Page 50 of Jacob Michaels is Not Here

“What are you doing, babe?” Lucas asked as he stepped back over to stand beside me. “See something?”

I turned to Lucas.

“No.” I shook my head. “If I asked you to do something with me, would you do it? Even if it’s a little crazy?”

Lucas grinned evilly in the moonlight, half of his face blue, the other nearly black.

“Not that.” I smiled. “At least, not right now.”

“Damn.” He sighed. “Then what?”

“Come on.” I reached down and twined my fingers through his and stepped towards the water.

Lucas started to follow me automatically before he realized that I was headed towards the water.

“Wait.” Lucas jerked at my hand gently. “Rob. That water is freezing. Do you—do you want to go in the water?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I can’t tell you until we’re in the water,” I said.

“Why?”

“Say ‘why’ one more time.” I teased.

Lucas produced a gentle smile.

“Explain, please.” He said.

“I will.” I nodded slowly. “If you walk out into the water with me. Just up to our knees. We don’t have to get too wet.”

“Why can’t we talk here?”

“We need to be in moving water.”

“Sure.” He nodded humorously. “Makes perfect sense.”

“Do you trust me?” I asked. “Because I need you to trust that I’m not doing this to just fuck with you.”

“Of course, I trust you.” He replied quickly. “Can I…at least take my shoes and socks off?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Lucas kicked his shoes off slowly, as though convincing himself that he really wanted to follow through with the thing I was asking him to do. I followed suit, kicking off my shoes, using the toes of one foot to pry off one shoe, then repeating the action. I stripped my socks off and tossed them down on top of my shoes, then held a hand out for Lucas to hold for support as he pulled his socks off. When we were both barefoot, I pulled Lucas toward the water once more, and he didn’t hesitate this time.

The water was freezing. Lucas hadn’t been wrong. It bit at my toes and ankles as I stepped into the Maumee. Lucas hissed beside me as the water touched his bare flesh, but I kept my hand on his, pulling him deeper into the slowly moving water. Walking through the water wasn’t quite excruciatingly painful, but it was far from pleasant. However, I knew that having water moving past our legs was the only way I could tell Lucas what I needed to tell him. It would be the only way I could do what I needed to do if Lucas agreed. Carlita had said so—and I was prone to trusting Oracles. Especially if they also had a drag queen persona.

Finally, once we were standing knee deep in the water, the pants of our legs soaked and our feet freezing as we stood on the smooth pebbles under our feet, I turned to Lucas. He mimicked my action as my hand slid out of his. Reaching out, I put a hand behind his head and pulled him down to me, placing my lips gently against his. Lucas seemed unsure of what was going on, but his lips met mine. And when I finally pulled away, the confusion was replaced with happiness as his eyes fluttered open to look at me.

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you, too.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve loved you for nearly twelve years, Lucas. I’ve loved you since we were…I guess, boyfriends…before I left for Hollywood. You kind of know that part. But I’ve loved you since we decided the only way to be safe was for me to disappear.”

“Wha—”