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The coffee machine gurgled, the aroma intensifying. Tyler poured two mugs and doctored them with almond milk.

When he returned upstairs, Josh was in the shower. Tyler sat on the edge of the bed, sipping his coffee and listening to the sound of running water and Josh gargle-singing.

A few minutes later, Josh emerged in a cloud of steam, a towel slung low on his narrow hips. Tyler openly admired the lean, defined muscle of Josh’s torso, the dusting of dirty blond tapering to his navel.

“Your coffee, milord.” Tyler held out the mug.

“Overkill is what we call this, Fantana.” Josh took the mug and sank down beside Tyler, kissing his bare shoulder. “Screw me silly, snuggle me into mush, and then pour fresh caffeine into me. Who says chivalry is dead?” He gave Tyler a peck.

“Just trying to keep my man happy. Big day.” Tyler showered and dressed before returning to Josh in the kitchen.

They finished their coffee in companionable silence. By the time they headed back to the living room, Mrs. Scoops was dozing in a patch of sunlight by the back door, her belly full and her paws twitching in some feline dream of happy hunting.

“First day of school. Brand-new year.” Josh asked, “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Josh smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Well, I did spackle you. I suppose you need to go sweat it out.”

“Sweaty with you? Count me in.” Tyler grinned and stole a quick kiss.

They headed out to Josh’s pickup, climbing in with their duffel of gear in tow. The drive to Hamilton High was a short one, the roads quiet before sunup.

When they pulled into the parking lot and around back to “their” spot, Tyler took a deep breath.

Josh reached over to squeeze his knee. “All good.”

At this hour, the Hamilton campus still looked like a peaceful postcard even for the first-day madness, with its sprawling brick buildings and the clusters of coyote mint and beardtongue in bloom. In an hour or so, butterflies would arrive to hover around the tubular blossoms. This early in September, the pepper trees produced pinkish berries and the feathery leaves started to fade to a dull red.

They exited Josh’s truck in sync, closing doors simultaneously with a single loud clunk.

Tyler chuckled. They’d never discussed it, but more and more, he noticed an odd telepathy.

Ever since Tyler had moved back, they had unconsciously started to do things in tandem—matching strides, silent jokes, sometimes wordlessly anticipating a move the other would make. Josh finishing Tyler’s sentences, Tyler catching what Josh dropped. It had seemed freaky at first, but Tyler was continually delighted by the goofy magic of it.

Hell, NFL teams spent ages trying to cultivate that kind of instinctive cooperation, but somehow Tyler and Josh had stumbled into a mind meld.

Over the summer he’d taken Josh to Rome and then backpacking through Tuscany—the best three weeks he’d ever spent. They’d already started planning next summer’s trip: a month in Venezuela and Brazil. They traveled together even better than they lived together, which was some kind of miracle.

They dropped their duffels in the athletics office and went back outside for their run. After stretching together on the track, they started jogging side by side, energy sparking between them the way it did.

Tyler glanced over at Josh, whose toned body glistened with sweat, and caught Josh doing the same. They both laughed. Busted.

Because it was the first day of school and Tyler still had some residual nerves, they only did a mile. “To get the blood flowing” was how Josh sold it last night. They both had a lot of new names to learn, new classes to test… and a whole football team to cobble together that afternoon.

As ever, that perfect quiet settled over and between them in the silvery predawn light, as though the world was listening to them, steadying Tyler’s nerves and anchoring him for the day. He still worried about his blood pressure, but Reynolds kept telling him he’d never been stronger.

They pushed each other, hearts pounding, lungs burning. Tyler loved their playful competition, when Josh challenged him to sprint the straightaway or Tyler jogged backward to watch Josh react to a story as he told it.

After their workout, they slowed to a walk, their bodies glistening with sweat and their faces flushed with exertion. Tyler snuck glances at Josh’s flushed face as they caught their breath together.

As they stretched, Josh caught him staring and they winked at each other. Funny all the things they knew now without saying a word. Funny the way they never ran out of things to say.

In the distance, the early bell rang. On your mark, get set….

A couple of minutes later, they sauntered into the school building together via the locker room, where Otis was loading a paper towel dispenser. “All right, guys?” he said.

“All right.” They smiled back.