Vic crunched on the potato. “I’m sure.” When Mattstarted to turn back to the counter, Vic caught his waist to stophim. “Not so fast, pretty boy. You call that a kiss?”
“I call it a taste of things to come,” Matt said. Buthe leaned in and pressed his mouth to Vic’s for a bit more. “Niceday?”
With a shrug, Vic let Matt get back to the potatoes.“Nice enough. You?”
“I took a nap,” Matt admitted. “What an exciting lifeI lead, eh? I’m so glad your shifts are back to normal again. God,I’ve missed you.”
Vic laughed. “We sleep together every night.”
That earned him a sexy leer. “Lucky me.”
Stepping into the kitchen, Vic leaned against thefridge and watched Matt’s knife slice through the potatoes. Whenhis lover moved from one cut up spud to the next, Vic snatchedanother piece of raw potato from the counter and popped it in hismouth. “So, no phone calls today?”
“Nope.” Matt’s smile turned wicked. “I told Roxie shehad to screen all my callers from now on. If they couldn’t answerone simple question, then they couldn’t get through.” Almost as anafterthought, he added, “When she asks, tell her it’s behind yourleft testicle.”
Vic choked on the potato in his mouth. “What?”
“There’s a freckle behind your left testicle,” Mattexplained. From his deadpan expression, Vic couldn’t tell if hislover was kidding or not. “Just this tiny little brown dot. You’venever seen it, I’m sure, but it’s the first thing I kiss wheneverI’m down there. I’ll show you next time if you want. We’ll need amirror—”
“And you told her this?” Vic asked,incredulous.
Matt’s enigmatic smile didn’t answer the question,and his lover skirted a reply. “Did you ask Kyle what time we haveto be there tomorrow?”
“Every time she looks at me,” Vic countered, “she’sgoing to be thinking about my balls.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Matt raised one eyebrow. “Agirl can dream, can’t she?”
With a groan, Vic shook his head. “She’s going to bechecking me out whenever I’m at the gym.”
“That’s what I do,” Matt admitted. “Let her look, solong as she keeps her hands to herself. Did you find out when thecookout starts?”
Vic pulled the balled up piece of paper from his backpocket and tossed it to the counter. “He’s turned this into a damnblock party,” he grumbled. “I thought it was just you, me, his newboyfriend—”
“Who’s he seeing now?” Matt asked. He prodded thenote with the tip of his knife. “What’s this say?”
Smoothing out the paper, he held it up for Matt toread. As Matt’s gaze drifted down the paper, Vic told him, “I don’twant to show up before six.”
“Five thirty,” Matt conceded. Vic’s brow furrowed indispleasure and Matt laughed. “Free booze, babe. That’s all I’msaying.”
“If what you want are some free drinks, hell.” Viccrumpled the paper in his fist and tossed it into the trash can.“I’ll take you out to a bar tomorrow, how’s that? You can getshit-faced all you want and I’ll pick up the tab.”
“Vic—”
“Why are you so set on going to this thing?” Vicwanted to know.
Without answering, Matt scooped up the slicedpotatoes in both hands; as he began to drop them into the pot ofwater, Vic snatched another piece to munch on. He waited for Mattto speak, but his lover busied himself with cleaning up the counterand didn’t reply. When he tried to heft the full pot, Vic nudgedhim aside and lifted it for him. “Just put it on the stove,” Mattmumbled.
Vic obeyed, setting it down with a splash. As Mattstepped around him to turn on the burner, Vic traced the curve ofMatt’s spine from his shoulders down to the small of his back,where the apron he wore was knotted. Picking at the strings, Vicasked softly, “Hey. You all right?”
Matt’s hefty sigh told him no. His mood shift wasalmost palpable; before Vic had asked why he wanted to go to thecookout, Matt had been all smiles, with a tease in his voice thathinted at a fun time in bed later. Now his shoulders slumped, hishead hung down, and he looked so damn defeated that Vic took himinto his arms without a thought, hugging him close. “It’s cool,” hemurmured into Matt’s thick black curls. “You want to go, so we’regoing. I don’t need more of an answer than that.”
Matt wrapped his arms around Vic’s waist to hold himtight, and he buried his face against Vic’s neck. They stood likethat for a long moment, the heat from the stove warming Vic’s side.Then, concerned, he began to ease into Matt’s mind, peeling backthe complicated layers of his lover’s swirling thoughts like abotanist peeking into the tender heart of a newly opened bud.Beneath a myriad of emotion, he found Matt’s essence hidden away atthe core of his being. He held something in his arms, something hekept sheltered, away from Vic. The gentlest of touches relaxed himenough so Vic could see the memory that burned against his loverlike a brand, a memory Matt was reluctant to share.
::Let me see.::
Slowly, Vic convinced Matt to let him look. Unfurlinghis arms, Matt held out a snapshot in his mind. When Vic tried totake it, his lover didn’t want to let go; his fingers gripped theedge of the photograph, unwilling to relive the painful moment.With loving hands, Vic smoothed over Matt’s, cradling them untilthey gave in to him.
When Vic took the photograph, the memory in it beganto move like a movie on a handheld screen. Matt and Kyle again,this time on a couch in a living room Vic didn’t recognize. Onehe’d see Saturday, he was sure. Seated at one end of the couch,Matt crossed his arms in front of his chest, his legs angled awayfrom Kyle, closed off. Kyle, of course, didn’t notice. With one armdraped around Matt’s shoulders, he rubbed along Matt’s arm, thendown over his stomach, then over the front of his pants to cup hiscrotch. When Matt pulled away, Kyle’s hand retreated back to a safedistance but still hovered nearby, ready to swoop in when Matt lethis guard down again.
The glint in Kyle’s beady
