a forlorn Chewy slouched next to him.

“You start a new pot?”

“Uhn-uhn, I want breakfast, not pizza. Bacon, home fries with onions, blueberry pancakes with real butter – all the good shit you’re not supposed to eat. Come on.” I marched back through the house, grabbed my keys off the table and headed out the front door.

“I think blueberries’re one of the super foods,” Evan offered as he followed me down the front steps.

“How ‘bout bacon? I bet that ain’t a super food.”

“No, but maybe the blueberries’ll offset it,” he rationalized.

I didn’t much care one way or the other.

Patty’s Pancake Palace was about a block from the grocery, so we shopped after we ate, loading up on the local fresh fruits and veggies that were beginning to show up in the store. With our cart full of strawberries, little zucchini, corn on the cob, 1% milk, whole wheat bread, brown rice, chicken breasts, pasta, raisin bran, a gigantic bag of dog food, etc, etc, we looked like an ad for healthy living until we reached the beverage aisle. One case of beer to take to Raf’s, one for our fridge, and one for the pantry since they were on sale. Oh, and look – that excellent Merlot Sharon brought over last week’s on sale, too – better grab a case of that. By the time we got to the cash register, I was carrying the dog food over one shoulder and Evan could barely roll the cart.

“It’s like steering the Queen Mary – I have to plan my turns twenty feet in advance,” he bitched. I offered to let him carry the dog food, but he stuck with the cart.

“This better last a while,” he muttered as he signed the charge slip for a little over $325. “I always heard when you shop on a full stomach, you don’t buy as much. That’s obviously bullshit.” That got a snicker and an admiring look from the teenage girl bagging the groceries; Evan was oblivious.

By the time we got home, unloaded the Jeep and got everything put away, it was almost eleven. We were supposed to go to Raf and Kenny’s around one, so we decided to walk back to the clearing by the creek since we hadn’t been there in a while. With Max over at Bill’s, we were safe climbing the fence and cutting across the pasture instead of taking the long way around, and besides, the mares and Dory were way at the back, lounging in the shade of the trees and paid us no attention at all.

I don’t know what it is about walking that loosens my tongue, but by the time we were halfway across the field, I was saying, “Can I ask you something about you and Luke?”

He didn’t hesitate as he glanced at me. “Sure.”

I sighted in on the gate we were aiming for, took a deep breath, and said, “Do you think… if he was still alive… that you’d still be together?”

I risked a glance at him. His face was thoughtful, but that was all. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “I used to think about that a lot. Wondering… I’ve changed a lot since then, but how much of that is because of the accident and how much of it was just growing up…” He shrugged and then looked at me, a long look that I returned for only a moment. “I used to like to think so, but really, how many high school relationships survive college and careers and everything else that being an adult throws at you? High school is so insular, you know?” We climbed over the gate and started off through the woods before Evan spoke again. “We might have, but who the hell knows.” He angled closer and elbowed me gently. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” It was a lame reply, and Evan rolled his eyes as he hip-bumped me off the path. “I don’t. I was just curious what you thought.”

He was quiet for a bit, then, “When do you think you’ll really begin to trust me?”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “What are you talking about? I trust you.”

He stopped a few feet after I did and turned to look at me. “Us, then. When will you believe that you and me are the real deal?”

I stared at him as my heart started banging in my chest. He was asking me for the truth about something that I wasn’t sure of myself. I took a few stalling breaths and searched for the words. “It’s different for you. Luke didn’t…” I stopped and looked away for a moment before coming back to his steady gaze. “This is gonna sound totally fucked up, and I’m sorry, but –

Luke died on you. Maybe that’s easier.”

Evan frowned slightly. “What could that possibly be easier than?”

“Easier than some prick packing his shit and splittin’ without a word. I have no fucking idea why he left, what he didn’t like about what we had goin’, what he didn’t like about me. At least you know that Luke died loving you.” I quit while I still had control of myself, and before I said something Evan would never forgive me for.

He was staring at me. “Jesus, Jeff,” he said in a ragged whisper. I searched his face, but the sunlight coming through the trees played across his features and made it difficult for me to read his expression. Luckily, it was only a few seconds before he closed the space between us and crushed me to him. That was the last thing I expected and it took me a second to realize that he wasn’t pissed.

“God, Evan,” I said into his shoulder after our breathing had slowed down a little. “I didn’t mean–”

“I know what you meant,” he said, cutting off my explanation. “It wasn’t easier, believe me, but you’re right about one thing – I do know that he loved me till the end.” He pulled back enough to grip my shoulders and look into my eyes. “You’re gonna know that, too, only it’s gonna be like eighty years from now.” He gave me a fairly hard shake. “I’m telling you we have what it takes to go that long.”

It was tough to deny the conviction in his voice and his steely grip on my shoulders, so I gave him a half-assed smile. “I believe you.”

His grim expression softened slightly. “No, you don’t,” he said as he released me. “But you will.” He looked at me another moment. “I’m sorry that guy dumped on you. Nothing like that ever happened to me.”

We finished our hike, following the stream along the back of the property until we reached the far side of the pasture, then hugged the fence line back to the house. I didn’t start any more stupid conversations and Evan seemed content to just enjoy the woods, so the walk back to the house was quiet. We changed into swim suits, grabbed a couple towels, some sunscreen, and the case of beer, and headed off to Raf and Kenny’s.

I was there five days a week, but it always seemed different when we came over on the weekend. We let ourselves in the front door – Chewy ran off with Elvis and we found Kenny in the kitchen putting a big bowl of potato salad in the fridge. He was wearing baggy board shorts similar to the ones Evan and I were wearing, and it was my first look at his legs. They were a little thin, but otherwise they looked ok to me, covered in brown hair that matched the wedge on his chest.

Evan leaned over Kenny’s shoulder to slide the beer in, and kissed him on the mouth on the way back up. Just a quick one, but it was enough to get a sweet smile from Kenny. He tipped his head toward the back yard. “Tommy Bahama’s out back getting the pool stuff ready.”

I stepped to the patio door and saw Raf about twenty feet away, blowing up floatable things with a foot pump. He was wearing the smallest, brightest yellow Speedo I’d ever seen, and he’d been in the water already. His black hair was slicked back, and his brown body sparkled with water droplets. The mounds of his pecs were set off by dark brown nipples, small and hard from the chill of the pool, and water glistened in the hair between them. His abs rippled down to the top of his suit, broken up only by his belly button and the narrow trail of black hair that began to widen before it disappeared into his suit. His ass cheeks, only half-covered by the speedo, flexed and released as he worked the foot pump, and the lumps and bumps in the crotch of his suit shifted around with the motion of his leg. The good side of his face was toward us and he was simply beautiful, the male animal in its most perfect form. I sprang an instant boner just looking at him.

“Fuck,” I breathed. “The guy’s a livin’, breathin’ wet dream.”

Evan and Kenny came up behind me, and we admired the hotness that was Rafael in a small, wet Speedo. When he glanced over and saw us staring, he clasped his hands behind his head and did a slow bump and grind that had us laughing and adjusting our dicks at the same time. I’d been bustin’ ass at the gym since Conrad left town and was feeling pretty good about myself, but Raf just had one of those bodies.

“It’s just not fair,” I said, as I got a beer.

“What’s not fair?” Raf asked, as he came through the door.

“Your hot bod,” I replied, waving a hand up and down his body. “You don’t wear that out in public, do you?” I added with a leer at the yellow suit.

“No. Kenny bought me this for his own personal viewing pleasure.” We all looked at Kenny, who smirked back at us. Raf looked down at the outline of his uncut cock in its nest of black pubes, clearly visible under the wet yellow nylon, and chuckled. “What - you don’t like it?”

“Yes,” Evan sighed, “we like it a lot.”

Raf glanced at Evan’s face, taking in the black eye and puffy lip. “You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. You?” Evan replied.

“Yup.”

They looked at each other a moment more, and I thought I’d have to leap in between them before Raf turned away to get a beer. His body showed signs of the basketball brawl, as well, with a big scrape across one kneecap and a purple bruise on the left side of his ribcage.

We grabbed some chips and went out onto the patio. I hadn’t been in their backyard before, so I stood there for a minute looking around. The pool was good sized with a whirlpool tub at one end, and a nice brick bar-b-q stood just past an umbrella’d table and chairs. The floaty things Raf had been blowing up had a seat, a back, two arms, and a place to put your beer. Perfect. I tossed one in the pool, jammed my thumb over the top of my bottle, and jumped in after it.

The cool water rushed over my head and I surfaced to the sight of Rafael tipping Kenny out of his chair and into the pool. For a second it freaked me out and I wondered what the hell he was doing, but then I realized it was probably the easiest way for Kenny to get into the water. Raf tossed a floating chair after him, and before long all four of us were drifting around the pool, sippin’ suds and catchin’ rays.

I’ve been known to while away the occasional lazy hour or two on the couch with a book, but with absolutely nothing else to occupy my mind except getting the beer to my mouth every couple minutes, bobbing around the pool was like a temporary lobotomy. I sat sprawled in the chair, head dropped back, legs floating out in front of me, one hand trailing in the water. Now and then, I’d bump into the side of the pool or one of the other guys, and the impact would bounce me gently off in another direction. It was very peaceful, and an hour or so later I was just about asleep when someone grabbed my shoulders and tipped me over backwards. The chair popped out from under me and I somersaulted ass over tea kettle into the water. I surfaced with my bottle still clutched in one hand, looking for the culprit so I could return the favor, but Evan was already climbing out of the pool. I waggled a warning finger at him, but he just grinned at me and started drying off with a towel.

“You guys hungry?” Kenny called.

“The Pope Catholic?” Evan replied.

Rafael fired up the grill and twenty minutes later we were wolfing down great big burgers with all the trimmings, along with Kenny’s potato salad, more chips, and another round of cold beers. During lunch, we amused ourselves tossing chunks of burgers for the dogs. Elvis could jump about three times higher than Chewy, but Chew wised up and snagged a few before they sailed too high for him.

“God,” I moaned, as I sank onto a chaise lounge. “I’m stuffed.”

I wasn’t the only one, either; one by one the other guys stretched out along side me. Raf was on my left with Evan on my right, and Kenny next to him. We lay there comatose for a while, but then Evan snagged the Sunday paper from the table and paged through the travel section, reading things of interest aloud.

“Alaska’s cheap right now. We could go see the glaciers.”

“Too cold,” I said.

“A glacier’s just a big pile of snow,” Raf said. “Wait till January. Then drive up to the mountains and you can see the same thing for free.”

“Tunisia? Mozambique? Kazakhstan? Oh, here we go - Guatemala. It says here the Mayans had a Cult of the Penis.”

“That sounds promising,” I said.

Kenny raised his eyebrows, and in a scholarly voice, said, “Doesn’t everyone?”

“I sure do,” Raf offered, as I chuckled at Kenny. “You guys going on vacation?”

“Eventually,” Evan replied. “Maybe January when the weather’s shitty here.”

This was news to me, but sounded like a great idea since I’d never been west of the Mississippi.

“We haven’t been anywhere in ages,” Kenny said. “Maybe we could all go.”

“Or maybe they wanna honeymoon,” Rafael said with a leer at me.

Evan put a goofy look on his face and said, “Everyday’s a honeymoon when we’re together.”

“Oh, gag me,” Raf said and jumped into the pool.

When we finally went home around six, we were slightly sun burned and mildly drunk, but our house was just a few miles down the road and we arrived with no problem. After a shower to get the chlorine off, we crashed in front of the TV. Floating around a pool in the sun, washing down chips with a river of beer, was exhausting.

Leaving the gym on Friday, I saw the shabby old guy with the brown dog again. This time he was at the end of the block, but he was wearing the same clothes as when I’d first seen him outside Evan’s office, so I knew it was him. Plus, the dog was easy to recognize. I watched until he turned the corner and then got in the Jeep and drove home.

Dory had figured out the sound of my vehicle real quick and was usually waiting at the fence by the time I parked. In all the months the mares had been in the field, they had never put two and two together – arrival of Jeep usually = carrots - but they finally realized that Dory was on to something. As I was unlocking the front door, the donkey started her asthmatic wheezes, so I spent a few minutes scratching noses and handing out carrots before going into my office and flipping on the computer. Brendan had been on my mind since the day I’d caught him playing Call of Duty when he probably should have been in school, but I hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of calling him on it. If he’d been skipping school, what was I gonna do about it? Get him in trouble by telling his mother? Not hardly. I was just his long-lost, barely-known uncle, not his dad, and I had no intention of busting him to Barbara.

On the other hand, it felt sort of irresponsible to just let him get away with it. I mean, I ran wild when I was a kid and look where it got me. Well, don’t look now, because my current life was great, but I’d been a real loser for a long time, and I knew that skipping school was just the beginning. I also knew you can’t tell a kid that, but…

From: byteme@ymail.com

To: bwnf@umail.com

What’s up? I kicked butt that day I ran into you on COD. You have a snow day or something lol?

Find a summer job yet? Minimum wage has gone up some since I was emptying trash cans and sweeping floors, so you might be able to save a few bucks toward a faster graphics card or something.

We have a 3 legged donkey living in the field behind our house. You should hear the noise she makes. I can’t even describe it. I’ll video her and send it to you.

I know you don’t wanna hear this from me but tough shit. You gotta at least get thru high school to get any kind of decent job, so buckle down and hang in there. Pumping gas or humping boxes around a warehouse isn’t much of a career. If you’re good, I’ll chip in on the new card.

Jeff

I read it through a few times and decided it would have to do. Although I hardly knew the boy, I felt a sense of responsibility toward him. Every now and then, Evan’s comment about us maybe having kids someday came back to me, and this was one of those times. Thinking about Brendan, wondering how he was doing, worrying a little about him getting into trouble – those were new feelings for me, and it gave me a glimmer of hope that if Evan and I did somehow become involved with children, that I might actually not suck too badly at it. I’d certainly made enough mistakes as a kid myself to know what to look out for.

I hit ‘send’ and then headed for the shower, but on the way down the hall, I remembered the green scrubby thing that had felt so good, so I detoured into the guest bath and grabbed it. Once I’d lathered it up real good with the body gel Evan had gotten me hooked on, I started with my shoulders and chest. I had planned to take a quick shower because it was my night to cook, but by the time I got down to my belly, I was moving the scrubby in slow circles, enjoying the rough texture of the nylon cushioned by the thick suds.

Down I went, moving in ever-smaller circles as I neared my groin, watching my pubes become foamy swirls as I zeroed in on my dick, already plumped up in anticipation. I lightened my touch a little and slid the scrubby slowly under my nuts, back and forth, back a bit more, then forward again…

“Havin’ fun?” Evan drawled as he peered around one end of the shower curtain. He shook his head at me, but his eyes were hot as he watched me play.

“Uh huh,” I replied, stroking my cock from the base to just behind the head as I turned toward him. I squeezed hard, tightening my gut and groaning softly as my dick throbbed in my hand. Evan’s eyes were glued to me, the muscles in his jaw knotted with concentration, so I began to stroke a little faster.

“Oh, God…” he moaned, squeezing himself through his trousers, his voice thick with arousal.

“I’ll be done in… nnnh… just a minute.”

“No! Wait, wait.”

He ripped his silk tie off and flung it over his shoulder, where it landed in the sink, yanked his shirt over his head without unbuttoning it except for the cuffs, and was out of his pants and into the shower in seconds. His cock poked me in the belly as his hands replaced mine and he kissed me so aggressively that I had to grab him to keep from falling over backwards. I’d already been pretty into it before he showed up, so it only took another minute or two before I was blowing a load all over him, wincing and grunting with each volley. Once I was well under way, he grabbed my ass in both hands and pressed hard against me, thrusting through the slick, fragrant combo of his bath gel and my cum.

It didn’t take him long, and once he started to shoot, he relaxed into my arms, quivering slightly each time his nuts fired, but otherwise just laying against me and letting it roll through him.

“Oh, God,” he said again a few minutes later, but in an entirely different tone of voice. “What a great welcome home.”

“So you’re not mad dinner isn’t ready?”

He laughed weakly. “If you greet me like this every evening, you never have to cook again.”