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“Let’s face it, Kanan. He feels like I’m not a hundred percent straight, and he likes that about me. I’ve never discouraged his assumption, because, well, I don’t know if he’s right or not. I’ve never challenged it. So, he hears about this amazing-looking guy that came to town and then I met him and liked him. I even decided that he’d be good to coach Chandler through his transition to living away from home. He’s a smart kid and things click for him in that mind of his. He connects dots that some people never would.”
I was shocked at what I was hearing, especially being that he was right about most of it. “You know your son well.”
“Maybe tell him that. He thinks I’m a clueless old man that couldn’t possibly understand the minds of today's youth. I’m what he and his friends like to call a Boomer.”
“You’re not, though, you’re, what? Gen X?”
“Yes, and I know that, but there’s not much difference between them. It’s fine, Kanan,” he huffed as we topped the small incline and he slowed to a stop.
I followed him to the side of the hill that looked out on a narrow valley below and what I assumed to be a part of the creek that I’d seen with Chandler. “Rick…did you bring me here for other reasons?”
“No,” he said quickly and then turned to smile. “My intentions were not to get you here and seduce you. I wouldn’t know where to begin to seduce a man if I were going to. Remember, all my life, I’ve been with women.” He stopped to shake his head. “I’m sorry if I’m…”
“You’re fine, Rick. You have a lot on your plate. You have two kids, a town, a business, and all of that keeps you completely occupied. Maybe deep down, you’re missing something to smooth those rough edges.”
“Like a new relationship with a man?”
I laughed and leaned over to whisper, “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it, and I don’t mean with me. I swear my intentions are to do a good job for you.”
“Well, we’ve set our obvious intentions on the table. What if more comes of it? Not saying it ever would, but…”
“Then we’ll figure it out from there. First, you’d have to know without a doubt that you are attracted to men.”
“Men…or you?” he asked, then turned back to the trail and started to run, letting me know he wasn’t looking for an answer.
I started after him but stayed in second place as we ran, selfishly watching his body.
I may prefer bottoming, but that didn’t stop my over-the-top appreciation I had for a fine ass, and Rick definitely had that. Round, dimpled globes of sexiness, rounded shoulders as his triceps held strong for his bent arms.
His silver-streaked dark blond hair flew back from his face, and from behind, they were nearly wings as the sun shone on them and they seemed to glow.
When I got up beside him again, he was smiling as he ran, face forward and he sped a little in his steps. “This feels great.”
“Running?”
“Haven’t done this in years. Colby’s very needy, or he had been. Daycare was a hard pass for him. Not having his mom, he clung to me.”
“Maybe now, you can join us every morning.”
“Us? Do you think you’re going to get Chan out here again?”
I laughed at that. “Well, maybe I can find something else to get him involved with. Does he swim? Play tennis?”
“In the past, but the water smears his makeup,” Rick said with a smirk. “Never thought I’d have a kid wearing makeup. Of course, I had boys and I’ve asked him if he’s trans, but he swears he’s not.”
“It’s not uncommon for boys to wear makeup now.”
“Here, it is. People are kind to him, however, so I’m not worried. They may know I’d never allow anyone to bully him if I knew, but out there? That world that is becoming so cruel again to all that are different.”
Down a slope and to the creek that had shimmering stones below and just breaking the surface of the water we jogged. We stopped again, and Rick crouched at the edge of the water to splash some on the back of his neck.
I sat right in the dirt, the cool sandy soil lowering my body temperature, then I cooled further after placing my fingers in the icy water of the creek.
“I used to come here a lot, out in the woods, away from my family. I wasn’t so different from Chandler. I knew what I was supposed to be but that felt like a mask, and here, in the woods, was the only place I felt real.”
“Even city kids have places like that. We all find a place to go, even if it’s in a book or a song, where we can be our true selves. The problem is that we forget to run to those places as adults. We dive into wine or sex or something like that to forget instead of finding something that makes us remember.”
“Remembering what it felt like to be okay in our own skin, having thoughts that others might not share. You’re very wise, Kanan.”
