Standing across from each other as they sanded down the old paint, they kept glancing up from what they were doing to smile at each other.
"Stop looking at me like that," Sam warned him after a while.
"Why? Because it's indecent?" Wyatt said as he ogled him some more.
"Yes," Sam confirmed and glared at him with those pretty eyes of his.
It was nice to work like this just him and Sam. The back of the shed cut them off from everyone else and Wyatt even wondered if he could sneak a kiss or two. But then a lady with a camera came by. She said her name was Sandra, and she was doing social media for the festival.
"I want everyone to see how hard you all are working. Smile, boys," she said and got ready to take their picture.
Wyatt smiled, but Sam just looked startled. He frowned as she left and looked distracted. Maybe he didn't like having his picture taken. That would be too bad because Wyatt wanted to take a million pictures of him. He found himself staring at Sam long and hard, wanting to devour him.
"Now that we're alone, I can tell you how much I missed you." Wyatt kept sanding as he eyed him across the way from him then he added, "But if we were really alone, I would show you.
"It's nice to see you too," Sam said in that shy, understated way of his and Wyatt had to laugh. Sam did have a compliment for him though. "I wasn't sure if you were handy, but you aren't bad at this."
"I can't do any kind of real carpentry. The last time I attempted it, I helped Lloyd build a birdhouse when I was four and he was eight. It was not well built, but we put it up in the yard anyway. Then we waited for the birds to show up. I waited for about five minutes before I started yelling for the birds to hurry up already." Wyatt chuckled as he remembered the racket he made. "I wasn't a patient kid."
"So not much has changed," Sam said to him.
"No kidding. Then Lloyd started yelling that I was going to scare the birds. We didn't end up seeing any birds, and even squirrels shunned that thing," Wyatt said then he turned sad as he remembered too much. "I want to tell the kids about him, all the stories."
"They'll like that, I bet," Sam told him.
"I wish I could have seen him being a father to those boys. There are some videos I need to look at, but so far I've been shying away from watching them. They'd wreck me," Wyatt said and Sam reached across the corner of the board they were sanding and took his hand. His hand was gritty as was Wyatt's, but it felt so good.
"You have to come over soon. And that reminds me. I invited my friend Raquel to come visit for the festival so you'll get to meet her. She's great. And two of my other friends might stop by on the second day for the parade," Wyatt told him and watched him become apprehensive.
Sam lowered his head. "Can't help being nervous," he said with a shrug. Obviously he could tell that Wyatt noticed.
"Raquel is a sweetheart. You won't mind meeting her, I promise," Wyatt assured him, "As for Stan and Yu, they can get a little mouthy." He couldn't wait to introduce Sam to everyone.
They finished scraping and sanding all the boards just in time for Sam to go back to work. As they brushed themselves off, Wyatt tried to help out Sam, but he wouldn't let him, just slapped his hand away.
"We can help each other out, can't we?" Wyatt said with a sly grin.
"I know how that ends. No," Sam told him and gave him a warning scowl that turned into a smile.
"No reasonable person would expect me to keep my hands off you," Wyatt told him, but as Lara came over to them, she disagreed.
"More working, less flirting, you guys," she scolded them.
"We're done," Wyatt told her.
"That means you're off duty now. Thanks for everything. See you tomorrow," she said and noted something on her clipboard.
After she left, Wyatt told him. "I'll grab the kids and we'll come with you to have lunch at the cafe. That way I can spend a little more time with you."
Sam smiled at that and looked beautiful. He made Wyatt's heart ache for him.
When they got the kids, they had to pick out bits of paper from their hair. They said they had to test the confetti to see if it worked then they laughed. Obviously they had fun, but Wyatt didn't envy whoever was on clean up duty.
Arriving at the café, Sam pointed out an empty table in his section. "How does curried chicken stew sound?" he asked all three of them as they sat down. "It comes with flatbread triangles for dipping. It's the special today and it's really good."
"Sounds great," Wyatt told him.
"I'll just go and change and I'll put in your order," Sam said.
