Summer Fun 1 (#6)

Chapter 1

(Kevin's Perspective)
       The last day of school for Tim, Kyle, and Brian was May 20th, and the last two days were exam days. Kyle worried and fretted about trig but actually ended up making a B in the course. The other two studied hard, and they both got A's in everything.
       My twenty-seventh birthday was on May 25th, and it was a Monday that year, Memorial Day, in fact. We decided to celebrate it on the 23rd.
       "Guys, I want a simple cookout. Naked swimming. All guys, no ladies. And no elaborate stuff. If you're dying to do that, wait till I turn thirty," I said. We were all in the den, planning the party.
       "Just guys? Hell, I wanted to bring a date," Justin said.
       That broke us up, of course.
       "What girl would go out with you," Kyle asked.
       "You'd be surprised, Kyle. There's a girl in housekeeping that's had her eye on me for a while. She'd be a good date, too. Wouldn't eat much, either, unless I bought her some teeth first."
       He had us screaming.
       "I thought she was your sister," Kyle said.
       "She is. So what?"
       More laughs.
       "Are we planning a party, or what," Kyle said after the laughter died down.
       "I don't know about you, but I'm at one right now," Jus said. "And I'm having a damn good time, too."
       When Kyle finished laughing, he said, "I know. That's what I mean. We need to get this planning done."
       "Kyle, man, you're so fucking compulsive about this. Come here," Jus said.
       "What?"
       "Come here and get in front of me. I got to settle you down," Jus said.
       Kyle did what he told him.
       "Now take your shirt off."
       Again, Kyle complied.
       Justin started massaging Kyle's neck and shoulders. Kyle got a look of total contentment on his face.
       "Damn, you give good hand, Bubba. Not good handjobs, just good hand."
       Of course we laughed.
       Justin popped him on the side of his head.
       "Cut it out. You're going to give me a cauliflower ear," Kyle said.
       "Good. You can serve it at the next party. Meat and vegetable, all in one. Cut your planning time in half."
       When he said that, Jeff doubled over in laughter. The rest of us were gasping for breath from laughing so hard, too.
       "Stop," Rick said. "I can't catch my breath."
       "I ain't giving you mouth-to-mouth, that's for sure. No telling where that nasty tongue's been," Jus said. All of it was totally deadpan.
       We all sort of sat there with huge grins on our faces, exhausted from laughing so hard. Justin was still working Kyle's shoulders and neck.
       "Thanks, Bubba," Kyle said. "I think you worked all the compulsive kinks out of me." Then, in a second, "Steaks? Potato salad? Fried eggplant? Coleslaw? How does that sound? Rolls and birthday cake and ice cream, of course."
       "Kyle, you are fucking relentless," Jus said.
       "Does that sound good to everybody? How about it, Kevin? Is that good?"
       "Kyle, it's great." I could barely keep from laughing.
       "Okay. I feel so much better."
       Justin started to say something, but just then we heard this whimpering and scratching at the back door.
       "Let her in, Kyle," Tim said.
       "You think," Kyle asked.
       "Yeah, let her in."
       Kyle got up and went into the kitchen. In a second, a black Labrador Retriever puppy came bounding in. It's tail was wagging furiously. It went from boy to boy, nosing and licking. Then it saw Tim, and it jumped into his lap on the sofa. Kyle came in right behind it, grinning. He sat down on the sofa next to Tim, and the dog licked his face.
       "What the hell is this," Rick asked.
       "It's a dog, Rick. What does it look like," Tim said.
       "I know it's a dog, Tim. What's it doing here?"
       "She came to visit us," Tim said. "She knows me and Kyle."
       "Is this your dog, Tim," I asked.
       "No, sir, not officially, but I want her to be. She is so sweet, Kevin, you wouldn't believe it."
       I thought about the black Lab we had had when I was a kid. I actually loved that dog more than I did my brother, at the time. Of course, I was only about ten when she was poisoned. I don't remember it, but supposedly I didn't talk for a week after she died. This one was exactly like mine when we had gotten her.
       "Where did she come from," I asked.
       "Tim and I were skateboarding one afternoon about a week ago down at the motel we worked at last summer. She just came up and started playing with us, Kev. A couple of days later, Herman called me to come get her. Herman the Heartless didn't want her," Kyle said.
       "You've still got it in for Herman, haven't you," Rick said.
       "No comment on that," Kyle said.
       "Who are y'all talking about," Jus asked. "Who's Herman?"
       "The asshole manager of that place where we found you, Bubba. You remember him. He didn't want to comp your room, and he would have probably called the cops on you, too. That's who."
       I could tell Kyle still felt really strongly about that whole episode, and I wanted to change the subject.
       "So where has she been since then," I asked.
       "In our yard. Your yard, I mean," Kyle said. "Tim and I have been feeding her, and I think she's hungry right now. This is the first time she's been in the house, though, Kevin. Scout's honor."
       "Kyle, don't say that. This might be the first time you've let her in, but she's been in before," Jeff said.
       The dog's ears perked up when she heard Jeff's voice. She raised her head from Kyle's lap and looked at him with a really cute look on her face.
       "You," Kyle asked.
       He sort of cringed a little bit.
       "Yeah. A couple of times."
       "I've seen this dog around some, too. I tried to run over it, though," Justin said.
       Kyle got instantly furious, or pretended to.
       "You asshole. You tried to run over this dog? I'll run over your ass."
       "First you're going to save me from the cops, and then you're going to run over my ass? Got you last, Kylie," Justin said the last part in a sweet, soft voice.
       "I knew you'd never do that, Bubba," Kyle said. "I'm too hyper."
       Yes, you are, I thought, but I didn't say anything.
       "Actually, I've played with her a little bit. I threw your dirty jockstrap out into the street for her to fetch. She loved it, Kyle. She ate it, in fact."
       "You shit," Kyle said.
       We all laughed.
       "What are we going to do about this dog," Rick asked.
       "I think we should keep her, Rick. She loves us," Tim said.
       "She belongs to somebody, though. You can't just keep somebody's dog because it ran away," he said.
       "Rick, we've been looking in the paper every day. Nobody has advertised losing a black Lab puppy. I called the county Humane Society, and they don't know of anybody who has lost a black Lab puppy. I think she's a throw-away," Kyle said.
       "What do you think, Babe," Rick said to me.
       "Rick, if you don't want this dog here, then there's no dog here. Period. But I have to tell you this. We had a black Lab when I was a kid, and I loved her more than I loved Craig. And he loved her more than he loved me."
       "So, I gather everybody wants to keep the dog," Rick said.
       "If you don't want the dog, we don't keep the dog, Babe. This is your home," I said.
       "Yeah, but it's everybody else's home, too. And this is my family. If y'all want to keep the dog, I'm fine with it. I'm not taking care of her, though. And I'm not picking up any dog shit, either. The rest of y'all are going to have to do that," he said.
       "Babe, that's fair. We'll do all of that, right guys," I said.
       They all agreed.
       "And that dog ain't sleeping with us, either, Kevin," he said.
       "It never crossed my mind she would, Babe," I said.
       "Kyle said she's hungry. I think we should feed her," Rick said.
       Everybody grinned at Rick.
       "We've been calling her Trixie," Tim said.
       The dog perked up when she heard that.
       "We call her Trix, too," Kyle said.
       She barked a little when she heard that. That was a very smart dog, I decided.
       We fed Trixie and put her to bed on a ratty blanket in the laundry room. I decided the next day we would get her a proper dog bed. She was so cute, and I knew Rick would soften up to her.

(Rick's Perspective)
       I got blindsided on this damn dog thing. I know Kevin didn't have anything to do with it, but the kids set me up. How could I have missed a dog that big on my own property for a week? Jeez.
       When I got up for my run the next morning, what's the first thing I see in the kitchen? The dog. She was wagging her tail and wanting to lick my knees and shit. Yuck.
       I try to sneak out to run, and I'm not quick enough. The dog sneaks out with me. Good, I think. Maybe it'll get lost.
       But it doesn't get lost, and it keeps right with me the whole way. When we finished, I gave it some water, and it lapped it up. It emptied the soup bowl I gave it the water in, and I refilled it. What the fuck am I doing, I thought. I said I wasn't taking care of this damn dog, and here I am, taking care of it.
       The next morning, she was waiting for me in the kitchen. She barked a time or two. I told her to shush because I didn't want her to wake up Kevin. Then I thought, Wake his ass up. He deserves it.
       She did a number on me that morning. She started running at my pace, but then she ran ahead and stopped. She started barking for me to come on, like she was my coach or something. I'd get to where she was, and then she'd run ahead again. She did that a bunch of times until we got to my turn-around. She remembered it, evidently, because she ran in the other direction when I got there. I was pretty impressed.
       When we got home, we were both wringing wet. I dried off, and then I dried her off, too. She licked my face. Yuck.
       Somebody had bought a dog basket for her to sleep in, and food and water bowls. I filled up the water bowl, and she lapped it up quick. I filled it up again, and she drank about half of it. Then I filled up the food bowl with this shit they had bought. She liked it and ate a good bit of it before I went and found my husband.
       The third day was a Friday. We had been up late the night before, and I had decided I wasn't running Friday morning. Or so I thought, anyway.
       I woke up at ten minutes after five to this clawing at our door and this whimpering. I thought one of the kids was sick or something. I jumped out of bed, and it was damn Trixie. She barked a couple of times and then led me, like she wanted to run. Jesus, I thought. I can't even sleep in when I want to. I needed to run, though, so she and I took off.
       That weekend was Kevin's birthday, and I wanted us to go out to celebrate it. The kids all wanted to go out to eat with us.
       "Can't Kevin and I have some privacy around here? Can't we have a night to ourselves," I asked.
       "Rick, we want to be with you because we love you guys," Kyle said.
       "We know that, Kyle. But don't you and Tim want to be alone sometimes? We're probably going to talk about you guys and this fucking dog, who seems to have taken me on as a project, but I want private time with Kevin tonight. Tomorrow night's the family celebration. Tonight's ours, okay?"
       "You guys love each other, don't you." He was close to blubbering.
       "You know we do, Kyle."
       "Yeah, and we don't give you much space, do we?"
       "Yes, you do. We have enough space. I just want a little extra tonight with my guy, you know? We'll be home early," I said. "Wait up for us."
       Kevin and I had a great meal that night in what was probably the best restaurant in town. Most people thought the best ones were on the beach, and there were definitely some good ones there. But the one we ate at was the best one east of the bridge.
       We got home around eleven o'clock, and the boys were in the den waiting for us. Kevin and I sat down next to one another on the sofa, and Trixie jumped up and sat next to me. She put her head in my lap.
       "I think Trixie has a new boyfriend," Justin said. "She's in heat, and she smells that cum in Rick."
       They all laughed, but I didn't think it was all that funny.
       "Jus, that was pretty gross, you know," I said.
       "I know, but you would have said it about me if she had her snout in my crotch and you'd have thought of it."
       "Yeah, I probably would have," I said. "The fact is, Trixie and I have been getting to be good running friends."
       She sat up and licked my face when I said that. Jesus!
       "I knew you'd give in and love her," Kyle said. "What was it you called me once? You hard-ass macho fuck."
       "He called you a horny macho fuck, Kyle," Kevin said.
       "Okay, y'all were right, I was wrong," Rick said. "I love Trixie. She's part of our family now."

(Kevin's Perspective)
       My secretary buzzed me around ten in the morning.
       "Kevin, it's a phone call from a Jackie Thomas. Will you take it?"
       "Jackie Thomas? Yes, of course I'll take it," I said.
       "Hello," a voice said.
       "Jackie, is that you? Where the hell are you, man?"
       "Paul and I are in Emerald Beach, Florida. Where the hell are you?"
       "You're here? Jackie, I'm so excited, man." I was half laughing and half crying at the same time.
       "Calm down, K. You gonna be all right," he said. He was laughing, too.
       "Where the fuck are you. I mean, exactly where the fuck are you?"
       "I'm sitting on a bed in room 732 at the Laguna Hotel in Emerald Beach, Florida, that's where I am. And my brother Paul is sitting on the other bed."
       "Jackie, don't move. I'll be there in fifteen minutes," I said.
       "What if I have to piss," Jackie said.
       "I absolutely knew you were going to say that, man. And you know what?"
       "Suck it up?"
       "Exactly. That's exactly what I was going to say. But you knew that, didn't you?"
       "Get your honky ass over here right now, so I can go pee if I have to."
       "I'll be there in ten minutes," I said.
       "Ten or fifteen?"
       "I don't know how long. Right now, call down to the bell desk and tell them you want Justin and Jeff in your room right away. Those are two of my sons. Tell them who you are, you hear?"
       "Your sons?"
       "Well, foster sons, but they don't have anyplace else to go. Just call 'em, okay. I'm hanging up now. See you in ten."
       I was so excited. I felt like I knew what Kyle must feel like when he gets excited. I ran down the hall to Rick's office.
       "Come on. Let's go," I said.
       "What's going on," he asked.
       "Paul and Jackie Thomas are here. They're staying at the Laguna," I said.
       "Your two buddies from school?"
       "My two buddies from birth, Babe. Can you leave?"
       "I guess I can," he said. He told his secretary he might be gone for the rest of the day.
       When we got to the hotel, a valet parker met us first thing. She was sharp and crisp, and I liked that. She had no idea who we were, and that made her demeanor even more impressive. We took the elevator to the seventh floor and found their room in a few seconds.
       "God almighty, look at you," Paul said, when he opened the door.
       "Look at me? Look at you," I said.
       He ushered us in, and I grabbed Jackie in a big hug, too.
       "This is too good. This is too fucking good," I said. I had happy tears running down my face, and those guys did, too. They had met Rick at Craig's wedding, and they remembered each other.
       "You've met Justin and Jeff, right," I said.
       "Oh, yeah. We've already told them about ten stories about you," Paul said.
       "You better not have," I said. "Guys, call your brothers and tell them to get their asses over here."
       Justin got out his cell and called them.
       "Are y'all here on vacation, or what?"
       "On vacation and to see a good friend," Jackie said.
       "Did you know my birthday is Monday," I asked.
       "Of course we knew that, asshole," Jackie said. "What do you think?"
       There was a knock at the door.
       "That's probably the kids," I said.
       Paul opened the door, and I was sure the kids weren't expecting a black man to be on the other side.
       "Are you Kevin's kids," Paul asked.
       "Yes, sir, we're Kevin's kids," I heard Kyle say.
       "Well, come on in," Paul said.
       We did all the introduction stuff, and all the hand shaking.
       "Is anybody hungry," I asked.
       "Yes, sir. You know we're hungry," Kyle said.
       "The seed don't fall far from the tree, I see," Paul said, laughing.
       "Let's go eat," I said.
       We had a great lunch that lasted until two o'clock that afternoon. We got caught up on one another's lives. Paul was working for an engineering firm in Portland, Oregon. He had been in a serious relationship with a girl from there for several years, but he was single once again. He said he wanted to get married eventually, but he wasn't in any hurry. He was looking to relocate to New Orleans. Jackie had just gotten his Ph.D. in clinical psychology, and he was getting ready to do a year-long residency in an in-patient facility for adolescent boys in New Orleans. He had spent the previous five years in Baton Rouge going to graduate school.
       "Come live with us. That'd do it," Justin said.
       "There's nothing crazy about this bunch," Jackie said. "You might have some minor problems, but no group with this much love has serious psychological needs."
       "You can almost feel it, can't you? The love, I mean," Paul said.
       "There's plenty of that, all right," Justin said.
       "You don't find that among people who I treat, Justin," Jackie said.
       "Oh, guys, do you remember Rebel," I asked.
       They both thought for a second.
       "Your dog," Paul asked.
       "Yeah," I said.
       "I remember her. Damn, how long has that been," Jackie asked.
       "A long time," I said. "We've got a puppy that's exactly like her. I can't wait till you meet her."
       "Are y'all coming to the party tomorrow night," Kyle asked.
       "Are we invited," Paul asked.
       "If you're not, nobody else is," I said. "It's a pool party for my birthday."
       "So bring our suits, right," Jackie said.
       "Nope," I replied.
       "Oh, it's one of those. Just like the old days," Jackie said.
       "That's right," I said, grinning.
       "This guy used to love to get naked," Paul said. "I didn't know why 'cause there wasn't ever much to show off."
       "Still isn't," Jus said.
       That made everybody laugh.
       "Kevin, you tease me all the time about being a nudist and always wanting to be naked," Kyle said.
       "It's a case of 'it takes one to know one,' Bubba," I said. "I tease you about it, but I don't make fun of you for it."
       "That's true," Kyle said.
       "What's the worst thing he ever did," Tim asked.
       "Do you guys know what a potato gun is," Jackie asked.
       "No! No! Don't tell that story," I said.
       "Tell it," Rick said. "I've never heard this one."
       "A potato gun is a kind of cannon made out of PVC pipe," Jackie said. "You pack a raw potato in it, spray hairspray into the end, and light it. The hairspray is the fuel, and it explodes in the confines of the pipe. It shoots out the potato, and it makes a loud noise, sort of like an explosion.
       "Well, we made one, and we were playing with it in the playground of the school we all went to. We could have gotten in trouble just for being on the playground right then because our parents thought we were in church. It was a Catholic school, so there was the church there, too. The church had a stained glass window behind the altar that showed the Last Supper with the Twelve Apostles, including Judas. We had had . . ." Jackie started laughing and Paul took over.
       "Kevin was convinced that Judas should not have been in that window, and we had argued about it a bunch of times. That day, with that potato gun, he decided it was his job to take his ass out. No more Judas."
       "Did you shoot the window out," Kyle asked.
       "Yes, but there's more to it," I said. "That whole window had thick Plexiglas on the back of it to protect it in storms and what not. I just wanted to hit Judas in the face. I knew the potato couldn't go through the Plexiglas, and I never intended to break the window."
       "But . . .," Paul said.
       "But I did," I said. "That was the only panel that didn't have Plexiglas, apparently, and it went right through the glass into the church."
       "Tell 'em what else," Jackie said.
       "It was Good Friday, and there was a service going on inside," I said. "God, this is so embarrassing."
       "Oh, shit," Rick said. He was all warmed up to this story.
       "We were supposed to have been there for the service," I said. "All four of us were altar boys, and we were all supposed to be dressed in our robes in the church. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon."
       Jackie was laughing hard, but he continued.
       "When the thing flew into the church, it must have scared somebody and they screamed. Craig screamed out, Oh, fu . . ." He was laughing too hard to continue.
       "Craig screamed, 'Oh, fuck! You killed somebody,' at the top of his lungs. And just then, two men came running out of the church. They caught us before we could get away," Paul said.
       "Did y'all get in trouble," Justin asked.
       "What do you think? Did we ever get in trouble," I said.
       "How old were you guys," Kyle asked.
       "I was nine. Jackie, you and Craig were eleven, right?"
       "And I was twelve," Paul said.
       "What did they do to you," Brian asked.
       "Well, let's just say we couldn't sit down for about a week after that," Jackie said. "This guy tried to save the rest of us, though, I will give him that much credit."
       "Did you have to pay for the window," Rick asked.
       "Of course," I said. "Actually, my dad paid for it, and he wasn't very happy about that."
       "So you guys were badasses. Way to go, guys," Justin said.
       Everybody laughed at him.
       "I hadn't thought about that story in years," I said.
       "What else did you do," Kyle asked. I could tell he was thrilled by my misadventures as a kid. I was sure he had plenty of his own, too.
       "That was about the worst thing we did," Paul said. "We were pretty much always in trouble for something, though. We were a pretty high-spirited bunch."
       "So what else did you do," Kyle demanded. He was being delighted by all of that.
       "We set the garage on fire one time," I said.
       "Yeah, but that was really an accident," Jackie said.
       "That depends on your interpretation of the word 'accident,'" Paul said. "I was already in high school, and Craig and Jackie had just finished the eighth grade. We had to wear uniforms to grammar school, and part of the uniform was a black tie. The last day of school, those two wanted to burn their ties because they hated them so much. We set them out on the workbench and sprayed them with lighter fluid. They wanted to see which one would burn up first. It was kind of like a race. Craig and Jackie each struck matches and set them to the ties, and they didn't burn. The fire went out."
       Jackie took over. "Craig decided to really soak those ties with that lighter fluid. In the process of doing that, he got lighter fluid all over the damn place. We didn't think it would set the wooden workbench on fire, though. How dumb was that?"
       "It was pretty damn dumb," I said. "We didn't actually destroy the building, but the fire department had to come to put out the fire. We dragged the workbench outside, and that's what saved the building."
       "Red ass on that one, too," Justin asked.
       "No. By then we were too old for spankings," I said. "We were just grounded for a month. Although, these guys still came over to our house every day."
       "I didn't. I was working by then," Paul said. "In fact, I don't remember why I happened to be there for the conflagration."
       "It sounds like you guys were really close," Rick said.
       "Unbelievably close," Jackie said.
       "Did you ever see Kevin get his dick caught in his zipper," Tim asked.
       "Not more than about once a week," Paul said.
       "I didn't do it that often," I said.
       "Maybe not, but it happened all the time," Paul said. "And he'd make us all look at it to check out the wound."
       "Craig did it, too," Jackie said. "He's not circumcised either. Craig and I were in the same class because we were the same age, and we were also best friends. One time at recess he and I were taking a leak, and he was in a hurry to get back to the game we had been playing on the playground. He's in a big hurry, okay, and he's not paying attention. He pulls up on the zipper, and then you hear this unbelievable scream."
       "Oh, my God," I said. "I know what's coming." I was laughing almost too hard to talk.
       "I look over to see what's wrong, and he's got quite a large chunk of his foreskin caught. He's trying to pull down the zipper to free it, but there's blood all over the zipper tab, and his fingers keep slipping off. Of course, he's crying and jumping around.
       "I try to get the zipper down, but I can't do it, either. 'Go get Kevin,' he says to me. 'Where is he?' 'He's in class.'"
       "Let me take over this part," I said. "I was in fourth grade, I guess, and I was in my desk, trying to pay attention to the teacher. This joker barges into the room and says, 'I need Kevin to come help his brother.' The teacher says, 'Help his brother do what?' She knew Craig and Jackie because they had both been in her class. Her name was Mrs. Landry. 'He's got his wee-wee caught in his zipper, and only Kevin can get it unstuck.'"
       Everybody howled.
       "Well, she wasn't going to let me go. She wanted Jackie to call his mother, which we ended up doing, anyway. But Jackie says, 'But Miss Landry, it's his wee-wee. He needs Kevin for his wee-wee.'"
       Kyle and Justin were laughing so hard they were slapping the table.
       "All the kids in the class were laughing. I didn't wait for permission to leave the room when he said that."
       "Damn right, son," Justin said. "When there's a wee-wee in a jam, you got to take action."
       That made everybody laugh even harder.
       "We ended up calling Miss Dilsey, just like the teacher had said to do, and she took him to my mom's office. No stitches, though."
       "I haven't thought of some of this in forever. It's so good to see you guys," I said.
       "Kev, listen, man. We're not going to monopolize all your time. We've got some college friends that we're actually here with, in fact," Jackie said.
       "But you'll be at the party, won't you," I asked.
       "Of course. We wouldn't miss it. You're twenty-seven, right," Paul said.
       "Right. Can you believe we're as old as we are? We've known each other all that time, too. I don't have any recollection of not knowing you all."
       "I know. We've been brothers all our lives, haven't we. One more story, then we're going to have to go. We had watched some movie about kids becoming blood brothers. They cut their arms and held the cuts together so their blood could mingle. We decided to do that. This genius here," Jackie said, pointing to Paul, "goes first and cuts a fucking artery in his wrist. You talk about bleeding like a stuck pig! He's bleeding and crying, Craig is laughing, and macho man Kevin faints dead out. I'm the only one who's half-way in control, and I start screaming for my mom. She runs upstairs to--whose room was it? Craig's?--to wherever we were, anyway. She snatches up Paul and they haul ass to the emergency room.
       "Meanwhile, I've still got Kevin passed out. She didn't even notice him. I grab Craig, who is in some kind of hysterical shock or something, and can't control his laughter, and ask him where they keep the smelling salts."
       Everybody laughed.
       "We all watched too much TV. Doesn't everybody have smelling salts around the house? Anyway, he didn't have a clue. I ended up going downstairs to the kitchen and taking a jar of horseradish back upstairs. By then Kevin was awake, but I made him smell it anyway."
       "To this day, the scent of horseradish makes me sick to my stomach," I said.
       Everybody was in stitches.
       "I had forgotten that story, Jackie," I said. I had tears in the corners of my eyes from laughing so hard. "We had fun, though, didn't we? When you hear those stories, it sounds like we were bad as hell, but we really weren't, most of the time."
       "Let's blame it on Craig, since he isn't here," Paul said.
       They laughed.
       "These guys all know Craig, and I'm sure they'd believe you about that, Paul," I said.
       "Did you guys live on the same block," Brian asked.
       "Oh, no, son. Our mother worked for Miss Beth."
       "Their mother raised me and Craig, boys, and that's a fact. Her name was Miss Dilsey, and their daddy is Mister Gabe," I said. "Miss Dilsey passed away a few years ago. She and Grandma were very, very close friends. Best friends, really."
       "But they took care of us, too," Jackie said. "We went to Catholic school from kindergarten through high school, and then we both went to Tulane University. The Foleys paid for every dime of all of it."
       "Did I know that," Rick asked.
       "I didn't know about college," I said. "I thought you guys had scholarships. That's what they told us."
       "We did. Foley scholarships. We're the only ones who have ever won one of those," Paul said.
       "This will be the next bunch to get them," I said, meaning our boys.
       "Guys, I can't tell you when I've enjoyed a lunch as much as I have this one. We need to catch up with our friends, though. We'll see all of you tomorrow night," Jackie said. "Boys, don't let this dude make you think he was anything but a normal, pain-in-the-ass kid."
       We shook hands, and then I hugged Paul and Jackie.
       "Those guys are soooooo nice," Tim said.
       "There's the best, Tim," I said. "Most of the stuff we did was when we were young, in elementary school, or grammar school, as they called it. When we went to high school, we sort of drifted apart, except for Craig and Jackie. We were in different classes and different sports and other activities. We made different friends. Plus, they didn't need to be watched after school by that age, so they went home instead of coming to our house every day."
       "But you still seem to like one another a lot," Brian said.
       "We love one another, Bri, and we always will. Craig and Jackie still hang out some together. The two of them were much closer than I was to either one of them or than he was to Paul. They stayed good friends all through high school and college, too. In fact, Jackie was in Craig and Cherie's wedding. That was the last time we saw one another. You'll have to get Craig to tell you the story of what happened when they got drunk together at a Tulane football game."
       "I wish Craig was here," Rick said.
       "Me, too," I said. "This is the kind of stuff they used to do. One time they were on a double date, and apparently the girls were virtuous and didn't want to get into heavy making out. Do you remember that big fountain we saw at the lakefront in New Orleans? Well, that's where they were parked. Anyway, they're both frustrated, right? So Craig says, 'Thomas, you swollen up back there, boy?' and Jackie says, 'Hell, yeah, all pumped up and no place to go.' Craig says, 'I'll bet you mine is bigger than yours right now. I'll put ten bucks on it, in fact.' Jackie says, 'No, way, whitey.' Craig says, 'Only one way to prove it. Get out.'
       "So they both get out of the car. The two girls are horrified and threaten to tell the boys' parents if they go through with it. By the way, Craig and Jackie had planned this. Maybe not for that particular night, but they had talked about doing this if they ever found themselves in that situation together. So, anyway, Craig says to the girls, 'Y'all can watch. We ain't bashful.' The girls say they're not going to watch, and the guys had their backs to the car, anyway. Jackie says, 'All right, Foley. On three. One. Two. Three.'"
       I slowly and methodically took several sips of water at that point in the story to build suspense, or something.
       "So what happened? Who had the biggest," Justin demanded.
       "On the count of three, they both pulled their belts out of the loops on their pants and held them up to one another. 'Damn, Foley,' Jackie says to Craig, 'yours is longer and wider. I never thought a white boy would out-measure a black boy.' 'Girls, can you believe this?' They turn around to the car and hold up the two belts. Craig's date thought it was funny, but Jackie's date got super pissed off and demanded to be taken home. Those girls never saw those boys again after that night."
       They were all laughing.
       "That's hilarious," Jeff said. "Who thought that up?"
       "I don't know. They're both capable of it, but they might have read about it or seen it in a movie or something. When Jackie and Craig get together with their friends, especially after a couple of drinks, they . . . You can't breathe, you're laughing so hard," I said.
       "Let's get together with them the next time we go to New Orleans," Kyle said.
       "We'll definitely try," I said. "Paul's been in Portland for several years, and Jackie's been in Baton Rouge. They didn't used to get home all that much, but it sounds like they'll both be in New Orleans from now on. Both of them are borderline geniuses, by the way."
       "You were the dummy of that crowd, then," Justin said.
       "I'm smarter than Craig," I said.
       "And a lot more modest, too," Rick said. "Let's get back to work."

Chapter 2

(Kevin's Perspective)
       Kyle had let it be known at Brian's party that The Clay would be in service starting around one o'clock the day of my party. Anybody who was interested in water skiing should present themselves whenever they felt like it after that time.
       Rick was the lead organizer for my shindig, but Kyle wanted to be involved in the preparations, too.
       "What needs to be done," he asked Rick, as we were sitting around in the den in our briefs that morning.
       "I think it's pretty much under control, Kyle," Rick had said. "I need to pick up the cake, but that's about it, I think."
       "Do we have ice?"
       "The cake and some ice," Rick said, grinning.
       "When are we going to get an ice machine? Don't you think it's a pain in the ass having to remember to buy ice all the time," Kyle asked.
       "Yeah, it is. Why don't you be in charge of getting us an ice machine," Rick said.
       "That's all I've been waiting to hear," he said. "I checked out the kitchen in the clubhouse, and there's a place for one already there. We just have to buy it and have it delivered and installed. No plumbing."
       "Plumbing? Why would it have to have plumbing," Tim asked.
       Kyle rolled his eyes at his monkey.
       "Where do you think the water to make the ice comes from," Kyle asked. He didn't say that sarcastically, which I might have been tempted to do.
       "Oh, yeah. How do you know stuff like that," Tim asked.
       "How do I know you make ice out of water?"
       "No, I know that. How do you know it doesn't need plumbing?"
       "I looked at it, and I saw the water line," he said. "Tim, go to your room."
       Tim shot him a bird, and then they both laughed.
       "I'm going to get an ice machine that makes clear ice," Kyle said. "That's the pretty kind, I think. I hate cloudy ice cubes."
       "You don't have enough to think about," Justin said, pointing at Kyle.
       "What do you mean?"
       "Who ever thinks about cloudy ice and clear ice?"
       "I do, evidently. Do you have a problem with that," Kyle said. They were facing off for a round of jokes, and I chuckled with anticipation.
       "I think it's just such stuff as that that gives gay men a bad name, Kyle."
       We laughed.
       "So you don't think straight guys dislike cloudy ice?"
       "I don't think they notice," Jus said.
       "So what does that make you?"
       "Okay. You got me last," Justin said. "I'm not having my queerness challenged by some damn ice cubes."
       That was funny.
       "So, do you want to help me pick out the ice machine? It has to be color coordinated with the rest of the stuff in that kitchen out there. Then there's the whole matter of size."
       "Kyle, when we get the fucking ice machine, look for your dick in it, 'cause that's where I'm putting it when I cut it off," Jus said.
       Even Kyle laughed at that one.
       "Gahh, I'm ready to party," Kyle said.
       "Why don't you go out and walk up and down on the pier a while. Take the edge off, Buddy," Justin said.
       Tim yawned and stretched.
       "Why do we get up so early, Kyle," he asked.
       "I dunno. I just wake up," he said. "Go back to bed, if you're tired."
       "He doesn't want to be in bed without his sweetie," Jus said.
       "Shut up, asshole," Kyle said. "Oh, you know what? I didn't tell Jackie and Paul about skiing. Does anybody know the phone number of that hotel?"
       Justin started saying the number.
       "Not so fast. I need to dial it," Kyle said.
       He let it ring, and then someone at the desk must have answered. He asked to speak with Jackie or Paul Thomas.
       "Hello. This is Kyle Goodson, one of Kevin's kids. Who's speaking, please.
       Pause.
       "Hi, Jackie. We sure did enjoy meeting you guys yesterday. Those stories were awesome."
       Pause.
       "Kevin told us the one about you and Craig on the double date with the belts. That's rich."
       Pause. Laugh.
       "Well, thank you. Actually, the reason I called was to let you and Paul know we're going to start running the ski boat at one o'clock, if you guys are interested. You will need suits for that. But just come on over anytime you want to."
       Pause.
       "Men or women?"
       Pause.
       "Oh, bring 'em on. The more the merrier. And we have plenty of towels, so don't worry about that. Do you like to dance? 'Cause we usually get around to dancing after dinner. Sometimes before."
       Pause.
       "Well, we'll see you later, then. Bye."
       He hung up.
       "I just invited two more guys. I hope there's enough for them to eat."
       "I gathered as much. How'd that happen?"
       "Well, he said they have two friends with them, and they wished those guys had a chance to meet us. What was I going to say?"
       "You could have said SOL," Justin said.
       "What does that mean," Tim asked.
       "Shit outta luck."
       That made us laugh, too.
       "Jus, Kyle did the right thing. In fact, we should have told them to bring their friends when we saw them and invited them yesterday. Think about this, Jus. How would you and Brian feel at a party of thirty or so black men if you only really knew one other person there?"
       "I'd probably feel uncomfortable, but because they were strangers, not because they were black," Jus said. "Especially if I had to show my wee-wee just to swim."
       We laughed.
       "You say that about race not being an issue, and I know you mean it, but that isn't true for a lot of people. It's probably not an issue for them, now that I think about it, but it could be. But, Jus, your point about being strangers is a very good one," I said. "They're going to feel more comfortable with their friends here."
       "So the Stud saves the day," Justin said.
       "Why are you picking on me this morning," Kyle asked.
       "'Cause I love you."
       "Oh. That's what I thought," Kyle said. After a moment's pause, Kyle continued, "Kevin, since we don't start work until a week from Monday, can Tim and I do some camping on the island?"
       "How come they get a week off," Justin asked.
       "You had a week off in March for your trip, and you got paid. They don't get paid until they work," Rick said.
       "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," he said, grinning sheepishly.
       "Besides, this is Memorial Day weekend. We're lucky any of us is off," Rick said. "We ought to have your ass down there toting luggage."
       "Well, ain't you the hard-ass, all of a sudden," Jus said. "It's usually Kevin. Stay away from him, Rick. He's rubbing off on you, Bubba."
       Rick laughed at him, and Jus and Kyle knocked fists together.
       "Kyle, in answer to your question, don't you think you should ask your parents, instead of us?
       "We did. They said it was all right with them, if it was alright with you all," he said.
       "Well, yeah. It's alright with us, isn't it, Babe?"
       "Sure. Who's going? Just you and Tim?"
       Kyle nodded. "And can Trixie go with us?" She perked up when she heard her name.
       "What about Brian? Are you just going to leave him here by himself? He's not working yet, and Justin is. Did you think about that, Kyle," Rick asked.
       "Do you want to go, Bri," Kyle asked. I could tell that was a genuine invitation, not a perfunctory one.
       "Not if Jus can't go," Bri said.
       "Why can't he go, too," Rick asked.
       "He's working, Babe," I said.
       "Not at night. What are your hours, Jus?"
       "I work 7:30 to four this coming week," he said.
       "How long does it take to get out to the island?"
       "About twenty minutes from here," Kyle said.
       "This doesn't sound hard to me," Rick said. "Kyle picks him up here after he gets off work, they all spend the night on the island, and Kyle brings him home in the morning in time to get ready for work."
       "Do you want to do that, Jus," Kyle asked.
       "Yeah. Hell, yeah, I'd like to do that," Jus said.
       "Then I say it's a done deal," Kyle replied. "It'll be more fun with you guys there. Kevin, we were thinking we would leave tomorrow morning after family time. Would that be all right? It means we wouldn't be with you all day on your birthday. Would you mind?"
       "My birthday's Monday, Kyle. Today's the 23rd, not the 24th."
       "Oh, my bad. But we won't see you at all on Monday, probably."
       "You're seeing me now, Kyle. I really don't mind, guys, but thanks for thinking of that. Rick and I were thinking we might drive over to Tallahassee, anyway, on Monday. And it's all right with me if Trixie goes with you."
       "Do you guys still have friends in Tallahassee," Justin asked.
       "A few," Rick said. "Some people we worked with, and I'll reluctantly grant Trixie permission to go."
       Just about then Jeff came in. He was the late sleeper in the crowd, but it was really only ten o'clock, not exactly late by adolescent standards.
       "Good morning, Jeff," we all said in one form or another. He told us good morning, too.
       Jeff got himself some coffee and made himself a bowl of cereal. Trixie tried to get into his lap, but he pushed her away.
       "Jeff, we're talking about going camping for a few days starting tomorrow. You want to go," Kyle asked.
       "I have to work," Jeff said.
       Kyle explained how they had it worked out so that he and Jus could camp and still go to work.
       "Thanks, Kyle, but I don't think so," he said.
       "You're not the outdoor type, are you, Bubba," Jus said.
       "Not at all, Jus. I love doing things with you guys, but camping doesn't really do it for me. Besides, you'll have to get up so early to get in in time for work."
       Jeff looked uncomfortable, like he had something on his mind. I hoped he wasn't depressed again. Finally he spoke.
       "Would it be all right if I asked a date to the party tonight," he asked.
       Kyle's face lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree.
       "You met somebody? How'd you meet him," he asked. "Where'd you meet him?"
       "Yes, I've met someone," he said. "I first met him on line in a chat room. We've had coffee a few times after work and went out one night."
       "Who is it," Kyle wanted to know.
       "His name is Tyler Jones, and he's in the Coast Guard. He's stationed here."
       "Jeff, I think Kyle's reaction tells you how we feel about your friend coming over tonight. We're happy for you, man," I said. I got a little misty eyed when I thought of the implications of his having a date.
       Kyle was much more effusive. He got up, went over to Jeff, pulled him from his seat, and hugged him. Kyle even bounced them around a little.
       "I'm so happy for you, Bubba."
       "Thanks, Kyle, but it's just a date. He hasn't proposed or anything," Jeff said.
       "I know, but think about where you were last October, man. And Christmas? It's that ink, isn't it?"
       Jeff couldn't help grinning at his little brother.
       "That reminds me. We still haven't seen that ink," Rick said.
       Jeff hadn't been with us in briefs mode lately, and he was already fully dressed that morning. He was a much more private person than the rest of us were, and we respected that and gave him all the space he wanted.
       "You'll see it tonight. It will be the great unveiling."
       "Has Tyler seen it," Kyle asked.
       "No. Of course not," Jeff said.
       "Kyle, don't pry, Bubba," Rick said with mock sternness.
       Kyle grinned, and Rick grinned back at him.
       "Well, I need to get some gas for the boat," Kyle said. "Tim, can I take your car?"
       "What's wrong with yours," Rick asked.
       "It's not mine; that's what's wrong with his," Tim said. "I'll take you, but I'm driving."
       "Fair enough. Let's put the top down."

(Rick's Perspective)
       Those weekend mornings were some of the best times of our lives together. One of them, Kyle I think, had called it "family time," and that's truly what it was. Sunday morning was sacrosanct for the family to be together, but even that wasn't always true, if Jeff couldn't be there. Saturday mornings were our second best time, and Kevin and I cherished the hours all of us spent with one another. The boys had their own lives, and they were pretty busy people. But when we were all there, we were a unit.
       Chris had done a number on me at first. He was a very likeable kid, but, frankly, I was scared of him at first. He was so small and so stiff that I was afraid we'd hurt him without even realizing it. The boys didn't have those hang-ups, though, and they wrestled him and swam with him and even threw him back and forth among themselves in the pool. He loved it, and all of us were very sad when he had to leave. I had been thinking since he left about a cross-country car trip for us to go to Montana to see him, but I hadn't brought it up yet because I knew the kids would want to leave the next day.
       And that damn dog! What am I doing, I kept asking myself. But she got to me, let me tell you. I broke her quick of waking me up when I didn't want to run in the morning, but it was so much more fun running with her than running by myself. I had said I wasn't taking care of her, but I'm the one who took her to the vet the first time she went. The doctor said she thought Trixie was about eight months old, and she also said she thought Trix had had some training. I had expected to step in loads of dog shit all over the house, but that didn't happen. A couple of times there were wet accidents in the laundry room when we had been late getting up, but I swear she was embarrassed she had done it. You could actually see the sorrow on her face. How could you not love a beautiful animal like that, who was smart as hell and always more than glad to see you? Kyle and Tim had been right. She did love us, and we loved her.
       Tim's birthday party was unbelievable. The New Orleans crowd came for it, and I was just a little bit sorry Kyle hadn't thought to call my mom and Arnie. I don't know if they would have come, but I was going to make sure they'd at least know about the next "all call" for Justin's birthday. Of course, it had been on the family Web page, so I guess they had seen it.
       Kev just wanted locals at his, and we didn't even post the party to the Web site for fear they'd feel obligated to come for it. I mean, we're talking two big medical practices and two law practices here. They just couldn't drop everything every other weekend and come see us, five hours away. Kevin's point was that if we invited them, they'd feel like they had to come, and that just wasn't fair to them. We'll invite them for Justin's party on the Fourth of July, though, and I'm almost certain they'll come for it. And mine was July 11th. I thought I'd do for mine what Kevin did. Locals only.
       Kevin and I were doing extremely well at work. We had both been working very hard since we had gotten those jobs the previous September, and the hard work was paying off. The company had always made a lot of money, but it was making even more than it had before. Gene praised us constantly, and he gave us bonuses all the time, too.
       The money was nice, but we didn't need nearly as much as we got. We had a really good investment program going, but Kev and I weren't interested in getting rich, necessarily. Gene was rich, and he ended up giving away more than half of it to various charities every year. He had the lawyers create a Goodson Family Foundation to give away his money, and Kevin and I were board members of that. The local United Cerebral Palsy Clinic got a good bit after Chris was with us. We were in the very inner circle of that business, but even we didn't know everything that Gene was into. We knew that Kyle was rich in his own right, but he had no clue about what he owned, and we didn't know the details of that, either. We knew that was probably going to have to change pretty soon when he turned eighteen, but we also knew it wouldn't make any difference with him.
       Was I happy? Was I content? Was I satisfied? Was I ever! The only thing that had been a problem for me was Arnie, my step-father, and how he felt about me and Kevin. The boys had pretty much taken care of that, though, at Christmas, and the only worry I had in my life was whether I would finish the next marathon I entered.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       They started coming in early on the day of Kevin's party. I knew they would, so I made Tim stop at Publix when we went to buy gas so we could buy some sandwiches and fried chicken and stuff for them to eat. I got ten foot-long deli sandwiches, and I made them cut them into six pieces each, instead of just two. They didn't want to do that at first, but I said, hey, look! I got sixty pieces of fried chicken, a gallon of slaw, and a gallon of baked beans. I also bought a couple of sacks of bakery cookies and that sort of thing. I knew those boys were going to be hungry when they got there, even if they had just eaten lunch, and we were going to be prepared.
       "What did you do? Buy out the store," Rick asked me when we got it all inside.
       "They're going to be hungry when they get here. You know that," I said. I grabbed me up a couple of wings. The wing was my favorite part of a chicken.
       Justin and Brian came in from somewhere just then.
       "Yum, lunch," Justin said.
       He and Brian each made them a plate. They each took a couple of sandwich pieces, three pieces of chicken, healthy dippings of the slaw and beans, and a couple of spears of dill pickle.
       "Have I made my point yet," I asked Rick.
       "Yeah," he said. "You're learning, aren't you?"
       "Learning from the masters," I said.
       Philip and Ryan were the first ones there around 12:30, and they needed food. Chad, Gage, Sam, and Fred came in about a half hour later, and they were hungry, too. Morgan, Blake, and Riley were in next, and they needed to eat. All afternoon there was a steady stream of people coming in, and that food went.
       We did some fine skiing that afternoon, too. I made pass after pass up and down that lagoon, which was really a bayou, and I think everybody who wanted to got at least one chance to ski. I skied a couple of times, and I let some of the ones I had trained drive the boat. They all did a good job, especially Philip, but I expected that of him. That was the first time I had seen Morgan ski, and he was pretty good. Blake wasn't bad, either, but Riley needed some pointers. Philip took him in hand for that, though.
       Paul and Jackie got there about mid-afternoon with their friends Randall and Tyrone. Randall and Tyrone were just as nice as they could be, but none of the four of them wanted to ski. They got lunch food, too. Then they wanted to play basketball. I snatched Rick up to play with us, and we had a pretty good three-on-three for a while.
       "Y'all never thought this many people would show up this early, did you," I said to Rick.
       "No, we didn't. I'm so damn glad you bought that food, man. Jesus Christ, what would we have done if you hadn't?"
       "They'd have gone hungry, that's what," I said. "But I knew."
       "Yeah, you did, Bubba, and thank you."
       "Let's play some ball, man," I said.
       I was in just a Speedo and a pair of Nikes, and my tattoo was showing proud. I was so slick with sweat, you could have shoved me up somebody's ass, but I was having a great time. I had left Philip in charge of the boat, and Trixie was out there with the boys. Every time somebody fell, she jumped in the water to go save 'em. You tell me about another dog as good as that one, and her still a puppy.
       After that basketball game, we were all hot and tired. All six of us got naked and went in. Let me tell you something. Those black guys were built, and I, for one, appreciated what they looked like. I'm not talking equipment, although that was pretty good. I'm talking overall physique. Those were some good looking dudes.
       After I went in the pool, I didn't put my clothes back on right away. There were naked guys all over the place, and if somebody had a problem with that, fuck 'em, I say. Not even Rick said anything about it, or my dad, when he got there.
       The highlight for me of that day, though, was meeting Tyler, Jeff's date. What an incredibly nice guy! I was naked when he came in, which probably wasn't the best way to meet your brother's new friend for the first time, but he handled it good. Yeah, he glanced. Who wouldn't? He was really nice looking, and I figured him for a virgin. He had that really short military hair, which was bright blond, and he had that real scrubbed clean look. He had one of those squared-off jaws that I liked, and he had a really nice smile.
       "You done good, Bubba," I said to Jeff when Tyler had gone to the bathroom.
       "Do you like him," Jeff asked.
       "From what I've seen, I do. How old is he? Where's he from?"
       "He's twenty-one, and he's from Minnesota," Jeff said.
       "If you want him to sleep over, you know it's okay, don't you?"
       "Yeah, I know, but we're not nearly there yet, Bubba."
       "Hey, that's the first time you've called me Bubba, I think."
       "Probably. Usually I can remember your name. I couldn't just now, though," he said.
       That made me laugh. "Fuck you," I said.
       He grabbed me in a big hug. "Thank you so much, Kyle. For everything."
       "You can forget crying, 'cause you ain't getting no ice cream right now," I said.
       He laughed his ass off.

(Justin's Perspective)
       Kyle came up to me, naked as the day he was born.
       "What is this about," I asked, just to tease him.
       "Fuck you. Did you meet Tyler?"
       "No, not yet. Did you?"
       "Yes, and he's an incredibly nice guy, too. And very cute."
       "I'm surprised you ain't hard," I said, again to get his goat.
       "You fucker. Come with me. Let's go talk to him. I want your opinion, and Jeff's gonna want it, too," he said.
       "All right. Let's go."
       "Tyler, this is our other brother, Justin," Kyle said.
       "How you doing, Tyler," I said, shaking the man's hand.
       He told me hi, and he smiled real broad and friendly. That boy was major cute, you hear me? I always notice people's teeth, and he had some of the best.
       "How many brothers do you have, Jeff," Tyler asked.
       "Too many," Jeff said.
       We all laughed, and ole Tyler looked at Jeff like he was liking what he was looking at.
       "Actually, I have one blood brother and four honorary brothers," Jeff said. "I told you that."
       "He's got a sister, too, and they could be identical twins," I said.
       "What," Jeff asked, all puzzled.
       "Trixie," I said.
       "Trixie's the dog," Jeff said.
       Tyler laughed, and it was a good laugh.
       "Can I get anybody something to drink," Kyle asked.
       We all said yes, and he came back with four cans of beer, still unopened.
       "If you'd rather have a soft drink or a mixed drink, we've got those, too," he said.
       We all said beer was fine.
       Kyle disappeared and came back a few minutes later with his Speedo on. I was glad he did that, too. Kyle's got a great body, and I wouldn't mind looking at it all day long. But Tyler was a new friend, and there wasn't any reason for Kyle to be naked, since we weren't swimming.
       "Would you all like to shoot some pool," I asked.
       "We might have to put our names on a list," Kyle said. "Monte, Terry, Sam, and Fred were playing when I went to get the drinks. Let's go see, Jus."
       "What did you think," Kyle asked me, as soon as we got in the clubhouse.
       "I think ole Jeff's got him a stud, is what I think," I said.
       "I know. He seems real nice, too, doesn't he," Kyle asked.
       "Hi, guys," Mont said when we walked up to the table.
       We both told all of them hi.
       "Is there a list of who wants to shoot pool," Kyle asked.
       "Not that I know of," Sam said. "Why? Do you guys want to play?"
       "Yeah, but not until y'all have played all you want to," Kyle said. "We're not in a hurry."
       "What if we just come find you when we're finished," Sam asked.
       "That'd be great, Sam," I said. "But don't rush, okay?"
       Kyle and I went back outside, but Jeff and Tyler had moved off from where they had been. Then I saw they were shooting baskets, and they both had their shirts off.
       "I want to see Jeff's tattoo," I said.
       We walked over to where they were, and just kind of stood there, nursing our beers. It was a red heart, about the size of a quarter, about an inch above and to the right of his left nipple. It had a word under it, which I knew was Clay's name in French. It looked damn good, and it also looked like it belonged right there, too.
       "Where's your camera, Kyle," Jeff asked.
       "I took a bunch before, but let me get some more," Kyle said.
       He went in the house and came back with his camera bag and both cameras. He handed me the digital, and he went to work with his other one. He got a bunch of shots of Jeff and Tyler playing basketball. Then he put that one away, and made me give him the digital. I had only taken three or four shots, but he went to town.
       "He's taking pictures for our family Web site," Jeff said to Tyler. "I'll have to show it to you later."
       "Cool," Tyler said. "Does it say anything on there about you guys all being gay?"
       "Not a word," Jeff said. "Plus, it's password protected, so the general public can't get to the pictures. Would you prefer that your picture not be on it?"
       "No, that's fine. I would prefer that my picture and my name not tell the Coast Guard I'm gay, but it doesn't sound like that's an issue," Tyler said.
       "The 'don't ask, don't tell' rule," Jeff asked.
       "Exactly. You'd be amazed how many guys in the military are gay, though," Tyler said.
       "Is it hard being around all those hot guys all the time," Jus asked.
       "Sometimes it's hard, but I kind of enjoy that," Tyler said.
       We weren't expecting that kind of pun out of him, so it took us a second to react. When we did, Kyle and I laughed our asses off.
       "You sound like us, Ty," Kyle said. "Do you mind if I call you Ty?"
       "Not at all. That's pretty much what I go by with my family," he said.
       "Where are you from," I asked. "I'm from Alabama."
       "Minnesota," he said. "I'm sort of the farm-boy type."
       "That's me, buddy. I'm pure country," I said.
       "Do you like country music," he asked.
       "Are you kidding? What other kind of music is there?"
       "Rock and roll," Kyle shouted.
       He loved all those old songs from long before we were born. Every time we were in the car, he'd put the radio on an oldies station. Kyle could sing pretty good, and he knew the words to every one of them. Compared to a lot of guys our age, though, music wasn't all that big a deal for any of us, really.
       "Are you guys dating," Tyler wanted to know.
       "Yeah, but not each other," I said. "We're just best friends, ain't we, sweetie?" I put my hand on his chest and started playing with his nipple ring.
       "Get off me," he said, knocking my hand away.
       "You just wait till later, honey," I said.
       "Shut up, Justin," Kyle said. "His boyfriend is Brian, Ty, not me, and my boyfriend is Tim."
       "Do you guys joke around a lot," Tyler asked.
       "It's pretty much constant, Ty, especially these two," Jeff said. "It's really fun living with these guys."
       "You said you're not going to go back to the University of Florida," Tyler asked.
       "Right. I'm switching to the FSU campus here," Jeff said.
       "What? When did this happen? Why wasn't I consulted," Kyle demanded.
       Jeff explained about the rivalry between those two colleges and that he and Kyle were the only Gators in a house full of Seminoles.
       "It sounds like you don't want me around, Kyle," Jeff said.
       "You know that's bullshit, Bubba. I'm just carrying on. I'm glad you're going to be here. You know that," Kyle said.
       "I know, especially when I get you last like I just did," Jeff said.
       "You fucker," Kyle said, grinning.
       Jeff explained about "got you last," and Tyler laughed.
       Kyle looked at his watch.
       "Let me go check on the boat," he said, and he took off.
       "Do you notice that he never says 'my boat,' only 'the boat' or 'our boat,'" I asked Jeff.
       "Yeah. I think that's pretty neat," Jeff said.
       "Is that the boat he named after your boyfriend," Tyler asked.
       "Yeah," Jeff said.
       "You know about Clay," I asked.
       "Yeah. We've talked quite a bit, and we've had, what?, three or four coffee dates before tonight," Tyler said.
       "We know each other pretty well, don't you think, Ty," Jeff said.
       "You know him, and you're still willing to date him," I asked.
       "Go to your room, Justin, like a good little asshole," Jeff said.
       All three of us laughed.

(Tyler's Perspective)
       I "met" Jeff the first time I ever went into a gay chat room. I had wanted to do it for a long time, but I had been afraid. I had been afraid someone would walk up behind me and see what I was doing. I had been afraid somebody would trace my on-line activity, discover what I had been up to, and expose me. I had been afraid of the implications of the fact that I was hopelessly gay and didn't want to be. I had been afraid.
       But the loneliness just got to be too much. I had been a really popular guy in high school, with lots of friends. But that was in a school of less than 250 people, and everyone was accepted, more or less. Nobody but me knew then that I was gay, of course, and I was determined that nobody but me would ever know that.
       I went to community college for a year after graduation, but I was tired of school. For one thing, it was forty miles from home, and the daily commute, especially in the winter in Minnesota, was a killer. For another thing, I couldn't force myself to study. High school hadn't been very challenging, and I had made reasonably good grades by more or less just paying attention in class. College was different, though, and I didn't have much self-discipline or motivation. I dropped out at the end of the spring semester.
       My parents actually encouraged me to join the military. They thought it would help give me focus and goals, and they thought I would benefit from being away from home. I knew they only had my own good at heart. I chose the Coast Guard because it seemed more exotic than the other branches of the service. I didn't know very much about it, but it seemed like it was as good as any other branch.
       I guess you could describe me as a gentle person. I'm not weak or effeminate or shy, even, but I seem to feel things more deeply than the other guys in the Coast Guard. Throughout basic training and the schools they sent me to, I never really connected with anybody. I wasn't looking for sex or a romance, and the guy didn't have to be gay. I just wanted a friend, and I couldn't find one. A couple of guys teased me about being a fag, but I knew they had no way of knowing I was. That got on my nerves, but it wasn't really serious harassment. It was just insensitive joking by guys who were trying hard to be macho.
       I was rather appalled by some of the talk about pussy and the constant joking about what they would like to do with (to?) every girl we happened to see. I had grown up in a place where modesty was considered a virtue by many, and all of a sudden I found myself surrounded by guys who thought nothing of walking around stark naked, even when they were half hard. I overcame my shyness about nudity, though. After a couple of years, I had adjusted reasonably well to military life, but I still didn't have any friends. That's why I took the chance and went to the on-line chat room.
       I logged on to a room for the southeastern part of the United States. One of the guys who was already there was using "EmeraldBFL" as his nickname. Since I was in Emerald Beach, Florida, I decided to check him out. It turned out he was in Emerald Beach, also, and we seemed to have some things in common. He described himself, and I liked the description. He told me about being in college and deciding to transfer to a college in Emerald Beach. I knew there was a community college here because I passed it often, but I wasn't even aware Florida State University was in town. When I finally checked it out a few days later, I discovered a beautiful campus tucked away on a bay, out of the view from any main roads.
       The guy told me his real name was Jeff Martin and that he worked as a bellhop in a hotel on the beach. I told him that I was in the Coast Guard, that I had a brother ten years older than me, and that I loved to read. He loved to read, too, and we spent a while talking about favorite books. I talked to him for well over four hours that first night, and we agreed to meet in the chat room again the next night.
       The next night, Jeff told me a lot about himself. He told me he had been in love with a boy named Clay who had died from some kind of reaction to a drug he had been given for a headache. He said he had gone through some serious depression but that medicine and Clay's brother had helped him overcome that. He told me he was ready to start dating again. He also told me about the trauma of getting disowned by his parents when he told them about Clay, about moving in with Clay, and about the family in Emerald Beach who had taken him in. He seemed like he was very gentle and kind. He asked me for my email address because he wanted to send me a picture of himself. My first reaction was panic, but I eventually gave it to him. When I opened the picture, I knew he and I could be friends.
       Jeff and I chatted every night for two weeks, sometimes staying up so late that I had trouble at work the next day. It was worth it, though. He had a very dry sense of humor. He was great at making puns, which was something I did all the time, too, and we just hit it off. He was the one who suggested we meet after work one day for coffee. I didn't commit to that right away, but I yearned to see him, to hear his voice, to shake his hand.
       Our first meeting was nervous for both of us. Jeff had over a year of sexual experience with a partner behind him, and I had only years of guilt-ridden masturbation. Jeff had a houseful of gay men to support him, and I had only him who even knew I was gay. Jeff seemed very confident and self-assured, and I felt worthless and scared. I had no history of involvement with another, and Jeff had the painful residue of his lover's tragic death. I had no past to overcome, and Jeff had to get past his dead boyfriend and the need to start over. I had a deep secret that I could probably keep forever, and Jeff had "in-laws" to deal with as he started dating again.
       After ten minutes together, though, we both knew we had a new friend in one another. We met a few more times for coffee, and one Saturday in mid-May we met at a place and rode go-carts and played miniature golf. We went out for a couple of beers after that, and we had a great time.
       Then he invited me to Kevin's birthday party. He told me that most of the people there would be gay, and that nude swimming would be a featured entertainment. By then I wasn't intimidated by having others see me nude. That's probably a good thing since Kyle, whom I knew to be Clay's brother, was stark naked when Jeff introduced us. It was distracting as hell because he was gorgeous, but I only glanced at his full body once or twice.
       Jeff said his younger brothers would love me simply because I was his friend, and that his older brothers would like me, as well. He said there would be wonderful food, lots of games to play, and dancing. I was Catholic, as was he, and he said a Catholic priest would be in attendance. He said I would feel safe and accepted.
       I was scared, but I accepted his invitation. As it turned out, that was probably the best time I had ever had.

Chapter 3

(Kevin's Perspective)
       My birthday was great. Having Paul and Jackie Thomas show up out of the blue was the first of a series of things that happened to make the whole thing wonderful. Their two friends were as nice as they were, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them a little. It turned out that the trip to Emerald Beach was more than just a vacation for Paul, though.
       "Kevin," Paul said at the party, "I told you yesterday I'm trying to relocate to New Orleans, and I am, but I'm actually here to talk to a company about a job at the Navy Base."
       "That would be terrific," I said. "In fact, it's almost too good to believe."
       "Could you stand having me around," he asked.
       "Are you out of your fucking mind? Stand it? We'd love it, Bubba. You know that, man. You saw how the kids reacted to you and Jackie yesterday. Could you stand being friends with a house full of queers?"
       "Are the boys all gay," he asked.
       "Every one of them," I said.
       "Kevin, I know you didn't mean anything by that question, but had somebody I didn't know and love as well as I know and love you asked me that, I would have been insulted. You know where I have always stood on the subject of homosexuality. In fact, if that Kyle kid was a little older, I might have to go after him myself," Paul said.
       "Are you telling me . . ."
       He laughed. "I'm not gay, Kev, and I'm not bi, either. I'm straight. But that kid's got a lot of sex appeal, even for me."
       "Yeah, he does. I don't want you to misunderstand anything, Paul. Rick and I are scrupulous about making sure there is no adult-kid sexual contact, at least that we are aware of. And I'm 100% sure they haven't had any sexual contact with any adult since they've been here," I said.
       "It never crossed my mind that it would be any other way, Kev. You forget how well I know you, man."
       We grinned at each other.
       "You and Rick look very much like an old married couple to me. Am I right about that?"
       "Oh, yeah. It's only him for me and me for him," I said. "Not that your fine black ass doesn't make me wonder if I shouldn't reconsider."
       He howled with laughter, and I laughed hard, too.
       * * *
       Another unexpected treat of my birthday weekend was learning that Jeff had started dating. The boy he brought over, Tyler Jones, was handsome, well built in a lean way, and gifted with the kind of sense of humor that would make him fit right in among us, if that's what was in the cards.
       "You're the famous Kevin," Tyler had said when Jeff introduced us.
       "Famous?"
       "Aren't you the guy who hung the moon," he asked facetiously, grinning warmly.
       I was both a little embarrassed and greatly flattered that Jeff would have spoken so highly of me.
       "He's actually the one who shoots the moon," Jeff said.
       We all laughed.
       We made small talk, getting to know one another. He asked about my job, and I told him, and I asked about his career field. He was in computer network administration, and he told me his rank, which was, unfortunately, meaningless to me. For some reason, many military people think everyone knows what all those different ranks mean. I had the officer ranks pretty well under control, but that was about it.
       Tyler seemed pretty self-confident, and he seemed to like Jeff very much, too. Jeff made it obvious he and Ty were very good friends and on the road to becoming even better friends. Jeff later told me in private that they had logged many hours chatting on the Internet and had actually had a few dates before that night. The dates came as a surprise to me, but I then realized that our evenings were often splintered. He could have been out with him every night some weeks, and I wouldn't have noticed Jeff's absence.
       I saw Jeff's tattoo for the first time while I was talking with them. They had been playing basketball, the only sport Jeff had ever really shown any interest in at all, and they had their shirts off. The tattoo was small, tasteful, and meaningful to him and his brothers. I asked about the word written under the heart, and he told me it was French for Clay.
       "That's a nice touch, isn't it," Ty said.
       "It's a very nice touch," I said. And it's damn nice of you to say that, I thought.
       * * *
       The food was pretty simple, but it was delicious. That was definitely a pool party, and we were back to plastic plates and cups, although Rick did use the new cutlery Kyle had bought us for entertaining purposes. The family member who probably had the most fun at the party was Trixie. Everyone, kids and adults alike, couldn't resist her when she came up for a morsel and cocked her head. Most of them had never met Miss Trix before that night, and they all fell in love with her.
       Pretty much everyone had been in swimming before we ate. The adults, including Jeff and Tyler, had bothered to put shorts or a bathing suit on before dinner. Most of the kids, however, led by Kyle and Justin, stayed nude. The year before, both of them had often had partial erections at pool parties, no doubt a function of hormones and a young boy's natural need to flex. I noticed that they were both completely flaccid all the time that night. I knew they were still horny as hell, but they were moving into the age when they got erections because they wanted them, not because there happened to be a breeze. Tim and Brian were still young enough to be worried with spontaneous pop-ups, but, as usual, they handled the situation well.
       I opened my presents before dessert, and I got the usual assortment of shirts, ties, books, CD's, and gift certificates. Kyle and Tim gave me a beautiful antique lap desk that I was sure Rita had found for them. Justin and Brian gave me a crystal decanter that I had no doubt Rita had bought as well. George gave me a subscription to National Geographic, and Gene and Rita gave me an embarrassingly large check.
       The best gift, though, was the one from Rick. I had started collecting small statues a few years back. I had a particular fondness for horses, but I had one or two other things, as well. For my birthday, Rick gave me a set of twenty antique lead British redcoat soldiers. They came with a beautiful oak display box to hang on the wall. It was gorgeous, and tears came to my eyes when I opened it. There was also a thank-you letter from the United Cerebral Palsy for a donation to them that had been made in my name by a Mr. Richard Mashburn. From that day on, the CP kids of Emerald Beach were going to be our charity, all thanks to a happy little monkey named Chris Uhle.
       After dinner there was dancing, pool, ping pong, basketball, cards, and, of course, swimming. Kyle had taken quite a few pictures, and he set those up on the computer for whoever wanted to see them.
       "Those ain't the good ones," he told me in hushed tones as I was looking at them. He was inside the clubhouse, still naked.
       "Where are the good ones," I asked.
       "I have to develop them," he said. "The good ones are the ones I took with my SLR."
       "What the hell's your SLR," I asked.
       "Single lens reflex camera," he said. "The one that uses film."
       "Oh. How do you know those will be better than these?"
       "I just know," he said and smiled his irresistible smile.
       It was a great party, and everyone had fun. Trixie didn't know what to make of the dancing, and she thought everyone wanted to play with her. Justin picked her up at one point, and the two of them danced together. Kyle went crazy and took a bunch of pictures of that. Justin was still nude, but it hardly mattered. I knew that at least some of those would have to go on the Web site.
       Gage had brought over a karaoke machine, and Kyle, who really did have a very good voice, did some singing. Trixie wanted to sing, too, and everybody, including Kyle, doubled over in laughter when she started to howl at his singing. Kyle finally put his Speedo back on to act as MC of the karaoke machine, and several guys, including Jackie Thomas, tried their hand at it. Gage had brought a dirty-lyrics songbook, too, and we had fun with the puns and changes in words of songs we had all heard a hundred times. That was fun, and I knew Kyle's next purchase would be a machine just like that one.
       "Jesus Christ! When are they going home," Rick said around 1:30 Sunday morning. "Some of these damn people have been here more than twelve hours."
       A good many had left already, but there were still quite a few there.
       "Are you tired?"
       "No. I just can't wait to get your ass in bed," he said with a leer.
       "Let's tell the kids to start cooling it," I said, as eager for my ass to be in bed with him as he was to have it there.
       "Okay."
       I don't know what Rick told Kyle, but a few minutes later Kyle made the announcement over the karaoke equipment,
       "Tim, let's go to bed so these people can go home."
       That broke everybody up, but it also gave them the hint they needed. The house was empty except for us by 1:45. Nobody left without saying what a wonderful time they had had.
       The kids, including Tyler, insisted on cleaning up the place, and Rick and I went on to our room. It didn't take him long to show me why he wanted me in bed.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       The party for Kevin was a big success. Everybody had a great time, and they proved it by staying late. My motto is, If you're not having fun at a party, get the hell out of there. I think most people believe that.
       Ty stayed to help us clean up, and I figured he and Jeff were going to slip up to Jeff's room. They didn't, though. Jeff walked him out to his car, and I watched what happened.
       They stood real close facing each other. Jeff had his hands on Tyler's hips, and they might have even been touching in front below the waist. I couldn't see that part. Ty had his hands on Jeff's shoulders. They looked at each other for a few minutes, and Jeff kissed him. It wasn't a hot, get-your-dick-hard kiss, but it was a kiss. I prayed to God right then that Tyler and Jeff would become boyfriends. I loved Jeff, and I wanted him to be happy and to have somebody special in his life.
       I found the puppy sound asleep behind one of the sofas in the clubhouse. I picked her up to take her to bed, and she only stirred a little bit. She put her head on my shoulder when I carried her inside, and I wished somebody could get a picture of that because I bet she looked cute. I put her in her bed, and she didn't even open her eyes. She had sure been a trooper that day, and she was worn out. I had never had a dog before, had never wanted one, really, but I was so glad we had her. I knew Rick wouldn't be running in the morning, so she could sleep for a long time. I put fresh water in her water bowl, and I filled up her food bowl in case she got hungry during the night. I popped a couple of the kernels of food in my mouth to see what it tasted like. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't steak, either. I knew she liked steak better, too.
       Tim and I got in bed around 2:30. He was so tired he only mumbled "good night" when I kissed him. I snuggled up next to him, like I always did. He smelled really good to me, and ordinarily I would have been hard in five seconds. Not that night, though. In about half a minute, it was lights out for Kyle.
       * * *
       The next morning we both woke up hard. Surprise! Anyway, we peed, and then we made each other feel real, real good.
       "Did you like Tyler," I asked, when we were relaxing after making love.
       "Yeah, I liked him a lot. Did you like him?"
       "Yeah, I did. I hope he and Jeff hit it off," I said.
       "You really care a lot about Jeff, don't you," Tim asked.
       "Yeah, I do. I think there's like this bond between us, you know? More with me than with anybody else."
       "Yeah, I know. But you chose me, didn't you?"
       I didn't know what that was supposed to mean, and I didn't much care.
       "Yeah, I chose you because I saw the monkey potential in you from the first," I said.
       "Kyle, I love you so much," he said.
       "I love you more," I said. "Come on. Let's get up."
       * * *
       It was eleven damn o'clock by the time we got downstairs, and Tim and I were the first ones there. I let Trixie out to go pee or shit or whatever she does first thing in the morning. Tim and I were standing at the kitchen window watching her out back. She squatted to pee, and then she started sniffing around the patio.
       "She's looking for meat," I said.
       "Somebody put food out for her last night. She didn't even touch it," he said.
       "Yeah, I did. That food isn't good, Babe. Don't eat it," I said.
       He looked at me real strange.
       "How do you know it's not good? Did you eat some of it?"
       "Just a bite or two last night. I wanted to see what it tastes like. It's not awful, but it's not good, either," I said.
       "Kyle Goodson! You kissed me after eating dog food? Did you at least brush your teeth first?"
       "No."
       "Oh, my God. I'm going to throw up," he said.
       He and I were both laughing hard.
       "I kiss you all the time right after I've been licking your butt. You don't seem to mind that."
       "My butt's clean. Don't ever kiss me after you've been licking your own butt, though. Don't do it, Kyle."
       "I'm going to kiss you any time I want to," I said.
       "Like right now?"
       "Yeah, like right now," I said, and I started in on him. Kissing was one of my favorite things we did, and I could kiss him any time, any place and never get tired of it. We played tongues for a while, and then we heard somebody clearing his throat. It was Rick.
       "Isn't this sweet," he said.
       "We're sorry, Rick," Tim started.
       "No, I meant it, Tim. It is sweet. I know you guys love each other, and I know nobody else was around. But it's still pretty damn sweet. Don't be embarrassed."
       I appreciated him saying that, but I wasn't the least bit embarrassed. Our dicks were hard as rocks in our underwear, but so what? He'd seen that before, and he was probably going to see that again.
       We all made ourselves cups of coffee and went out into the den.
       "What are we going to eat," I asked. "They're not still serving breakfast anywhere that I know of."
       "I'm way ahead of you, Kyle," Rick said.
       He went into the kitchen and brought out four big boxes of doughnuts, two dozen in each box. I'm sure my eyes lit up when I saw those. I am always so damn hungry the morning after a big meal, and I dove in. I ate about a dozen, which I knew wasn't the polite thing to do, but there were plenty.
       Kevin came in next. He had showered up and shaved, even, and I wondered what that was all about. He got some coffee and ate a few doughnuts.
       "Are you going somewhere, Kevin," I asked.
       "Yeah, I'm going to ride around to the hotels and motels to see how things are going," he said.
       "Why," I asked.
       "This is Memorial Day Weekend. It's a very big weekend for us. We have 100% occupancy at all of the properties. I just want to show my face."
       "Oh, yeah. My dad used to do that on big weekends," I said.
       "Now I do it," he said. "Do you want to go with me?"
       "Yes, sir, I do, but we're supposed to go camping today, remember?"
       "Oh, that's right," he said.
       He got a second cup of coffee, had a cigarette, and then got up to get dressed. He came back in nice pants and a Polo shirt.
       "If I don't see you before you all leave, have fun camping," he said.
       "Do you want me to come get you and Rick for dinner? Say on Tuesday night," I asked. "I'll bring you home, of course."
       "Or we could spend the night," Rick said.
       "Yeah, let's plan on that, Kyle," Kevin said. "Well, I'll see you all later." He took off.
       * * *
       We farted around in that den for way longer than I wanted to. Justin and Brian came down around 11:30, and I pretty much knew there was no hope of us seeing Jeff that morning. That boy was a sleepy head.
       I finally told them I wanted everybody downstairs and ready by 12:30. Justin had to give me a little bit of a hard time about that, just like I knew he would, saying who fucking made me boss, and so on. He knew somebody had to get us going, though, and he was just teasing me about it.
       Our first stop was the grocery store. They all wanted to know why we didn't just get on the boat and go.
       What the fuck are you going to eat and drink, I thought. You can't just go off camping like that without food and water, at least. Justin probably didn't know any better, but Tim and Brian were fucking Eagle Scouts. They should know that. Sheesh. The only one who didn't complain was Trixie.
       We were in Tim's Wrangler, and I was driving. We had the top down and the radio on. One of the old Beach Boys songs came on, and I love those guys better than anything. I started to sing, and Trixie started to howl.
       "Why does this dog want to make that noise every time I sing. She did it last night, too," I said.
       "She wants to sing with you, Bubba," Jus said. "And truth be told, she's got a better voice than you."
       "Very funny," I said, but everybody but me was laughing. Trixie was barking, even. What is this all about, I thought.
       Tim and Brian stayed in the car with Trixie, and Jus and I went shopping. There were two pretty good-sized coolers on the boat, so we would have plenty of room for stuff that we needed. We got some good meat and cheese in the deli for sandwiches, and I bought eight nice steaks for Tuesday night when Kevin and Rick would be there. There would only be six of us, probably, but I was holding out hope that I could talk Jeff and Tyler into coming out with Kevin and Rick. We bought lots of chips and some dip, fruit, candy, cookies, a couple of bags of salad greens and two tomatoes. I got two bags of marshmallows and a big box of chocolate-covered graham crackers for So' mores. Justin loved pickled okra better than anything, so he put a couple of jars of those in the buggy.
       For drinks, I got twelve-twelve-twelve. Twelve bottles of water, twelve cokes, and twelve beers. I had already packed a quart of Jack Daniels whiskey, in case we wanted it, too. Knowing that crowd, we might bring back all twelve beers and an unopened bottle of Jack, or no beers and an empty bottle of Jack. You just had to be prepared. I bought myself two packs of cigarettes, too. I didn't think I would smoke more than three or four the whole time, if that, but I wanted to be prepared. I got a large bottle of sunscreen, too. I didn't want any burned butts or dicks on that trip.
       And we didn't forget the puppy. I got a bag of the stuff she ate at home, and I got a bag of bacon snacks for her, too. I knew we couldn't feed her as much as she would eat, even though we might want to, but this was going to be her only vacation. She deserved to eat good.
       "How long are we going to be camping," Justin asked while we were in check-out.
       "Me, Tim, and Brian don't have to report for work until Monday week," I said.
       "Kyle, you're already brown, man. You're going to be brown as a nut after a week," he said.
       "So?"
       "So nothing. Have at it," he said.
       I knew that wasn't enough food for us for a whole week, but I figured I could re-provision on into the week when I took Jus in to work. We bought eight bags of ice, something we wouldn't have to do before long, once we got our ice machine. I was pumped about buying that ice machine.
       There really wasn't that much room in Tim's car for all that stuff we had bought, and we had to put some of it on the floor of the seat Justin and Brian were sitting in. Brian was holding Trixie against his chest, and he made her get under the seatbelt. She kept turning her head around to lick his face. That was really cute.
       We got the boat all loaded up. We were probably taking way too much, I knew. We had a soccer ball, a volleyball, a volleyball net, a football to toss around, my cast net, four fishing poles, a couple of Frisbees, and a .22 to shoot sharks, if we had to. We had all our camping gear. We didn't take a tent, but we took sleeping bags as ground cover, some charcoal in case we couldn't find enough wood, my boom box and about a hundred CD's, snorkel masks, and, of course, my cameras. We didn't take many clothes 'cause we didn't really plan on wearing them. We had the bare essentials, of course, but that was all.
       It was two o'clock before we took off, and that bothered me a little bit that we were so late. Then I thought, Chill, Kyle. You've been with them having a great time all morning. It's about having fun, dude, whatever the fun is. Just about everything I ever did with them was fun, and shopping in that grocery store with Justin had been fun. It's the people you're with who are fun, I thought, not what you're doing. I pretty much had fun all the time, but I had to remind myself of that sometime.

(Rick's Perspective)
       Kevin and I had a great day, just the two of us, on his birthday on Monday. We drove over to Tallahassee and rode around on campus. Summer school had already started, and we saw a few students darting around. It was a holiday, though, and the campus was pretty much deserted. We marveled at how much it had changed in the four years we had been gone. There were three new buildings, and there were two others under construction. My mom had commented that the campus wasn't what she remembered when she had visited there, and more and more Kevin and I were feeling the same way.
       Kevin and I knew a lot of the same people, and we hooked up with a few of them. We went to the place where he had worked, and three people, two guys and a girl, were still there from his time. One guy had dropped out of college altogether, and the other two were still going at it sporadically. He and I both knew all three of them, but from different connections. They were hanging out, drinking beer, not working that day.
       Driving home that night, Kevin said,
       "Did you get the feeling that we were grown-ups and they were still kids?"
       "Yeah, I did. I wanted to grab all three of them and say, 'Get a fucking life!'"
       "We got a life, didn't we?"
       "Yeah, we did. And it's a damn good one," I said.
       "What would you change about our life," he asked.
       I thought for a minute, but I didn't need time to think. I knew what the answer to that question was.
       "We'd adopt them," I said.
       He smiled.
       "We couldn't adopt Tim and Kyle," he said, "or Jeff."
       "I'm not so sure about that, Babe. A teacher at my mother's school was adopted by his aunt, and he was thirty-two. His parents were both alive, too."
       "The aunt was straight, though, wasn't she?"
       "Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?"
       "Florida is a great state, and I love living here, but this adoption thing is all wrong," Kevin said.
       "Thank you, Rosie O'Donnell," I said.
       "Well, our guys have adopted us, even if we can't adopt them," he said.
       "Do you think it's ironic that the only family member we totally control is a female dog?"
       "You've really taken to Trixie, haven't you," he said.
       "Well, yeah, you know."
       "Rick, I knew you would, man," he said.
       "I guess I'm a sucker for a cute face," I said.
       "How about a cute dick," he asked.
       I laughed. "Ohhh, that was low, Kevin."
       He laughed, too, and we drove home.

(Justin's Perspective)
       The very first thing Kyle did after we got the boat unloaded was strip. Kyle looked good naked. I don't mean just his dick, although that was really nice. His whole body looked good, and he was so totally natural about it. A lot of guys are a little self-conscious at first, but not him. One thing I noticed that he always did when he got naked was kind of fluff out his pubic hair. Brian and I trim ours and shave the tops of our dicks because we use condoms. If you've ever gotten your pubic hair caught in a condom when you were rolling it down to take it off, you know that's not any fun. A little trim and a little shave takes the pain away.
       Trixie was real cute when we first got there. Tim was running around playing with her, and she was barking and playing with him like she was a kid. Tim stopped and took off his clothes, and then he and Kyle were sort of playing chase with Trix. They would run after her, and she would run away. Then she'd turn and chase them. Tim and Kyle ran into the water, and she was right on their tails. Kevin had told me that Labs were hunting dogs and wouldn't think twice about going in the water after a duck or a bird or something. She proved it that day, for sure.
       "Do you want to go in the water with them," Brian asked me.
       I was pretty comfortable on the two sleeping bags Brian and I would be using, but I was getting hot.
       "Do you," I asked.
       "Don't you think it's hot," he asked.
       "Yeah. I'm going to take my clothes off," I said.
       I stripped just like Kyle and Tim had done, and Brian did the same thing. We teased Kyle sometimes about being a nudist, but what was wrong with that? I pretty much wanted clothes on, at least underwear, if I was inside lounging around, but outside in our yard or on the beach, it felt good to be nude.
       After Brian and I had taken our clothes off, but before we had gotten up to go in the water, Kyle, Tim, and Trixie came back to where we were. The boys were dripping, of course, and Trixie was wet as hell, too. She had shaken off when she had gotten out of the Gulf, but that didn't mean she was dry. She came up to me and Brian, just a-wagging that tail. We were laying down, and she wanted to kiss us and love on us. I had never had a big wet dog get on me like that before, but it wasn't too nice.
       There was a frisbee within arm's reach, so I threw it. She took off. At first she didn't know what it was, so she pawed at it a little bit where it landed. When she saw it wasn't going to bite her, she picked it up in her mouth and trotted over to us with it.
       "Throw it again," Kyle said.
       I hummed it.
       She took off after it and brought it back.
       I hummed it again, and she got it again.
       "We need to teach her how to catch it in the air," Kyle said.
       "So how you gonna do that," I asked.
       "Let's show her how to catch it," he said.
       If there was some new way to play and have fun, Kyle was all over it. I got up slow and gave Brian my hand to hoist him up. The four guys got in a kind of circle or something, and we started throwing the frisbee back and forth. The more we threw it, the bolder we got, catching it between our legs and behind our backs and such.
       "Let's see if she'll catch it," Kyle said, and he threw it to Trixie pretty easy.
       Well, she jumped up just like we had been doing and got that sucker in her mouth. She brought it to Kyle, probably because he had thrown it, tail a-wagging. When she turned it loose, he petted her real good, and it looked like she had a smile on her face. I know dogs can't smile, but I swear to God it looked like a smile. A grin, even.
       We played a good bit more with her and the frisbee. She didn't always catch it in the air, but she always picked it up in her mouth and brought it back to us. One time when Brian had thrown it, she started to take it to Tim. When she saw it was the wrong one, she bounded back when Tim tried to take it from her. Then she took it to Brian. Now, I thought, that was damn smart.
       We played that game for a long time, and everybody, especially Trixie, had fun. When we finally crashed on the sleeping bags, Trix was panting.
       "Babe, I think she's thirsty," Tim said.
       "Okay," Kyle said.
       He got up and got a bottle of water out of one of the coolers. He looked through the grocery stuff for something to put the water in, and he came up empty.
       "Damn. We didn't bring any bowls to give her water in," he said.
       "Well, we can't not give her water," Tim said. "Go get her a bowl."
       "Let's see if she can drink from the bottle," Kyle said.
       He opened the bottle of water and drank from it. She was watching him hard, tongue about to her chest, she was so hot. Then he put the bottle to her mouth, and damn if she didn't drink from it. He was careful not to go too fast for her, and she lapped that water up right from the bottle.
       "That's good to know," he said. "I'll get her a bowl tomorrow morning when I take Jus in, but there are going to be plenty of times when she's going to need to drink out of the bottle. I'm glad she knows how to do it."
       "I know," Brian said.
       * * *
       We didn't do anything, but we did everything the rest of that afternoon. Tim and Brian wanted to relax and read on the beach. Kyle wanted to go see if he could catch anything with his cast net, and I wanted him to teach me how to throw it.
       "We need some sun screen," Kyle said. "We don't want no burned dicks or asses, do we?"
       We all laughed.
       He had the kind of skin that only tanned, never burned. The rest of us were much fairer than he was. He put a little bit on his face and ears and shoulders, but he left the rest of himself alone. He made the rest of us lube up good, though. I figured Kyle knew what the hell he was doing, so I didn't say anything to him about not lubing himself up.
       "I wish I had one of those sun patches," Brian said.
       "What are you talking about," Kyle asked.
       "You know. A heart or something that people put on to cover a part of them so it doesn't get tanned under it."
       "Oh, yeah. Those are cool," Kyle said.
       "I don't know what y'all are talking about," I said.
       "Jus, it's something that sun won't go through. You put it on before you start to tan, and it's like a non-tanned part of you after you're tanned. Almost like a tattoo," Kyle said.
       "Oh, okay. I see what you mean," I said.
       "A bunch of guys at school got 'em during Spring Break," Tim said.
       "Do we have anything here to do that with," I asked.
       "No. They're like little stickers," Kyle said. "We sell 'em at the shops. I'll get some tomorrow when I take you in, Jus. I want two little hearts on my dick."
       "Ain't that sweet," I said.
       "Yeah? You're gonna want 'em, too, dude," he said, "when you see what it looks like."
       "Probably so," I said. "Kyle, you and Tim need to do something about all that hair y'all have down there. Trim it, or something, man."
       "You and Brian trim, don't you?"
       "Yeah, we do. Ain't no shame in that, man."
       "I'd do it right now, except I don't have anything to do it with," he said.
       "Tomorrow when you go in, get a scissors, a razor, and some shave cream. We'll neaten you boys up," I said.
       "I'll get it, but I ain't shaving my face for however long we're out here. I think this might be our only vacation, and I ain't shaving on my vacation."
       Only vacation, I thought. Yeah, Kyle. Since late October we had only been to North Carolina twice, New Orleans twice, Sarasota once, and New York City once. Here it was, late May, and the only vacation you could catch was a week or so on the most beautiful fucking beach I had ever seen in my life. I knew he didn't think about stuff like that. He was all about having fun doing whatever we were doing, but he just didn't realize how good we had it. Even Tim knew the truth about how lucky we were, and he came from a family with money, too.
       "What are you thinking about, Monkey," Kyle said to Tim.
       "I'm thinking about Chris and about how much fun he would have had here," Tim said.
       "Did you see Kevin break down and cry when he opened his birthday card from Chris," Kyle asked.
       We all said, Yeah, we had.
       "He wants us to come see him," Kyle said.
       "I know," Brian said.
       "How do y'all know that," I asked.
       "Hasn't he been sending you email," Kyle asked.
       "I don't really check it," I said. "I don't really know anybody besides y'all."
       "Check it every day, Jus. Man, he's sent us some funny ones. And he definitely wants us to come see him," Kyle said.
       "He couldn't even wipe his ass. How can he type," I asked.
       "He uses voice recognition software," Brian said. "His dad is a computer scientist at the University of Montana, and he's hooked Chris up. A lot of times it's hard to read because his speech is so bad, but you know what he wants to say."
       "Now he was a little monkey, for sure," I said. "And I loved that guy."
       "Yeah, he was like a little monkey, wasn't he," Kyle said. "I think we all loved him, Jus. I know I did."
       Brian and Tim said they loved him, too.
       "Kyle, you need to organize a trip to see him, dude," I said.
       I knew that was all it was going to take. We'd all be in Montana, including Trixie, before the summer was over. Kyle was quiet just then, and I knew those wheels were turning. That boy was an organizer, if ever I saw one.
       "Let's eat," Kyle said. "Only sandwiches tonight."
       He pulled out some roll-up sandwiches on pita bread, and they were delicious. He had a bunch of all different kinds that he had bought at that grocery store. I saw him picking stuff out of that case while I was busy eating all the free chicken fingers I could get my hands on from the lady displaying them, and that must have been what he was going after. I felt like Kyle was always going to be the responsible one. I knew I needed to do some of that myself, but I was willing to lay back and let him do it, as long as he would.
       I felt like you only had a few perfect days coming to you in life, and I had already had me two or three with those guys. That day wasn't totally perfect because I had to get up for work the next morning, but it was damn near. The four of us were about as close as any four guys could be, and Brian and I loved them. We loved each other different, but we loved them a lot.
       Kyle made a little fire for us to roast marshmallows to make So' mores that night, and Trixie got her share of those, too. Tim tossed her a hot one one time, and she caught it. She let it out of her mouth onto our sleeping bag, though, and then she scooped it up when it was cool enough to eat.
       "I wish she didn't chew and swallow so damn fast," Kyle said. "How can she taste it?"
       "She likes them, though," Tim said.
       "I think she might like anything we give her," Brian said.
       "I think you might be right, Little Buddy," I said. "I think she just likes us."

Chapter 4

(Kyle's Perspective)
       We went to sleep pretty early that first night on the island. We had been up late the night before, and we had had a pretty busy day. Trixie was so funny. Both couples kissed a lot and brought each other off that night, and she waited until we were finished to get with somebody. She finally chose Brian, which I thought was a good choice.
       I set the alarm on my watch for six o'clock, but I was awake at 5:30. We had all been asleep by nine o'clock the night before, probably, so I had gotten a good night's sleep. I slipped out from around Tim, who had a death grip on me, pissed down-beach from us, and made a little fire for some coffee. I woke Jus up at six, and he was grumpy as a bear. He didn't cuss me or anything, though. He knew he had to get up, as much as he didn't want to.
       We watched the sunrise over the bay, and it was really nice. Everything was calm and peaceful. Suddenly, Trixie jumped up, but she wasn't wagging her tail. Then she pounced. There was a big hullabaloo, shaking her head back and forth real hard, and she came trotting toward us with something in her mouth. When she got to us she dropped it, and it was the head and about six inches of a snake.
       Justin jumped up, and Trixie went after him to lick him and play with him. When he saw it was dead, he sat back down. Trix wanted to lick both of our faces, but we made her sit down.
       "She saved somebody's life, Kyle," Jus said.
       I picked up the stump of the snake she had delivered to us.
       "No, it's not poisonous," I said. "You can tell by the shape of its head," I said. I had learned that shit in the scouts.
       "Still, she went after it like it was a bad one," Jus said.
       "I know. She'll protect us. Did you see how she went after people falling when they were skiing?"
       "Yeah. That was pretty cool," he said.
       "You and I and Trixie need to go hunting this coming year," I said. "The rest of them aren't going to want to go, except maybe Rick."
       "I know," Jus said. "You ever get a deer?"
       "I got one. When I was fourteen. It was a doe, though, not a buck," I said.
       "Was she pregnant?"
       "No, thank God. I couldn't handle killing a pregnant doe. It was on a lease where they had way too many deer. They needed that population thinned, or they would have starved to death. That's a hard concept to face, but it was true. We had her butchered, and the meat was good, especially the sausage they made. My dad's been a hunter all his life. Clay and I have been, too."
       "Is there anything you haven't done, besides biting my dick off," he asked.
       I laughed at that.
       "Yeah, there's a lot of stuff I haven't done," I said. "But, there is also a lot that I have done." Pause. "Jus, I want you to be honest with me, okay?"
       He looked at me funny, but he nodded.
       "Am I obnoxious," I asked.
       "Obnoxious? No. What the hell makes you think that," he asked. I could tell he was being sincere.
       "Well, sometimes you tease me, I think, about who made me the boss and all," I said.
       "Yeah, and that's all it is, too. Teasing. Kyle, if you didn't have good ideas, and if I wasn't willing to follow you, I wouldn't, man. We joke around sometimes about whipping each other's ass. I don't know if you could whip mine, and I don't know if I could whip yours. I know neither one of us would get out of a fight in one piece. But that's just joking, you know?"
       "That makes me feel better. I know I can be pretty pushy sometimes, and I know I get on people's nerves when I get hyper."
       "But that's just you, Kyle. It's one reason everybody loves you, Bubba," he said.
       "But I don't want to be obnoxious," I said.
       "I'll make a deal with you. If I ever think you're being obnoxious, I'll pull you over for a private chat about it. How does that sound?"
       "That would give me a lot of confidence," I said. "It's like you would have my back."
       "Yeah, it would be, but if you got any more confidence, I don't know where you'd put it," he said. "Let's get going. I've got to take a shit, and I'm damn sure not doing it out here."
       We cranked the boat and took off. Trixie had been off exploring or something, but she ran to the edge of the water when she heard the outboard.
       "We're coming back, girl," I said.
       She barked a couple of times, like she was saying "hurry back," or something.

(Brian's Perspective)
       I was really glad Rick figured out how Justin could go camping with us because I really wanted to go with them. There was no way I was going to leave Justin at home all by himself, though. That big ole boy would have been so lonesome that I don't even want to think about it. Sure, we both liked sex and did it pretty often, but that was not the reason I didn't want him to be home by himself. It was that I just loved being with him. He could make me laugh faster than anybody I ever knew, and I loved him. I didn't know if I loved him as much as Tim loved Kyle, but if Justin and I ended up staying together for life, that would be fine with me.
       Trixie had really added a lot of fun to our family. She was really a smart dog, and I wondered if I could teach her how to do tricks, like her name said. I had gone to the circus once, and one of the clowns had a dog that could do tricks, like flips and stuff. It was a little dog, though, not a big one like Trixie. When we got her, I checked out some information on the Web about Labs. It said they like a lot of exercise, and Trixie sure got that with Rick every morning and with us the rest of the time. It also said they love to swim, and that was true of Trixie. They were really good hunting dogs and would go after ducks, birds, and other smaller animals that hunters shot. Trixie brought back just about anything you throw for her to catch, so she seems to have that feature. Mostly, though, Labs were great people dogs, and nothing could have been more true about Trix.
       I had never had a dog, but I always wanted one. Trixie liked all of us, but I thought she liked me better than she liked some of them. I knew she liked Kyle the best, though, just like people did.
       I had done some reading about how to train a dog. Trixie already knew how to sit when we told her to, and she was great about fetching stuff. When we played frisbee with her, she learned how to catch the frisbee in her mouth and to bring it back to us. I had never seen a dog do that before, and I thought that was pretty cool.
       Kyle and Justin were already gone when I woke up that first morning on the island. We had four sleeping bags zipped together, so we had a pretty nice area. I wasn't cold, really, but the air was cool and wet. I wished Justin was still there to warm me up.
       "Bri, are you awake," Tim asked.
       "Yeah," I said.
       "Are you cold?"
       "A little bit," I said.
       I was cold more than a little bit, I realized. My skin had goose bumps on it, and my nipples were hard as two little rocks. I had an erection from having to pee.
       "Do you need to pee," Tim asked me.
       "Yeah. You?"
       "Yeah. I hate to get up to do it, though. Will you go with me?"
       "Yeah," I said.
       He and I slowly got up. Trixie was between us, and she got up, too. Tim and I walked down to the water, and it took both of us a few seconds to get the pee going. After we were finished, he said,
       "Let's fold the sleeping bags over us. Trixie can keep us warm."
       We both laid down again, but toward the middle of the mat our sleeping bags made. Trixie got between us, and both of us snuggled up to her. She was warm and furry and nice. She licked each one of us a time or two, but then she went back to sleep. We did, too.
       * * *
       Trixie slithered out from between us when she heard the motor of Kyle's boat. I think we had slept a long time after we got warm, and Trixie was ready to play. She got the sleeping bag in her mouth and started pulling it off us. Tim threw a frisbee to distract her, and he said "fetch." She went after it. She had it back to us by the time we were on our feet.
       "Hi, guys," Kyle said.
       He was sure bright eyed that morning. I knew he had taken Jus into work, and I wondered if he had gotten the stuff he said he was going to get.
       "Come and eat before it gets too cold," he said.
       He had stopped at a breakfast buffet and had bought Tim and me breakfast in styrofoam containers. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, a couple of biscuits, and a pretty good portion of fresh fruit and melon. That was typical Kyle. He was feeding his boys. But, to my surprise, he had a third styrofoam container. He opened it, and it was all meat. It was loaded, too. He offered it to Tim and me, but we both had enough breakfast on our own plates. Then he set it down in front of Trixie.
       She wanted it bad, but Kyle had told her to stay.
       "Don't tease her, Kyle," Tim said loud. I could tell Tim was pissed at Kyle for what he was doing to Trixie.
       "Tim, shut up, man. I'm not teasing her. I'm training her. She gets to eat when we say, not when she says," Kyle said.
       I could tell Tim didn't believe that.
       "That's what it says about training a dog," I said. "Kyle's right, Tim."
       In a minute, Kyle told her to eat. She went after the food. In a few minutes, though, he said stop. She didn't stop, so Kyle jerked the food away from her.
       "Kyle." Tim's voice sounded whiney.
       "Babe, I'm training her. I didn't go to the trouble of getting this damn food so I wouldn't let her eat it. Give me some room here, Tim."
       Tim didn't say anything.
       Kyle put the plate back down, and she didn't go for it right away. Then he said eat, and she started eating.
       In about thirty seconds, he said "stop" again, but she didn't stop eating. He pulled it away from her again.
       "Sit," Kyle said.
       She looked at Tim and me, but then she sat down.
       He put the food down in front of her again, and she was whimpering. She wanted the rest of her breakfast.
       He waited a little while, probably less than a minute, and then he said eat. She started eating again.
       In a matter of a few seconds, he said stop. She took one more bite, but then she stopped. He snatched it away from her, though. She was standing up again, and he told her to sit. She did.
       He put the food back down but didn't say anything. She was squirming and being cute and cocking her head at him. I wanted him to tell her to eat so bad. I knew he was going to let her eat again, but he took his own sweet time about it. Finally he said eat, and she did.
       "Stop," Kyle said, when there were just two or three bites left. To my surprise, Trixie stopped eating, and she sat down without being told to.
       "Good girl," Kyle said. He was all over her, petting her and making her happy. "Good Trixie," he said, petting her some more. She got up and started licking his face and hands.
       "We're working on licking next," he said. "Okay, sit." She sat down, and then he said eat. She finished her breakfast.
       "Good girl," he said. "Very good girl. Let's go in the water."
       Kyle was only wearing a Speedo and a tee shirt. He had those off in about two seconds, and he and Trixie went in. They played in the surf for about fifteen minutes, and then they came back to join us, both of them out of breath.
       "Lab's like to eat a lot," I said. "She needs a lot of exercise so she doesn't get bored and try to run away."
       "Do you think she gets enough," Kyle asked.
       "We'll just have to see," I said. "But I think running with Rick and playing with us is pretty much enough."
       "I'm going to train her the whole time we're out here," Kyle said. "In fact, let's all train her. We can take turns doing what I did."
       "Why do we want her to stop eating when we tell her to," Tim asked.
       "Because that makes her know who's boss, Tim," I said. "I read about this stuff on the Internet."
       "Me, too," Kyle said. "Yeah, and we have to be the bosses. All of us, not just me. But I'm ready for some fun."
       * * *
       We had fun all day, doing all kinds of stuff. Kyle caught some chofer fish in his cast net, and we used those for bait. The four of us went out in his boat until we couldn't see shore, and we fished. Kyle caught the first one, which was a grouper. Trixie went crazy when we got it on board because it was flipping around so much. Kyle told her to sit, though, and she did. Her tail was going so fast I thought she would wear a hole in the boat, but she didn't try to eat it or anything.
       I caught the second one, and it was too little to keep. I threw it back, and Trixie went off the side after it. We lost sight of her, and all three of us were ready to dive in to rescue her. Then she came up on the other side of the boat from the side she had jumped in on. The first thing she did when she got back on board was shake off, getting all of us wet. And, worse luck, she didn't have the fish.
       All three of us were naked all day. Kyle had stopped somewhere and bought some of those sun stickers I had told them about. We put those things all over ourselves, and all of us put two little hearts on our penises. We each took one off at the end of the day to see if it was working, and it was. The heart shape on our skin was a little faint, but it was definitely there. We had other ones besides those hearts, though, and we put them all over ourselves. Kyle put an eagle on his right butt cheek and a big one on the small of his back. It was kind of an abstract design. If we stayed out there a week, we'd have some awesome designs, courtesy of mother nature.

(Justin's Perspective)
       I really hadn't wanted to go to work that first morning we were on the island, but I knew I didn't have a choice in the matter. Kyle woke me up in plenty of time, and he and I had coffee before he took me in. I used the bathroom, showered, shaved, and got dressed pretty quick, and Kyle and I had time to stop for breakfast before I had to be at work. He was in just a bathing suit, tee shirt, and deck shoes, but that was okay. He had his wallet tucked in the waist band of his suit.
       He got me to work at 7:15, and a couple of the other bellhops were already there.
       "Who's your boyfriend," one guy asked. "He's cute."
       "That's Kyle Goodson, and he's not my boyfriend. He's my best friend and my brother, dude. What makes you think I have a boyfriend, anyway?"
       "I'm was just kidding you," the guy said.
       I started to ask that guy if he had a boyfriend, but that wasn't any of my business. I didn't care if he did or not. I watched him eying the male guests that day, though, and he did some serious looking, that's for sure.
       I made pretty good tips that day, unlike some days. A lot of people were checking out that morning to go home after their long weekend, and we were pretty busy. One family had their stuff packed in two humongous suitcases that weighed a ton each, and then they had like ten plastic bags of stuff they had bought on the trip. Those things were hard to handle because they had a tendency to turn on their side and dump out all over the place. There was a guy around my age in that family, and he started to help. His mom told him to leave it alone and that I would get it.
       Thanks, lady, I thought.
       They gave me a five, but I was just as polite to them as I would have been if they had given me a twenty, which I preferred and thought I deserved. That was pretty much how the day went.
       * * *
       Kyle was at the house waiting for me when I got home, and he had the rest of them with him, too. Brian gave me a hello kiss, and that was sweet. They all seemed hot in the temperature sense, and I knew that was from being in the sun all day. They had taken showers, but none of them had shaved.
       "Kyle, don't forget to take a razor and some scissors," Tim said.
       "For what," Kyle asked.
       "So we can let them trim up our pubes for us," he said.
       "Will y'all really do that," Kyle asked.
       "Sure. Why not? It might be kind of fun," I said.
       I changed clothes into shorts and a tee, and we went back out to the island. They had left everything where it was, and nobody had messed with it while they were gone. That was one of the great things about that island. It was really beautiful out there, but it was also private, especially where we were. There was a ferry landing at one end, but the only way to get to where we were was by boat. That was probably why they let you run around naked.
       We all took our clothes off as soon as we got there, and I saw the patches they were wearing.
       "Did you check to see if those things are working," I asked, meaning the patches.
       Kyle took one off his dick, and sure enough, there was a faint little heart on his skin under it. He put it back on right over where it had been.
       "You want some on you," he asked.
       "Well, yeah. I don't want to be the only one without 'em," I said.
       "Come here," Kyle said.
       He got down in front of me and took my dick in his hand. He put one on, and I felt myself starting to pump up.
       "Don't get hard, Jus," he said.
       Oh, right, I thought. Let me just re-direct the blood flow, Kyle. Sure. That's it. I'll just pretend the sexiest boy I've ever seen isn't holding my dick.
       "I can't help it," I said.
       "Okay, well, let's wait a few minutes," he said.
       He turned me loose, and I started petting Trixie. Then I threw a frisbee for her to chase, and that took my mind off it enough for it to go down. When it was down again, Kyle put the other patch on.
       "Do you want one on your butt," he asked.
       "Yeah. Have you got another eagle?"
       "Yup," he said. "I bought four sets of everything."
       He put it on my butt, but that didn't cause any reaction. Then he put one on my shoulder blade.
       "What's going to happen if I get a hard-on," I asked.
       "They'll come off," he said.
       "Can't I just put them back on?"
       "Yeah, unless they fall in the sand and get all gritty. We've got more, though," he said. "Are you ready to give us a trim?"
       "Sure, get some water and a towel or something," I said.
       We got all set up, and Kyle wanted to go first. I combed out his pubic hair, and then I trimmed it and shaped it sort of with the scissors. He had a lot of it, and it grew sort of wild. It grew into the crack of his legs on both sides, too. I cut it short right above his dick to make it neat.
       "Clean up his butt hole, too, Jus," Tim said.
       "How about his balls," I asked.
       "Yeah. Everything," Tim said.
       Kyle's dick was rock hard by then, and his patches had come off just like he said they would. He was on his back and had been just laying there letting me work on him. I saw that he had a lot of hair under his dick, and his balls were real fuzzy.
       I lathered him up real good. I knew that felt good to him because it always felt good when Brian did that to me. It takes a lot of trust to let somebody go after your dick and balls with a razor, but Kyle knew I wouldn't let him down. I sort of teased him, though.
       "You're going to make me come, Jus," Kyle said, sort of laughing.
       "That's okay. Do what you have to do," I said.
       I had the bone of a lifetime going myself right then, and my patches came off, too. Tim and Brian, who were up close watching me work, were stiff as rods themselves. I figured it would turn into that kind of situation, and I knew none of us minded it.
       Tim reached over and started rubbing Kyle's chest. Tim was cute the way he was doing that, making his boyfriend hot.
       Kyle's nut sack was real tight. That wasn't the best for shaving, but I got most of the hair off. Then I worked on the area right around his hole, and I got it nice and smooth. When I was putting a second lather on, kind of playing with his hole a little, ole Kyle shot his load.
       He grunted loud, and then he started laughing. That made us all laugh.
       "That was pretty good," he said.
       Seeing Kyle shoot made Brian and Tim both real horny, I guess. They started stroking their dicks. Kyle sat up to join in the fun, a big streak of cum on his chest and belly. Brian and Tim went after each other's dicks then, and Kyle worked on mine. None of us lasted long.
       "We hadn't done that in a long time," Brian said. "Tim, I wish I had a foreskin like yours."
       "Well, that one belongs to me," Kyle said.
       "You big romantic guy, you," I said.
       That actually made Kyle blush a little bit, and I loved doing it. It wasn't often Kyle blushed about anything.
       "Let me finish you up, Kyle," I said.
       He got back in the exposed position, but he wasn't hard any more. I scraped off all the hair that was still there, and he was clean as a whistle.
       "Do you want your chest shaved," I asked.
       "What do you think, Tim," he asked.
       "I know you want to do it," Tim said.
       "Just for the summer, okay?"
       "Okay," Tim said.
       I shaved his chest for him, which was something he could have done for himself. I didn't mind doing it, though. I liked touching Kyle.
       Tim was next for the pube treatment, and I got him cleaned up without incident. He didn't have nearly as much hair down there as Kyle did, so it didn't take very long.
       "Thanks, Jus," Kyle said.
       He never forgot to say thank you for a favor of any kind.
       "No problem, Bro," I said. "I kind of enjoyed it."
       We all giggled.
       "Now what," Kyle asked.
       "Do you think we could ski," Tim asked.
       We spent the next couple of hours skiing. It was unusually calm for the Gulf right then, and the skiing was good. Kyle held Trixie on one of his ski passes, and she seemed to love it. I wondered if we could teach her how to ski on her own.
       After skiing, we ate dinner. There was a beautiful sunset that afternoon, and us four boys felt good and comfortable with one another. Kyle made a bourbon and coke for him and me, but the other two didn't want that. After about half of that drink, I felt more relaxed than I had ever remembered feeling before. I thought about the four of us spending our lives together, best friends and lovers. That made me smile.

(Tim's Perspective)
       It felt weird to be shaved. The shaving was kind of weird in itself, and I felt like I was opening myself up to Justin when he had made me put my legs up so he could get to my butt. I knew he would be careful, but somehow I felt like Kyle should be doing that to me, not Jus. I didn't get hard like Kyle had done, but that was probably because Brian had made me shoot just a few minutes before that.
       Once the shaving was done, I felt clean and even more naked than I was. Skiing naked was fun, and the wind caused by moving over the water on the skis felt good--different, but good.
       I was glad we had done the shaving, and I couldn't wait to see what it would be like with Kyle. He was the hairiest one of us, and I had sort of mixed feelings about that. I loved Kyle completely, and I loved everything about him, so that wasn't it. When it came to the hair, though, I found it sexy as hell, especially the hair on his chest, but sometimes the hair on his nuts and around his hole didn't turn me on all that much. It didn't turn me off, that's for sure, but it just seemed a little gross or something. A few times the hair around his hole had pinched him when I went into him, too.
       Kyle and Justin had a drink after we had eaten and were just relaxing on our sleeping bags. Being out on the beach like we were, with the waves coming in and making soothing, rhythmic sounds was very relaxing. Not relaxing in the sense that it put you to sleep, although I always slept real good when we were out there, but relaxing in the sense that you just felt good. Kyle suggested we play cards. He taught us how to play gin rummy, which was pretty much fun, but we didn't bet or anything. It was just to see who could win. Brian ended up with the most points.
       When it got too dark to play cards anymore, I wanted us to go to bed. I didn't want to say it, though, because I knew Jus would tease me about being a horn dog or something. The fact was, I was a horn dog that night, and I couldn't wait to get Kyle off by ourselves.
       "Justin and Brian, would you guys be offended if Tim and I moved down the beach a ways tonight," Kyle asked.
       I was so glad he said that. I knew that meant he wanted me that night as bad as I wanted him.
       Justin chuckled. "What's up, Stud? You and Tim got a big night planned?"
       "We just want a little privacy, is all," Kyle said.
       "But me and Brian want to watch," Justin said.
       "Justin!" Brian said. His tone of voice said he was horrified that Jus had said that.
       Justin laughed. "I'm just teasing Kyle, Little Buddy," he said. "No, Bubba, we wouldn't be offended one bit if y'all moved. We might just want to take advantage of some privacy, too."
       "I'll get you up in the morning, just like I did today," Kyle said to Jus. "Good night, guys."
       "Good night, brothers," they said.
       We unzipped our two sleeping bags from theirs and started to move. Trixie didn't know what was going on, and she thought we wanted to play.
       "Hold her, please, Jus," Kyle said.
       Justin grabbed Trixie, and he and Brian started wrestling around with her while Kyle and I moved away.
       Kyle had a Coleman lantern that he took with us. I hated to take away the best light, but Brian had a flashlight that sort of worked like a lantern. That would have to do them.
       We spread out our sleeping bags and got down on them. Kyle pealed the stickers off our dicks and put them aside for the next day. Then we started.
       I was more turned on than I had been in a while, and I dove for Kyle's dick with my mouth, after we had kissed for a few minutes. I got down between his legs, and I sucked his dick a while. Then I moved to his balls and to the place under them. Then I went after his hole. Without the hair, it was a whole new experience for me.
       "Tim, you're ferocious, man," he said.
       "Do you like it?"
       "Like it? I love it," he said.
       "It's the shaving that's getting to me," I said.
       "I know. I can't take any more, though. Fuck me," he said.
       I got inside him, and we had a great time. Kyle came right after I did, and I was really and truly satisfied. We curled up together and went right to sleep.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       I know that Kevin, Rick, and the other guys think I'm the horn dog between me and Tim. I'm usually pretty aggressive, and I know it, but that's not really how it necessarily is when it comes to sex. Tim has this cute, gentle way about him, and I'm sure they think he just goes along with sex because it's something I want. Well, if they had seen him that Monday night on that beach, they would have known the truth. Sure, I'm the one who gets us started a lot of the time, but I only do it because I know he wants me to.
       Justin and Brian were both awake when I went down to their camp to wake him up the next morning. Brian was still half asleep, though, and I was sure Jus had accidentally woken him.
       "Bye, Buddy," Brian said. He kissed Jus. "I'm going to go back to sleep with Tim." He straggled off down the beach toward Tim, Trixie right behind.
       Justin was rock hard, and there was a pearl of pre-cum on the end of his dick. You don't get that with regular morning wood, or at least I never did. I figured he had been hoping for a little something that morning, but Brian had been too sleepy. He walked over to the edge of the water to pee. It wouldn't have surprised me if he had tossed himself off, but he didn't. He was still hard when he came back.
       "I thought you were going to take care of that," I said, referring to his erection.
       "Naw. It'll go down. Did you and Tim have fun last night?"
       I grinned. "Yeah. Did you and Brian?"
       "Yep," he said, and then he grinned. "Sex with him is so nice," he said. "I know it is for you guys, too, but it's really an act of love for us. He lets me know he wants us to have sex by saying he wants to give himself to me or give me a present or something like that. That's pretty sweet, ain't it?"
       "It is. Pretty different from the old days for you, ain't it?"
       "Oh, Kyle. You don't even know, son," Jus said. "I'm leading a whole new life, and that old life ain't even a part of it."
       "Are you ready to go? I didn't make any coffee this morning. We'll have to get some at home," I said.
       The truth of the matter was, I had gotten up later than I thought I would, and I really hadn't had time to make a fire, let it get hot, and then brew coffee. He and I slipped on shorts, tee shirts, and deck shoes.
       "What about them," he asked, meaning Tim and Brian.
       "They're both Eagle Scouts, dude. They know how to make coffee over a campfire, I guarantee it."
       He laughed. "Oh, yeah."
       There wasn't anybody on the bay that morning, so I opened that mother up. I hadn't done that before that day, and that baby flew over that water. I shaved a full five minutes off the trip, too.
       * * *
       Kevin, Rick, and Jeff were all in the kitchen when we got to their house. Justin went upstairs to get dressed for work, and I poured myself a cup of coffee.
       "Y'all are coming out tonight, right," I asked.
       "Yep, we're looking forward to it," Rick said.
       "What about you, Jeff? Have you changed your mind," I asked.
       "Tyler and I are supposed to go to a movie tonight, Kyle, but thanks, anyway."
       I started to get some of the eggs that were on the table, but I changed my mind. I decided to do what I had done the day before and take breakfast back to the others.
       "I started training Trixie yesterday," I said.
       "Training her to do what," Rick asked.
       "Training her to obey," I said. I told them what I had done with the breakfast meat I had taken her.
       "What's the point of that," Rick asked.
       "Well, I'm building up to training her not to lick people, Rick. Don't you think that's a little bit disgusting?"
       "She's kissing you, Kyle. She's just being affectionate," Kevin said.
       "I know, but yesterday morning she killed a snake and brought it to me and Jus. The first thing she wanted to do after she dropped the snake out of her mouth was lick us on the face," I said. "I think that's pretty disgusting."
       "Oh, my God! I'll say it's disgusting," Jeff said. "I may gag."
       "It's like with you, Rick. You never know where that tongue's been," I said.
       Kevin and Jeff laughed hard, and Rick laughed some, too.
       "What I thought I would do is get her used to the command to stop by using food. Then I'll use it when she goes to lick one of us. I'm hoping it will work," I said.
       "Did you think that up all by yourself," Rick asked.
       "No, sir, I did some research on the Internet," I said. "I'm going to use treats when she doesn't lick when I tell her stop, but I'm also going to give her a lot of praise, too. I think she understands that. Gradually, I'll wean her off the treats and just use praise. Then, I'll stop the praise, too. It shouldn't take too long. She's real smart."
       "What kind of treats? Don't give her candy or chips or stuff like that, hear," Kevin said.
       "I bought some bacon treats. I gave her a few, and she lapped them up," I said.
       Justin came back in, got himself a cup of coffee, and lit up a smoke. I hadn't had one in quite a few days, so I lit up, too. I was careful not to inhale too deep.
       "Jus, bring your coffee and smoke into the den. Rick and I want to talk to you," Kevin said.
       That ole boy got a stricken look on his face. Neither him nor me had had a double-barrel private chat in a long time, and I could tell he didn't know what he had done.
       "You're not in trouble, Bubba," Rick said.
       "Then why can't we talk in here? I'm going to tell Kyle and Jeff all about it, anyway," Jus said.
       "Okay," Kevin said. "Jus, we had a call from Tyrone Williams yesterday. You remember him, don't you?"
       "Yeah. My caseworker, right?"
       "Yeah. He had had a call from the state's attorney who is prosecuting Burl Jackson in Alabama. They want to interview you to take your deposition. He said there's a real good chance you'll be called to testify in the trial, too," Kevin said.
       Justin went white. His hands started trembling, and he bit his lower lip. I knew he was so scared right at that moment. He was sitting next to me at the table, and I took his hand to hold it.
       "We're here, Bubba," I said. "We ain't going anywhere."
       "They're going to be here today at ten, Jus, and you've got an appointment with them," Kev said.
       "Where," I asked.
       "In my office," Kevin said.
       "Are Craig and Cherie going to be there," I asked. I was getting agitated, and they knew it.
       "Kyle, calm down, son. Justin isn't accused of anything. In fact, they'll probably eventually try Burl Jackson for felony child abuse for what he did to Jus. We don't need the legal eagles here for this," Kevin said.
       Justin was numb, and I knew it. I stood up and got behind him so I could massage his shoulders like he had done to me a few times. When I put my hands on him, I felt tight steel springs ready to pop. I kneaded those muscles as best I could, but the shirt got in the way. I made him take his shirt off, and I worked him as best I knew how. He gradually loosened up a little.
       "I'm staying here with him," I said. "Tim's got my cell phone. I'll call him and let him know something has come up and I won't be back till this afternoon."
       When I said that, Justin stood up and grabbed me in the biggest hug I had ever gotten. He was crying hard, and I started crying with him. In about a minute, everybody was in tears.
       "It's gonna be all right, Bubba. We'll be there with you," I said. "We won't let them hurt you or be mean to you. You've got my word on that, Stud."
       We all settled down in a few minutes.
       "Jeff, I don't want to tell you how to run your life, son, but . . .," Rick said.
       "Oh, shit. I didn't realize it was this late," Jeff said. He still needed to shower, shave, and dress for work. He took off upstairs.
       I called Tim and told him I wasn't coming back until late that afternoon. He said he and Brian would be just fine. There were plenty of sandwiches left from the day before, and there was also a ton of deli stuff to eat. I told him to try to work with Trixie like we did yesterday, and he said they would. We said we loved each other, and then we hung up.
       "What do we wear to this," I asked. "Suits?"
       "No, I think khakis and a nice Polo," Kevin said. "This is a deposition. It's not court."
       "Come on, Bubba. Let's get cleaned up," I said.
       He has already taken a shower, but I thought he needed another one for relaxation purposes.
       We went upstairs to his room, and we took a shower together. He was like a zombie almost, so I washed him. I washed myself, and I shaved, too. There was absolutely no sex involved, but there was a whole lot of love.
       After we were dressed, we didn't go back downstairs right away. I had to get him feeling better, and the only way I knew how to do that was to try to get him to laugh.
       "Let's practice some questions," I said. "You be the lawyer, and I'll be you."
       "What do I ask?"
       "Well, start off with basics, like name, address, and that kind of stuff."
       "Okay. What's your name?"
       "Justin Davis, but I sometimes go by Alabama Davis, Bubba Davis, or Stud Davis," I said.
       That brought a chuckle.
       "Where do you live?"
       "In the big house on the hill. Where do you live?"
       "Big house on the hill?"
       "Big house on the lagoon," I asked.
       "Yeah, I like that better. Do you know Burl Jackson?"
       "I know him good enough to know the doctor slipped at his circumcision," I said.
       He smiled.
       "I know what you're doing, Kyle, and I appreciate it. I just don't feel like laughing right now, Bubba. Thanks, though," he said.
       "What can I do to make you feel better, man? I want to more than anything," I said.
       "Just being here is the best, Kyle. Just knowing that you love me, that all of you love me, and that I'm not a bad person in your eyes is all that matters. I can get through this knowing y'all are behind me."
       I didn't know what to say. I generally knew what to say to make people feel good, but I was at a loss with my best friend. I loved him as much as I loved Kevin and Rick, my parents, or anybody but Tim. I loved him as much as I loved Clay. But I felt kind of helpless.
       "Are you hungry," I asked after a long pause.
       "Yeah, I am, now that you mention it," he said.
       "Let's make 'em take us someplace nice for breakfast. Let's make 'em take us to the dining room at the Boardwalk," I said.
       The Boardwalk was one of our four brand-name hotels, and they had an awesome dining room. I had only eaten there a few times with my parents, but I thought it was the nicest one we had. They all liked the Laguna, and that was nice, too, but the Boardwalk was my favorite.
       They were waiting for us when we went downstairs, and I told them what we wanted to do. That was cool with them, and the four of us took off. We went in Tim's car, with me driving. The top was down, the sun was shining, the air was still cool, and it was a glorious day. I felt like I was a Roman soldier driving a chariot to war.

Chapter 5

(Kevin's Perspective)
       Telling Justin about having to give that deposition was one of the hardest things we had ever had to do with the boys. Rick and I knew they couldn't ask him about Burl Jackson without delving into the prostitution and abuse Justin had had to endure, and we knew that would be hard for him. Justin hadn't witnessed the crime, but he had witnessed Jackson's confession to it while Jus was bathing the blood off him.
       Kyle was wonderful, as usual. He had been telling us about training Trixie not to lick, and, in an instant, he switched to his role as Consoler General. He had done a lot to bring Jus back to the land of the living that morning, and he had wanted us to take them out to breakfast at the Boardwalk. That one was the smallest of the big four, with only 425 rooms, but it was still big by local standards. Goodson Enterprises had slightly more than five thousand rooms altogether, and that one had a pretty substantial place in our lineup of properties.
       We slipped into the dining room unobserved, I thought, but that turned out not to be the case. The GM came in to make sure everything was the way we wanted it to be. I introduced Rick, whom he had certainly heard of, he said, but had never met, Justin Davis, a bellhop at the Laguna and our son, and Kyle Goodson, another son, soon to be a bellhop at the Laguna, too. He did a slight double take at Kyle's name.
       "One of them," he whispered to me.
       "Yeah. One of them," I said. "The only one of them left in the next generation."
       "Kevin, call me later, please. I beg you."
       "Why? Kyle wanted to come here because he said this was the best restaurant of any of them. You're obviously doing a great job, Morris. I'm not going to have time to call you today, okay? Just relax, man."
       "Oh, thank God, and thank you, Kevin," he said.
       "No, thank you, Morris," I said.
       Nine of the eleven properties had restaurants, but the big four had really nice restaurants. Some of the others had good restaurants, too, but they tended to feature simple American cuisine that tourists from the southern states liked, especially a lot of fried seafood. The big four had real chefs with real training and credentials. Rick and I were fundamentally restaurant people at heart, but we hadn't really explored our own restaurants very thoroughly. When we went out to eat, it was almost always to the same bar and grill that had become a quasi-hangout for us. We'd have to do better.
       The waiter took our order, and it was there very quickly. He had asked if we wanted an eye-opener, meaning a Bloody Mary, a Milk Punch, a Mimosa, or some other kind of alcoholic drink. That was the last thing we wanted that day.
       Rick and I both ordered Eggs Benedict. Kyle ordered a poached egg dish set on two artichoke hearts and covered with crab meat and Hollandaise sauce. Justin got scrambled eggs, link sausage, and grits. Kyle made Jus taste his dish, but I could tell Jus was in no mood to be a gourmet that morning.
       We finished breakfast around 9:30. Kyle, Jus, and I went into the men's room before we left, and Justin almost lost his breakfast. Kyle wet some paper towels and put them on his neck and forehead after he squeezed them out.
       "Come here, Bubba," I said to Jus.
       He came to me, and I hugged him.
       "You know the people here with you are your family, don't you? You know we love you, don't you," I asked.
       "I know, but I'm probably going to have to say some really bad stuff, and you're not going to love me after you hear that," he said.
       Kyle grabbed him away from me, and he slammed him up against the wall. I thought a fight was breaking out.
       "This is the same shit you pulled in New Orleans at Christmas, isn't it?"
       No response.
       "Isn't it," Kyle said much more aggressively.
       Again, no response.
       "What did I tell you then? Huh? Say it."
       "You said I can't do anything to make you stop loving me," he said. Tears were streaming down his face.
       "That's right, and it hasn't changed. It's never going to change. You can't make us stop loving you, Justin. Love is forever, man. Get that through your thick country-ass head. We love you! We will always love you, no matter what!"
       Kyle and Justin were crying, and I started crying, too. Then Kyle and Jus started laughing and crying at the same time.
       "Let's wash these ugly faces, Bubba," Kyle said.
       Morris the GM came into the restroom just then. I was sure he or someone else had heard what was going on and become concerned.
       "Can I help in any way," he asked when he saw what was going on.
       "I think we have it under control now, Morris. Thanks, though, man," I said.
       "Who is that guy," Kyle asked, once Morris had left.
       "He works here," I said. "Don't worry about him."
       * * *
       They let Rick and me sit in on the deposition, since we were Justin's foster parents. Tyrone Williams was there, too. In addition to the court reporter from Alabama, the state's attorney and Jackson's court-appointed defense attorney were there, as well. There were seven of us in the conference room adjacent to my office proper. Kyle was out in Mary Ann's office.
       The questioning started off pretty gentle, just asking for information about Justin's relationship with Jackson. Pretty soon, though, it got kind of rough, with the man asking about what Jackson had made Justin do. I knew he was embarrassed beyond words by all of that, but he answered the man honestly and well. I had been angry at Kyle for jumping on him in the restroom at the hotel, but at that point I was damn glad Kyle had done and said what he had.
       After about an hour, Justin asked for a bathroom break, and Rick and I went out with him. Kyle was right there. We all went to the bathroom and either peed or pretended to pee. Gene came in there with us to find out how it was going and to ask if there was anything he could do.
       Justin pulled Kyle aside, and the two of them hugged. I knew Jus was telling Kyle what was going on, and Kyle was totally pissed. He borrowed Justin's cell phone and made a call. I figured he was calling Tim and Brian on the island, but he looked too serious for that to be the case. Who he was actually calling, though, was my brother for legal advice.
       "I'm going in with y'all," he said. "Craig said I can probably just slip in, and I'm going in with him."
       Nobody objected to Kyle's being there, since he wasn't with the media or anything. We broke for lunch an hour later.
       "I think the worst is over," Jus said.
       We were on the back deck of a restaurant at another one of our properties, overlooking an inlet. It was cool and nice, and the food was excellent. I got a bowl of she-crab soup and a Greek salad. Rick and the boys got the same thing, plus a roast beef sandwich. That restaurant was a place where people could pull up in their boats to eat, and a couple of them did that while we were there. It was built on stilts over the water, and the floor seemed to shake a little when somebody walked around. The floor was a little uneven, but the place was rustic and had a lot of charm.
       Once again we were spotted, and the GM of the hotel came out to see us.
       That place wasn't one of our big four, but it was a great place for lunch. I introduced Rick and the two boys. The guy recognized Kyle's last name right away, and he asked me in a whisper if that was who he thought it was.
       "Yeah, that's Gene's only child," I said.
       "Oh, my God," the guy said.
       "Lighten up. Kyle doesn't even know his family owns this place. He's a kid, Stewart, and he's more concerned about his brother's deposition than anything, right now. We're here to eat, not evaluate. After his brother's deposition, his second big concern is how to get our puppy to stop licking us on the face."
       Stewart grinned. "Unbelievable," Stewart said, obviously relieved.
       I saw Stewart talking to the restaurant manager, and in a minute a tray of desserts was presented to us for our selection. Kyle and Justin ordered some kind of chocolate cake dish that looked incredibly rich, and Rick and I ordered coffee. Since we were at an outdoor table, smoking was permitted. Justin, Kyle, and I all lit up.
       After lunch, we went back to our building for the rest of the deposition. It didn't go as well as I had hoped, and twice Jus had to take a break because he was too emotional to go on.
       "This is one of the worst parts of my job," Tyrone said, "watching these poor kids have to go through this. He's doing well, though. I'm glad Kyle is here. He seems to give Justin strength or something."
       "Yeah," I said.
       The deposition was over by four. We all went back to our house and crashed in the den. Justin was very quiet and subdued, emotionally drained from the day. We all were, really. Kyle and Justin were sitting next to one another on the sofa. Kyle started humming, imperceptibly at first, but it gradually got louder. At first we couldn't tell what the song was, but then we realized it was "Friends in Low Places." By the time he got to the chorus, the part we all knew by heart, he was singing softly. In a second, Justin joined in and Kyle got louder. Then Rick and I joined in, too, and all of us were singing Justin's favorite song and grinning. The line "I'll be okay" had special meaning that day, and we all knew it.
       Kyle got up and put the CD of that song on the stereo. He got Justin on his feet, and suddenly they were dancing. Rick took me in hand, and we danced, too. By the time the song had played through three times, the blues had been washed away. Kyle had done it again.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       I was about to jump out of my skin sitting in Mary Ann's office while that deposition thing was going on. I wanted to be in that room with them so bad I could taste it, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. Mary Ann was just about the nicest person there was, and she kept trying to talk to me to get my mind off what was happening in the next room. Kevin must have told her about Trixie, and we talked about her some. I wasn't much in the mood for conversation, though, and she must have figured that out. Eventually, she stopped talking and just let me sit and worry.
       I don't know how long it was, but pretty soon they came out. Kevin, Rick, and I went into the restroom with Jus, and that boy was shook up. Finally I thought to call Craig. He would know if I was allowed in the room with them. When I told him what was going on, he said it wasn't really open to the public. He said I should just slip in and hope nobody cared, and that's what I did. If they noticed me, nobody said anything.
       After the whole thing was over and we were sort of rested up, I wanted to get everybody over to the island. I wished damn Jeff was going with us so the whole family could be together, but he wasn't even home yet. I knew he had other plans, too, but I thought maybe I could convince him to go, if he had been around. He wasn't, though.
       The great thing about that island is it's so peaceful. Tim, Brian, and Trixie were there to greet us. We didn't waste any time getting naked, and we all went for a swim. The water was cool but not cold, and there were enough waves to be fun without us having to worry about a rip tide. We played in the water for about an hour, and we all got out to lounge on the beach. I got beers for Kevin, Jus, and me without even asking if they wanted one or if Jus and I could have one. I think Kevin and Rick thought that we had been through a lot that day and that if we were men enough to do that, we were men enough to have a beer.
       We cooked the steaks we had brought, and I cut up one for Trixie, too. I made her stop eating a couple of times, and she pulled her mouth back the instant she heard me say the word. When we were finished eating, we were all lounging around, and she didn't once lick anybody in the face. I knew that she probably hadn't been completely broken of that, but it was a start.
       We got up some beach volleyball after dinner, and we had a great time. At first, Trixie wanted to play, too, but after a while she just sat and watched. One time I took a dive going after a ball, and she jumped up to see about me. She didn't lick, though. Having her around was like having another person there who cared about you.
       When it got too dark to play, we sat around and talked about a million things. We didn't talk about the deposition except to fill Tim and Brian in on what had gone on. We talked about Jeff and his friend Tyler some, and we talked about our little Chris, some, too. I hadn't had time to do much thinking and planning for a trip to go see him, so I didn't want to bring that up. I wanted to have everything worked out before I even presented the idea so they couldn't shoot me out of the water on some technicality, like having to work or something like that. Summer was our busiest season, of course, but it was also the only time for a two-week trip, which is what I figured we'd need, at a minimum. I knew they wouldn't hear of us missing that much school, so if we were going to do it at all, it would have to be in the first two weeks of August. I was already tied up at school during that third week of August with orientations and such, and school started right after that.
       On around ten o'clock, everybody was looking pretty tired.
       "Six o'clock wake-up call," I asked.
       "Why don't we just wake up when we wake up," Rick said.
       "Good idea," Kevin said, "and Jus you plan to stay out here with your brothers tomorrow. I'll let your boss know you're on special assignment for me tomorrow."
       We all grinned big at that one.
       "Thanks, Kevin," Jus said.
       All six of us slept on those four sleeping bags zipped together. We all snuggled up with our partners, but there wasn't any sex that night. I was sure there were boners all over the place, though. I know I had me one, and Tim did, too. Apart from holding his, though, that night was sex-free.

(Rick's Perspective)
       Kyle took us in on Wednesday morning and came in with us for some coffee. He used the bathroom and showered, but he didn't shave again that morning. I can't stand having stubble on my face, but evidently some guys, like him, didn't mind it. That black shadow on his face looked sexy as hell, though.
       He cooked a big breakfast while Kevin and I were getting ready for the day, and he packed most of it up to take back to the island for the guys. He made plates for us, though, and he left just after we made it into the breakfast room.
       "I think we're going to come home tonight," he said.
       "You're not going to stay the whole week," I asked.
       "We had talked about it, and we still might if they all want to, but Brian and Tim are getting a little tired of being dirty and sticky all the time from the salt water. We've gotten a lot of sun, too. See?"
       He pulled down his shorts and pealed a sticker off his penis to show us the little untanned heart that was there. A lot of people would probably freak out if a kid his age did something like that at the breakfast table, but in our household it went without comment.
       "Call us if you decide to stay, okay," Kevin said.
       "Yes, sir, I will, but I think we won't."
       "Have fun today. And Kyle, thank you for yesterday, Bubba. It meant so much to Jus for you to be there with him," Kev said.
       "He's worried about the trial," Kyle said.
       "I know he is, but we'll all be there with him. We'll get him through it," I said.
       Kyle took off then with breakfast for his pack of boys.
       * * *
       They really did come home that night, and they all had to show us their suntan tattoos, as they called them. Kevin and I had noticed Tuesday night that some shaving had gone on, and the neatened effect really looked good with their suntans. With the hair gone and with the dark tan, Kyle's chest and abdominal muscles looked a lot more defined than they had before. He had always been a powerfully built kid, but the effect of the work in our gym since Christmas was really noticeable. It was on all of them, but we had noticed it more gradually with the others. I now knew why bodybuilders shaved themselves.
       The rest of that week went by without incident. Brian and Tim hung out together during the day. Sometimes they skateboarded, sometimes they shot pool or played ping pong, sometimes they sat around reading.
       Kyle joined them for some of those activities, but he also spent a good bit of time in the darkroom at school. He had gotten basic instruction on darkroom work from the photographer he had befriended, but, as he put it, "it just takes hours of practice to get good." Sally Ortega, the principal, obviously loved Kyle to death and had given him permission to use the school darkroom as long as he bought the supplies he needed. He was more than grateful, and I'm sure he bought a lot more supplies than he would use all summer. She even went so far as to give him a key to the exterior door of the classroom that had the darkroom in it, and he was able to get in and out of that room from the outside of the building whenever he wanted to.
       Kevin and I both had things well under control at work, and most days we were able to get home around four or 4:30 to work out with the guys. After that, we would swim. On Friday night, Jeff and Tyler joined us until around nine, and then they went out. After they had left, Justin brought up the subject that I figured everybody was wondering about.
       "Do y'all think they're fucking?"
       "Say what you mean, Bubba. Don't beat around the bush," Kyle said.
       We all laughed.
       "No, I mean it," Jus said. "Do y'all think they're having sex?"
       "We don't know, Jus, and it's none of our business if they are, now, is it," Kevin said.
       "I knew you were going to say that," Jus said.
       "Why do you care," I asked.
       "Because we care about Jeff, that's why," Kyle said.
       "Yeah," Jus agreed.
       "I know you do," I said, "but he plays it pretty close to the vest. We may never know for sure, and that's his right, don't you think?"
       There really was no room for disagreement on that point, and we let the subject drop. We knew Tyler hadn't spent the night at our house, and Jeff had been there every morning, at least. Tyler had his own apartment, but he also had a roommate, who was also in the Coast Guard. I had no idea if the roommate knew he was gay or not, but that was something they would have to work out. Ty had a lot vested in not being outed, that was for sure, but they could still do whatever they wanted without spending the night with one another.
       We put it away around ten that evening. The boys went upstairs to their rooms and Kevin and I went to bed to make sweet love of our own.
       * * *
       Sunday night everybody, including Jeff and Tyler, was gathered in our den. Ordinarily, Tim and Kyle would have been at one or other of their own homes, but they wanted to spend that night with us because the next day was their first day of work at their summer jobs.
       "Are you nervous, guys," I asked.
       "Naw," Kyle said.
       "I am," Brian said. "I've never had a job before, and I'm afraid I'm going to screw up."
       "Just do what they tell you to do, and you'll be fine," Jus said. "That's what I do. And it doesn't hurt to use your noggin once in awhile, either."
       "What do you mean," Bri asked.
       "Well, if you see something that needs doing, go ahead and do it, even if nobody tells you to," Jus said.
       "That's good advice," Kevin said.
       "Kyle, I get to train your ass tomorrow," Justin said.
       "Tim's already taken care of that," Kyle said. "Ain't you, Babe?"
       "Kyle!" Tim said. We all knew he wasn't really embarrassed by what Kyle had said, but his pretend shock made us laugh.
       "Not that kind of training," Jus said. "Bellhop training."
       "Like what," Kyle asked.
       "Well, how to get them ice, how to adjust the air conditioner, and, the most important part, how to hang around for your tip without being obvious," Jus said.
       We all laughed.
       "Do you make good tips," Kyle asked.
       "Yeah, most days," Justin said. "I'm working on quite a nice little bankroll, in fact. I'll also teach you how to know when it's your turn to take a guest and how to get along with the other bellhops."
       "Are they hard to get along with," Kyle asked.
       "Just a couple of guys," Jus said. "I'll tell you about them later."
       "Tell me now," Kyle said. "You know I hate secrets, Jus."
       "Well, okay. There's this one guy who will probably flirt with you all day long," he said.
       "Flirt? What do you mean? What does he do," Kyle asked.
       "Just different things. He looks at you with sort of knowing eyes, you know? Or he'll find excuses to touch you or do little kisses in the air at you. Stuff like that," Jus said.
       "Does he do that with guests, too," Kevin asked.
       "No, sir, not that I've ever seen. He just does it with the other bellhops, especially if nobody is looking."
       "What do you mean he touches you? Like, down there," Kyle asked.
       "Oh, no, nothing like that. I mean, when he talks to you, he'll put his hand on your arm. Shit like that," Jus said.
       "A lot of people do that, Bubba," I said.
       "I know. I probably wouldn't think anything about it, if he didn't do the other stuff, too. One morning this week, Monday I guess it was, he asked me if Kyle was my boyfriend when he dropped me off at work."
       "What did you say," Brian asked.
       "I said 'no,' of course. Then I asked him why he thought I might have a boyfriend, and he said he was just teasing me," Jus said. "He doesn't mean any harm by it, and he's usually pretty funny, too."
       "I'm glad you told me that, though, because that's the kind of thing that would have gotten all over me if I hadn't known about it ahead of time," Kyle said. "What about the other guy?"
       "The other guy's just the opposite. He's always calling everybody fag and homo, and stuff like that. He really gets on Stephen. That's the first guy's name, Stephen and not Steve. I made that mistake the first day, and he set me right. His name is Stephen."
       "Has he ever called you fag," Kyle asked Justin.
       "A couple of times. Yeah," Jus said.
       "What about you, Jeff? He ever call you fag?"
       "He calls everybody that, Kyle. Don't go there looking for a fight," Jeff said.
       "I'm not," Kyle said.
       Kyle got quiet. It was almost like you could see the little gears working in his head, trying to sort it all out.
       "Kyle, you go there tomorrow with the intention of getting along with everybody, you hear," Kevin said.
       "Yes, sir, I am," Kyle said. "He and I might have to have a private chat, is all. What's his name, anyway?"
       "It's Wayne," Jus said.
       "Kyle, you can have a private chat, but no pulling rank, you hear me? 'Cause I'll fire your ass, if I find out about that," Kevin said.
       "I'm not going to do that, Kevin. I learned my lesson last summer with Herman. I'm not going to be an asshole," Kyle said.
       "Why change now," Jeff asked.
       We all laughed, and Kyle got this really hurt look on his face. Jeff rarely teased him, or anybody, like that, and it appeared Kyle had taken it personally.
       "Kyle, I didn't mean that. You're not an asshole. You know I don't think you're an asshole, Bubba." Jeff was all over himself apologizing for what he had said.
       "Got you last," Kyle said and laughed.
       The rest of us laughed, too, including Jeff.
       "On second though, you are an asshole, after all," Jeff said.
       We all laughed hard, and Kyle was positively tickled. Just as Jeff rarely teased anybody the way the rest of us did, we rarely had a chance to get him last.
       "I wish somebody knew something about the gift shop we're working in," Brian said.
       "Yeah, like, what are we going to have to do," Tim asked.
       "You guys will start out learning the stock," I said. "That's usually the first thing. Then you'll learn how to run the register and wait on customers. Once you've learned the stock, you'll be able to tell people where to find stuff."
       "Does it get really busy there," Tim asked.
       "Sometimes," I said. "There will be five of you working at any one time. You guys work from eight till three, and then another shift will come on. It closes at ten. Sometimes you'll have to close."
       "That's a long damn day," Justin said.
       "They'll go in at three on those days, Jus," I said. "Don't you guys have shifts?"
       "Yeah. Seven-thirty to 3:30 or 3:30 to 11:30. There's the graveyard shift from 11:30 at night to 7:30 in the morning, but they have regular guys who work that shift all the time. We won't get that one ever."
       "Actually, Jus, I set it up for the summer that you guys will only work the day shift. You might have to fill in occasionally at night, but not usually," Kevin said.
       "That's called working a double, just so you'll know," I said. "You do it in the restaurant business all the time."
       "Well, I'm all set and ready to start," Kyle said.

(Gene's Perspective)
       Frankly, I had very mixed feeling about Kyle starting to work at the Laguna. On one hand, I was excited as hell that my son, my baby boy, was moving into the family business. If the good Lord said the same, he'd have my job one day, and it was important for him to know that business from top to bottom. The gift shops were profitable, and we could have lived damn well if those were all we had, but the hotels and motels brought in the real money.
       Even though I was excited for Kyle, I was also a little sad that he was already old enough to work at all. With Clay, I always knew, or thought I knew, that he would grow up and be a man. Kyle, though, would always be a little boy in my mind, I thought. What ironies life throws us! Here he was, at seventeen, a mature, responsible, sensitive, intelligent, and very capable young man. Clay never made it as far in his twenty years as Kyle had in seventeen. Sixteen, really, because he didn't just get to be that way.
       I had made big plans to buy the resort in the next town and to turn it into an international showplace. Then September 11 came along, and financing for that sort of project disappeared almost over night. I had already hired Kevin and Rick so I could devote my full time to the resort, and I wasn't about to let those two get away. I went in to work every day, and I didn't say anything to them--or to anybody but Rita--about what had happened. But my resort plans crashed along with the World Trade Center.
       I hadn't gotten over the emotional shock of that catastrophe when Clay died, and that really threw us for a loop. Parents are not supposed to bury their children. Period. At forty-three, Rita and I were still young, but when Clay died a part of us died with him. Rita was especially hard hit. She went into deep depression, and it took two doctors and almost-daily therapy to get her out of it. She was totally listless. When she wasn't crying, she was sleeping.
       We had always had a pretty active and vigorous sex life, but that came to a screeching halt. It wasn't until we were in New York after Christmas that we were able to make love again since Clay. I missed it, sure; who wouldn't? But, to tell the truth, it took weeks after he died before I could even get aroused. I had always masturbated, even when we were making love almost every day, but I didn't even do that for a couple of months. I've since read that Rita and I were not at all unusual; if anything, we recovered faster than most. At the time, though, I thought death had robbed me of my masculinity and of a fundamental part of the most important relationship in my life.
       In the spring, things improved significantly in the tourism industry, and the banks and mortgage companies that had shot me down on the resort deal came sniffing around wanting me back in play. By then, though, I had lost interest in the resort. I decided, instead, to buy just the hotel portion of the package, which they were eager to sell me. That deal wasn't closed yet, but it would be by the end of July. I hadn't yet talked to Kevin and Rick about it. One part of me wanted to get back into hotel management in a hands-on kind of way, and Rita and I had talked at length about selling the house in Emerald Beach and moving closer to the new hotel so I could run it. Kevin and Rick could run corporate, as they had so well demonstrated.
       In fact, the best business decision I had ever made was hiring Kevin and Rick to run the business here. They were both smart as hell, and they seemed to thrive on hard work. More importantly, though, they were a natural team, and those are rare. Had both of my own children not been gay, I might have hesitated to hire a gay couple for their jobs. What a fool I would have been to let that stop me! They brought a synergy to their jobs that was priceless and irreplaceable.
       I got a little worried a few times in the spring when they got into some major arguments over policy decisions. I needn't have worried, though. Those were just honest differences of opinion about work matters, and they had nothing whatever to do with their personal lives, except maybe to improve them. I commented about my concern to Kevin one day, and he just laughed. "If you knew what those arguments did for us in the sack, you'd encourage them every day," he had said. That was what I wanted to hear.
       I had already decided I was going to stay away from the Laguna on June 1st, the day Kyle started there. Nobody else's daddy checked up on them on their first day on the job, and he didn't need me doing that, either. But I'd be there on June 2nd, prouder than a peacock.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       I had wanted to work in a hotel all my life. When I was little, before he died my grandpa had my dad's job, and my dad had the job Kevin and Rick have now. He used to take me and Clay with him to visit the hotels and motels on Saturday morning sometimes, or in the summer. We didn't have as many then, but I loved those places. I wanted me a uniform like the bellhops had. What they did looked like it was so much fun. I didn't understand about getting paid and tips and all of that. I just knew I wanted to work like they were working.
       "Are you excited, Babe," Tim asked me in bed the night before our first day of summer work.
       "Yeah. Are you?"
       "I'm excited, but not like you are," he said.
       "What do you mean?"
       "When we make love when you're excited about something, it's like no other time, Babe."
       I propped up on my elbow to look at him.
       "Did I hurt you," I asked. That was the last thing I ever wanted to do.
       He started laughing.
       "No, you didn't hurt me, Kyle, but one of these times don't be surprised if I pass out because it feels so good. Making love when you're excited is the best."
       I smiled at him. He was so cute and innocent. I mean, obviously I knew he wasn't totally innocent or a virgin or something, but he just seemed innocent, somehow.
       "It's always good for me," I said.
       "It's always good for me, too, Babe, but nights like tonight are just super good," he said.
       "I lasted a long time, didn't I?"
       "That was part of it, but there's just more intensity when you're excited. I don't know what it is, but I can always tell, even when you're not jumping around," he said.
       "I'm getting better at not jumping around, ain't I," I said.
       "Yeah, I think you are. You and Trixie," he said.
       "You little monkey," I said laughing, and I went after me some of that big, fat banana of his.
       * * *
       We really didn't have to get up until 6:30, same as during school, but I was awake by 5:30. I was hoping Tim would wake up, but I didn't want to wake him myself. It always made me feel selfish to wake him up just because I wanted sex. He never said anything or told me no, and I knew he wouldn't that morning, either. We had done it twice the night before, and I knew I would stay alive without it that morning. Still, I was really, really horny, and I thought it would be nice to start the first day of our new jobs by making love.
       I eased myself out of bed to pee and use the bathroom for the other thing, too, just in case. I was careful getting back in bed, too. I was just lying there, listening to him breathe, and I was wanting him bad.
       "Hi," he said.
       He kind of startled me a little bit because I wasn't really expecting him to wake up.
       "Hi, Baby," I said. I kissed him gently on the lips.
       "That wasn't much of a good morning kiss," he said, so I kissed him again, that time so he knew how much I wanted him.
       "Lie back," he said, after we had kissed for a while.
       Ever since Justin had shaved me, Tim had wanted to rim me and suck my nuts even more than before. I loved when he did that, and it always made me horny to have him do it. He put a finger inside and found my sweet spot. I wanted his dick, though, and I knew he'd get around to that eventually. It was almost like we knew what each other wanted without having to say it.
       It didn't take him long to get me so hot I was about to pop. I was leaking pre-cum into my belly button, and he was rubbing it around on me. He scooped some up and rubbed it on his own dick. God, that was hot, I thought. He squirted a little of the lube that was on the nightstand on me, and he rubbed it in as deep as he could go. Then he lubed himself. I pressed down to make it easier for him to get in my butt, and we made spectacular love.
       "That's the best way to start the morning. Now I'm going to have some of you inside me all day," I said.
       "Just don't fart," he said, and that cracked both of us up.
       We got up and took a shower together. We washed each other, but we only got a little hard, not the real thing. I figured our bodies were trying to recover from the night before and that morning.
       I put on my uniform, and it felt great. I only had two, so I would probably have to wash it every day. I was supposed to wear a white tee shirt under it so that it showed at the collar. Maybe that would help so I could wear it more than one day, I thought. Then I thought, Hell, I'll just buy some more.
       Tim didn't really have a uniform, but he sort of did. He had to wear a navy blue polo shirt with the company logo on it and khaki shorts or long pants, his choice, as long as they were khaki. No jeans.
       They were all waiting for us at the breakfast table. Rick had gotten up and cooked a really nice breakfast, and we had plenty of time to eat it without rushing. I noticed Brian didn't eat very much.
       "Nervous, Bubba," I asked Brian.
       He smiled real sweet and nodded.
       "Tim will take care of you, Buddy," Justin said. "I'm going to have to take care of his boyfriend's ass; he might as well take care of yours."
       It was right on the tip of my tongue to say that Tim had already taken care of my ass that morning, but I caught myself in time. That was the kind of remark they definitely didn't like.
       I got Kevin and Rick to take some pictures of us with both cameras. I took some of Tim with the SLR, and I knew they'd turn out good.
       Justin and Jeff had been riding together in Jus's truck, but three didn't fit all that good in it. We took my car that morning, but Jeff and I would alternate. Jeff had a Mazda 626 just like me, and it was a company car, just like mine was. I knew Tim would let me take his, if I asked him, but I also knew he was pretty damn proud of that Wrangler and loved to drive it.
       Since we had to be there at 7:30, we left the house at seven. They didn't have to be at the gift shop till eight, and it was also a little closer than the hotel.
       I punched the clock when I got to the hotel. Justin showed me how to do that, but there really wasn't anything to it. Then he took me up to the lobby where the bell captain was waiting for me. I hadn't met him before, so I introduced myself to him.
       The captain's name was Jason. He looked like he was thirty-something and pretty good looking. He smiled real nice when we shook hands, and he eyed me up and down pretty good, too. He wasn't wearing a wedding ring or anything, which I knew didn't mean squat, but I just had a feeling that maybe him and me were on the same team. I met Stephen, Wayne, and a couple of other guys.
       Stephen wasn't exactly prissy, but he wasn't going to win any Mister Macho contests, either. He was in his early twenties, I guess, and he was pretty cute looking.
       "And who might you be, cutie," he said to me before I introduced myself.
       "Hi, I'm Kyle," I said.
       He looked at my name tag that said "Kyle."
       "And so you are," he said. "Any last name, or is that confidential?"
       "Goodson. Kyle Goodson," I said.
       "I'll bet you're good at more than just being a son," he said.
       Usually I hate it when people play around with my last name, even though I've gotten that all my life. The way he said it was just funny, though, so I laughed. Wouldn't you like to know, I thought. I was going to like him, I already knew it.
       "Hi," I said to this big guy with strawberry blond hair. His name tag said he was Wayne.
       "Hi. You're Justine's boyfriend, right?"
       "Justine?" I started laughing.
       He didn't want to laugh, I could tell, but he finally did smile a little. I had the feeling that was as much joy as that boy had had in a while. I just ignored the comment about being Justin's boyfriend.
       "Kyle, I want you to work with Justin today, at least this morning. He knows the routine pretty well, and he can show you what to do," Jason said.
       "Yes, sir," I said.
       He kind of smiled sarcastically at me when I said that. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I was raised. Blame my parents, Jason, I thought. Saying "sir" was just a reflex.
       Justin explained about taking turns with guests. Usually the captain went out to greet the guests, and one or two or sometimes even three of us followed, if they had a lot of stuff. One guy would take them up to their room, but the other one or two would help load their stuff on the cart. We had to make it snappy so they wouldn't have to wait for us.
       The guests would check in, and we would hang behind, but out of everybody's way. Our goal was perfect invisible service. Jus said a lot of times the lady would strike up a conversation with the bellhop while the man was checking them in. If they had kids, he said it was a good idea to keep an eye on them in case they wandered off. You weren't supposed to go after them or anything, but you would be able to tell the parents where they were when it was time to go up to their room. He said most of the time the kids were pretty excited to be on vacation and in a hotel, so they tended to roam.
       I found out that Monday wasn't all that busy a day for bellhops. Vacation people usually checked out on Sunday morning and new ones checked in on Sunday afternoon, if they were staying a full week. I had always figured working Sunday was for the low guys on the totem pole, but the opposite was true. Because there was so much traffic that day, the guys who had been there the longest got to work that day because they made so much more in tips. I was just glad to be there.
       I found out, too, that that particular hotel was about fifty-fifty during the summer--fifty percent vacationers and fifty percent business travelers. The hotel ran a couple of shuttle vans back and forth to the airport and to the Navy base, where most of the business travelers were headed. They went to other businesses on the beach, too, like the game and fish research station, the Coast Guard base, a cell phone company that had like a million employees, and others. A lot of people rented cars, too, of course, even if they arrived by plane. We also had business meetings and business training sessions there, but those were mostly in our non-vacation seasons.
       Justin and I worked four sets of guests together, two arrivals and two departures. He showed me how to get a room ready for them, where to get ice, and that sort of thing. It took about a half hour for each set of guests because of the time at check-in and all. Sometimes it took longer, he said, sometimes not that long. The departures were much quicker, and you usually got a lot smaller tip from them. They were usually in a hurry, and a lot of times they were probably broke from their vacation. Remembering to save money to tip the bellhop wasn't real high on many people's priorities.
       Another thing we had to do was deliver room service. We had a couple of those orders, too, that morning. The people called room service to place their order. The people in the kitchen made it for them and called the bell desk. Usually the captain took the call, but whoever was closest did, if the captain happened to be away from the desk. You then had to go to the kitchen to get the order, deliver it, present it, ask if they needed anything else, like more towels or ice or a blow job (just kidding), and then leave. Usually they put the cart in the hall when they were finished, or housekeeping got it back to the kitchen later in the day. A room service call usually meant a pretty good tip. They probably thought we had cooked it.
       "Are you ready for a break," Jus asked me.
       I hadn't even thought about getting a break, but I guess you had to have time to pee sometimes.
       "Yeah," I said. "I guess."
       "Come on," he said.
       He took me to an employee break room. It had a couple of vinyl couches, some vending machines, and four or five tables with chairs around them.
       "This is where we take our breaks," he said. "It's also where we eat lunch. It's okay to smoke in here, if you want to."
       I didn't have any smokes on me, but he did. I bummed one from him and got myself a soft drink and a candy bar from the machines. I sat down on one of the couches, and all of a sudden I realized I was tired.
       "How are you liking it," he asked.
       "I'm loving it," I said, and I wasn't lying.
       Wayne came in right about then and lit up a smoke.
       "Are you two sweethearts having a good time," he asked. At least he's talking, I thought.
       "I'm having a good time," I said. "What about you?"
       "Same as always. Two cocksuckers stiffed me, though. The bastards."
       If you'd be more friendly, that might not happen, I thought, but I kept my mouth shut.
       "I think you're ready to be on your own," Jus said. "We'll see what Jason says, but you know what to do."
       "So you're turning your boyfriend loose, sweetie?"
       "Look, dude," I said. "We're best friends, but we're not boyfriends, okay? So lighten up with that shit."
       "You're a feisty little cocksucker, aren't you?"
       "Come on, Kyle. There's no point in talking to this guy," Jus said, and we left the break room.
       Jason said it was okay for me to start taking guests by myself if Justin thought I was ready. The rest of that morning was fine. I didn't see much of Wayne after that.

Chapter 6

(Kyle's Perspective, Continued)
       The rest of the morning went really good. I had a couple more room services and a couple of check-outs. Justin was right about the check-outs. They didn't tip for shit.
       It so happened that day that Justin, Jeff, and I had lunch at the same time. Lunch and breaks had to be staggered so that there were enough bellhops on duty all the time, but we happened to luck out that day. The other bellhop who was off for lunch with us was Stephen.
       One of the things I learned at that lunch was that the break room was for all the employees, not just the bellhops. There were a bunch of housekeeping people in there, mostly ladies, a couple of valet parkers, a few people--ladies and men--from the bookkeeping and financial part of the hotel, and us. They had a special line in the kitchen for the help, and it was free. That day it happened to be beef stew, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and salad. We filled up our plates big and went in to eat. We only had thirty minutes to eat, but that was okay. We all got glasses of tea from a service cooler, and it was good and sweet, just like I liked it.
       Stephen joined us, probably because he saw the uniforms we were wearing. He had no way to know how we were related to one another.
       "You ladies mind if I join you," he asked.
       "Come on and join us," I said, "but don't call us ladies. We all have dicks."
       He sort of grinned. "Even more interesting," he said.
       Nobody said anything at first. We were all eating pretty hard. That stew was damn good, and those were real mashed potatoes, too, not canned or out of a box, like at school. Breakfast and lunch were the meals I ate the most at, and I got me a good lunch that day.
       "Has your day been good, Kyle," Stephen asked.
       "Yeah, it's been real good. I love being a bellhop," I said.
       "Well, some of us have greater aspirations," he said.
       I didn't know exactly what he meant by that, but I didn't stop eating to try to figure it out.
       "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them," Jeff said.
       Stephen perked up when Jeff said that.
       "Exactly," Stephen said. "Julius Caesar, right?"
       "Right," Jeff said.
       "You guys know each other, don't you," he said. "I saw you drive up together this morning."
       "The three of us are brothers," I said.
       "How can that be? You don't look anything alike, and you're all different. Muscle Man, Redneck, and Shakespeare."
       "Yeah, but we are brothers, dude," Jus said. "Sort of foster brothers and honorary brothers, but we're brothers."
       "Foster brothers and honorary brothers? I don't get it," Stephen said.
       "It's a long story, Stephen, but that's what we are," Jeff said.
       "Do you have any brothers, Stephen," I asked.
       "I don't even have parents anymore, much less brothers," he said.
       "You don't have parents anymore? I'm sorry, man. Was it an accident," I asked.
       "Yes. An accident of birth. My parents disowned me and kicked me out a year ago. That's when they found out I'm gay," he said. "You guys knew I was gay, right?"
       "Yeah, we figured," Justin said.
       The peach cobbler we had for dessert that day was shit. They used damn canned peaches, and there was way too much corn starch in it. I knew how to make a fruit cobbler, and that was definitely not the way to do it. I wondered if that was on the menu in the dining room. Probably not.
       After we finished eating, Stephen lit up a cigarette. Justin did, too, and he passed me his pack. I had already had one that day, but I took one anyway. I figured I was turning into a cigarette fiend, with a nicotine stain on my index finger, just like that boy in The Music Man . I looked at my finger, but it was clear. I didn't know what a nicotine stain looked like, but I was going to be on the lookout.
       We went back to work after we finished lunch.
       A lot of what we did that afternoon was just hanging around. I talked to a few of those guys, and they were all real nice. They were all college students or older. A couple of them had gone to Beachside, and they seemed to think it was cool that I was still a high school student and had that job.
       In mid-afternoon a Mr. Rooney came around looking for me. He was the General Manager of the hotel, or the GM, as they all called him.
       He called me out to talk to me.
       "Kyle, we're very happy to have you here, son," he said.
       "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I'm very happy to be here," I said.
       "I've known your dad for four years or longer, and when he called me to say he wanted you to work here, I was thrilled. Welcome aboard, Kyle."
       "Thank you, sir. I'm going to be good for you," I said.
       I knew that was lame, but I didn't know what else to say. That guy was my top boss. I knew, and he knew I knew, that Kevin was ultimately my boss, and his boss, too. What he didn't know, but I knew, was that Kevin would fire me ten times faster than he would fire him if I stepped out of line. And I knew my daddy would back Kevin up, too. I didn't have a choice but to be a good employee, which I wanted to be, anyway.
       "I know you'll be good, Kyle. It's in your blood, son. It's in your blood."
       "So who the fuck are you, that the GM would come out to see a bellhop on his first day," Wayne asked me. "Are you blowing him?"
       "He knows my dad," I said.
       "Is he blowing your dad? No, your dad must be blowing him. That's how you got this job, right?"
       "Leave me alone," I said.
       "I ain't leaving you alone, motherfucker. I hate homos. I don't know for sure yet that you are one, but I saw you eating lunch with that queer, Stephen. I will haunt you Kylie, just like I'm going to haunt Justine and Jeffette. You fucking queers are going to get torched by me, and I know you need these jobs. You can't quit, motherfucker, and I know it."
       "Are you saying all of this because the general manager came down from his office to say hello to me? That made you think my father is blowing him? Wayne, I think you're crazy, man."
       "Yeah, crazy like a fox," he said.
       Before I knew it, it was time to punch out and go home. I relaxed when I sat down in my car when we all got in it, and I was tired. I had been standing up almost all day, and that really takes it out of you.
       Nobody was in the den when we got home. Jus and Jeff went up to their rooms to change or something, and I laid down on one of the sofas in the den. I was out in ten seconds.
       * * *
       They woke me up when they came home. I had only been sleeping for a few minutes, like maybe thirty, but I really felt good when I woke up. It was like I had had a full night's sleep. I was still in my uniform, so I hopped upstairs to put on shorts and a tee shirt to work out in. Tim was asleep in our bed. I thought about crawling in there with him, but I really wasn't tired anymore. I decided just to change and to leave him alone. I figured they had worked him and Brian pretty hard at the gift shop, and he was tired out.
       One of 'em made a pot of coffee, and I wanted some as soon as I smelled it when I went downstairs. I checked my watch, and it was just a few minutes after five.
       "Hi," I said, when I went into the breakfast room. Kevin, Rick, and Jeff were sitting at the table, having coffee. I fixed myself a cup and joined them.
       "Hey, Bubba," Kevin and Rick said.
       "How was your first day," Kevin asked.
       "It was great. I think this kind of work is in my blood. At least that's what Mr. Rooney said," I said.
       "Oh, you met Jack Rooney? He's a really nice guy, isn't he," Kevin said.
       "Yes, sir, I did, and he seems to be real nice."
       "Kyle had his first encounter with our resident homodion," Jeff said.
       "Homodion? What does that mean," Kevin asked.
       "It's a word I sort of made up," Jeff said. "Homophobe means somebody who fears homosexuals, right? Well, the Latin word for 'hate' is odi. I just put that together with 'homo' and got homodion, somebody who hates homosexuals."
       "Interesting," Kevin said. "So who is this guy? Tell us about him."
       "He's some asshole," I said.
       "No more details than that? What did he do," Rick asked.
       "He called Justin Justine and Jeff Jeffette. He asked me if I was blowing Mr. Rooney. I told him my dad knows him, and he said something like, oh, your dad must be blowing him, then, for you to get this job. Just shit like that," I said. "He said he was going to haunt us and that we'd get torched by him. He said he knew we couldn't quit because we needed our jobs."
       "He does that kind of stuff all the time, Kevin," Jeff said. "But not just to us. He does it to everybody except Jason, I think. Jason's the bell captain."
       "That's harassment, Babe, plain and simple," Rick said.
       "I know. Do you guys want me to do something about it," Kevin asked.
       "We told you this stuff as our brother, Kev, not as our boss," I said. "Let us have a few more days with him before you do anything. You told me not to pull rank, and I don't want to."
       "Yeah, but that's a direct violation of our personnel policies," Rick said. "That's not pulling rank, Kyle. That's protecting your human rights, man, and the human rights of the other guys."
       "Still, let us work on it, okay?"
       "Okay, but if this shit keeps up, I want to know about it, as your boss, not your brother," Kev said. "This could be a legal issue with other employees, guys. I need to know what's going on."
       Justin came in dressed for a work out, and he got a cup of coffee, too.
       "Hey," he said. "Brian's dead to the world. They must have worked his ass off at the gift shop."
       "Tim, too," I said. "I caught me forty winks on the sofa. I was tired, too."
       "You'll get used to it," Jus said. "I did."
       Rick, Justin, and I worked out, and then we went for a swim to cool off and relax. The puppy came in the pool with us, and we all played around with her.
       You could really see those suntan tattoos on Jus, and mine looked sharp and clear, too. Rick kept looking at them. I knew he wasn't checking us out. He had had plenty of chances to do that if he had wanted to, and he had never given us more than a glance before. I wondered what ole Wayne from work would say about them. I chuckled to myself when I thought of that.

(Brian's Perspective)
       Our first day of work at the gift shop wore me out. I don't usually take naps after school or on Saturday afternoon the way some of them do, but I sure needed one that day. The work wasn't hard, and we didn't have to lift heavy things, or anything, but we had to stand up all day. I wasn't used to that, and I think that's what made me tired. Tim was tired, too, and he took a nap also.
       Working with Tim was the most fun. He and I are really a lot alike, and both of us liked talking to people who came into the shop. Rick or somebody had said there would be five people working, but there were more than that. For one thing, there was a snack bar in the back of the place. It was in a separate room, but it was definitely part of the operation. There were two cooks and a girl on the register. She did the bus work, too. A girl named Ellen was the manager of the whole thing, and she was super nice. The assistant manager, who came on as we were leaving for the day, was a guy named James. He seemed really nice, too, and he seemed glad to meet me and Tim.
       We got there around ten minutes to eight, and we were the first ones there. We couldn't even get in the place. It didn't open to the public until ten, and we spent the first two hours restocking the shelves. Rick was right about learning the stock, but I thought we were going to do nothing but that for the first few days. He must have meant we would do that the first thing every day because that's what we did.
       We sold a lot of different things, but the most popular items were bottles of water, sunscreen, disposable cameras and film, and cigarettes. We weren't supposed to sell cigarettes to anybody who was under eighteen, but if somebody who looked like Justin or Kyle asked for some, we just sold them to them without asking for ID. I carded one guy, and he was only sixteen, so I wouldn't sell them to him. Two minutes later, this other guy comes up and asks for the same brand as the sixteen-year-old. He was definitely older than eighteen, so I sold them to him. I saw him giving them to the younger guy not a minute later. They looked like they were brothers.
       We sold a good bit of beer, too. The age for beer was twenty-one, and we were a lot stricter about checking ages for that. I figured there were some fake ID's floating around in that place when one group of about ten came in together, but we let them have it if the ID said they were twenty-one. Ellen said we weren't the cops, although I noticed that she confiscated one ID that looked fake even to me. It had been made using a scanner and a computer, and it was printed out on regular paper. I mean, what state issues driver's licenses that way? The Florida ones had a hologram on them, so they were harder to fake. Of course, Kyle had a Florida one that had belonged to his brother. It had Clay's picture on it, but it looked enough like Kyle for him to get by with it. The thing is, it said that Clay was twenty-two. If Clay was still alive, he'd still only be twenty, so it must have been a fake when he had it.
       One thing I hadn't counted on was seeing all the people in just their bathing suits. I don't really notice cute girls all that much, but I did that first day. A few of them were just plain beautiful, and they had on bikinis that really showed a lot of skin. This one girl had really nice breasts. They weren't really all that big, but they were really nice. Tim noticed them, too.
       Both of us noticed the guys who came in. This one guy came in wearing just a yellow Speedo that was almost the same color as his hair. He had a cool tattoo on his left bicep and a nipple ring in his left nipple. He had a great tan, with just a little reddish underglow, and he had really good muscles, especially his abs. He didn't have an erection, but you could clearly see the outline of his softie, and it was a big one. I've never had a wet dream, but he was what I thought I would dream about if I had one. Tim saw him, too. That guy wanted to buy cigarettes, and I knew he was old enough to buy them. I started to ask for ID anyway, just so I could know what his name was, his age, and where he lived, but I didn't do it.
       "Hey, Buddy," Jus said when I went into the den. "Did you have a good nap?"
       "Yeah. Hey," I said, and I gave him a little kiss.
       "How was your day? Did you check out any cute boys in the shop," he asked.
       Before I could say anything, Kyle said,
       "Yeah, he did. Look how he's blushing." He ruffled my hair and grinned at me.
       "Don't tease him," Jus said. "You would have done the same thing, and you know it."
       "Hell, yes, I would have," Kyle said. "In fact, I scoped out a few at the hotel."
       We all laughed.
       Tim came down just then, and they went through almost the exact same routine with him, only it was Jus teasing him about the cute boys instead of Kyle. It was like they had worked out an act between them, and they played different parts, depending on whose boyfriend they were teasing.
       "Did you guys work out," Tim asked.
       "Yeah," Kyle said. "I'll go again, though, if you want me to."
       "Naw, that's okay. I can skip a day," Tim said.
       I was glad he said that because I didn't feel like working out. I knew that if he did it, I would have to do it, too, and I didn't want to.
       We all got a snack of some watermelon and cantaloupe that was in the kitchen, and then we watched TV. All the boys except Jeff went to bed early.

(Justin's Perspective)
       Kyle's first day on the job was a good one. He learned all the stuff in about twenty minutes, which I knew he would. I mean, it's not real hard or anything. I could tell he loved doing it, too.
       One of the first things he asked about was getting some more uniforms. They gave us two when we got the job, but you had to buy them if you wanted more than that. I had bought me three more so I'd have at least enough for a week, and that's what Kyle did, too. All the uniform was was navy blue pants and a navy blue shirt that you were supposed to wear untucked. You had to wear a white tee shirt so it showed at the neck of your shirt, but the tee shirt had to be tucked. The shirt had a breast pocket with a Laguna Hotel logo on it. You weren't supposed to carry cigarettes in the shirt pocket, though. A pen and a little pad were okay to have there, but no smokes. I didn't know why they had that rule, but I did like they told me. The pockets in the pants were plenty big and loose enough for cigarettes, though, and they didn't care if you kept them there.
       The first day, Kyle had a little run-in with Wayne, the asshole. He said something like Kyle had gotten his job because Mr. Gene was blowing Mr. Rooney, the General Manager of the hotel. I thought Kyle was going to go off and bust that dumb fuck, but he didn't. He just told Wayne to leave him alone. I knew Kyle had to force himself not to get pissed off, and he did a very good job doing it, too.
       The second day was pretty much like the first and like most of the others. One difference was that Mr. Gene came by to say hello to the three of us. That man was so proud of his boy you could just see it on his face. Kyle was all happy and excited to see him, and he explained everything a bellhop has to do, like his daddy hadn't done that kind of stuff his whole life. Gene listened to him, though, like maybe Kyle had some insight after a day and a half that Gene and all those other guys hadn't thought of in all those years. Even if Kyle wasn't my brother and best friend, I'd still know he was cute.
       It started up with Wayne right after Gene left.
       "Who was that? Your sugar daddy," Wayne asked with a real mean tone in his voice.
       "He's my daddy, not my sugar daddy. I don't have a sugar daddy," Kyle said. His voice was even and calm-sounding, but if you knew Kyle like I did, you would have known there was a volcano fixing to erupt right under the surface.
       "I guess your 'daddy' must be in the back sucking Rooney's cock," Wayne said. "All you faggots are alike."
       "My daddy don't do that, man, so shut up about it," Kyle said.
       "Or what," Wayne said.
       "Just shut up, okay," Kyle said, and he walked away from Wayne.
       Jeff was standing there watching it all with me.
       "That guy doesn't have good sense," Jeff said. "He doesn't know what he's dealing with in Kyle, now, does he?"
       I laughed at what Jeff had said, and he laughed, too.
       "You got that right, Bubba," I said.
       Jason was sitting on a stool behind the bell desk, and we were close enough to it for him to have heard what we had been saying. I didn't know if he had heard what went on between Kyle and Wayne, though. Jason was a live-and-let-live kind of guy, so he never said anything when Wayne was picking on people. He more or less pretended he didn't notice it, but I knew he did. He called me and Jeff over.
       "It's been my experience that when a guy hates gays as much as Wayne claims to, that guy is hiding something," Jason said.
       "Are you saying Wayne is queer," I asked.
       "I didn't say that," Jason said.
       "But that's what you meant, isn't it," Jeff asked.
       "Jeff, I don't judge people," Jason said, "and I also don't care if Wayne is gay. The hospitality industry has always been gay-friendly, though. Hell, this company even offers domestic-partner benefits to gays and lesbians and their partners."
       "Really," Jeff asked.
       "Yeah, for a little over a year now. The rumor is the owner's son that died was gay, and he wanted to do that in honor of the son and his partner, even before the son died. I don't know if that's true or not, so don't go spreading it. That would tick Wayne off even more than he already is," Jason said.
       "I won't," Jeff said.
       Buddy, if you only knew, I thought.
       * * *
       That night we were talking about it with Kevin and Rick. Tim and Kyle were spending that night at Kyle's house, so they weren't around.
       "Kevin, you would not have believed it was the same Kyle, man. Our Kyle. All I could think of was Kyle's knee in the nuts of that guy in New Orleans at Mardi Gras who was picking on me. I thought, Wayne, son, you don't even know what you're dealing with here," I said.
       "Why do you think he's being so restrained," Rick asked.
       "Because he doesn't want to disappoint you guys or his dad," Jeff said.
       Jeff told them what Jason had said about maybe Wayne is hiding something.
       "Jason may be right on target," Kev said. "It wouldn't be the first time some--what was that word you used yesterday, Jeff?"
       "Homodion?"
       "Yeah, some homodion had that as a motive," Kevin said.
       "What would really be cool is for Kyle to get a picture of Wayne in some compromising position, like on his knees blowing some dude," Jeff said.
       "You guys watch too much TV," Rick said.
       We all laughed.
       * * *
       Later that evening, Brian and I were in our room watching TV. Jeff knocked on the door. Brian and I were both naked in bed, but we weren't doing anything. Brian said "come in" before we thought to put on shorts or something, so Jeff came in.
       "Oops," Jeff said. "Sorry, guys."
       "It's okay, Jeff. How many times have you seen us like this? We're not even hard," I said.
       We did get up and slip on some briefs, though.
       "What's up, Jeff," Brian asked.
       "I've been thinking about us getting a picture of Wayne giving somebody a blowjob. I know it'll never happen, but wouldn't it be great if we could do that?"
       "We'd have to really set that kind of thing up," I said.
       "I know. It's ridiculous, and I know it," Jeff said. "And it all goes up in smoke if it turns out he's a top."
       We laughed hard at that.
       * * *
       Tim and Kyle were sitting at the breakfast table the next morning, all dressed and ready. They hadn't spent the night there, but Tim had to take Brian to work. Jeff and I could have gotten to work without Kyle, but we knew Kyle wanted to go in with us.
       "Did you tell your daddy what Wayne said about him yesterday," I asked.
       "Hell, no. I would never tell him stuff like that. He's about as open-minded as they get, but he doesn't want to know that shit, that's for sure," he said.
       "I was just teasing you, Kyle," I said. "Jeez, lighten up, man."
       "I know. And I got you last," he said.
       They all thought that was damn hilarious. I didn't think it was all that funny, but I laughed, too, just to be a good sport.
       * * *
       We finished out the week, and it felt good to kick back on Friday night. The first thing Kyle wanted to do was count his tips. I never counted mine all at one time. In fact, a lot of days I didn't have any idea how much I had made in tips. We also got an hourly wage, but it wasn't even enough to worry about. It was with tips that you made your money.
       "How much did you make," I asked when he had finished counting it.
       "None of your business," he said.
       "You mean you're going to sit here and count it right in front of us and not tell," I asked.
       "I reckon so," he said.
       "Are you satisfied with it," I asked.
       "Yep."
       "Kyle, you're starting to frustrate me, now. How much damn money did you make? You're probably going to spend it all on us anyway. You might as well tell."
       When I said that, it finally dawned on my pea brain what was going on. Everybody in the damn room had a big grin on their face. Everybody but me.
       Kyle jumped on me and started wrestling around with me. He was laughing his ass off, too, and the rest of them started laughing.
       "Okay, you got me last," I said. "So how much?"
       "Eight forty-something, almost eight fifty," he said. "How much did you make this week?"
       I didn't know exactly, but it was about the same amount.
       "About that," I said.
       "You don't know, do you," Kyle asked.
       "I don't know exactly, no. So what?"
       "What do you do with your money," Kyle asked.
       "None of your damn business," I said. Two can play that game, buddy, I thought.
       "Seriously, what do you do with it," he asked.
       "I carry some on me, but mostly I bank it," I said. "You've got to pay income tax on that, you know. Wait till you get your check and see how much tax you have to pay. It's almost my whole check."
       "They didn't explain that to you, Jus," Kevin asked.
       "Explain what?"
       "For tip employees, we estimate what the tips will be and pay tax on that amount out of your check. That's why the tax is so much and the check is so little. That way, you probably won't have to pay much income tax when you file, if any."
       "No, they didn't explain that. Man, that puts things in a whole new light. I thought I would have to pay the government most of what I was earning," I said.
       "Did you know that, Jeff," Kevin asked.
       "Yeah, but not because they told me that at the hotel. I knew a lot of restaurants did that for wait staff, and I figured out that must be what's done for us when I saw how much my check stub showed I had paid in taxes," he said.
       "You guys didn't sign a form authorizing us to do that," Kevin asked. He seemed kind of annoyed.
       "I signed a bunch of stuff when I got hired, but I didn't read any of it," I said. "If it was there, I signed it."
       "Me, too," Jeff and Kyle both said.
       "Why didn't y'all read the stuff you signed," Kevin asked.
       "I didn't have time to read it all," I said. "The lady said it was all routine and for me just to sign 'em."
       "She was supposed to explain it to you, too," Kevin said.
       I could tell he was starting to get pissed, but it wasn't at us for once.
       "Babe, I remember my mom saying more than once that she didn't really know about the school she taught at until I was a student there. This sounds like a case of the same thing," Rick said.
       "Well, things will be different come Monday morning," he said.
       Then he did something that I though was pretty cool and that I would never have thought of. He made a phone call, but he must have gotten a machine.
       "Reminder to myself: Send a memo to tip employees regarding withholding tax. Ask Mary Ann to schedule a meeting of all human resources people for Monday afternoon. Get with payroll to make sure they haven't fucked up the withholding tax."
       Then he hung up.
       "What was that all about," I asked.
       "I called and left a message for myself on my voice mail at work so I won't forget about that stuff between now and Monday," he said.
       "Wow, that's pretty cool," Kyle said.
       "You guys don't ever leave reminders for yourselves," Rick asked.
       "No, but I will from now on," Kyle said. "But how do I call my cell phone from my cell phone?"
       "You have to use another phone, dummy," I said.
       "Jus, can I borrow your cell a minute, please," Kyle asked.
       "Sure, Bro," I said.
       I had it on my waist band, and I flipped it to him. He dialed a number, and in a second his cell rang. He didn't answer it, though, and let his voice mail pick it up.
       "Reminder to myself: bite off Justin's dick the first chance you get," he said and hung up.
       He handed me my phone back, just a-grinning. The rest of 'em were just about on the floor laughing so hard. I had to admit, that was pretty funny, and I laughed, too.
       "Who wants to shoot pool," he asked, and the five kids all went out to play.
       * * *
       "Are y'all up for some strip pool," Kyle asked.
       "Hell, yeah," I said, "but only if you promise to grow your own cue stick again."
       The others laughed.
       "You're never going to let me live that down, are you," Kyle said.
       "Nope. It don't look like it," I said.
       That made 'em laugh even more.
       "How do you play strip pool, Kyle? I wasn't in on the famous game," Jeff said.
       "Every time you scratch, you have to take something off," Kyle said. "For purposes of this game, a scratch is when you pocket the cue ball, when you don't hit any balls at all on a shot, and if you shoot the cue ball, or any ball, off the table. Everybody got that?"
       "Yeah. Are we going to play Eight Ball," Jeff asked.
       "You really can't play that with five people," Kyle said. "Let's play Continuous Pool. It's sometimes called 14-1 Pool."
       "How do you play that," Tim asked.
       "You take turns shooting, and you can shoot at any ball, anytime, but you have to nominate the pocket," he said. "You get a point for every ball you get in a nominated pocket."
       "What does that mean," I asked.
       "That means you have to use a wall chart or something to keep track of your points," he said.
       "No, I meant a nominated pocket."
       "Oh, that means you have to say what pocket you want the ball to go in," he said. "If it doesn't go in, it's the next man's turn."
       "What if it goes in the wrong pocket? Is that a scratch," I asked.
       "You're thinking of Eight Ball, Jus," Kyle said. "If the eight ball goes into the wrong pocket, then you lose. In this game, you just spot the ball, and the next man shoots. You just keep playing continuously. There's one thing about this game that's a little peculiar. After fourteen balls have been pocketed, you rack them, except for the ball in play. The shooter is supposed to get his ball into the nominated pocket and mess up the others, too. If it just goes in and the rack isn't disturbed, the ball is spotted and that guy loses his turn. It sounds more complicated than it really is. I'll tell you what to do when we get that far."
       "How do you know all this stuff, Kyle," Tim asked.
       I just took it for granted Kyle knew everything about having fun. Of course, for all I knew, he might have just made every bit of that up. I wouldn't put it past him.
       "I make it my business to know," he said. "You, Brian, and Jeff ain't the only smart ones, you know."
       "I see I was left out of that line-up," I said.
       They laughed.
       "You and me are smart, Bubba, but just in different ways," he said.
       "You guys are people-smart," Brian said. "I'd much rather be people-smart than book-smart."
       "So would I, Brian," Jeff said. "Tyler loves all of you guys, but he especially loves you two." He meant me and Kyle.
       "Speaking of Tyler, where is he tonight," Kyle asked.
       "He'll be over in a little while. Today's his roommate's birthday, and he took him out for a drink to celebrate," Jeff said.
       "That's everybody's wet dream. A drunk boyfriend, and you don't even have to pay for it," I said.
       "You nut," Jeff said, laughing.
       "Do y'all want to lag for break," Kyle asked. "The official break is pretty complicated, so I usually just play regular break. Is that okay with you all?"
       "Why don't you just break for us," I said.
       "Yeah, but the one who breaks doesn't have much chance of sinking a ball," he said.
       "I'll do it," Jeff said. "We can go in reverse order of age, starting with me."
       "Wait, before we start, let's even up on the clothes we're wearing," Kyle said.
       "What do you mean," Tim asked.
       "We all start off with the same clothes on. Shorts, underwear, and two shoes. No shirts and no socks. Is everybody wearing underwear?"
       We all said we were. We all had shirts on, too, except Kyle, so we got out of those. And then we started the game.
       Brian was the first one to lose a piece of clothes. I would say that of all of us, Jeff was the least athletic and Brian was a close second. Of course, he had some skills with balls that I fully appreciated, but don't put him on a basketball court or a pool table and expect much.
       We had a great time playing pool together. We always had fun, though, and Kyle and I were cracking wise back and forth at one another, keeping everybody laughing. It was funny watching people play with just one shoe on. All of us were wearing deck shoes, and it's harder to shoot pool when you aren't balanced quite right. I remembered what Kyle had told me about keeping my head down. I was making some good shots, but I was scratching more than I should have been, too. After about an hour I was down to just briefs.
       "Let's take a break," I said.
       "Who wants something to drink," Kyle asked.
       "I'll have a margarita," I said. I had no idea what that was, but I had heard Craig say that one time at breakfast and get a laugh out of it.
       "That sounds good," Jeff said.
       "I was just kidding. I don't even know what that is," I said.
       "I do, though," Jeff said, "and I know how to make them."
       "I'd like to try one," Kyle said. "I've never had one before."
       We all gathered around the bar to watch Jeff make the drinks. Tim and Brian just wanted cokes, so they were easy.
       The first thing Jeff did was to pour some coarse salt onto a towel. Then he wet the rim of the glasses with some lime juice out of a bottle that was in the refrigerator. He turned the glasses face down in the salt, and it stuck to the rims. He put some ice from Kyle's new ice machine into the glasses and poured a jigger and a half of tequila into each one, followed by a half jigger of something called triple sec. He added two jiggers of lime juice, and the drinks were done.
       He said "cheers," and we clinked our glasses together. I knew better than to take a big swig of that stuff, so I just took me a sip. I could tell it was a strong drink, but the taste was like nothing I had ever had before. It was sort of sour and sweet and salty all at the same time.
       "This is good, Jeff," Kyle said.
       "Yeah. Thanks, Jeff," I said. "Brian, take a little sip, Buddy."
       He did, and Kyle gave Tim a little sip of his, too. Tim made a face to show that he thought it was nasty.
       "We ought to give Trixie a taste," Kyle said. "Get her tipsy."
       "No way," Brian said.
       "I'm just teasing, Bubba," Kyle said. "Besides, she's inside with Kevin and Rick."
       He said he was teasing, but I'd bet money he'd of done it if Brian hadn't said something. That's all we'd need was a drunk dog.
       Tyler came in as we were starting on our drinks.
       He told everybody hello, and we told him hello, too.
       "Go ahead and kiss him hello, Ty. It's just us, and I know you want to," I said.
       "You guys," he said, all shy and embarrassed, but then he kissed Jeff.
       "We're having margaritas, Ty. Do you want me to make you one," Kyle asked.
       "I've already had a couple of beers," he said.
       "Ty, if you feel like you can't drive later on, you can spend the night. We've got lots of extra places for people to sleep. I'm not pimping Jeff. We have two empty bedrooms on the third floor that nobody is using, and both of these sofas out here open up," Kyle said. "Besides, this is a celebration."
       "What are we celebrating," Ty asked.
       Yeah, I thought. What the hell are we celebrating?
       "We're celebrating our first week of gainful employment," he said, "and we're going to play all weekend."
       "I'm all for that, guys. Yeah, Kyle, make me a drink, please."
       I hoped real hard, and prayed to God, too, that Jeff and Tyler would fall in love with each other. I had gotten to know Jeff much better in the last few months, and that boy was a prince. Tyler was as nice as he could be, too, and I wanted them both to be happy.
       Kevin came out with Trixie to check on us around 10:30. He said he and Rick were going to bed but for us to stay up as late as we wanted. If he noticed we had had some drinks, he didn't say anything.
       "Tyler's going to spend the night with us, and we're all going to sleep out here, okay," Kyle said.
       "That's fine. That's why we bought the sofa beds," he said. "Good night, guys. Rick and I love all of you."
       We all said good night and that we loved him, too.
       We all had another drink, and by then pretty much everybody was just about asleep. We slept three in a bed, but that was all we did. Sleep.

Chapter 7

(Jeff's Perspective)
       Tyler came over on Friday night, and we shot pool. He and I had been seeing each other and talking on the phone for well over a month, and I was really starting to like him a lot. He had only been around the home crowd a few times, but he loved them. Of course, that was an easy group to like. They accepted anybody you wanted them to accept, and they treated Tyler like he was a dear friend from the first minute they met him. Even Trixie seemed to like him.
       Tyler was kind of an archetypical "nice guy," a "boy next door," even. He was handsome and well built, and he had a great smile that he flashed with little provocation. His personality was easy going and agreeable, and he was always willing to do anything anybody wanted to do. I found myself thinking about him more and more at odd times, and I was rapidly developing a case of serious "like." I talked to Clay about him, and Clay approved. I know that sounds crazy, but it was real to me.
       Up until that weekend after the guys' first week of work, Ty and I hadn't done anything physical. We had kissed a few times, but those had been minor expressions of affection, not serious kisses. I couldn't help noticing that he was aroused much of the time that we spent together, and I was often aroused as well. I knew it would be up to me to make the first move, so to speak, and I figured that weekend was the time to do it.
       My only sexual experience had been with Clay. He and I had become best friends and inseparable comrades over a period of a couple of months. We had come out to each other early in our friendship, and, as we got closer and closer emotionally, we both knew the next logical step was the physical expression of our feelings. Still, we didn't rush into it. Clay had had some very minor experience with a couple of guys in Emerald Beach before we met, but he was basically as virginal as I was. Kissing had been the first step. When it got to be so intense that we needed release, we had brought each other off fully clothed. That had been rather messy, so we took the next step of getting naked together in bed. For eight months our passion grew, and we made the usual progress physically, as well. Finally, we were ready to take the plunge into anal sex. I knew Tyler was older, even if he was less experienced than Clay had been, and I knew he was ready for more than a chaste peck on the lips. It was, as they say, time.
       That Saturday night we were alone in his apartment. His roommate's birthday had been the day before, and the roomie had gone home that day to spend the weekend with his family. Clay had rented a couple of movies from Blockbuster, and we were sitting next to one another on the couch in his living room. After the first movie had ended, I made my move. We hadn't yet kissed deeply, but we did it then.
       Ty might have been a virgin, but he certainly knew how to kiss. We kissed for a long time, and both of us were thoroughly aroused. Finally, I put my hand on his penis through his jeans.
       "Don't tease me, Jeff," he said.
       "I'm not teasing," I said. "Are you ready for this?"
       "I'm very ready," he said. He smiled at me in a way that let me know he wasn't kidding.
       We were both a little nervous, but we both wanted one another. I unbuttoned the fly of his jeans. His penis was very hard, and there was a sizeable wet spot on his briefs. He raised his butt slightly to allow me to pull his jeans and underwear down, and I saw his erection for the first time. Next, he got my shorts and underwear down, and we used our hands on one another to achieve what we both needed and wanted.
       "I feel so different," he said after we were through.
       "What do you mean," I asked.
       "I feel a bond with you that I've never felt before with anyone else," he said. "It's like you and I have a secret that nobody else can ever share."
       "I know what you mean. I feel the same way. It's something special between us, isn't it?"
       "Does this mean we're a couple," he asked. God, he was cute!
       "It does as far as I'm concerned," I said.
       "Me, too," he said. "Definitely, me, too."
       We went out for coffee after that, and then he took me home. My car was still in the parking lot of his apartment complex, but I'd get somebody to help me retrieve it the next day. I went to sleep that night with a sense of completeness, as though I had come full circle in my life. I had a boyfriend again.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       Tim and I spent Sunday night with my parents. That's when I first heard that the resort deal was off. Instead, my dad was buying another hotel over there, and they were talking about maybe moving. I got kind of scared.
       "I want to finish high school at Beachside," I said.
       "Kyle, that's not an issue, son. Of course you will," Dad said.
       "Even if we move?"
       "If Daddy and I move, that doesn't mean you have to, Kyle," my mom said. "You'll be eighteen in November, and absolutely nothing is going to happen before then. We'll buy you a condo, and you can stay right here."
       That sounded pretty good. But my own place? That'll never happen.
       "What's going to happen to the business here," I asked.
       "I've got the two best men in the world running it now," Dad said. "I haven't done squat in that business since last September. That's the main reason I feel so good about this."
       "Won't you miss being in charge," I asked.
       "That's my point, Kyle. I haven't been in charge for almost nine months, and things are going great. I go to the office every day and more or less just fart around. I get bored to death. I want the challenge of taking this old lady of a hotel and making her profitable again. What I'm talking about doing is exactly what my father did when I took over. He went back to managing a hotel, and he had a great time doing it."
       "Won't you miss living here," I asked.
       "We'll still be part of this community. It takes exactly forty minutes to get from our driveway to the GM's parking spot at that hotel, and that's with traffic. We'll be back and forth all the time," he said. "In fact, we'll probably pick up a small condo here, too."
       "I feel like I haven't been a very good son," I said.
       "Are you out of your mind," my mother asked. "Kyle, we could not have asked for a better son than you are, baby."
       "Kyle, don't think that, please. Don't ever think that," Dad said. "Losing Clay got you mama and I thinking. Life is too short to spend it doing anything less than what makes you the happiest. I want to run a hotel. I haven't done that in years, but I know that's what I do best."
       "I see what you mean," I said. "I'm going to be happy no matter what. I want you all to be happy, too, though, and if it takes moving to do it, then I'm all for it."
       "Don't say anything about this yet, boys," Dad said. "It's probably going to happen, but it's not 100 % yet."
       Tim and I said we'd keep our mouths shut about it, and we did.
       * * *
       "Why do you think your parents talked about that stuff tonight with me around," Tim asked.
       I hadn't thought about that until then.
       "You know what I think it means," I asked.
       "No, what?"
       "I think it means they see us as a couple, a real couple. My future is your future, and yours is mine, too. That's what I think they were saying, sort of," I said.
       "I know that's the way you and I think, but for them to think that way, too, is pretty awesome, don't you think?"
       "Yeah, that is so cool. They don't think we're just kids playing at being in love. They know the truth and accept it, don't they?"
       "Yeah, they do."
       "Oh, Tim. That makes me feel so good," I said. "They know the truth. They think we're grown-ups. It's not just Kyle anymore, is it? It's Kyle and Tim, forever."
       Tim started crying a little bit, and I knew exactly what he was feeling. I cried with him, but they were the happiest tears of my life.

(Justin's Perspective)
       I was out in the breezeway one afternoon during Kyle's second week on the job unloading some people's car. Jason was talking to the man, and Wayne was playing with their dog, so that left just me to do all the work. Wayne was up next to take them to their room, too. All of a sudden I notice a car that looks just like Tim's Wrangler drive into the parking lot. I wanted to look to see who it was, but one of the damn kids was asking me a million questions about the swimming pool.
       I was just about to tell the kid that he wouldn't be allowed to use the pool at all if he didn't shut up when Tim walked into the breezeway.
       "Hi, Jus," he said, smiling nice.
       "Hey, Bubba. What's up, man?" He had a paper sack in his hand.
       "A lady left her purse in the shop. She's staying here and called to see if somebody could run it over to her. I volunteered."
       "Cool. Just a second. Let me finish with this," I said. I finished piling their shit on the cart. "Okay, Wayne. You're all set."
       "That's the famous Wayne," Tim asked.
       "Yeah. Wayne the asshole," I said sort of low so only Tim could hear me.
       He laughed a little.
       "Is Kyle around," he asked.
       "Kyle who?"
       "Oh, I don't know. Just any old Kyle will do," he said.
       He and I both laughed, and we walked back inside.
       "He's around here somewhere," I said. "He's probably getting ready for break. Why don't you stay and visit him during his break?"
       "I will. I've got to get rid of this thing, though," he said, meaning the paper sack, which is where I guess he had the purse.
       "Go over to the desk and ask what room the lady's in, then take it up to her. She'll probably give you a tip."
       "Okay. Where would Kyle be when I come down?"
       "I'll be here. I'll show you where the break room is," I said.
       "Why don't you take break with us," he asked.
       "I'll stick my head it, but I'm not scheduled for break for another half hour."
       "Oh, okay."
       He went to the desk and got the room number. I checked the bell stand to see if there was anything for me, but there wasn't. I just stayed put waiting for Tim, and Wayne came back from his delivery.
       "Who was that fag that just drove up," he asked.
       "Kyle's boyfriend," I said.
       "Yeah, right, asshole," he said.
       "Why'd you ask, then, if you're not going to believe me," I said.
       "I've got to keep my eyes on you faggots, that's why."
       "He's a friend of ours," I said.
       "Oh."
       Jesus Christ, Wayne, I thought. You're all the time calling us fags and shit, and then when I tell you the truth about Kyle, you don't believe me.
       "That's a nice little fag car he's driving. I hope nothing bad happens to it while he's here," he said. Then he giggled like a little girl.
       "Nothing bad better happen to it," I said.
       Wayne said shit like that all the time, and I knew even he wasn't crazy enough to mess with Tim's car in broad daylight with people all around.
       I waited for Tim, and he came down in about five minutes. I walked him over to the break room.
       "Did you get a tip," I asked.
       He grinned, so I figured he had. Then he flashed a twenty.
       "Damn, boy. You lucked out," I said.
       Kyle was surprised as hell to see Tim when we showed up in the break room. He was sitting at a table with one of the valet guys showing him a card trick.
       "Hey, Tim," he said, a mile-wide grin on his face. "What are you doing here," he asked.
       Tim told him about the lady's purse.
       "Sit down. You want a coke," he asked.
       "Yeah," Tim said, and Kyle got him one from the machine.
       "I'll see y'all later," I said and went back to the bell desk.
       I was just standing there waiting for some business when I heard some yelling out in the parking lot. I stepped outside to see what was going on, and I saw Wayne by Tim's car. Brendan, one of the valets, was trying to take something away from him. When I looked closer, I saw that Wayne had a can of spray paint.
       I ran across the lobby to the break room.
       "Kyle and Tim, y'all come with me. Wayne's messing with Tim's car," I said.
       We all hauled ass outside. When we got to Tim's car, we saw that Brendan had gotten the can of paint away from Wayne but not before he had sprayed "FAGGOT" on the driver's door. When Kyle saw what had happened, he jumped on Wayne and slammed his ass against the car. Wayne's uniform smeared the paint, and he got paint all over himself. That was a suit for the rag bag. Kyle reared back to punch Wayne's lights out, but I grabbed his arm before he could deliver. Tim grabbed Kyle around the waist and pulled him back. I knew that boy was strong, but I didn't know until then just how strong he was. The whole time, Wayne was laughing his ass off like what was going on was the funniest thing in the world.
       "Calm down, Kyle," I said.
       "What's so funny," Kyle screamed at Wayne. "What the fuck are you laughing at?"
       "Calm down, Babe," Tim said.
       "Why is that asshole laughing," Kyle demanded.
       "He's laughing 'cause he's nuts," I said. "He's having some kind of breakdown or something."
       Just then, Wayne pissed his pants, and that made him laugh even harder.
       "Call Kevin," Tim said.
       I was afraid to turn Kyle's arm loose for fear he would go for Wayne. Brendan was there, so I gave Kyle to him. I had my phone out quicker than a hard dick at a porno show, and I pushed the speed dial button for Kevin's cell. He answered right away.
       "Kevin, get over here right now," I said. "Wayne's been messing with Tim's car."
       "What is Tim doing there," he asked.
       "He came to return a lady's purse that she left in the shop."
       "Where's Kyle?"
       "He's right here, and I think we've got him calmed down. Nobody got hurt."
       "Where's Jeff?"
       Jeff had just walked up, and he was helping Tim with Kyle, who really wasn't fighting them.
       "He's right here. He and Tim have Kyle under control. A bunch of people are out here already, and Mr. Rooney just walked out the front door," I said.
       "I'll be there in a few minutes," Kevin said, and then we hung up.
       Kevin got there quick, and Rick was with him. The only one missing is my little Brian, I thought.
       Kevin saw the damage to Tim's car, and he told Mr. Rooney that he would take care of it personally. Rooney was embarrassed to death that the whole thing had happened, but when Kyle told him Tim was his boyfriend, he just about shit a brick. He already knew all three of us were gay, but it didn't matter to him. The fact that Kyle cared so much mattered a lot, though.
       "Justin, call 9-1-1 and ask them to send an ambulance," Kevin said in a real calm voice.
       "I'm on it," I said. I was Telephone Central that day.
       "Why did you call for an ambulance," Tim asked.
       "This man's out of control," Kevin said. "Somebody needs to calm him down, and we can't do it."
       Wayne was on the ground by that time, still laughing. He added screaming to his gig just about then, too.
       While we were waiting for the ambulance, Kyle asked me for a smoke.
       "Kevin, I'm sorry, man," Kyle said between drags.
       "You didn't do anything wrong that I can tell, Kyle," Kev said.
       Then he wanted a smoke, too. It was a good thing somebody carried 'em.
       "I know I didn't hit him, but I was fixing to," Kyle said.
       "But your brothers saved you, didn't they," Rick said.
       "Yes, sir, they sure did."
       "Jack, do you think you could scare up some turpentine or mineral spirits to see if we can get this paint off the car before it dries," Kevin asked Mr. Rooney.
       Mr. Rooney looked at me as if to say, What are you waiting for.
       "I'm on it," I said.
       Where the hell am I going to find turpentine or mineral spirits, I thought. I knew what turpentine was, but I had never even heard of mineral spirits. Then I thought maybe Jason might know, and he did. He and I got some rags, and we went at it. In just a little while, we got that car cleaned up good as new. Of course, both of us were wringing wet from sweating, but it was almost time to clock out, anyway. Jason didn't smell too good, and I was sure I didn't, either.
       "Thank you, Justin and Jason," Mr. Rooney said, once we were back in the lobby. The ambulance had just gotten there, so Mr. Rooney went outside again.
       "I've got to go see what's going on," I said.
       "Rick, I'm going to follow the ambulance to the hospital," Kevin said. "I'll call you to let you and the boys know what's going on."
       "Okay," Rick said.
       "I'll take you back to your office, Rick," Tim said. "We got off a half hour ago, and Brian's probably wondering where I am."
       "I'll call Brian to let him know you're on your way," I said. "What's the number?"
       "I don't know," Tim said.
       "You don't know your work number," I asked.
       "Lay off him, Justin," Kyle said. There was a real edge to his voice, like he was spoiling for a fight.
       "Kyle, I'm on his side, remember? Your side, too. Calm down, and don't give me any shit," I said.
       I must have sounded mad, because Kyle grabbed me in a big, sweaty hug, and he started crying.
       "I'm sorry, Bubba. I didn't mean to sound like that," he said.
       "Let's take a walk, you and me," I said.
       "I'll call Brian," Jeff said. "I know how to look up phone numbers."
       "Very funny," Rick said.
       Jeff stuck his tongue out at Rick, and they both laughed.
       Kyle and I walked down to the end of the building.
       "I was proud of you back there, Kyle. We all were," I said.
       "I'm not proud of myself, though," he said.
       "Why? You didn't do anything, and, if you had, he would have deserved it."
       "But he's crazy. He probably couldn't help himself," Kyle said.
       "Crazy, or a damn good actor," I said. "But you didn't know that. We figured that out when he started laughing. By the way, I told him Tim was your boyfriend, and he didn't believe me."
       That got him laughing, and that was good.
       "Come on, Bubba," I said. "You know you're a fine man, and we know it, too. You lost your temper when the boy you love most in the world was getting his beautiful new car trashed by a psycho. Nobody's going to fault you on that, son, and I hope you know it."
       He didn't say anything for a few seconds.
       "You know how to make a guy feel better," he said.
       "Yeah? I wonder where I learned that."
       That made him grin.
       "See? Now you know what it's like to feel like shit and to have your brother pull you up. You've done it to me a million times, Kyle. I'm just glad I could do it to you this once."
       "I'm ready to go home, are you?"
       "Hell, yes. Let's get out of here. It's quitting time, anyway," I said.
       Mr. Rooney was waiting for us, and he wanted us in his office.
       "Oh, shit," Kyle said, but not loud enough for Rooney to hear him.
       "Sit down, boys. Er, Kyle, I hope you're not too upset about what happened," Rooney said.
       "No, sir. I was, and I'm sorry for that," Kyle said. "It won't happen again."
       Rooney looked at him real strange.
       "Are you apologizing to me," Rooney asked.
       "Yes, sir, and I mean it sincerely," Kyle said.
       "Well, I asked you to come in here to apologize to you. To both of you and to your friend. Kevin told me Wayne had been riding you hard since you started here. You should have come to me about that," Mr. Rooney said.
       "Sir, we told Kevin about that as our brother, not as the boss."
       "That's why we called him today, too," I said. "Because he's our brother, not because he's a boss."
       "Well, I can understand that, and I'm not offended or upset about it," Rooney said.
       "Kevin told me he would fire me if I tried to pull rank because I'm a Goodson. I did it last summer, and I promised them I wouldn't do it again."
       "You mean with Herman," Rooney asked.
       "You know about that," Kyle asked. He was embarrassed, but I doubt Rooney could tell.
       "I've heard him tell that story on himself two or three times, Kyle. He thinks its funny, and it is. He also never fails to tell that you saved a boy from slavery and that you apologized profusely to him the next day."
       "That boy was me," I said.
       "Oh, really! I had no idea, Justin," he said.
       "That's the day this boy and me became brothers," I said.
       "Complicated relationships," he said. "Kyle, what I wanted to say about pulling rank is this: just because your last name is Goodson doesn't mean you have fewer rights than anybody else who works here. I admire your character, son, but reporting Wayne's harassment might have kept some other boy from getting hurt. It appears that Wayne is deeply troubled. I hope he can get the help he needs."
       "Yes, sir," we both said.
       "There was a third boy that Kevin asked me to seriously consider. Jeff Martin. How does he fit in this mix?"
       "He's our brother, too," Kyle said. "There are five of us."
       "And Kevin is the foster father of all of you," he asked.
       "Kevin and Rick," we said at the same time.
       "He's honorary for me and Tim, the boy whose car got messed up," Kyle said. "It's pretty complicated."
       "Really, just honorary for Jeff, too, isn't it," I asked.
       "Well, yeah, since Jeff is over eighteen," Kyle said.
       Suddenly it dawned on me.
       "I'm almost eighteen," I said.
       Then it dawned on Kyle, too.
       "Well, you fellows need to get going, I know. Kyle, I just hope you won't hold this against us," Mr. Rooney said.
       "Oh, no, sir. What sense would that make?"
       "Well said. Goodbye, guys. See you tomorrow."
       * * *
       Kyle and I didn't say a word the whole way home. Finally Jeff said,
       "Did Rooney read you guys the riot act or something? You're so quiet. What's going on?"
       "No, he didn't read us the riot act. I think we just both have a lot on our minds right now," Kyle said.
       We didn't see Tim or Brian when we got home. Trixie wasn't around, either, so I figured they must be off somewhere with her. I went into our bedroom, and I flopped down on the bed. All of a sudden, the thought of turning eighteen in less than a month, and of no longer being Kevin and Rick's son, was too much for me, and I started bawling.
       "Jus, can I come in?" It was Kyle.
       "No. Go away," I said.
       Kyle came right on in, just like I knew he would. He sat down next to me on the bed, and he picked up my hand. He wrapped my hand around two of his fingers, and he moved it back and forth like I was jerking him off. Even though I was worried and sad, I started laughing. Then he started laughing, and pretty soon we were both howling like Wayne had been.
       "Kyle, you are something else, man," I said around my laughter.
       "What's the worse that could happen," he asked.
       "They could kick my ass out of here, that's what could happen," I said.
       "You mean like they did Jeff?"
       "Yeah, but he's family," I said.
       "No more than you are," Kyle said.
       "Yeah, well, maybe," I said.
       "Do you honestly think they don't love you," he asked.
       "No, I know they love me."
       "Do you think Kevin Foley and Rick Mashburn are capable of putting someone they love, someone who has been their son for over a year, out on the street just because he turned eighteen?"
       "When you put it that way, no, but . . ."
       "There's no 'but' to it, Jus. I think we both panicked a little bit because of that shit with Wayne. You ain't going anywhere, dude, so you can forget that shit," Kyle said.
       "I don't know what's going on today," I said. "I feel like I've been on a roller coaster, only it was dragging me behind it."
       Kyle laughed.
       "You need to get a shower, dude," he said. He was right.
       "Okay, and thanks, Kyle," I said.
       "Oh, no. Thank you," he said.
       "Oh, no. Thank you," I said.
       "Oh, no, Justin. Thank you," he said.
       "Shut up and get the fuck out of my room," I said.
       I heard him laughing all the way down the hall.

(Kevin's Perspective)
       I followed the ambulance to the emergency clinic the county medical center had on the beach. I had no idea what was going on with that guy, and I certainly didn't know how to handle it. He was still laughing and screaming hysterically when we got to the station, and two orderlies had to help the two men on the ambulance get him inside.
       "Are you the responsible party," a lady at the desk asked me.
       "I guess so, for now, anyway," I said.
       "What's his name," she asked.
       "Wayne something. I don't know his last name," I said.
       "Do you happen to know if he has insurance?"
       "Yeah, I do know that, and, yes, he does. He works for Goodson Enterprises, so he has employee insurance," I said.
       "Oh, I'm very familiar with that," she said.
       Well, that's a break, I thought. Then I wondered if a lot of our people came here when they got sick.
       An orderly brought Wayne's wallet out to the desk and handed it to the lady. She in turn handed it to me, and I put it in my pocket.
       "Would you mind going through it to see if there's any information about an emergency contact," she asked.
       "Oh. Oh, sure," I said.
       When I took it out, I noticed two circles embossed in the leather of the outside of the wallet, and I knew those could only be condoms. I decided not to embarrass the lady, myself, and Wayne by going through it right there for fear of what it might contain.
       "Is there someplace I can do this in private," I asked.
       "Yes. You can use this office back here," she said, directing me to a small office that looked unused.
       I pulled out his driver's license, and I learned that his name was Wayne Smith.
       Great, I thought. It should be easy to locate a next of kin with that name. The license was three years old, and I was sure the address had changed by then.
       The wallet was actually quite thick, almost a cube, so I started going through the other things that were in it. I opened a couple of sheets of paper that had photographs of nude men that had been printed from a Web site. There was a newspaper clipping of an obituary that had the word "Yes," followed by three exclamation points, scrawled at the top. I scanned it, but there was no mention of a Wayne Smith. There were a couple of gasoline credit cards and a Visa card, membership cards for three different movie rental places, a parking ticket, his company insurance card, and fifteen dollars. There was nothing that remotely resembled a name to contact in case of an emergency.
       I thought for a moment, and then it dawned on me that we routinely got information of that type on all new employees, in case someone had to be taken to the hospital from work. Duh, I thought. Way to go, genius.
       I got my secretary on the phone, and she had the information I needed in about fifteen seconds. In case of emergency, we were to call his sister, Darlene Smith, and we had a work number as well as a home number for her. I tried the work number first, and it was a dental office. Darlene Smith was a dental hygienist.
       "Miss Smith, this is Kevin Foley, with Goodson Enterprises," I said.
       "I'm sorry, I'm really not interested," she said. "Besides, I'm at work."
       "Don't hang up," I shouted into the phone. "It's about your brother, Wayne."
       "What about Wayne," she asked. "And what is Goodson Enterprises?"
       "I'm sorry. Goodson Enterprises is the company that owns the Laguna Hotel, where Wayne works," I said. "I'm in the central administration of the company."
       "Oh?"
       "Yeah, there was an incident at work today involving Wayne. He's not hurt or anything, but we couldn't get him under control. He had some sort of episode, and he started laughing and screaming hysterically. I didn't know what to do, so I called an ambulance. I'm with him now at the Emerald Beach Emergency Clinic on the Parkway," I said.
       "He's not hurt," she asked.
       "No, ma'am, there's not a scratch on him."
       "Thank you for calling. I'll be there in a few minutes," she said with a resigned tone of voice. I wondered if this was a repeat performance for Wayne. "What did you say your name was?"
       "Foley. Kevin Foley."
       "I'll be there in a minute, Mr. Foley. Goodbye."
       I went back to the desk and filled the lady in on what had transpired.
       "Did you happen to see an insurance card in the wallet," she asked.
       "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did."
       I took it out and presented it to her. She turned to a copy machine behind her and ran a copy.
       I could no longer hear Wayne's voice, and I wondered if he had calmed down or if they had sedated him. I took a seat and waited for Darlene. I didn't wait long, though. She got there in about ten minutes, still wearing her dental hygienist uniform, of course.
       Darlene Smith was an attractive woman, maybe a year or two older than I was. She was about five feet four, medium-length brown hair, quite a nice ass from my angle, and she was wearing a sweater. How strange, I thought, and then I remembered that several of the women in my office wore sweaters in the summer because they said the air conditioning made it cold.
       She followed the lady into the back where the treatment areas were, but she was back in just a couple of minutes. She walked over to me.
       "Mr. Foley?"
       I stood up.
       "Yes. Miss Smith?"
       "Please call me Darlene," she said.
       "And please call me Kevin," I said.
       We both sat down next to one another.
       "How's he doing," I asked.
       "He's sedated right now, but the P.A. said he should wake up in about an hour," she said.
       "P.A.?"
       "Physician's assistant," she said. "Can you tell me what happened?"
       "I wasn't there when the commotion went on, but apparently your brother spray painted the word 'faggot' on a boy's car. The boy had just pulled up, and Wayne didn't know him."
       "My God," she said, more like a prayer than an expletive.
       "One of the valet parking staff tried to take the can of paint away from him, and they struggled. The other boy must have gotten the paint, though, but only after Wayne had sprayed the car."
       "Will the whole car have to be repainted," she asked.
       "No, as a matter of fact, they were able to get the spray paint off. I don't know how they did it, but they did," I said.
       "Well, that's a small mercy, anyway," she said.
       "We had had some unofficial complaints from some of the other bellhops that Wayne constantly harassed them about being gay," I said.
       "That sounds familiar," she said.
       "I take it this has happened before?"
       "Twice," she said. "Never before at work, though. Had Wayne been drinking, do you know?"
       "I doubt it. I think we would have noticed," I said.
       "The other two times alcohol had been involved. I had assumed that alcohol somehow triggered those episodes," she said. "His doctor has been skeptical that it had, but I was hoping that they were alcohol-related."
       "I don't understand," I said.
       "Well, I can usually keep him from drinking," she said.
       "I see. Any reason why he would be so down on gays?"
       "Mr. Foley, Wayne is gay, but except for a few nameless encounters on the beach with tourists, he's never been sexually active," she said.
       "Darlene, you don't have to tell me all of this," I said. "That's his private life, and it's none of the company's business."
       "I'm glad you feel that way, but it's all very relevant," she said. "Wayne was sexually abused by our uncle from the age of nine until he turned seventeen. Nobody knew anything about it. The man was married and had two daughters of his own. He's dead now."
       I wondered if his was the obituary in Wayne's wallet.
       "I'm sorry to hear that," I said.
       "Well, it's part of his history that imposes itself from time to time on his present. Wayne is in total denial about his sexuality, or at least he had been, until recently. He had been dating a boy, a really nice young man, for several months, but the other boy broke it off," she said.
       "I thought you said he has never been sexually active," I said.
       "He hasn't been. It seems that Wayne was ready to ratchet the relationship up to the level of physical intimacy, but the other boy wasn't. He's a really nice guy, but he comes from an extremely strict fundamentalist Christian family. He told Wayne that even knowing him was an occasion of serious sin for him. Ken is his name," she said.
       "So you think breaking up with the boy caused what happened today," I asked.
       "No. What it caused was a pretty serious bout of depression. Wayne has bipolar disorder. Do you know what that is," she asked.
       "I have just a very vague idea," I said.
       "His form of it is pretty rare and pretty extreme, unfortunately. He takes medicine for it every day, and the medicine keeps him right on the cusp of depression, but not quite depressed. More like subdued, really. The break-up with his boyfriend put him way over the edge into depression. His doctor increased his medication to accommodate that, but he was never able to find the right dosage. Any change in meds with Wayne is risky. The upshot was, he simply refused to take anything. The manic phase of the illness kicked in, and that was what caused today's episode."
       Oh, shit, I thought. What am I going to do with him?
       "Darlene, Goodson is going to work with you and with Wayne any way we can, but, frankly, I don't see him going back to the Laguna as a bellhop," I said.
       "I can't say that I blame you," she said. "He was very happy there, though, until the break-up. He hasn't been happy anywhere since that happened."
       "We want to do the right thing. The trouble is, I don't know what the right thing is, at this point. I'll put Wayne on extended sick leave until I figure something out. He'll get his hourly wage, but he won't be making any tips, of course," I said.
       "That's actually more than I expected. I thought you'd fire him outright. Thank you for being so understanding," she said.
       Suddenly I wished I had paid better attention in college to the information we got on the Americans with Disabilities Act. I did want to fire him right on the spot, but I had to think it through. I sure didn't want a damn EEOC complaint. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could be a real bear.
       "Do you think you'll be able to get him back on his medicine," I asked.
       "Yeah. I suspect this will be enough of a wake-up call that he'll voluntarily take it. That's really the only way he can function," she said.
       "What's he like when the medication is working," I asked.
       "Rather quiet, shy, pleasant enough, really. He's the type that you probably wouldn't notice."
       An orderly wheeled Wayne out at that moment. He was ready to go home, and he had obviously calmed down enormously. In fact, he appeared almost groggy.
       "Hi," Darlene said. "Ready to go home?"
       "Yeah," he said. "I'm sorry, Dee," he said.
       "We'll get you fixed up," she said. "Do you know this gentleman? I think he's actually your boss."
       "No," he said.
       "I'm Kevin Foley, and I'm really your boss's boss, not yours directly," I said. I offered my hand, but he didn't accept it. He seemed to be more than a little out of it.
       "His boss's boss? Was it that serious," she asked.
       "No. Actually, the reason I'm involved at all is that it was my son's car," I said.
       "Oh, my God! Your son!?"
       "Foster son," I said. "I'm not old enough to have a sixteen-year-old of my own," I said.
       "I didn't think so, but still . ."
       "Well, here's my card. Please call me if I can help in any way, and be sure to call me once the medicine is working properly," I said.
       "Thank you Kevin for being so nice about all of this," she said. "And thank you, too, for taking care of him until I could get here."
       "Well, getting him well again is our first priority," I said. "It was nice to meet you. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."
       "Nice meeting you, too. Thanks, again."
       * * *
       It was after eight by the time I got home. I had called Rick to tell him what was going on, so he wasn't worried about me. In fact, he made me a drink without my asking him to, and he brought it to me. That was a rare treat, and it did a lot to help me relax.
       "Where are the kids," I asked.
       "Probably off engaging in deviant sexual behavior," he said.
       I laughed.
       "Good for them," I said. "I knew there was some reason to be proud of those boys."
       That made him laugh.
       "Do you want to talk about it," he asked.
       "Of course, but right now I want to sip this wonderful drink, look at you, and think horny thoughts about deviant sexual behavior with you," I said.
       He smiled. He turned off the TV set and put on some soft music on the stereo. He came around behind me and started taking my shirt off me.
       "What are you doing," I asked.
       "Taking care of my guy," he said.
       When my shirt was fully off, he started one of those wonderful neck and shoulder massages that can only be called Platonic, they're so good.

Chapter 8

(Kyle's Perspective)
       That first day back at work after the Wayne incident wasn't real good for me. They all thought I was a hero or something, but I didn't even touch him except to throw his butt against that Jeep. If there was a hero at all, it was Brendan, the valet guy. He was real cute, but he was totally straight. That part didn't matter to me, though, but I had my suspicions about some guys who might have had their eye on him.
       "Tyler's coming over this afternoon, and we'd like to ski," Jeff said that morning before work.
       "Oh, great. That'll be fun," I said. I knew he wanted the boat for just him and Ty, but that was too good to resist.
       "Well, er, Ty and I were thinking it would just be us," he said. "Can we use your boat?"
       "My boat? It's our boat. You know that."
       "It might be our boat, but you have the keys," he said.
       "There are keys hanging on the bulletin board in the kitchen of the clubhouse, Bubba," I said.
       "Oh, okay. I didn't know that," he said. "We'll just use those."
       "Wait a minute. Not so fast. Have you passed the full Coast Guard inspection yet? I mean the big inspection."
       He knew exactly what was going on, and he was grinning big.
       "Yeah, I passed with flying colors, and so did Ty," he said.
       "All right," I said. "I knew you would, bro." I was grinning full out.
       "Kyle, you are a fundamentally evil person. Do you know that about yourself?"
       "Yeah. I practice getting better at it all the time," I said.
       "I love you," he said.
       "I love you, too, but I actually love Ty more than you. Bigger dick. What can I say?"
       "You little shit," he said, laughing hard.
       "I think this might be a case of me getting you last," I said.
       "Do you realize you're the only one who ever gets me last," he asked.
       "Superior mind and a good left hand," I said, as I punched him with my left.
       I grabbed him in a hug with my right, though. Jeff and I were special to each other, and we both knew it. Everybody loved Jeff, but there was a bond between him and me that the others couldn't ever have.
       * * *
       That night we had "Come to Jesus," for sure. Everybody was in the den, including Ty. All six kids were on the floor, and Trixie was going back and forth among us. She licked me once on the face, and I shouted "stop." She jumped back and put her tail between her legs. They all got on to me for being mean to her, but she didn't lick anybody else after that. I had seen that snake she had in that mouth on the island, and I didn't want that tongue on my face ever again. Dogs don't have to lick you to show you they love you. I loved her, but I didn't lick her.
       "Something happened yesterday that I know you all know about. This is going to be a kind of training session about that."
       Great, I thought. I'd much rather have a training session on Friday night than shoot pool or play ping pong or watch a movie or go swimming. God, Kevin!
       "This isn't going to be too long, but it's important. So don't get your panties in a wad, Kyle."
       Rick and I looked at each other, and I knew he was thinking exactly the same thing I was.
       "I don't wear panties," I said.
       "Very funny, Kyle," Kevin said. "Go to your room."
       "If I thought you were serious about that . . ."
       "But I'm not, so shut up and listen. Most of you are probably going to be in high-level management at Goodson some day, and you need to think about this. By the way, if I hear that any of you has said anything about this to people at work, you're fired, and I mean it."
       "We know, Adolph. Get on with it, please," I said.
       Kevin grinned at me, but I knew if he had had a cow pie in his hand at that moment, it would have been on my face in a heartbeat.
       "What I want to talk to you about is related to Wayne, but it's not about him. He has a disability called bipolar disorder, and it's a problem that he was born with, probably. It makes him real depressed sometimes, and it makes him real happy sometimes."
       "Manic-depression," Jeff asked.
       "Exactly, Jeff," Kevin said.
       "I've known people with that, and they were able to keep it together and function well," Jeff said.
       "And Wayne can, too, and he will. But that's not what this is about. It's about our responsibility as his employer."
       "Sick or not, that fucker ain't gonna make it if he messes with Tim again," I said.
       "I smell testosterone in here. Anybody else," Kevin said.
       Rick, Jeff, and Ty laughed hard. I didn't know what was so funny.
       "Kyle, settle down, Bubba," Rick said.
       "I'm okay," I said, and I was.
       "Kyle, this is especially for you," Kevin said. "There is something called the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA. It basically says we have to find ways to treat employees who have disabilities fairly, just like every other employee. We have to bend the rules sometimes, too."
       "Kevin, I say fire his ass, man," I said.
       "Would you fire Chris because he shit on the floor," Kevin asked.
       That stopped me cold because he knew I wouldn't.
       "I wouldn't, and he really did shit on my arm," Justin said.
       "Of course, I wouldn't fire Chris. He couldn't help doing that, if he ever did that," I said. "You know that, Kevin."
       "Yeah, I do know that, and we all love Chris. But it's really no different, Kyle. Wayne has a disability that made him do what he did yesterday. How can you love and accept Chris, and hate Wayne?"
       "I hate Wayne because he's a fucking destructive asshole, that's why. You don't know him, Kevin. He hates me, man, and I hate him," I said. "He trashed Tim's car, and he doesn't even know him."
       "Well, you just think about this, Kyle. You love Chris, and he's the most physically disabled person I've ever met. You took care of him in some of the most private ways anybody can ever take care of another person, and you never said a word of complaint. I'm not asking you to wipe Wayne's ass, like you did for Chris. I'm just asking you to understand what disability is all about."
       "I'll get back to you on that," I said.
       "That's all I ask, Bubba. That you think about it."
       Goddamn, I thought. What next?
       * * *
       I'm sorry, but I resented the hell out of Kevin comparing Wayne to Chris. Chris was nice and cute and loving and fun. He had been a pain in the ass to take care of sometimes. I'll admit that. It embarrassed me at first to do some of the stuff I had to do for him, but he was always joking about it and loveable and having fun. Kevin was right. Chris was severely disabled. That's not what made me love him, though. Being himself made me love him.
       Wayne was mean and ugly to people. He and I had laughed together a few times, so maybe there was something good in there somewhere, but you sure didn't see it much. He had no mercy on Stephen. Sure, Stephen was a little on the flamer side, but that didn't bother me anymore. Hell, if Chad and Gage could be some of my best friends, I could sure be friends with Stephen. Wayne was really mean to him, though.
       Plus, I thought Wayne was dangerous. He wasn't a small guy, by any means. What would happen if he went berserk in the lobby with a guest? He probably didn't really know what he was doing when he painted Tim's car, but what if he doesn't really know what he's doing when he hurls somebody through the plate glass windows in the lobby? And what if that somebody is me or Justin or Jeff?
       The rest of them had gone out to shoot pool or whatever. I was still in the den. Kevin came back in and sat right next to me on the sofa.
       "What are you doing," he asked.
       "I'm thinking," I said.
       "About Wayne?"
       "Yeah. What do you think?"
       "I thought maybe you were thinking about me," he said.
       "I was. How can you compare Chris and Wayne, Kevin?"
       "I could tell that bothered you."
       "It bothers me a lot, man. Chris might shit on the floor or on Jus's arm or something, but he's not mean. Wayne is mean. And I think he's dangerous, too."
       "Kyle, I knew you didn't like it when I compared Chris and Wayne, and you're right. It's two entirely different situations. That was probably unfair of me, but the point I was trying to make is that we, and especially you, don't dislike people just because they're disabled. Chris loves you, Kyle. He loves all of us, and we all love him. Especially you. Wayne probably isn't capable of love when he's in one of his states. He is mean when he's like that. I know he's mean, but that's the disability, not the man. His sister told me he's quiet and shy when his medicine is working."
       "So why didn't the medicine work?"
       "Because he stopped taking it. It's real complicated, and there are some aspects of the situation that I really don't feel that I can go into. You trust me, don't you?"
       "Of course, I trust you. That's why this is so damn hard for me to understand," I said. "If I didn't trust you, I'd just say you're full of shit and move on. I trust you, but I want to understand it, too."
       "Okay. Let's look at it this way. I can do this better with a diagram. Hold on."
       He got up and got some paper and a pen.
       He drew two circles on the page. One was a whole circle, and the other one had a wiggly line cutting across the circle near the top.
       "Okay. This is your brain." He wrote my name in the whole circle. "And this is Wayne's brain." He wrote his name in the circle with the wiggly line. "Your brain and your body make all the stuff they're supposed to make, and that's why the circle isn't messed up. Wayne's brain doesn't make this part." He pointed to the little piece at the top. "Just like you can't control what your brain and your body make, he can't control what his brain and his body don't make. Are you with me so far?"
       "I'm following what you're saying," I said. "I guess Chris's brain makes all the right stuff. It's just kind of mashed in a little bit."
       "Good analogy. Kind of like this."
       He drew another circle that was sort of flat on one side. He wrote Chris's name in that one.
       "Wayne's medicine fills this empty part up."
       He colored in the little piece that was cut off by the wiggly line.
       "The trick is, they have to figure out exactly how much medicine it takes to make up for this part."
       He pointed to the colored-in piece.
       "That's trial and error. Sometimes that takes a while to get right."
       "Okay. I understand all of this, but why isn't this part filled up?" I pointed to the section he had colored in.
       He sighed big when I asked that.
       "Let's just say he had some personal issues that made him stop taking his medicine. When he did that--and I know you well enough to know you would have done exactly the same thing under the same circumstances--things went south. Do you know what I mean by that?"
       "Yeah."
       "His sister said she thought he would start taking his medicine again voluntarily, after what happened yesterday, so this part is going to fill up again soon. He won't work again at the Laguna, but I think he will be working for us again, and probably as a bellhop."
       "What if he doesn't take his medicine?"
       "He's on extended sick leave right now so he can get the medicine straightened out. If that doesn't happen, we can't take him back. You're right. He could be dangerous, and we can't have that."
       "I feel a lot better about this right now," I said.
       "Do you understand where I'm coming from," he asked.
       "Yeah, I do, and thank you for teaching me this. The next thing we need to do is get this one pumped up right," I said, pointing to the picture of Chris's brain.
       "Exactly. We're going to do our part for cerebral palsy," he said.
       "I think we should do our part for cerebral palsy by going to see Chris this summer."
       "You shit. I knew that was coming, sooner or later. Plan it out, okay? I'm thinking the first two weeks of August."
       "That's exactly what I was thinking. Oh, Kevin, this is so right, man. This is going to be an awesome trip. Have you talked to Rick, yet?"
       "Of course. Wouldn't you have talked to Tim by now about it?"
       I laughed a little.
       "You see us that way, don't you?"
       "Yup."

(Kevin's Perspective)
       I spoke with my brother or my sister-in-law on the phone several times a week, and a lot of times I spoke with both of them separately. I knew they did the same thing with Rick. Usually, it was a five-minute check-in, but sometimes it was a lot longer than that. On the Friday after the Jeep-painting episode, Cherie called me at the office.
       "What are you doing," Cherie asked when I answered the call.
       "I'm talking on the phone," I said. That exchange was a tradition with us.
       I had been going through Wayne Smith's personnel folder, but I knew I didn't want to get into that with her, at least not right then.
       "Do you remember Seth Adams from Mardi Gras," she asked.
       "Of course. That boy our guys befriended, right? What about him?"
       "His dad, Matt Adams, is going to be teaching a course in London over the next six weeks, and he asked me if I would ask you if Seth could come and stay with you guys while they're gone."
       My first impulse was to say "Of course," but there were seven people in our household, and I knew the kids ought to have a say in this, not to mention Rick.
       "Would he be here the whole time," I asked.
       "If you'll have him. The alternative is for him to stay at home alone, with no support. His sister's at some kind of program at Duke University all summer. I suppose they could leave him at home by himself, but they don't seem to want to do that. Matt said he talks about your boys all the time, and he thinks it would do Seth a lot of good to spend time in your home," she said.
       "That's pretty flattering. Kind of like Queer Summer Camp," I said.
       She laughed.
       "I know you're joking, Kev, but that's not as far from the truth as you might think. Evidently, just being with your guys at Mardi Gras has made a huge difference in Seth. Matt didn't say this, but I'm pretty sure he's hoping extended exposure will do even more good," Cherie said.
       "I pretty well know the answer is going to be 'yes,'" I said, "but I need to run it by the others, too."
       "Of course," she said. "When do you think you'll have a verdict?"
       "Probably by tonight," I said. "I'll give you a call."
       I went down to Rick's office and told him what Cherie had said. Just as I knew he would be, he was all for it.
       "Can you use another bellhop at the Laguna," Rick asked.
       "Yeah, especially since Wayne Smith is going to be out for a while. In fact, we'd have to replace him, anyway. I'm not putting him back at that hotel," I said.
       "I don't blame you. Too much bad blood. Plus, I'm sure he would be embarrassed as hell to have to go back to work there," Rick said.
       That night I had my little talk with the guys about Wayne and about what had happened, and then I spent some time with Kyle to help him work it out in his mind. After that, Kyle and I joined the others in the pool.
       "Come around here, guys. I have something else I want to talk to you about," I said.
       They came around me. Brian was holding Trixie, and he put her down for our little chat.
       "Guys, Cherie called today. You all remember Seth Adams, don't you?"
       They all said "sure." All, that is, except Tyler, who hadn't met him.
       "Anyway, Cherie asked me if it would be possible for Seth to spend some time here with us this summer. Six weeks, in fact. His parents are going to be in England, and for whatever reason, they're not taking him. His sister is already at some kind of program at Duke University," I said.
       "What did you tell her," Kyle asked.
       "I told her I'd have to talk with you all," I said.
       "I think it would be cool," Kyle said. "He and I have gotten to be pretty good friends through email, and I knew he wanted to come see us."
       "Is he still pestering you every day," Justin asked.
       "Naw. That stopped a while back. We write every week or so, though. He's made a couple of friends, too. Not just on the Internet, either," Kyle said.
       "Do any of you have any objections," I asked.
       "No, I don't," Tim said. The rest shared his opinion.
       "I'm going to put him to work at the Laguna with you guys," I said. "He'll be able to earn a few bucks and hang out with you all at work."
       "Cool," Kyle said. "Did y'all know he had some surgery on his face?"
       "No. What did they do," I asked.
       "Tried to make him look a little better, but he says it didn't work. They took some off his nose, added to his chin, and did something to his ears. That's how he spent his Spring Break," Kyle said.
       "When's he coming," Justin asked.
       "That's a good question," I said. "Let me go call Cherie. Maybe she knows."
       Seth actually answered the phone when I called.
       "Hello. Foley residence," he said.
       "Hi, this is Kevin Foley. Is this Seth?"
       "Yeah. Hi, Kevin. Do you remember me?"
       "Of course I remember you. We've just been talking about you, in fact."
       "Really?"
       "Yeah, we were talking about you coming to see us for part of the summer. Do you want to do that?"
       "Absolutely! That's fantastic," he said.
       I smiled at the excitement in his voice.
       "So, when are you coming?"
       "How about tomorrow," he asked.
       "That would be great. Are you all packed and everything?"
       "Yeah. I've been here for the last couple of days. My parents are in England. I haven't unpacked my stuff here yet," he said.
       "Are you driving," I asked.
       "Yeah. How do I get there?"
       I gave him directions. I suggested he download and print a map from the Web, and he said he would. I made sure he had our various phone numbers in case he needed them.
       "Are Craig and Cherie there," I asked.
       "No. They haven't come home yet. They were meeting some people right after work for a drink, and then they were going out to eat. Do you want them to call you?"
       "Not necessarily," I said. "I talked to Cherie earlier today. Well, let me let you go so you can get ready for your trip. We're looking forward to having you, Seth. Kyle and the other guys said to say hello."
       "Tell them hello for me, too, please. And Kevin, thank you. Thank you so much," he said.
       "We're going to have fun this summer, Seth," I said.
       "Oh, I know we are."
       I told the guys how excited Seth seemed, and that pleased them. They wanted to go to a movie. It was almost nine o'clock, but I knew they could catch a 9:30 showing. They went off, all six of them, and Rick and I eventually went to bed.

(Tyler's Perspective)
       I can't believe how lucky I was meeting Jeff on line. Not only was he good looking and very intelligent, but he was also sensitive in a good way and extremely nice. Things between us were developing well, and we considered each other our boyfriends.
       I had been physically attracted to guys for my whole life. In puberty, just being around certain guys had given me an erection. At first I didn't think anything about that. My dick got hard all the time, anyway, and I didn't make the connection between my arousal and the presence of a handsome boy. When I finally did make that connection, I was terribly embarrassed every time it happened. A lot of guys stayed half-hard when we were showering and changing for sports, so I didn't really attract any attention. It was other times, when I got a full hard-on talking to some guy fully clothed, that I was embarrassed.
       The random boners had pretty much come under control around seventeen or eighteen. I still got them occasionally, but I could usually figure out why. I thought about sex a lot, all the time, in fact, and those thoughts were enough to get me hard. After I came out to Jeff and he came out to me, I started seeing erections in a different light. I was a gay man looking for a sexual relationship with another gay man, and the erections seemed more like an asset, all of a sudden, than a liability.
       I got hard the first time I saw Jeff. We had met at a coffee shop, and we were there to meet in person and to check one another out. We both had told each other we were looking for friendship, and I was. But I was also ready for a boyfriend, a sex partner, that could make me feel good and that I could make feel good, too. There was a lot of sexual tension during that first date. I was more than a little nervous, and the fact that just seeing him and shaking his hand could turn my dick into a steel beam added to it.
       We had a few more dates after that. I got hard at the start, and I stayed that way throughout. I noticed that he got hard, too.
       The first time we did anything was on Saturday, June 6th. My roommate had gone to visit his parents and girlfriend, and we had my apartment to ourselves. We watched a movie. We weren't sitting on top of one another, but we were sitting a lot closer than I would ordinarily have sat next to a guy. After the first movie, we kissed for a while, and then we stroked one another off. I know that's not all that bold or daring, but it was the first time I had done anything with another person. It was a sensation I won't ever forget. He made me come! Another guy made me come! And I wanted him to do it. And I did it to him. I made him come, too. When it was over, we agreed that we were boyfriends.
       After that, I thought about Jeff non-stop. I couldn't wait for the next time we could be together and do it, and I didn't have to wait long. My roommate called me to say he was taking an extra day at home. He was having girlfriend troubles, and he had planned to be on leave on Monday, anyway. Jeff and I took advantage of his absence, and we did it in my bed. We were both completely naked, and we held one another in our arms. The warmth, the closeness, the pure tactile joy was almost too much. I figured it would be good, but it was good way beyond what I had imagined.
       We didn't make love every day that week, although we did three more times.
       "Why don't you plan on spending tomorrow night with me," Jeff said on Thursday.
       "Will it be okay," I asked.
       "Of course."
       "Will the other guys tease us about it," I asked.
       Those guys that Jeff lived with were awesome, but they teased one another constantly. I didn't exactly relish being ribbed by them about Jeff and me.
       "I don't think so. They're very happy I'm dating you, and, knowing them as I do, I'm sure they're dying for us to do it," he said. "They're good guys, Ty."
       "I know they're good guys. In fact, I've really had fun with them. I guess you haven't said anything, right?"
       "Right. Kevin and Rick have a very strict rule about sex being private, and I think it's a good one," he said.
       "So you guys don't talk about sex?"
       "We joke about it all the time, but we really don't give any juicy details about what we do in the bedroom. At least not publicly."
       I went to Jeff's house after work on Friday, and he and I took Kyle's boat out skiing. Later, Kevin talked to all of us about something that had happened at work involving Tim's car. I didn't know too many of the details of that, though. After the talk, we went swimming and then to a movie. I spent the night with Jeff that night, and he and I had fun in bed.
       The next morning, we went downstairs in just our underwear. They were all sitting around the den dressed the same way we were, and it was like I had done that a hundred times. They were all pleasant and friendly, and any worry I had had about being teased was pointless. I was Jeff's friend or boyfriend or whatever, and that was all there was to it.
       * * *
       "Have you said anything about us to Matt," Jeff asked me Saturday afternoon.
       We were in his room. He was working on the family Web page, and I was laying on the bed flipping through a magazine. Matt was my roommate.
       "No," I said.
       "Does he even know you're gay," he asked.
       "No, and that's going to be a problem," I said.
       "Why? Does he hate gays," Jeff asked.
       He stated the question as matter-of-factly as if he had asked if Matt likes ice cream.
       "Not that I know of. I mean, I've never heard him say anything derogatory about gays. It's just never come up, I guess."
       "Ty, I don't have a problem with him knowing or not knowing," Jeff said. "You have a lot to lose by being outed to the Coast Guard, and I understand and accept that."
       "Thanks, Jeff. I want to take my time with that," I said. "He and I are roommates, but that's for convenience, not because we're close friends. We've never really done much together. He goes home to Alabama most weekends to be with his girlfriend. During the week, he hangs out with three friends of his. I think they drink a good bit. I'm usually in bed by the time he comes in."
       "You must have really been lonely," he said.
       "Extremely lonely."
       "Well, you're not going to be lonely anymore."
       He got up from his desk, got in bed with me, and we made love for the second time that day.

(Justin's Perspective)
       My prayer was answered. Jeff got him a boyfriend, and it was Ty. It's so good when people find somebody to make them happy, but when one of them is your brother and both of them are the nicest guys in the world, it's double good.
       "Did you see 'em go up together," Kyle asked us when Jeff and Ty went up to Jeff's room after the movie on that Friday night.
       "Is that what they were doing climbing the stairs," I asked. "Were they going up together?"
       "You know what, Jus? I should break your legs," Kyle said.
       "Yeah? You and what army?"
       "No army. I think I can get Trixie to help," he said. "That's about all it would take."
       Tim and Brian were already laughing their asses off, and I laughed, too, when he said that.
       "I want a Purple Cow," I said, changing the subject.
       "What the hell is that," Kyle asked.
       "Haven't you ever had a Purple Cow," I asked. "It's ice cream in a glass, and you pour a coke in it. Root beer's even better, I've heard."
       "That's a coke float," Kyle said. "Sure, I've had those. Where did you get 'Purple Cow?'"
       "Kevin made me one the other night, and that's what he called it," I said.
       "That's some more of that New Orleans bullshit talk, Jus. It's called a coke float," he said.
       "Well, I don't care what it's called. It's good, and I want me one," I said.
       We made Purple Cow coke floats.
       "Don't you think Kevin says some strange things," Kyle asked as we were having our drinks.
       "I've noticed that," Tim said. "Grandma and Grandpa do, too. And so do Craig and Cherie."
       "I'm sure y'all think I talk funny," I said.
       "I like the way you talk," Brian said.
       "I think we all do, Jus," Kyle said. "I like the way Kevin talks, too. I like the way everybody talks."
       "I think Seth talks like Kevin," I said. "Best I remember, anyway."
       "He's going to be here tomorrow, isn't he," Kyle said.
       "Yeah. Where's he going to sleep," I asked.
       "There are two bedrooms on the third floor," Kyle said.
       "He can sleep in my room. I haven't slept in there in a long time," Brian said.
       "Yeah, Kyle," Tim said. "He can't be up there by himself. He needs to be on the second floor with us."
       "I don't care where he sleeps, as long as you and me have a bed, Babe," Kyle said. "Do you ever use your room, Brian?"
       "I do homework in there sometimes, but I never sleep in there," he said.
       "You're not going to have homework this summer. That's a good place for him," I said. "I wonder if he's popped that cherry yet."
       "I don't think so," Kyle said. "He would have written to me about it. He's eager to, though."
       "Maybe he'll find a summer boyfriend," I said. "Maybe ole Stephen at work."
       "It could happen," Kyle said. "I think Stephen's a nice guy, don't you?"
       "He's all right. I don't like him touching me, though," I said.
       "I've watched him when he was talking to you. He stands too close, but he doesn't touch you any more than anybody else does," Kyle said.
       "Maybe that's it, but I always feel like he's getting all over me," I said.
       "He likes you, sweetie," Kyle said.
       I laughed. "You never quit, do you?"
       "Why would I quit. You're such a good target," he said.
       "He gets you as much as you get him, Babe," Tim said.
       "I know. That's what I mean," Kyle said.
       "You know what I want," I asked.
       "What," Brian asked.
       "A bowl of cereal," I said.
       "That sounds really good," Kyle said.
       All four of us made ourselves big bowls of breakfast cereal. I ate quite a bit of food during the course of a day, but I always seemed to be hungry. The rest of them were the same way. Tim stuck his head in the laundry room to check on Trixie. He turned on the light, but she didn't even wake up. She knew Rick was going to run her ass off the next morning, and she needed her sleep.
       Back in the den, Tim said,
       "Have you guys noticed how much Rick loves Trixie?"
       "Yeah," I said. "He thinks she's his dog. That's a big change from that first night y'all got her."
       "He told me the other day he has to take her to the vet pretty soon to have her sprayed so she won't be able to have puppies," Tim said.
       "I think it's spayed," Kyle said. "But it might be sprayed. I think on TV they say spayed, though."
       "Whatever it is, I think it would be fun for her to have a puppy," Tim said.
       "They don't have one at a time," I said. "They have litters, like five or six or more."
       "What would we do with that many puppies," Tim asked.
       "You put 'em in a sack and throw 'em in the lagoon," I said. I knew we'd never do anything like that, but I wanted to get to him.
       "Use 'em for fish bait, or in a crab trap," Kyle said.
       He and I looked at each other and had this mental communication. I loved it when it was him and me against the little boys.
       "Oh, my God! Kyle! How could you do that to a puppy," Tim said, going after the bait.
       "You can eat fish and crabs. You can't eat a puppy," Kyle said.
       "That's right. And you could catch a mighty big fish off puppy bait."
       Brian hit me.
       "What was that for," I asked. God, that guy was cute.
       "Justin, how can you say such a thing," he demanded to know.
       "'Cause it's true, Brian. You troll with puppy meat, and the really big ones come up. Especially puppies as cute as Trixie would make," Kyle said.
       "It's a good thing Rick is going to get her sprayed, then," Tim said.
       Tim was pissed, and so was Brian. Kyle and I started laughing, and Kyle wrapped his arms around Tim and put his head on Tim's shoulder.
       "Get off me, you murderer," Tim said.
       He shrugged Kyle off, but Kyle and I were laughing so hard we couldn't have killed a mosquito right then.
       "What are you laughing at," Brian demanded.
       That only made me and Kyle laugh harder.
       Brian said, "Tim, we've got some sick boyfriends, I think. They think that Wayne guy is nuts. I think they're nuts, too."
       Kyle and I eventually settled down.
       "Do you really think we would do that," Kyle asked.
       Tim and Brian looked at each other, and they knew.
       "You shits," Tim said. He and Brian were laughing by then, too. "I hate both of you."
       "No, you don't. Y'all both love us, but, in fact, we did get you last," Kyle said.
       "How could we fall for that," Brian asked.
       "We're sorry," I said.
       "No, you're not," Tim said.
       Kyle and I looked at one another and busted up again. Tim and Brian started laughing, too, and I knew they were having fun.
       "Whoooo," Kyle said. "My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. I think I ate too much."
       "How about another Purple Cow to settle it down," I asked.
       "Okay," he said, and I made four more.

(Rick's Perspective)
       Kevin can go to sleep when they're out late at night, but I never can until I hear them come home. That night it sounded like they were having a damn good time in the den. I started to get up and join them, but I really did want to run the next day. I knew that if I got up, there would be no way I could do that. I saw guys running in the heat of mid-day occasionally, but I knew I had about another week before it would be dangerous to run, even early in the morning. I'd have to switch to running on a treadmill in our gym pretty soon. I enjoyed the air conditioning of the gym, but it wasn't the same as running outdoors. Trixie could run along side me on the treadmill, though.
       I thought about everything that had happened that week and about how great Kevin had been with it. He was spooned up against my back, and it felt good. We had made love earlier, and I had a sense that I could still feel him in me. It was a nice feeling.
       We were getting another one the next day. He was "time sensitive," just like Chris had been. Six weeks, and we'd probably get to love him just like we had Chris and the others. Kevin told me he had given the go-ahead to Kyle to work us up a trip to go see Chris, and I knew it would be well planned.
       I finally drifted off.

Chapter 9

(Kevin's Perspective)
       We had a phone call from Seth on the main household number around one o'clock. He had just pulled off the Interstate, and he wanted to double check directions. Getting to our house from where he was was a little tricky because it involved back roads, but I listened as he ran through the directions. He had them right.
       "That was Seth on the phone," I announced to the people in the room. At that moment they happened to be Jeff, Tyler, and Rick.
       "Where was he," Rick asked.
       When I told him, he said, "About another hour." We had driven home that way from New Orleans so many times, we knew every pine tree along the way.
       "I told him to call us when he gets to the beach. I'll go find him and lead him back here," I said.
       "I'll go with you and drive his car," Rick said.
       "Okay," I said.
       The other guys had been out in the boat. It wasn't clear to me what they had been doing, though, since that hadn't been skiing.
       "Hi," they all said when they came inside.
       Trixie was with them, and she was wagging her tail like she hadn't seen us in a week. She didn't lick anybody, though. I liked her better, now that Kyle's no-lick policy seemed to be in full force. The boys all had on shorts, tank tops, baseball caps, and deck shoes, and they looked great with their tans.
       "Hi. What's up," I asked.
       "We set out some crab traps," Kyle said. "We're gonna have us a fine mess of crabs by tomorrow."
       "What's a crab trap," Ty asked.
       "They're these wire cage things. You put bait in them, and the crabs go after the bait. Trouble is, once they're in the trap, they can't get out," Kyle said.
       "What did you use for bait," I asked.
       "A litter of puppies," Justin said.
       "We did not," Brian and Tim said in unison.
       Kyle and Jus laughed hard.
       "Kevin, last night Kyle and Justin were teasing us about using puppies for fish bait and to bait crab traps," Tim said. "They made Brian and me cry."
       Kyle and Jus got looks of astonishment on their faces.
       "We didn't make you cry," Kyle said.
       "You're lying through them perfect teeth, Bubba," Justin said.
       "We really didn't cry, but we did just get them last," Tim said.
       "I was blindsided just now," Justin said. "I wasn't expecting anything like that. I'll get your ass, Tim. Never worry. Or always worry, maybe."
       Everybody was laughing.
       "But really, what did you use for bait," I asked.
       I was waiting for them to say road kill, or something.
       "Chicken necks and chicken backs," Kyle said.
       "Where did you get those," I asked.
       "We bought 'em," Kyle said. "They package them special in the grocery store for crabbing. Haven't you ever seen them?"
       "I've seen those," Rick said. "I was wondering if people really ate those things."
       "Some people do," Jus said. "You can make a pretty fine chicken stew out of them. Add some giblets? Mighty fine served on mashed-up cornbread or rice. Thinking about that is making me hungry."
       "What are you going to do with the crabs," Ty asked.
       "Eat 'em," Kyle said.
       "How do you cook those," Ty asked.
       "We boil 'em, Ty. I'll teach you how to open them and pick out the meat," Kyle said. "It's easy for most people."
       He stared at Tim when he said that last line. The last time we had had boiled crabs, Kyle had ended up picking Tim's for him and feeding him the meat off his fingers, which I was sure Kyle didn't mind one bit.
       "I'll get the hang of it," Tim said. "Besides, I thought you liked me to suck your fingers."
       "I do, but I'd rather you . . ."
       "Kyle. Tim," I said. "Whoa."
       "I knew that was getting close," Justin said. "I saw what it did to you, too, Kyle. Remember?"
       "Okay, guys. Let's move on, shall we?"
       "Yeah, but I just want to make this one point. Y'all think Tim and Brian . . . oh, never mind," Kyle said.
       "What were you going to say," I asked.
       "Well, y'all think me and Justin are the only horny ones. I know you do, but . . ."
       "You were right the first time, Kyle," I said.
       They all laughed.
       "So what are you going to do with the crabs you catch until you have enough to cook," Rick asked. "Aren't they supposed to be alive when you boil them?"
       "Yes, sir, that's the best way to do it," Kyle said. "I've got a holding trap that's tied to the dock. I set out eight traps, and it shouldn't take more than a couple of days to get a mess of 'em. Maybe even just one day, if we're lucky. Let's go check 'em, boys."
       They left to check the crab traps.
       "Those guys are amazing to me," Tyler said. "Are they ever in a bad mood?"
       "Not very often, but it happens occasionally," I said. "Justin used to be pretty moody sometimes, but he hasn't been since his surgery last December."
       "What kind of surgery did he have," Ty asked.
       "I'll tell you about it," Jeff said. "We had a hard fall last year, didn't we?"
       "I'll say we did," Rick said. "There's been a lot of laughter in this house, Ty, but there's been a lot of tears, too."
       "I guess like every family," Ty said.
       "Yeah," I said. "Just like every family, only in some there isn't much laughter."
       * * *
       The crabbers came back in about twenty minutes, all excited.
       "How many," Jeff asked.
       "Two dozen," Kyle said. "We'll go out in about two hours, and we should have a lot more."
       The phone rang, and it was Seth. He had reached the spot I had told him to call from, and he was ready for us to go get him.
       "We'll go," Kyle said. "Let's take the Wrangler."
       "One of you drive his car back here," I said. "Take the Parkway. Don't take the beach road."
       "Do you think the Parkway will be quicker on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of tourist season," Kyle asked sarcastically.
       "Get your asses out of here," I said.
       They all laughed hard.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       I'm glad I remembered about those traps. Me and Clay used to run them all summer long back when my daddy still had a boat, and we had fresh crabs anytime we wanted them. To me, the only thing out of the water that was better than a crab was an oyster, but you couldn't eat those in the summer time. Something about the month had to have an "r" in it. Now that we had a boat again, we were going to be eating good.
       Another thing I really like is lobster. They say that Florida lobster isn't as good as Maine lobster, but they sure taste good to me. I still had my SCUBA gear and certificate, although it probably wouldn't hurt me to take a refresher. Maybe we could all take SCUBA lessons and go get us some lobsters.
       Scallop season didn't open until July first, and I would definitely have us some scallops when that happened. You had to snorkel to get those. That's another seafood I like a lot, and we could get us some of those easy. We could ride over to Cape San Blas after work, scoop us up a mess of scallops in about an hour, and be eating them by seven o'clock that night.
       Everybody thinks shrimp are so good, and they are. But you have to go way out to get any good shrimp of any size, and my boat wasn't big enough to handle a shrimp net. We'd have to buy those. I knew some Vietnamese shrimpers that would sell them to me for a dollar fifty a pound, and that was for twelve-counts, where the shrimp were so big you only got twelve to a pound. That was heads-on, of course. Those big ones were the kind I liked. They were good boiled or on the grill.
       I loved driving or riding in Tim's car with the top down, and that's what we were doing that afternoon going to get Seth. We passed a convertible with four girls, each with long hair, and it was blowing out behind their heads. They saw us and flirted with us, and we flirted our asses off right back at them. You don't have to be straight to flirt with girls and to have fun with them doing it.
       The traffic on the Parkway was nothing like the traffic on the front road, but it sure wasn't light. We got to the service station where Seth was supposed to meet us, and he was standing out, leaning on his car. Tim started blowing the horn as we pulled up, and ole Seth was grinning and waving at us.
       "Hey, buddy," I said, when we all got out. I grabbed him up in a big hug. He smelled good, like aftershave or something. "How was the trip?"
       "It was good. Why is there so much traffic here?"
       "It's just summer traffic," I said.
       He shook hands with everybody and hugged everybody, too. I had forgotten how skinny he was, but he looked pretty good. I scanned his face to see if I could see any difference, and there was some difference. He wasn't going to be anybody's model any time soon, but he wasn't so dog ugly anymore, either. The thing was, though, he was so nice you didn't care what he looked like. At least I didn't.
       "We're going to have us a good time, son," Justin said.
       "I know it, Jus," he said, grinning big. "Thank you all so much for having me."
       "It's our pleasure," I said. "And Jus is right. We are going to have a good time."
       "Whose Jeep is this?"
       "It's mine," Tim said. "I got it for my birthday."
       "Awesome," he said.
       We were standing in the sun, and I was starting to break a sweat. We could visit a lot better back home in the air conditioning.
       "Let me drive your car. There's a lot of traffic, and I know one or two short cuts," I said. "Come on and ride with us, Jus."
       The three of us got in his Mustang. That was a real nice car, and I had never driven one before. It was dark green, and it had this really cool decal of a mustang pony right above each front wheel.
       We talked about this and that on the way home. We told him about him having a job at the hotel with us, and he got pretty damn excited about that. He had never had a job before, and he really liked the idea.
       "I think you'll probably start Tuesday because there's paper work and all, but you can come in with us on Monday so we can show you what to do," I said. "It's not that hard."
       "Cool," he said. "Any cute guys around?"
       "Several," Justin said. "Kyle, do you know that Cody guy in valet? Stephen told me Friday he's gay."
       "Are you shitting me," I asked. "Cody's gay?"
       "That's what the man said. I don't know how he knows, though. I'll bet you Cody ain't getting it on with him," Jus said.
       "Seth, this Cody guy is major cute," I said. "If you could hook up with Cody, you'd have you something good, dude. He's kind of shy, though. I've only talked to him a few times, and now that I think about it, Jus, he does look at you pretty thorough when you talk to him. I'll bet you Stephen's right."
       "He said he knew it for a fact," Jus said.
       "We'll get after Mr. Cody, if you want us to, Seth. Jus, that ought to be our challenge for the summer, if Seth wants. You, me, and Jeff hook Seth and Cody up," I said.
       "How would you do that," Seth asked.
       "Aw, you know. Be nice to him, talk to him, rub his dick a little when he ain't paying attention."
       Seth busted up laughing.
       "We wouldn't do that, of course, but if he's gay and looking, we can make him look your way. We'd have to out you to him, though. Would you have a problem with that," I asked.
       "It's got to happen eventually, I think, don't you," Seth said.
       "Absolutely. You ain't going to get a boy in bed unless he knows you're gay," I said.
       Listen to you, I thought. How the hell would you know what to do? You ain't no Romeo, Kyle. I smiled at what I was thinking.
       "Do you think Cody's had a lot of experience," Seth asked, "because I haven't had any."
       "Shit, no," I said. "He's a virgin, if ever there was one. He just graduated from my high school, and nobody there thought he was gay. Hell, I didn't even know it. I'm telling you, though, this boy is hot. Do you like the muscle type, 'cause that's what he is? He wrestled for our school."
       I glanced over at Seth's lap, and he had him a big one. Tell you the truth, I was a little plumped up myself, and I figured Jus had him one, too.
       "Yeah, I think muscles are hot. You've put on some, haven't you," he asked.
       "Yeah, we've been working out. We got a really nice gym for Christmas, and we use it pretty much every day. Not so much on weekends, though," I said.
       "That's what I need to do," he said. "Maybe then I wouldn't be so damn skinny."
       "You're fine, man," I said.
       Lie. You need to work out, I thought. We'll take care of you, though. You're going to leave Emerald Beach a man. I was going to see to that.
       "Well, here we are, such as it is," I said.
       "Such as it is? Man, this is a fantastic house," Seth said.
       "I know. My dad always says that, though, about our house. We just passed it. It was the one with all those colored-leaf flowers in the yard," I said.
       "I noticed that one. That's a nice house, too, Kyle," he said.
       "That one back there is my official home, but this one is my real home," I said.
       * * *
       Tim and Brian pulled in right behind us. Kevin and Rick, and Jeff and Ty welcomed Seth like he was some long-lost brother, and he ate that up. We got Seth's stuff up to his room. He didn't unpack, though. I saw him eying Brian's computer in that room.
       "It's on a cable modem," I said. "Fast download, and no timing out."
       "Oh, wow," he said. "I'm still on a dial-up at home."
       "This house is on an Ethernet network, and Jeff is in the process of setting up a Web server. When he figures it all out, we're going to run our Web page from here," I said. "The modem has a static IP address, so we can do that, we think."
       "Stop it with the geek talk," Jus said.
       "I'll get your geek to talk," I said, and I groped his crotch.
       Seth thought that was hilarious. Justin and I did stuff like that to one another all the time, and we didn't think anything of it.
       "Let's go check the traps," I said.
       Everybody went on that trip, and that boat was riding low in the water. We got an even four dozen on that pass, and that was getting close to being enough. I re-baited the traps, and I moved four of them to places where we hadn't had them before. There weren't any other traps in our section of the lagoon that I could tell, so we were going to get all the crabs that wanted to be got that day.
       It was already four o'clock, and I knew we had Mass at five. It would stay light till eight or later, though, so I knew we could make another pass after we came home from church.
       "Let's have a party tonight after church," I said. "Let's invite Jerry and Pat, if they can come, and Sam and Fred, and Chad and Gage. I'll call my Vietnamese boys for some shrimp. They'll bring them to church for us, I'm pretty sure."
       "Kyle, what are you talking about," Kevin asked.
       "I'm talking about a small party to celebrate our new brother, that's what. Monte and Terry, too. I forgot about them. They've got to meet Seth, too," I said.
       "You do it, Bubba," Rick said.
       "Okay. I will. I want them here for seven. We can do this, now that we've got a decent ice machine."
       They all laughed.
       They had all ridden me hard about wanting a good ice machine, but, by God, we had us one. They could tease me about it all they wanted to, but they were going to know the truth, one of these days.
       "Do you like clear ice or cloudy ice," Jus asked Seth.
       "I think the clear ice is prettier," he said.
       "You damn queer," Jus said.
       Seth got a little red and looked embarrassed, but everybody else who was in on the joke laughed.
       "Seth, don't listen to his bullshit. He thinks only queers like clear ice. But you know what? Ain't nobody here queerer than him," I said. "He's been teasing me about wanting clear ice for weeks."
       "Y'all are going to have to help me out with stuff like that," Seth said.
       "You'll catch on," Jus said. "Kyle, I think he's one of the smart ones. We're way outnumbered, Bubba."
       "I know," I said.
       Everybody else laughed, but Justin and I knew it was true.
       We unloaded the crabs into the holding trap, and they were frisky. Trixie was barking at them, like that was going to make them behave.
       "Pull her back, Tim. Don't let one get her nose," I said.
       I had once seen a crab get on a dog's nose, and that was not a pretty sight. I didn't want our puppy getting her nose eaten up by some damn crab.
       Once I got them in the holding trap, I started calling people. I called my Vietnamese boys first, and they could meet us at the church when Mass was over. They were Catholic, too, but they went to some other church. They had the big ones, and that's what I was after. I also told him I wanted ten pounds of potatoes, three dozen ears of white-and-yellow corn, shucked, and five pounds of onions.
       He asked me if I wanted artichokes, and I had to ask him to repeat himself three times before I figured out what he was saying. I told him I wanted three dozen when he finally got through to me what he was talking about. I told him we needed a ton of crab boil, too.
       I next called Jerry and told him what was up. He could come, and he thought Pat could, too. He asked would it be all right if Pat brought a date, and I said sure. Hmmm. Pat's dating, I thought. That was a good sign.
       Monte said he and Terry had just been talking about us, and they would definitely be there. Sam said all four of his would be there. Chad and Gage were actually working in gift shops for Goodson that summer , but we hadn't seen them since school was out. It was going to be a good party; I just knew it. It was thrown together pretty quick, which wasn't at all my style, but it was going to be good. Ice cream or coke floats for dessert. Ice cream always goes good after seafood.
       There wasn't much we could do before church, but there was going to have to be a lot of action after we got home. I got plates and cups and silverware set up outside. I set up the two gas grills to hold the pots of water to boil the stuff in. Jus, Tim, and Brian got the patio looking good, especially moving tables so we could more or less all eat together. There were going to be nineteen of us, but we had the picnic tables to handle that many. Jeff, Ty, and Seth got the clubhouse set up for games. They made sure there were fresh sheets on the writing pads on the walls to record stuff, cards on the game tables, CD's to dance to, and anything else we might want to do. I was very proud of my brothers.
       We went to church for five o'clock Mass. Jerry was the priest, and the story from the Bible that night was about Jesus multiplying the loaves and the fishes.
       Shit, I thought, when I heard that. I forgot about the damn crackers. I had the fishes part covered, but I didn't have any crackers. People want crackers when they eat crabs and shrimp. They don't want loaves. Maybe they used to, but not any more.
       Jerry talked about the importance of celebration. I didn't usually pay much attention to what he said in the homily, but I did that night. Man, I thought, you're saying this for us. And I knew he was. I just wished I had some damn saltines.
       When we got home after Mass, I hauled ass, I'm telling you. I was out in that boat grabbing up those traps in no time. I didn't even bother to count 'em on that pass, but it was a lot. We must have had ten dozen crabs, at least, by then. Tim and Brian helped me get 'em squared away. I couldn't have done it without those boys, that's for sure.
       Justin got the grills going while we were gone, and the pots were both boiling when we got back with the crabs. I put equal potatoes, corn, onions, and artichokes into each pot, along with the crab boil, a lot of salt, and the seafood. Crabs in one, shrimp in the other. All the crabs didn't fit into that pot at once, so I had to end up cooking them three dozen at a time. It only took a few minutes to cook them, so we were on schedule.
       The vegetables took longer to cook, and I left them in the hot water after I took the crabs and shrimp out. A lot of people like to eat boiled seafood hot, but I rather it be cold, or at least cool. It's easier to peel cold, for one thing, and I think it tastes better, too. If anybody wanted it hot, I'd dump it back in the hot water for a minute or so before they ate it.
       We always had plenty of beer, wine, and soft drinks chilling in the refrigerator in the clubhouse. Rick set out some bottles of whiskey on the bar for those who wanted that. A drink of whiskey before dinner is good, but I personally think an ice cold beer is the best with boiled seafood. Everybody has different tastes, though.
       I put out a hunk of cheddar with some fancy crackers, some nuts, and a big bowl of pickled okra for Jus. That boy loved pickled okra better than anybody I ever knew, and I teased him about liking those little slimy green dicks.
       "Yep, the slimier the better," he said.
       I couldn't help laughing at that. Truth be known, I liked 'em pretty slimy myself, and he knew it. Not green, though.
       * * *
       Everybody was there by 7:15 or 7:20. We hadn't seen Chad and Gage since the day school let out, and it was good to see those boys. We had lunch with them every day during school, but we hadn't had time to do squat with them yet that summer.
       Jeff was busy introducing Tyler to everybody, and it was pretty obvious they were a couple. Somehow you can just tell when two people are just friends and when they really like each other. They really liked each other.
       I introduced Seth to Chad and Gage. They all shook hands, and Seth and Chad struck up a conversation. They sort of walked away from us. Gage pulled me aside.
       "Kyle, who is that," Gage asked.
       "That's Seth. That's the guy from New Orleans that we got to know at Mardi Gras. We told you about him," I said.
       "Yes, I remember. But you didn't tell everything. My God, Kyle, the hair! That boy needs a total make-over immediately. Let me see if Antonio will see him tomorrow."
       Gage whipped out his cell phone and pressed a button. I didn't know who he was talking to, but I heard what he said.
       "Antonio, if you saw him and had any kind of conscience at all, you would drop everything and get over here immediately," Gage said.
       Pause.
       "Tomorrow really isn't soon enough, but if that's the best you can do, so be it."
       Pause.
       "No. First thing. Say, one o'clock. I'll have him there."
       Pause.
       "Definitely highlights. 'Mousy' is way too kind to describe it."
       Pause.
       "Yes, a shave, too. If he shaves at all, he doesn't do it often enough. Eyebrows, too, Antonio. Definitely eyebrows. I'm going to put him totally in your hands, sweetie. You have to make him look good. I demand it."
       Pause.
       "Chad and I love you two. Say hello to Sid for us. Bye, baby. See you tomorrow."
       "What the hell was that all about," I asked.
       "That was all about making our new friend Seth presentable. Seth is a diamond in the rough, Kyle, and my job is to chip away the rough. Your job is to lead. My job is to enhance."
       I laughed when he said that.
       "Laugh your jock ass off all you want to, but this guy's gonna look better when I finish with him," he said.
       I noticed he didn't use his usual effeminate voice just then.
       "Sweetness," he said, switching back.
       That really made me laugh. He could switch back and forth for comedy. What an incredible guy, I thought.
       The big surprise of the evening was Pat's date. It turned out to be Mr. Lawley, my trig teacher. Oh, shit, I thought. I actually liked the guy, and I had made a B in the course. It was dual enrollment, which meant I got college credit and high school credit for it. My guidance counselor had talked me into taking college algebra first semester last year, and that was dual enrollment, too. That meant all my college math was under my belt, doing what, I don't know, but it was down there somewhere.
       "Hi, Kyle," Mr. Lawley said. He was all friendly and even shook my hand.
       "Hi, Mr. Lawley," I said. "Glad you could make it."
       "Call me Mike," he said. "Here, anyway."
       "Okay, Mike," I said.
       "I hear you've been busy today," he said.
       "Yes, sir. I caught the crabs, and I'm cooking everything. Would you like something to drink? We have just about everything," I said.
       Pat came over with beers for him and Mike.
       "Hey, Kyle. I see you've met Mike," Pat said.
       "Yeah. I already knew him, though," I said.
       "Really? How was that?"
       "I don't want to get off on that tangent."
       Pat looked at me kind of strange when I said that, but Lawley laughed his ass off.
       "What's so funny," Pat asked.
       "I taught this guy trigonometry at Beachside High School last semester," Mike said.
       When Pat heard that, he laughed, too.
       "I should have figured there was a pun involved. Mike, these guys are incredible when it comes to puns. They'll keep you laughing, but you've got to pay real close attention, sometimes," Pat said.
       "You know he's going to be student body president next year, don't you," Mike said.
       "I think my brother mentioned that," Pat said. "Congratulations, Kyle."
       "Thanks."
       "You should have heard his speech, Pat. It was a masterpiece. He had everybody laughing, and then he launches into tolerance for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. It was very short, but it was very effective," Mike said.
       "Hi, Mr. Lawley. Hi, Pat," Gage said. "I heard what you were talking about, Mr. Lawley, and I felt like I was on the top of the world after that speech. You should give it again tonight, Kyle."
       "No way! Are you out of your fucking mind, man?"
       Then I realized what I just said.
       "Oops. Sorry about that," I said.
       Mike just laughed, so I knew he was okay with what I had said. I didn't curse in front of grown-ups that I wasn't real close to, and that had truly just slipped out. I knew to watch myself better than that.
       "When are we gonna eat? I'm hungry." That was damn Justin. He handed me a drink when he said that. It was bourbon and coke, and it was my first of the night.
       "When it's ready, that's when," I said.
       "This stuff smells so damn good, it's making me digest my stomach," he said.
       "Go eat you some okra," I said.
       "I ate it all," he said. He had a huge grin on his face.
       "You ate all of it," I asked. I had put out two large jars of it, and it was damn sure all gone.
       "Well, somebody else might have stolen some, but I ate most of it," he said. "I crave it, Kyle. I can't help myself."
       He and I were laughing so hard we had to lean on one another, just to stand up.
       "You're the okra pig."
       "I thought Okra Winfrey was the okra pig," he said.
       "Oh, that is soooooo low," I said, but that didn't stop me from laughing my ass off.
       Pat, Mike, and Gage were laughing, too.
       "Mike, I want you to meet my brother and best friend, Justin Davis," I said.
       "Hiya, Mike," Justin said.
       They shook hands. Then Justin shook hands with Pat, too. He hadn't said hello to him yet.
       "I'm serious, Bubba, those potatoes have to cook for another fifteen, at least. You don't want to eat no crunchy raw potato, do you?"
       "No, I reckon not, now that you put it that way. What do you need help with?"
       "I'm doing real good," I said. "How about if you put a couple of CD's on that are just music, instead of that shit-kicking stuff, while we eat? Would you do that? Nothing too fast. Get Jeff to help you pick it out."
       "Kyle, this is unbelievable that you put this party together so fast," he said.
       "You're learning how to do it, too, aren't you," I said to Justin.
       "Yeah, from watching you. But how'd you learn it?"
       "Total trial and error," I said. "One of these days it's gonna fuck up in my face."
       "I doubt it."
       "Mr. Lawley, I'm sorry man. I've been cursing like a sailor here. I don't usually talk like that," I said. "It's just been slipping out."
       "Bullshit," Justin said. "He talks like that all the damn time. We all do. Well, maybe not everybody, but him and I do."
       "Kyle, it's okay. Lighten up, dude. We're just friends here. I'm not your teacher anymore," Mike said.
       "He was your teacher," Jus asked.
       "Yeah. Trig," I said.
       "Did you pass?"
       "Hell, yeah, I passed."
       "He did pretty well, in fact," Mike said.
       "That's math, ain't it? I didn't think your dumb ass could pass a math course," Justin said.
       "I didn't, either," I said. "I just had this really good teacher."
       "Now it's really getting thick," Pat said.
       "I'll say," Mike agreed.
       * * *
       The food was really good, if I do say so myself. Those crabs had plenty of meat in them, and they were fat, too. I showed everybody who didn't know how to peal them, and Tim finally caught on. I let him suck some meat off my fingers a time or two, and I got rock hard when he did it. I had on shorts, though, so I don't think anybody saw it. Now why would him sucking my fingers make me hard like that? I put that in the back of my brain to experiment with later on.
       After dinner Rick and I put the food away. We had a lot of crabs and shrimp left over, and there were a whole lot of vegetables, too. Cooking those vegetables in that seafood water, with all that salt and crab boil seasoning, made them really good. I was the kind who could get a handful of shrimp, a cold potato, a cold ear of corn, and a cold artichoke for a little snack and be perfectly happy. I wasn't too keen on biting into a cold boiled onion, but some of them loved that, especially Justin.
       When Rick and I went outside after we had finished, most of them were naked in the pool. Seth wasn't, though. He was sitting off to the side by himself. I went to him right away.
       "Hey," I said.
       "Hi, Kyle. Dinner was really good."
       "Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. How come you're not in the water?"
       He got this real shy and embarrassed look, and I thought, No way, Bubba. You ain't ever hurting in this house, I don't care what.
       "Are you shy about getting naked," I asked.
       "Yeah," he said, and hung his head a little.
       "Well don't. Let's go find you a suit," I said. "I've got a dozen or more here. Come on."
       "Won't they make fun of me, if I come out in a suit?"
       "Not in this house, Bubba. Not at my party in your fucking honor, they won't. It just won't happen. I'll wear one, too, if that will make you feel better," I said.
       "Will you really do that for me? I've seen the pictures on the Web site, and I know you never wear a suit."
       "Hell, yes, I'll wear one. I'd like to see them make fun of me for wearing a suit," I said. "I'll pull their dicks off."
       He laughed.
       "Let's go get suited up. I'm so nasty from cooking, eating, and putting away all that food, I need to get in the water."
       We went upstairs to our room. I had a damn drawer full of swim suits, of all kinds. Most of mine were Speedos, but I had some trunks, too. I knew he had brought a suit or two, but they were still packed in the other room. I gave him a pair of trunks to put on that were so baggy they would conceal an elephant's hard-on, if necessary. He had to pull the string really tight at the waist, but he kept them on. In the hip department, I'm like a snake, but that boy was like a piece of spaghetti. I got him fixed up, though, and we went downstairs.
       Nobody said a word when we went out to the pool. We both jumped in and got right into the splash fight that was going on.
       "What are you doing with a bathing suit on," Kevin asked me.
       "I wanted to wear one tonight," I said.
       "Why?"
       "Because I did, that's why," I said.
       "Seth didn't have anything to do with it?"
       "So what if he did, man? He's new, you know? Just shut up about it, okay? He'll be all right."
       "Kyle, you're wonderful, you know that?"
       "Don't say that. Man, that pisses me off. I'm not wonderful. I'm just a kid. A cute kid, maybe, but just a kid."
       That was all it took. He jumped on my ass and dragged me to the bottom. Trixie was barking her head off at him when we finally came up. It was like she was going to eat him up for drowning me. Dogs are so funny. They only know to love you, but they don't know when somebody else loves you, too. In the rough and tumble of our house, Kevin was showing me how much he loved me by dragging me down, and I knew it. Trixie didn't have a fucking clue.
       "Lick," I said to her, but she didn't.
       Kevin laughed.

(Mike's Perspective)
       When Kyle Goodson came up to me at that party, I almost dropped a load in my pants. I had heard the rumors at school about him being gay, but I figured that was all they were. Rumors motivated by jealousy. He had spoken out in his election speech about gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, but I figured that had been noblesse obliges. He came from what was probably the richest family on the beach, and nobody would be willing to stand up and confront him about what he said. But there he was at a party of all gay men, and it turned out he was the host. My God!
       And a very good host he was. He told me that he had caught the crabs we ate that night and that he had done all the cooking. I knew Kyle was smart as hell, but his math skills weren't the best. He had come to every after-school session I had held, though, and he honestly pulled out a B on his own. I don't give points, even if your daddy does own half the beach.
       There were some very interesting people at that party, and most of them were extremely good looking. Kevin and Rick, who actually owned the house, were stunning looking. They were both big shots in Mr. Goodson's empire, but Pat wasn't really clear on what they actually did.
       Justin was pretty "country," but Kyle introduced him as his brother and best friend. Justin was a very good looking man, but Kyle seemed to be more attached to Tim. Gage Franklin was there, and he and Kyle were obviously good friends. I just didn't get it.
       "Did you have a good time tonight," Pat asked me when he dropped me off.
       "I had a great time tonight," I said. "Thank you for taking me."
       Pat and I had been dating for several weeks, but thus far there hadn't been any sex.
       "Do you want to come in," I asked.
       "No. I'll call you tomorrow, though, okay? We'll do something."
       "Okay," I said.
       We kissed goodnight on my doorstep, and I tasted his tongue for the first time.
       That was encouraging, and I was willing to wait as long as it took.

Chapter 10

(Seth's Perspective)
       They gave a party in my honor the first night I was there. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I didn't know it was in my honor until after we had eaten. That's when Kyle mentioned it.
       And, my God, what a sweetheart he is. I was really shy about getting naked in front of all of those guys. I checked them out, of course, and almost all of them had big, hanging, swinging dongs. When mine was soft, which was rare around them, it nestled in its bed of pubic hair, so small you could barely tell it was a penis. A couple of other guys there were on the small side, too, but I needed more time to adjust to them before I would show mine. Kyle got me a pair of trunks to wear, and he wore trunks, too, so I wouldn't be the only one in a suit. That was a small and painless thing for him to do, I realized, but it said so much to me about his character and about him as a person.
       I was going to have a job, just like the rest of them. I had never had a job before, and I was pretty excited about that. My parents were rather well off, but they both worked. I knew that I would have to work all my life, too, and I was kind of eager to see what it was like.
       Kyle and Justin said they were going to take it as their summer challenge to hook me up with a guy named Cody, if I wanted to get hooked up. I hadn't seen him or met him, but I was already fantasizing about him, just on what they had said.
       Kyle came into my room early Sunday morning. I say "early." It was after nine, and I was already awake. I was lying there thinking about Cody, actually, and getting ready to masturbate.
       "Sunday morning is our family time," Kyle said. "Put on just some briefs. Have you got any?"
       "Yeah, that's what I wear," I said.
       "Cool. Put 'em on, and let's go."
       "I sleep in my briefs," I said.
       "Well, come on, then."
       "I can't."
       "Why? Are you hard," he asked. "That don't matter. So am I."
       I had noticed his erection as soon as he had come into the room. Nobody had ever before asked me if I had an erection, but somehow it seemed perfectly natural coming from him.
       "Come on, Seth. Nobody gives a shit if you're hard," he said. "Just don't play with it downstairs, okay?"
       I couldn't imagine the circumstances under which I would ever play with my erection in front of a group of guys. "Okay," I said.
       "Seriously, that's one of the big rules around here. If you get hard when you're naked swimming or something, just ignore it. Don't fool with it. We don't ever do sex in public, unless it's just the kids." He chuckled. "We sometimes play around, when it's just us. Never around Kevin and Rick though, okay?"
       "Okay."
       "We don't talk about what we do in private, either, around them. Since I've gone this far, I might as well tell you the major rule. You never do anything sexual unless both guys want to do it, okay? No forced sex. Period."
       "Okay." Again, I couldn't imagine myself in a situation for that to apply.
       It took me a few moments to get out of bed, but eventually I did.
       "Nice one, dude," he said.
       I'm sure I blushed to the very marrow of my bones.
       "Why are you blushing like that. I've seen it, remember? You ain't got nothing to be ashamed of."
       Yes, I did remember, and I was horrified that he did. He must have seen that in my face. He sat down on the bed, and he pulled me down next to him.
       "Seth, look at this objectively, man. You're gay, and everybody else in this house is gay. We all get hard-ons all the time. It's part of being a guy, and it's definitely part of being a gay guy in a house full of guys. If somebody teases you about that, it's going to be in fun. Always in fun, never to hurt. This is a family. We love each other. We don't hurt each other. There are nine guys in this house this morning, and I would say at least five have erections right now, if not all nine. Don't let your dick be a barrier to loving those guys and participating in our family fun. 'Cause it is fun. Almost always."
       "Almost always?"
       "Sometimes the big brothers, Kevin and Rick, have to get down on us because they think we need it. That isn't fun, but it always ends in fun," he said.
       "I trust you, Kyle," I said.
       "Well, let's get our asses downstairs," he said, and I followed him.
       We went into the den, and everybody else was already there. They were all in just underwear, and I would have felt strange and out-of-place if I had dressed. I looked around, and Kyle was right. There were several erections in that room besides mine.
       "Kyle, go get us some breakfast," Rick said. "Some real breakfast, not just biscuits."
       "Okay," he said. "Tim and Seth, go with me. I'll drive, Tim."
       "I figured that this morning," Tim said.
       We went upstairs and put on shorts, tank tops, and shoes. We went to a Shonys, and Kyle talked to the manager like they knew each other. The manager was a black man, and it was pretty obvious he considered Kyle a friend. Kyle told him we wanted nine breakfasts to go, and he brought out a bunch of styrofoam carry-out plates for us.
       "Fill 'em up, Kyle," he said.
       Kyle paid him with a credit card, and we marched back to the breakfast bar to fill up. We got four heaping plates of scrambled eggs; four plates of meat; a ton of grits; two plates of biscuits, one covered in sausage gravy and one plain; three plates of fruit; two plates of French toast with syrup; and one plate of salad, smothered in Ranch dressing. I had never had salad for breakfast, but it actually looked pretty good.
       A little girl was crying at a table near the bar. There were probably a dozen people at the table with her, and they were all dead quiet.
       "They're embarrassed," Kyle said. "They need to take that little bitch outside."
       "Kyle!" Tim said. "How can you say that? You love little kids."
       "I mean it, Tim. The rest of the people in here are paying good money to have a nice breakfast, and that little bitch is ruining it for them. Look at her. There ain't a tear on her face. All she wants is power. She's the boss of this restaurant right now, and she knows it. And that mother is so fucking dumb, she thinks a two-year-old is supposed to be able to make a whole restaurant full of people miserable, if she wants to."
       "How'd you figure that out," I asked.
       "I don't know. I just know people, I guess," Kyle said.
       "What would you do, if that was your kid," Tim asked.
       "I'd haul her ass out of here. If you ain't hurting, you can't be crying. That's my motto, when it comes to kids. If they put her ass in the car and walked behind it where she couldn't see them, I guarantee she'd shut up in a minute. You have to train a kid, just like we have to train Trixie. The dog can't be the boss, and the kid can't be the boss."
       "Trixie doesn't shit or piss in the house, and she doesn't lick anymore, either," Tim said.
       "I know," Kyle said. "But y'all thought I was being mean to her when I was training her, didn't you?"
       "Yeah, we did. You spoke so hard to her," Tim said.
       "I know I did, but I had to. Who do you think she loves the most?"
       "Rick," Tim said.
       "Yeah, but after him. Me, right?"
       "Yeah, you," Tim said.
       "'Cause I make her mind."
       We took that food home, and it was still hot when we got it there. We all stripped down to just briefs again. They had coffee ready, and juice, and we all ate a good breakfast that morning.
       * * *
       "Who wants to ski," Kyle asked.
       Everybody said they did, including me. I wasn't all that good at it, but I liked water skiing.
       "Let me go move the traps," Kyle said. "Come with me, Tim."
       "I've got to use the bathroom," Tim said.
       "Seth, you come, then," Kyle said. "Let's put on our suits first."
       I went upstairs with Kyle to his bedroom, and he dug around in a drawer for another pair of trunks for me. He put on a very small red Speedo, and it left very little to the imagination as to what was under it. I noticed the tattoo of a monkey he had on his lower stomach.
       "I didn't know you had a tattoo," I said. "It's cool."
       "Thanks. I got it in New York at Spring Break. We all got 'em," he said.
       "I saw theirs last night, but your trunks hid yours. I see you have Tim's name under it," I said.
       "Yeah. That monkey's him. He's my little sex monkey," he said.
       That was all it took. You've heard of certain statements being red flags? That statement caused me to provide the pole for the red flag. I was going to have to get a grip on myself; otherwise, I'd stay hard all the time.
       "Kyle, Gage said something to me last night about getting a haircut today at one o'clock," I said.
       "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. He wants you to get a makeover, or something like that. Do you want to?"
       "I guess. I sort of need a haircut. Is that all it is?"
       "He wants you to get some highlights added to your hair. You know, lighten it up in spots a little bit. I think it'll look good. Gage knows all about that kind of stuff," he said.
       "So you think I should do it?"
       "If you want to. It might be a good time to experiment, you know? I mean, nobody knows you here. You can be whatever you want to be. I'd do it. Last summer my hair was pure blond, and it was fun."
       "Are you going to do that again," I asked.
       "Naw. I'm going to grow me a little fringe, though. I've already started," he said.
       I didn't know what he was talking about, so I asked him.
       "This here," he said.
       He rubbed a thin line of beard that was no more than a quarter of an inch wide that started at his sideburns and went down to, and across, his chin, sort of outlining his face. I had seen guys with beards like that, and I was jealous of them.
       "It's a bitch to shave, though. I don't know how long I'll keep it."
       "I thought you had hair on your chest," I said. I had seen it at Mardi Gras when he had taken his shirt off, and I had thought it was mad sexy.
       "I do. I shaved it off, though. I trimmed up my pubes, too, and got rid of the hair on my balls and on my ass, too. See?"
       He pulled his Speedo down to show me, and I almost fainted.
       "Cool," I said. What else can you say to something like that?
       "Let's go," he said, and we did.
       He and I moved the crab traps off to the side of the lagoon so they wouldn't be in the way of skiing. In the process, we collected a bunch of crabs. Kyle re-baited the traps, too. That took us about thirty minutes.
       "We need to go get some gas, and then we'll be all set," he said.
       "Okay."
       "I need to get gas for the boat. Then we'll be ready to ski," he told the others in the den.
       They were all still lounging around in their underwear, reading the paper, watching TV, and just relaxing. Justin was leaning on Brian on the sofa, and he had his legs spread wide, showing everything you could show with a pair of briefs on. Oh, don't do that to me, I thought, when I saw him. After Kyle, I thought he was the sexiest one of them, and I could have easily fallen for him.
       Kyle went upstairs and came back with his wallet. He was wearing just the tiny Speedo and a pair of deck shoes. I wondered if I would ever have the self-confidence to go anywhere in public dressed like that.
       We put the two ten-gallon gas tanks from the boat into the Jeep, and we rode off to get the gas. We had the top down on the Jeep, and it was fun.
       "Have you ever driven one of these," he asked.
       "No. It looks like it's fun. Riding in it is fun," I said.
       "You can drive back," he said.
       We went to a convenience store gas station not too far from their house, and he and I each filled up a tank. It was heavy as hell when I lifted it to put it back in the car, once it was filled. We went inside to pay.
       There were three or four people ahead of us in line, so we had to wait. In a minute, a guy came in in just a bathing suit. I glanced at him and thought, Oh, my God! He got in line behind us.
       "Hey, Kyle," he said.
       Kyle turned to him.
       "Hey, Cody. What's up?"
       "Just getting some gas. I thought I'd surf this morning, but it's breaking up too bad."
       "I'm surprised," Kyle said. "I thought I saw a southeast wind out there."
       "Yeah, me, too, but it's not working today. Maybe later this afternoon," he said.
       "Cody, I want you to meet my good friend Seth Adams. Seth, this is Cody Mitchell. Seth's going to be working at the Laguna with us, starting tomorrow. Bellhop. Replacing Wayne," Kyle said.
       I shook hands with Cody, and he flashed me a huge smile. He held my hand and my eye just a tad longer than usual. He was about six feet tall, had dark blond hair, blue eyes, and the face of a model. He was quite muscular, just as they had said he was, and his tan was perfect.
       "We're fixing to ski. You want to ski with us," Kyle asked.
       "Yeah. Sure, if I won't be barging in," he said.
       "No way, man. There are eight or nine of us, but we'll take turns. You'll know some of 'em," he said, "and the rest you'll get to know."
       "Kyle, I never did tell you how much I liked your election speech, man. Nobody's ever said anything about gays before, and that needed to be said."
       "Thanks, Cody. Like they say, 'We're queer and we're here.'"
       "We damn sure are," Cody said. "You knew that about me, didn't you?"
       "Yeah, I had heard. Just a rumor, though."
       "Well, it's true. I decided that once I graduated, I wasn't hiding anymore. I said goodbye to the closet on my way to the ceremony," he said.
       "Everybody's been fine with it, too, haven't they," Kyle asked.
       "Yeah, my parents and my two brothers pretty much knew, anyway. The friends I've told haven't had a problem with it. I told Stephen at work, and I figured he'd get the word out," he said.
       It was our turn to pay.
       "Just follow us," Kyle said. "We're in that little white Wrangler."
       "Is that your car," he asked.
       "No, it's my boyfriend's. That's why I got so pissed off when Wayne tried to fuck it up the other day," Kyle said.
       "Oh, man. Did he know who it belonged to," he asked.
       "Not really. At least, I don't think he did. We got it cleaned up, though. Well, let's go," Kyle said, after Cody had paid for his gas.
       "That's the one, isn't it," I said after I had pulled out.
       "Yep. That's the one. I couldn't believe he just came out to us like he did. He's a hell of a nice guy, that's for sure. Pretty smart, too," Kyle said. "I saw how he looked at you, too, there, buddy." Kyle was grinning. "We might have us some love on the lagoon this afternoon."
       "Stop it," I said, teasingly.
       "It could happen," he said and laughed.
       Oh, God, please let it happen, I prayed.

(Kyle's Perspective)
       I couldn't believe the good luck of running into Cody in a damn convenience store. It couldn't have worked out any better if I had planned it. I had thought I'd invite him over to swim or work out or something during the coming week, but this was even better. We'd have to take turns skiing, anyway, and he and Seth would have time to get acquainted in a natural kind of way. This was perfect.
       I got 'em all out on the dock. I introduced Cody around. He already knew Justin and Jeff, so he felt pretty much at home. He was the real friendly type, anyway, though, so he was at ease with them. They brought lawn chairs down to the dock to sit on while they waited their turns.
       "Let's set an order to ski in so y'all won't have to wait down here, if you don't want to," I said. "Let's go by age. Kevin, that means you're first. I need a spotter. You want to do that, Tim?"
       "No. Brian and I are going to fly kites," Tim said.
       I had forgotten about those kites I had bought for Brian's birthday. We had had them all that time, but we had never flown them.
       "I'll spot," Rick said.
       He and I got in the boat, and Trixie was there having a fit to ride with us.
       "Come on, girl," I said, and she jumped into the boat.
       Kevin skied first, and then he spotted while Rick skied. Rick and I switched off after that, me driving sometimes with him spotting, and him driving with me spotting. There were ten of us to ski, and I let everybody have a fifteen minute run. That way, we could get through everybody at least once in two and a half hours.
       Just before we broke for lunch, my cell phone rang.
       "Hello," I said.
       "Kyle, this is Gage. Where are you? I hear this really loud noise in the background."
       "I'm on the boat," I said.
       "Turn it off. I can barely hear you."
       "I can't. Somebody's skiing. I'll talk louder. What do you want?"
       "Tell Seth I'll be there to pick him up at a quarter to one," he said.
       "Okay. Why don't you and Chad come over," I said.
       "Okay, I'll pick him up after I take Seth to Antonio's," he said. "I've got to go now. Bye."
       "Bye," I said and closed out the connection.
       I told Seth what Gage had said when I picked up the next skier, and he said okay.
       When we broke for lunch, I noticed that Seth and Cody seemed to really be hitting it off good. We ate leftovers from the party, and Kevin or somebody had grilled hotdogs, too. I was glad he had done that because it would have taken too long to eat enough seafood to get a decent meal.
       I loved driving the boat, but I wanted to give somebody else a turn at it, too. Besides, I was getting pretty tired of doing that.
       "Who wants to swim," I asked.
       Several of them said they did, so we went over to the pool. Tim and Brian started pulling off their suits, and ole Cody got him a rapid case of bug-eye.
       "We don't swim with suits, usually," I told him. "You can if you want to, though. It ain't against the rules or anything."
       "No, that's cool. I've never done it in broad daylight before, though," he said.
       "We do it all the time," I said.
       Cody stripped down, and I watched to see if he would fluff himself out like most guys do. He did, but there wasn't much to fluff. All of his dick that you could see was the cap. He had a real sharp tan line from a Speedo, it looked like, and I had to admit the boy was impressive looking. Seth was eyeing that stuff up, too, and I smiled at him. He got just a little embarrassed, but he smiled back.
       We played in the pool for a while, and then we shot some hoops, still naked. I loved being naked outside, and I did it every chance I got. At one point, Cody's dick started putting on a little weight.
       "Just ignore it, man," I told him. "It happens all the time around here."
       "I know, but it's embarrassing," he said.
       "No. What's embarrassing is when you can't get it hard when you want to," I said.
       "Yeah, like you would know anything about that," Tim said.
       We all laughed, and I think that made Cody feel a little more at ease.
       Seth came back with his new haircut, and it looked damn good. He had gel in it, rough-combed the way I usually wear mine. We pretty much all did, in fact. There were enough highlights in his hair to make it look shiny and alive, but it was still basically brown.
       Cody, Tim, and I were sitting at a picnic table, and Seth sat down with us.
       "Your hair looks great," Cody said.
       "Thanks. I thought it came out pretty well," Seth said.
       "It looks fabulous," Gage said. He had just walked up. He came over behind me and started playing with my nipple ring on the right side.
       "What the hell are you doing, Gage," I asked. Who the hell do you think you are, touching me like that, I thought.
       He took his hand away and sat down.
       "Sorry, but I couldn't resist. I want to do that to you every time I see you," Gage said.
       "Well, don't do it, man," I said.
       "Are you mad at me," he said, all pouty and everything.
       "No, I'm not mad, but that's pretty intimate, you know?"
       "Who's getting intimate," Justin asked as he walked up.
       "Nobody," I said. God, let's just drop it, okay, I thought. All I need is a big, fat boner right now.
       "Your hair looks good, Seth. It looks like you shaved, too. Did you," Jus asked.
       Seth nodded.
       "What's this shit on your face," he said, rubbing my cheek.
       "What's it look like," I asked.
       "Are you growing a beard," he asked.
       "Yes. Do I have your permission?"
       He laughed, and then he put his hands on my shoulders from behind. I knew he was just being affectionate, but what was it, Touch Kyle Day? He started massaging my shoulders and neck. Then I decided he could touch me all he wanted to.
       "Kyle, beards like that are very 'in' right now," Gage said.
       "They're cool, but I'll bet they're hard to shave around," Cody said. "How many days is that?"
       "The last time I shaved my full face was Friday," I said.
       "Damn, Kyle, that's pretty good for just two days," Cody said. "That much would take me a week, probably."
       "Is anybody still skiing," I asked.
       "Jeff and Tyler, and Kevin and Rick are still out there," Justin said. "Does anybody know where Brian is?"
       "The last time I saw him before we started playing basketball, he was lying on a sofa in the clubhouse watching TV," Tim said. "I bet he fell asleep."
       "Probably," Jus said.
       "What'd you do? Keep him up all night," I asked.
       He popped me on the side of my head.
       "Owww," I said, pretending it hurt.
       He and I both laughed.
       "I want to get back in the pool," I said.
       "Me, too," Justin said.
       He took his suit off and pulled it down over my head.
       "Damn, you're looking good there, Kyle," he said.
       That got a laugh.
       I pulled the suit off my head and threw it toward the pool. It went in. Trixie came trotting up from the dock when I did that, and she went into the water after the suit.
       "I hope she tears it up for you," I said.
       "I don't care if she does. It belongs to you," he said.
       "Oh, shit. That's my favorite suit, too," I said. "What was that sticky wet stuff on the inside of the suit that I felt on my face just now?"
       "You wish," Justin said. "I wish, too, now that you mention it."
       That made us all laugh.
       "Seth and Cody, you guys must think we're filthy," Tim said.
       "I think it's pretty damn funny, actually," Cody said. "I knew Kyle was funny, but I didn't know about the rest of you."
       "Everybody knows Kyle's funny, don't they, sweetie," Justin said, rubbing my chest.
       "God almighty! Why is everybody wanting a piece of me today," I asked.
       "'Cause you're so hot and so irresistible, Kylie," Justin said.
       He was all over my chest when he said that. I could have gotten pissed off and knocked his hand away, but I knew he was just playing around to tease me. Plus, it felt pretty damn good, too.
       "If you give me a hard-on, I'll get your ass," I said.
       "Goodie," he said.
       That broke everybody up.
       "I wouldn't mind seeing Kyle with a hard-on," Gage said. "What about you guys?"
       "That's it. I'm in the water," I said.
       I got up and got into the pool. The rest of them joined me, all but Seth.
       "Come on in, Seth," Gage said. "I'll show you how to fix your hair when you get out."
       "He's a little shy, Gage," I said in a whisper.
       "Come on in, Seth. You saw me," Cody said.
       "Just barely," Justin said.
       Everybody, including Cody, laughed.
       "Don't make fun," Cody said, still laughing at Jus.
       "I ain't making fun. You're a grower, not a shower," he said.
       "What does that mean," Cody asked.
       "That means your dick's built to grow when you need it to. It ain't built for showing off in a pool," Jus said. "What's that good for?"
       "That's a good way to put it," Cody said. "That's exactly what I am."
       "That's what I am, too," I said.
       "Yeah, right, donkey dick," Jus said.
       "That's definitely what I am, too," Seth said. "I'm going to come in, so don't laugh, okay?"
       "If anybody laughs, they'll answer to me," I said.
       "Yeah, hot shot? What you gonna do," Justin asked.
       I reached down and pulled his dick, pretty hard, too.
       "Owww!!! That hurts, asshole," he screamed. "It's going to be black and blue. Brian'll have to be up all night kissing it to make it better."
       We all laughed hard on that one.
       "I'm sorry I hurt you, Bubba. Here, you can pull mine," I said.
       "I ain't touching it. You'll probably shoot off all over me, if I do," he said.
       That made us all laugh, too.
       While all of that was going on, Seth slipped into the pool, sight unseen, at least by me. We played around in the pool for a long time. Everybody was hungry by then, so I decided to grill some hamburgers.
       "Where's Chad? I thought he was coming over," I said to Gage.
       "Oh, my God! I was supposed to pick him up, and I forgot," Gage said. "He's going to be pissed."
       "It's only four o'clock. We'll be playing a lot longer," I said. "Call him and tell him you're on your way."
       "Where's a phone," he asked.
       "My cell's on the table," I said.
       He called Chad, but he didn't act like Chad was pissed off at him, or anything.
       "Is he coming over," I asked.
       "Yeah. He wasn't mad, either."
       "What'd you do? Give him a handjob over the phone," Jus asked.
       Cody and Seth were both standing there, and they both laughed. Gage took off to get his guy.
       "It wasn't bad going in naked, was it, Seth," I asked.
       "Not really. I'm glad this guy is like me, though. I'd hate to be the only one with the invisible penis around here," he said.
       "What y'all need to do is trim up your pubic hair. You've got way more than you need, not that you need any, that I can tell. It'll show off what you've got better," Jus said.
       "You trim, don't you," Cody asked.
       "Yeah, but out of necessity, not for looks," he said.
       "Necessity," Cody asked.
       "Yeah. You ever use a condom?"
       "No," he said, kind of shy. That boy was damn cute, let me tell you.
       "If you have hair on the top of your dick, or long pubic hair, it gets caught in the condom when you take it off. That hurts like hell because it pulls the hair out," Jus said.
       "I've seen pictures of guys with a nice sharp line of hair right above their dicks, and I've wondered about that," Cody said.
       "That's why they do it," Jus said. "Of course, I think it looks better trimmed, and in your case it'll look a lot better. Seth, think of it as the part of your makeover the barber guy missed."
       We all laughed.
       "Jus trimmed me and Tim up about a week ago," I said.
       "Two weeks, 'cause we were on the island when I did it, remember? You're about due again, too, Bubba."
       "Will you do it again," I asked.
       "I think that's something you and Tim can share," Jus said.
       "Yeah, you're right," I said. I said that kind of suggestive, and they laughed.

(Cody's Perspective)
       I was really disappointed when I got to the State Park and discovered the surf was breaking up all over the place. We had been having pretty good days during the week when I had to work, and the first weekend day the wind was out of the southeast it started breaking up in the pass. Damn.
       I decided to go home and see if I could interest either or both of my brothers in going to Destin with me. The Web site that reported local surf conditions said they were having a good day. Before I could go home, though, I had to buy gas. I had ridden out to the park on fumes, and I was afraid I wouldn't even make it home if I didn't stop.
       I thought about my brothers and my parents. My family was absolutely ordinary and typical in every way. Both of my parents were college educated, and they were both in the real estate business. They did well, and we always had a good family income. They were in their early forties, and the three kids, me and my two brothers, were seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen, a year apart to within a few days of one another. I was the middle child, and I guess I had most of the typical "middle child" characteristics. Except I was gay.
       I had first started suspecting that about myself when I was about twelve. My two brothers were my best friends, and we talked about everything with each other. At that age, my older brother was starting to show an interest in girls. A couple of years later, he "bagged" his first chick, as he put it. By then, I was fourteen and pretty much knew I liked boys "that way." My younger brother was interested in girls by then, too.
       I did a certain amount of dating in high school, both because I wanted to do the things one does on big dates, like proms and Sadie Hawkins and Christmas dances, and because I didn't know how deep my attraction to boys really was. I never did anything sexual with any of my dates, though, and I really didn't feel as though I wanted to. I knew I was considered a "safe date," but I didn't care. Let my brothers spread the family seed around, I thought.
       By the time I was a senior, I was really tired of pretending to be somebody I wasn't. I was a jock and pretty well developed physically, so I was never teased about being queer. There were a few effeminate boys who took a lot of that shit, and I figured I'd get it too if I let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. On the night of my high school graduation, as the family was eating dinner in a nice restaurant after the ceremony, I told all of them I was gay.
       Talk about a non-event! Nobody cried, not even me; nobody raised his or her voice; nobody said much of anything at first. Then my parents both assured me it didn't matter, and I knew they were telling the truth. My older brother said he figured I was, and my younger brother said I would still be his best friend, no matter what. Actually, I was closer to my older brother than I was to him, but I didn't say anything about that.
       I went out with my two best buds from the wrestling team when I left my family that night. We went to a couple of parties, and then we each bought a six pack of beer and went to the county pier to drink it. After a couple of beers, I got up the courage to tell them.
       "Is that why you always got a boner in practice," one of them asked jokingly.
       "Is that why you always did," the other one asked him. We all laughed hard.
       "Cody, we've been like brothers for four years, man. That's not going to change," Alvin said.
       "No way, dude," Butler, whom we always called But, said.
       "Thanks, guys," I said.
       "What's it like," Alvin asked.
       "What's what like," I asked in return.
       "You know. Doing it with a guy?"
       "How the hell should I know? I've never done anything with anybody," I said.
       That was the truth, too. I was a total and complete virgin. I never even jerked off with my brothers, although I had thought about doing that more than a few times.
       I wanted a boyfriend, though. I had read a bunch of stories on the Internet about guys being in love with one another and having great sex, and I wanted that. I wanted somebody I could call my own, be myself with and not have him judge me or belittle me for what I was, or for what I wanted to do.
       Rumors had started circulating about Kyle Goodson at the start of the school year that he was gay and had a boyfriend. I didn't believe them at first, but I heard them so often I began to wonder if they were true. Kyle was just as masculine as any other guy I knew. He was the jock type, even though he didn't play any sports that year. He had a ton of friends, including two guys that everybody knew were gay, but the majority of his friends were straight. Girls would have spread their legs for him in a heartbeat, and, for all I knew, he was "bagging pussy" every weekend.
       Near the end of the school year, it came time for Student Government elections, and Kyle was running for president. Everybody pretty much knew he was going to win, he was that popular. Every year we had this assembly where all the candidates for major offices had to give speeches. That's when I knew the rumors about Kyle were true, and that was also when I decided the closet was no place to live my life. He didn't come out or anything, but he said enough for me to know that homosexuality was an important issue for him. Three weeks later I walked out of the closet for good.
       * * *
       I got a job as a valet parker at the Laguna Hotel. I had worked in a surf shop the previous two summers, but I wanted to make a lot more money than the surf shop could pay me. Kyle got a job at the Laguna, too, as a bellhop. He and I exchanged pleasantries a few times, but I really didn't know him very well. There was another bellhop, Justin Davis, who hung out with Kyle and who rode with him to work every morning. I figured the two of them were boyfriends. There was an incident with a car and a weirdo named Wayne Smith, another bellhop. Smith had cracked up or something and spray painted the word "faggot" on a guest's car. Kyle went crazy and almost beat Wayne up. I only saw some of it, but Kyle was pissed. Kyle had talked in his speech about tolerance for queer people, and I figured his reaction that day was all about that.
       The Sunday morning after that incident was the day I couldn't surf and needed gas. I found myself in line to pay behind Kyle and another guy. The other guy was sort of dorky, but he had a great smile. I could tell he was intelligent, too, just by looking at him. Kyle asked me to come over to ski, and I accepted immediately.
       It turned out the guy Kyle was with, Seth Adams, and I clicked immediately. There were a lot of guys at Kyle's house, and we had to wait our turn to ski. Seth and I had a chance to get acquainted sitting on the dock, and he was a great guy. He was gay, too, as were all the guys there, I learned, and he would be working at the Laguna, too, for six weeks. I found out that that wasn't Kyle's house. It was the house of Kevin Foley and Rick Mashburn, both of whom worked for the company that owned the Laguna. They were a gay couple of long standing.
       That was the first time in my life I had ever been with a group of gay guys, and it pretty much changed my life. Up until then I had been worried about being "strange," or "different." None of those guys, with the exception, maybe, of Gage, was in the least bit "strange" or "different." They were just guys who liked to have fun. There were a lot of jokes about sex and about being gay, and to them it was the most natural thing in the world. I loved being there with them. I felt at home.
       We played all day long. First we skied, then we swam in the pool naked, then we played basketball naked, and then we played ping pong and pool inside. Seth and I talked the whole time, and I got to like him more and more as the day went by. I could tell he liked me, too. I wanted to do something with just him.
       He walked me out to my car when I was ready to leave around ten.
       "This has been a great day," I said. "Your hair really looks good, too."
       "Thanks. It's been a great day for me, too," he said.
       "Can we do something tomorrow night," I asked.
       "Sure," he said right away.
       "Do you like to ride go-carts?"
       "I've never done that, but I bet I'll like it," he said.
       "Cool. I'll pick you up around six, okay?"
       "Okay," he said.
       We shook hands, and I put my left hand on our two hands when we were shaking. We said good night, and I backed out to drive home.
       My God, I thought. I have a date with a guy!

Chapter 11

(Seth's Perspective)
       Cody and I walked out to his truck when he was ready to leave. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on him at the service station that he was somebody special, and I hoped then that he would like me. We spent a lot of time talking that day. They were doing a lot of sports activities, which ordinarily weren't my cup of tea, but I had fun doing that, for a change. For one thing, nobody made fun of me if I missed a ball or fell while I was skiing, and that made all the difference in my confidence. I wasn't exactly trying to impress Cody with my athletic ability because I knew that was a hopeless cause, but I was trying to show him that I enjoyed doing things with him.
       As the day moved on, I got to liking him more and more. We had a lot in common, even though he was a jock and I wasn't, and we talked about everything, from religion, to politics, to movies we liked, to what celebrities we thought were cute. I felt totally free and at ease with all of those guys, but I especially felt that way with Cody.
       Before he left, he asked me to do something Monday night. Without even thinking, I said "yes." I was starting my first job the next day, and I was a house guest. I should have taken those things into consideration before accepting his invitation. But I didn't. In fact, I didn't even think of those things. I wanted to spend as much time with Cody as I could.
       We shook hands, but, oh, God, I wanted to kiss him so bad. I wanted to put my arms around him and tell him he was the nicest, best looking, cutest, smartest guy I had ever met. He put his left hand on our right hands while we were shaking, and I wanted to embrace him. I knew people became aroused when they kissed, but had anybody else ever gotten a hard-on from a handshake? Ordinarily, if that had happened under any other circumstances, I would have died of embarrassment. That night, though, I wanted to put his hand on my crotch and melt into him in surrender.
       Kyle walked out to the street after Cody pulled off, and he chuckled a little when I looked at him.
       "You like him, don't you," he said.
       A part of me--the "in the closet" part--wanted to deny that I had any feelings for Cody at all. The other part of me, the real part, wanted Kyle and everyone else in the world to know that I thought Cody was the greatest.
       "I do, Kyle. I really, really do," I said. "We're going out tomorrow night."
       Kyle started laughing his joyful laugh, and he grabbed me in a hug right there on the street.
       "I could tell he liked you," he said. "Seth, I'm happy for both of you. Did y'all kiss good night?"
       "No, but I wanted to," I said.
       "This fella down here tells me something's been going on."
       Kyle was touching my penis through my shorts, but I didn't care. He stopped doing that in a second, though.
       "Sorry about that," I said.
       He laughed.
       "Don't be sorry, Buddy. It's supposed to do that when you're with a guy you care for," he said.
       "I know, but all we did was shake hands," I said.
       "So what? I'll bet you he was just as hard as you were," he said.
       "I hope you're right."
       "I pretty much know I'm right," Kyle said.
       "Kyle, ever since I met you and the other guys, things have been going well for me. I've been happy, and I wasn't ever happy before," I said.
       "I know, and it makes me happy that you're happy. We all really got to like you at Mardi Gras," he said. "I know you didn't think you were worth shit, but it turns out you're worth gold. We like gold."
       I laughed with delight when he said that.
       "Do you know what a Purple Cow is," he asked, changing the subject abruptly.
       "You mean, ice cream and a coke or root beer?"
       "Yeah," he said, laughing. "Let's go have one."
       I didn't know why he thought that was funny, but I was ready for one, too.
       * * *
       Kevin and Rick were still up, but nobody else was in the den.
       "Kevin? Rick? Can I talk to you all," I asked.
       Kyle was in the kitchen making Purple Cows for all four of us.
       "Sure, Seth. What's on your mind, Buddy," Kevin said.
       "First, I want to say thanks for having me. I really hope I'm not inconveniencing you guys," I said.
       "Seth, this is your home for as long as you're here," Rick said. "You're not inconveniencing us or anyone, Bud."
       "You're our friend, Seth, and our friends are always welcome here," Kevin said.
       "Thanks. Another thing. Would it be okay if I went out tomorrow night for a little while?"
       Kevin turned to Rick and said, "You were right."
       Then they both smiled at me.
       "With Cody," Rick asked.
       I nodded.
       "Sure," Rick said. "Just remember you have to work the next day. Not too late, okay?"
       "Yes, sir. I won't be too late."
       "He's a nice boy, isn't he," Kevin asked.
       "Yeah. He's a really nice boy," I said.
       "This is your time, Seth," Kevin said. "We want it to be good for you. And bring him around here any time you want to, okay? He's always welcome here, too."
       "Upstairs, too," I asked.
       "You mean, in your room," Rick asked.
       "Yes, sir," I said.
       "Depending on what you guys want to do, probably better there than down here," Rick said with kind of an evil grin.
       "You know the rules of the house, don't you," Kevin asked.
       "Yes, sir. You all explained them to me in New Orleans, and Kyle went over them this morning," I said.
       "Just keep those rules, and everything will be fine, Seth," Kevin said.
       "Can we take food to our rooms," I asked. My parents didn't allow that.
       "Sure. Just bring the dishes down the next day," Rick said.
       Kyle came back in with the floats. I'm sure I was grinning my ass off, I was so happy.
       "Look at him," Kyle said. "He's pretty cute, isn't he?"
       I felt myself blush. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, including my parents or grandparents, that I remembered, had ever said that about me before.
       "Don't go turning all red, dude. You are cute. At least I think so."
       "I think I need to go to bed," I said.
       Kevin, Rick, and Kyle were laughing.
       "Okay, Buddy. Good night," Kevin said. "Kyle, get him squared away with a uniform for in the morning, okay, Bubba. The paperwork stuff won't take more than an hour, and he needs to get started earning tips as quick as he can."
       "He's in my hands," Kyle said.
       "It's too late for that tonight, Kyle," Rick said.
       I didn't get it immediately, but Kyle sure did. He, Kevin, and Rick laughed.
       "Okay, Stud. You got me last, but don't be messin' with my brother, hear?"
       "Go to your room," Rick said, and he threw a pillow at Kyle.
       "Good night, bros. I love you," Kyle said.
       "I love you, too," they each said.
       * * *
       I thought sleep would be out of the question that night, but I was very wrong. I started thinking about Cody and about how good he looked naked, and I got an erection. I thought I would masturbate in a few minutes, but I wanted to enjoy the sensation of arousal for a while. The next thing I knew, the alarm clock was buzzing and Kyle was knocking on my door.
       "Good morning," he said, after he had come into the room. He was already dressed in his uniform. "You need to hurry up so you can eat breakfast with us."
       "I'll meet you downstairs," I said.
       "Okay, but don't fart around in the shower. We have to leave in forty minutes."
       "Okay," I said.
       It suddenly dawned on me that I was starting a job and that I would be seeing Cody again in a little while. I went into fast-forward, and I was showered and dressed in less than ten minutes. Gage had showed me how to "fix" my hair, and that took almost no time. That morning I was glad I didn't have to shave.
       Everybody was in the breakfast room when I got downstairs. Trixie greeted me with a little bark and a big wag of her tail. I thought for a moment that I was in some kind of sitcom on TV about the perfect family.
       There was a place set for me, and I dished up eggs, bacon, and toast for myself from the platters on the table. There was a big bowl of grits, too, but I didn't take any. There was a cup of coffee and a glass of juice waiting for me. Rick was shirtless and in running shorts, but Kevin was already dressed for the day. Justin, Jeff, Kyle, and I had on the navy blue bellhop uniforms we had to wear, and Tim and Brian were in shirts and shorts, also ready for work.
       "I'm going to school right after work," Kyle said. "Miss Ortega wants to talk to me, and I want to put in a couple of hours in the darkroom."
       "I'm going out with Ty tonight," Jeff said.
       "Out or in," Justin asked.
       Jeff grinned. "None of your business," he said.
       "Tim and I are supposed to go to the water park with our troop tonight. Are you going, Kyle," Brian asked.
       "Hell, yes. Somebody's got to keep you Tenderfoots under control," Kyle said.
       "That was low, Kyle," Rick said.
       "I know," Kyle said, grinning. "Jus, you're coming, too, aren't you?"
       "Am I invited," Jus asked.
       "You are now," Kyle said. "It's a public place. Anybody can go."
       Justin took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. Then Kevin and Kyle both took one. I had forgotten anybody smoked. I hadn't seen anyone smoking all weekend.
       "Are y'all ready," Kyle asked. "Jeff, are you driving?"
       "It's your week," Jeff said, "but I will if you want me to."
       "No, I just forgot," Kyle said. "See y'all this afternoon."
       Kyle kissed Tim goodbye, and Justin kissed Brian. Seeing them do that was strange and wonderful, normal and bizarre, all at the same time. Nobody else even seemed to notice it.

(Justin's Perspective)
       I watched them all day Sunday. I knew Cody, and I knew Seth, but I didn't know either one very well. It didn't take more than an hour for those two to get a thing going that I knew was going to last at least all summer. They were busy talking to each other all day long. They did stuff with the rest of us, but I had the feeling that if we all vanished into thin air, they wouldn't have even noticed.
       That Cody boy was cute, too. I could tell that sucker had pumped some iron in his day, and he had the sharpest tan line from his bathing suit I had seen in a long time. Rick had a sharp tan line, too, from running in just a Speedo, and I thought that was pretty damn sexy. Kyle and the rest of us spent too much time in the sun bare-ass to have a really crisp one. We had 'em, but they were sort of fuzzy and not all that distinct. I liked being outside naked, but your tan line definitely suffered.
       By the end of that Sunday, I knew that Seth and Cody had hard-ons for one another. I knew both of them were just as cherry as the day is long, and I hoped they had a good time busting those for one another. Seeing them that day, I knew that was coming, too. It was just a matter of time.
       "Hey, Jus," Cody said, when I saw him that morning.
       He was a valet, so he had to be outside more than I did. Those guys would come in the lobby with us, though, to get out of the heat. They let them wear shorts, which I thought was only right.
       "Hey, Cody. Did you have a good time yesterday?"
       "I had a great time. I really liked your boy Seth," he said.
       "Yeah, he's a nice guy, isn't he?"
       "Very nice," he said. "At first I thought he was a little plain looking, but that makeover really made a difference, didn't it?"
       "Get out of here, boy. You know you were horny as hell for him right from the first," I said.
       He was laughing. "Was I that obvious?"
       "It was obvious to me two fine guys were interested in each other," I said.
       "We have a date tonight. It's the first date I've ever had with a guy," he said.
       "What are you going to do?"
       "I thought maybe ride some go-carts or something. Is that too stupid?"
       "I don't think that's stupid at all," I said. "I love go-carts, and there aren't too many places you can do that, that I know of. Except here."
       "I hope he has fun, and I hope he likes me," he said.
       Likes you, I thought. Shit, he'd stick his ass up in the air for you in a heartbeat, son.
       "I think he likes you, Cody. Y'all will have fun."
       "Where is he," he asked.
       "He's still up at the Taj Mahal signing his paperwork. He'll be here soon."
       The employees all called the Goodson Building the Taj Mahal, including Kyle. I asked Jeff what that meant, and he told me about some beautiful temple in India or something. I knew Kyle didn't have a fucking clue what that was all about, and I wasn't going to tell him. The closest thing I ever came to a building dedicated to me was a portable toilet at Mardi Gras that said "MEN."
       * * *
       The bell captain assigned me to train Seth when he got to the hotel, and he was another quick study. He had spent time in hotels before, so he pretty much already knew what to do. I watched him slip his first tip into his pocket without even looking at it, and I thought that was pretty classy. I was going to do it that way from then on. I didn't count it or anything, but I always looked. I wasn't going to do that anymore. Later that day I watched Co