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We settle into a restful silence after that, the plane quiet around us apart from a few murmurs between seatmates. Most everyone has earbuds in and are napping, the game and strenuous travel schedule catching up with them. Troy falls asleep eventually, shoulder heavy against mine as he leans against me. I sit as still as I can, not wanting to jostle him, and spend the rest of the flight thinking about Nigel and wondering if he still tastes like peppermint toothpaste, like he did all those years ago.
???
Lawson is the first to arrive at my house on Saturday, which isn’t a surprise. Even though it’s late October, the weather is still fairly mild, so he’s wearing an outfit that looks better suited for a beach day: shorts, flip flops, and a shirt with the sleeves ripped off, a picture of a velociraptor riding a shark on it.
“Uhm.” I say, eyeing him.
He steps inside, pushing his sunglasses up on top of his head. “My nephew gave it to me.” He pats his chest proudly, grinning.
“Ah. Caleb, I assume?” Lawson, who has five brothers and sisters, most of whom have reproduced several times, has an impressive family tree.
“Yep.” His grin turns mischievous, and he holds a bag out to me. “Don’t worry, Uncle Win got one too.”
Smiling, I take the gift bag. There is a hand drawn card tucked in the top, a folded piece of construction paper with a crude drawing of a hockey player on the front. Inside, in a messy, childish hand, is written:dear win please come visit soon good game I watched with dad I love you.There is another drawing on the inside, this time of two hockey players, one big and one small.
“He’s getting good at the letters.” I take the card and carefully stick it to my refrigerator, still smiling.
“My brother helped him with the spelling, but they haven’t tackled punctuation yet.” He pushes the bag across the island toward me. “Let’s see what you got. No way it’s better than mine.”
Chuckling, I reach in and pull out a vivid lavender shirt with a pterodactyl riding a surfboard on the front. Lawson snorts with laughter, and I tug my plain grey tee over my head, dropping it on the counter. When I’ve got the dinosaur shirt on, Lawson throws his arm over my shoulder, hugging me to his side, and snaps a selfie of us.
“He’s going to love this.” He says, sending it to his brother so he can show Caleb.
I run a hand down the front of the shirt, touched by the gesture. Lawson’s family has always been welcoming to me, and there have been several Christmas holidays I would have spent alone if it wasn’t for them.
“I see mine still has the sleeves attached.” I nod at Lawson’s bare arms and he flexes at me.
“Can’t contain these guns.”
“Jesus Christ.” I mutter, rolling my eyes and turning back to the potatoes I was prepping. “Grill is ready for you. Everyone else should be here soon if you want to fire it up.”
“On it, Captain.”
He heads off toward the backyard and I continue puttering around the kitchen, listening for another knock at the front door. When it finally comes, I open the door to find Troy and Sam on the doorstep. Sam’s arms are wrapped around a large baking dish.
“I told him!” Troy says, walking past me as I open my mouth to tell them it wasn’t necessary to bring anything.
“You feed us all the time.” Sam puts in, following Troy toward the kitchen. “It’s not fair.”
Closing the door, I trail after them. In the yard, I can see Lawson heading our way after hearing the commotion. “Yes, because Ilikefeeding you.”
Lawson steps inside and lets loose a celebratory whoop at the sight of them. Beelining over to Troy, he hooks an arm over his neck and drags his head down until he can place a kiss to the top of his head. Troy struggles, trying to pull free from the headlock. “Hey! Better not do that in front of my boyfriend.”
“He doesn’t mind.” Sam puts in, mildly, and Lawson laughs.
When another knock echoes through the hall, I take a few calming breaths and count down from five before opening the door. Nigel is standing on the stoop, wearing dark jeans and a basic white shirt that contrasts starkly with his brown skin and dark hair. It’s possibly the most basic thing he could be wearing, but might also be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I clear my throat, stepping back to let him in. As he passes, he brushes a hand along my hip and I catch a whiff of his aftershave.Just fucking kill me now.
“Hi.” He says, smiling at me.
I open my mouth, possibly to say hi, but more probably to tell him how delicious he looks. Luckily, Lawson is there to interrupt me before I can make a fool of myself.
“Saint! Hey man, how’s it going?” He slaps a hand on the other man’s shoulder and Nigel’s eyes travel down to our shirts. He raises an eyebrow and points a finger between us.
“Did I miss the part about the dress code?”
I offer him a small smile, leading him into the kitchen as though he hasn’t been here a hundred times. “No, they were a gift from Lawson’s nephew.”
Troy and Sam greet Nigel, and eventually we all move the party outside to my patio. I’m trying very hard not to stare too obviously at Nigel, but I fear I might be failing. He just looks sogood. His hair has grown out a little bit, dark brown strands tickling the tops of his ears and falling across his forehead in a way that makes me want to reach out and brush it back. Several times he’s reached his arms above his head in a way that makes his shirt pull up, revealing a strip of brown skin that makes my mouth water. I’ve seen the man naked in the showers for fuck’s sake, it shouldn’t be this distracting to have him fully clothed in my backyard.
