Thanks: Missy...this story is better because of you. Thank you! For: Cooper
Mel Kirkpatrick didn’t need to look at the clock when the handsome, dark haired man walked through the door of the diner to know that it was five forty five – on the dot – though she did just to make sure that the clock in the diner was keeping the correct time.
It took no more than a few seconds before greetings were being tossed in his direction, and Mel settled gratefully on a stool to wait, knowing her newest customer would take the time to return them before making his way to her.
He spent a few minutes talking with old Mrs. Wilson whose dog he’d helped find last fall when it’d been lost in the woods. Took a moment to clap Ray Cooper on the shoulder and ask how the fishing was further up the Kancamangus, and then shot a smile at the booth full of teenage girls that would keep the entire lot of them aflutter for a week.
Josh Chasez was a popular figure in the small town of Lincoln where he lived in a log cabin tucked into the woods he loved, but, though he would rarely be alone, Mel knew that he was lonely.
And she worried.
Six years ago he’d walked through the door for the first time, a newly appointed National Park Ranger, his uniform crisp, his smile shy and every protective instinct Mel had in her body came to life.
He’d sat at the counter – where a towheaded little boy currently sat staring wide eyed at him – and had told Mel and her husband Chris things they’d never known about the forest they’d grown up in.
It had been love at first site for Josh, when at ten he’d come to the White Mountains National Forest on vacation with his family. That love had grown by leaps and bounds over the last twenty years.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind as she watched the child gather up his courage, slide off the stool, and approach Josh to tug at his shorts, that Joshua was one of the rare few who truly loved his job.
“Mr. Ranger, Mr. Ranger, do you catch bears?”
“Timmy,” the boys mother hurried over, “don’t bother Ranger--”
“Chasez,” Josh filled in for her. “And he’s no bother. Really,” he assured her as he crouched down so that he was at the boy’s level.
Solemnly, he held out a hand and waited until the child took it. After the formalities were dispensed with, Josh settled back on his heels and finally answered Timmy’s question.
“I’ve only ever caught one bear since I’ve been a ranger, and that was because it was hurt and needed our help.”
“Did it bite you?” the child asked, his eyes round as saucers.
“No, it sure didn’t. We helped it go to sleep before we caught it,” Josh told him, though he left out the part about the tranquilizer gun they’d used to help it get there.
The boy fired another question at him, and then another, barely waiting for Josh to answer between them. The kid was smart and full of curiosity about the forest and what made it tick; he reminded Josh of himself when he was that age.
Summers had always meant camping in his family, and no one had looked forward to those trips more than Josh had.
Lord, he had driven his parents and any ranger he’d run into on those trips crazy with questions.
Why and how and where had started every sentence that came out of his mouth, until his mother had thought she’d give anything for even two seconds of blissful silence.
His parents had finally – thankfully – figured out that if they buried him under a pile of books, they could gain a few minutes of peace. At least until he’d finished reading and the questions would start up again.
The childhood love affair that had started with the forest and everything in it hadn’t ended for him yet. Josh and everyone who loved him knew it never would.
He loved his work and the people it brought him in contact with. If his first love was the forest, his second was people.
Talking to them, teaching them, guiding them – whatever assignment he was given – he loved dealing with the people who flocked to his forest throughout the year.
Which was why he could have sat and answered Timmy’s endless questions for the remainder of the evening without batting an eyelash.
Timmy’s mom had other ideas.
“Okay, sweetie, that’s enough. Say thank you to Ranger Chasez now, it’s getting late and we need to head back to camp.”
“Wow, lucky you, you’re camping?”
Timmy nodded so hard, Josh was sure he’d be dizzy by the time he stopped.
“We have a big camper and Daddy parked it at the Hamcop ground, and it has a fireplace and a picnic table and there’s a big hole,” Timmy held his arms as far apart as they would go, “to go swimmin', an special bathrooms cause Mommy said that she wasn’t gonna use one of those stinky ones and-”
“Okay,” Timmy’s mother grabbed his hand and smiled tightly at Josh. “It’s time to go, say goodbye now.”
“One more minute.” Timmy turned pleading blue eyes to his mom. “Please.”
“I’ll tell you what, buddy,” Josh interrupted. “You go with mom now, and tomorrow I’ll stop by your site and you can show me around.”
“Really?”
“You bet. It sounds like you have a really cool spot at Hancock, and I know just the place to show you and your dad where you can catch the biggest fish.”
“You’ll show us? Really?”
“I sure will. I’ll even bring my fishing pole. How does that sound?”
“Cool!”
Josh looked up at Timmy’s mom. “I’ll be in that area right after lunch, will that be okay?”
“Oh, yes, but you don’t have-”
“I want to, really,” Josh assured her.
“Well, okay then, and thank you.”
“Sure,” Josh smiled. He loved nothing more than sharing his forest with others and showing Timmy a few of his favorite spots around the Pemigewasset would be just as much fun for him as the boy.
Rain or shine, he would be there with his gear to show Timmy and his dad the best fishing spot he’d ever found.
“Okay, champ, it’s time for you to go and time for me to get some dinner.” Josh rose smoothly to his full height. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye,” Timmy called and then happily followed his mother out of the diner, chattering away as he did.
Josh was already looking forward to seeing him again and all of the questions he knew his new little friend would come up with between now and then. Now though, he needed his dinner; he was as hungry as one of those bears Timmy had been so curious about.
“Hey, Mel.” Josh smiled at the woman behind the reception desk, before bending down to kiss her cheek. “How are things?”
“Good, busy, you know how that goes.”
“I sure do. Today was nuts.”
Mel smiled at him, just as happy to see him as the others had been. She filled him in on the kid’s birthday party for fifteen the diner had hosted that day and Josh shared his amusement about a hiking group he’d taken out who’d gotten caught in a sudden afternoon shower.
“You would think they’d never seen a raindrop before,” he shook his head. “And what made it worse was that we’d just come from the falls and they’d all gone swimming and they were already wet, so what was a little more water?”
He and Mel shared a laugh.
“Did you stop for lunch?” she asked, when he wound up his story.
“Uhm...”
“Joshua, you need to eat. Look at you, you’re as skinny as a rail,” she scolded, though she knew his lankiness was more due to metabolism than skipping meals.
“Yes, Mom,” Josh teased as he reached over to pat her protruding belly. “And I am going to eat all of my dinner, I promise, just as soon as you give it to me.”
Mel pushed a heavy wave of dark hair behind her shoulder. “We’re running a bit behind today, so it hasn’t come out yet. Let me run back and see how long it’s going to be,” she offered.
“No honey, you stay here. I want to catch up a little with Chris anyway, so I’ll head on back and check on things. He is back there, right?”
“He sure is. We hired a new guy to take over for me when I go on maternity leave.” Mel smoothed a hand over her tummy. “Chris is showing him around.”
“A new guy?” JC had known they’d be hiring someone for when the baby was born, but he hadn’t expected it to be a guy someone.
“Yes, and he’s wonderful. I can’t believe how lucky we were to find him. His name is Lance and he’s from Mississippi.”
“Ahh, a summer person then, wanting to have a working vacation.”
“Nope, actually he’s taking over the fifth grade class at LinWood in the fall, so he’s looking for something to keep him busy over the summer, and this is perfect because he’ll have his days off to explore the area.”
Mel bustled out from behind the reception desk and took Josh’s arm. “Make sure you take a minute to say hi to him before you run on out of here.”
“I’ll remember my manners, Mom. No worries.”
“Oh, stop,” she scolded, swatting him. “You know what I meant; he’s just new here. It’d be nice if he knew someone is all.”
“I’ll say hi, promise. But you have to let go of me first so I can get back there to do it,” he teased.
“You’re such a brat, Joshua.”
“But you love me, anyway.”
“I do,” she acknowledged, and then sent him on his way. It had crossed her mind that Lance might just be the solution to Josh’s loneliness and she’d been dying for them to meet.
Chris had made her promise that she wouldn’t interfere – probably because he was planning on doing that himself – and she had a feeling she wouldn’t have to, still, it wouldn’t hurt to formulate a plan. Just in case.
**Josh heard them before he saw them, Chris’ higher pitch followed by a much lower, smoother one. The voice immediately intrigued him, drawing him further into the room, and then as he turned the corner and spotted the man sitting talking to Chris, Josh stopped dead and stared.
His eyes skimmed over smooth, tanned skin stretched taunt over a face that made his mouth water; sandy, sun tipped hair that had his fingers itching to touch; a laugh that had tingles running up his spine, and a smile that when Lance looked up and aimed it at him, had his stomach muscles jiggling.
The blonde blushed, looked down at the floor and Josh felt something move inside him that had been frozen for far too long.
Completely mesmerized by the man before him, he jumped when Chris poked him and asked for the second time, “Josh, hey, are you okay?”
“Oh, uhm, yeah, fine. I’m, ah, fine. Just,” he gestured vaguely with his hand. “Thinking. Yeah, I was just, uhm, thinking.”
“Okay, well if I could interrupt your,” Chris paused, “thinking for a minute, there’s someone here I’d like to introduce you to.”
“Sure.” Nervously, Josh swiped his hand down the front of his dark green shorts, and then thrust it toward the man Chris had nudged him towards. “Hi. It’s, ah, nice to meet you,” Josh blurted out, and then blushed beet red when it dawned on him that Chris hadn’t made introductions yet.
Chris shot Josh a puzzled look before turning to his companion. “Lance, my friend Josh, who obviously spent way too much time in the sun today and Josh, Lance, the Common Man’s new host and LinWood’s new fifth grade teacher.”
It was only when Lance squeezed his hand that Josh realized that he’d been standing there holding Lance’s hand throughout the introduction. Completely flustered, he pulled his hand free, mumbled something unintelligible, and then stood there wishing the floor would open and swallow him.
“So, you’re the ranger Chris was just talking about.” Lance guessed, pointing to the patch on Josh’s khaki shirt.
Josh, his brow furrowed, turned to his friend.
“I was just saying to Saul,” Chris quickly pointed to the cook, not wanting Josh to think he’d been plugging him to Lance, “that he needed to hustle and get your dinner up because you’d be coming in any time now.”
“Oh.”
“Chris tells me,” Lance shifted so that he was directly in front of Josh, “that you pretty much eat here every night.”
“I don’t eat here,” Josh replied, looking everywhere but at Lance. “I just pick something up on the days that I work. I do know how to cook,” Josh shot Chris a look, “it’s just easier after working all day to grab something.”
“I hear you there,” Lance agreed. “Plus cooking for one sucks. I mean how do you make something that’s just enough for one person? I always end up with way too many leftovers and then I eat the same thing for three days in a row. Blech.”
Josh smiled and for the first time looked directly into Lance’s eyes. “I hate that.”
“Yeah, me, too. My mom is always telling me I should freeze the extra, and she even bought me all these containers with labels and everything.” Lance rolled his eyes. “I was like, ‘Mom, you’re kidding me, right?’”
They both laughed, and the tension remaining from Josh’s earlier fumbling dissipated.
Lance opened his mouth to ask if Josh wanted to join him and Chris – as they had just been about to eat – but was interrupted by the arrival of Josh’s meal.
“Thanks, Saul.” Josh smiled and took the bag the cook held out to him. “It smells great.”
“You make sure you scoot on out of here and get home before it gets cold,” Saul scolded.
“I will, promise.” Josh turned back to Lance and Chris. “Actually, I have the dog in the car, too, so I should be going.” He shifted the bag and held his hand out again. “It really was nice meeting you, Lance.”
“You, too, Josh.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Chris offered, grabbing Josh’s arm and urging him through the door before he could protest. “Soooo,” Chris drawled when they were standing outside in the fading sunlight. “What was that all about?”
Feigning ignorance, Josh asked, “What?”
“That whole thing in the kitchen. Josh,” Chris scolded when the younger man continued to act as if he didn’t have a clue what his friend was talking about. “I’ve known you for six years and aside from when you first met David, I’ve never seen you that flustered. Out with it, what’s up?”
“Nothing, I was just,” Josh trailed off when Chris shot him a look similar to one his own mother would when she knew he was trying to get something by her. “He’s cute, okay, and when I looked at him, and he blushed, I completely lost my mind. Happy now?”
Chris grinned, his entire face crinkling up as he did. “Woo hoo,” he yelled, dancing a little jig.
“You’re crazy,” Josh declared, but despite his best effort not to, he wound up smiling along with Chris. “And I’m going home before my dinner gets cold.”
“No, wait!” Chris stepped in front of the car blocking his friend. “So…”
“So, what?”
“You said you think he’s cute.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Soooo, what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m not going to do anything about it.”
“But you said you liked him.”
“No, I said he was cute.”
Chris shrugged, “Same thing.”
“It is not the same thing. Look, Chris, he seems like a nice enough guy, but just because I’m attracted to him physically doesn’t mean I like him. Hell, Chris, for all I know he’s straight.”
“He’s not.”
“Huh?”
“Straight, he’s not straight.”
“Oh my God. You didn’t? Chris, please tell me you didn’t?”
“Didn’t what?”
“Ask him, thinking…because…you…Chris…Oh my God!”
“Josh, breathe,” Chris ordered. It’d been two years since he’d seen his friend in such a state. It thrilled him no end. “I didn’t ask him, he told me, just like he told Bob over at the school when he applied for the teaching job there.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Sooooooo.”
“So, so, so! What is with you today and all these so’s?” Josh asked, though he knew what was coming. Chris was about as subtle as a train wreck when it came to Josh and dating, or the major lack thereof as Chris saw it.
“So, are you going to ask him out?” Chris threw his arms up in the air, completely exasperated that Josh was being so dense.
“Chris,” Josh cleared his throat. It was either that or laugh outright at the indignation stamped so clearly on his friend’s face. “I spent five minutes in the man’s company.”
“And this matters because?”
“Because people don’t ask people out who they’ve known for less than ten minutes, Chris.” Josh held up a hand. “Let me rephrase that, normal people don’t.” He chuckled at Chris’ indignant, ‘Hey!” before continuing. “Look, Chris, I know you mean well.”
“Mel worries.” Chris offered the standard excuse for his meddling, though they both knew who was the real worrier in the Kirkpatrick family.
“Well, you can tell her to stop. I’m fine, happy even most of the time, so there’s no need for anyone to worry.”
“You’re not fine, you’re just going through the paces. And don’t try and tell me that I’m wrong because both you and I know it’s bullshit. You made promises, Josh, and you’re not living up to them.”
“I am –”
“You are not. Two years ago you promised both David and his mother that you’d go on. But you haven’t done that. You pretend that you have, but you haven’t.” Chris paused for a moment. “I know you loved him, and I know how hard it was to lose him, but he’d want more for you than a fling every six months.”
“I’m fine, Chris, happy even most of the time, so there’s no need for anyone to worry,” Josh said patiently.
“Fine, you know what, be single for the rest of your life. See if I care.”
Josh watched Chris stomp back into the restaurant and sighed, “Great, just great.”
The last thing he wanted was to have Chris mad at him, they’d been friends for a long time and both he and Mel had been there for him – and David – when the cancer had been diagnosed and – after. He knew they’d been worried about him for a while now and he was sorry for that, but that didn’t mean he was going to make an idiot out of himself by asking out someone he’d barely exchanged five sentences with. Especially when there was no reason for them to worry.
He wasn’t opposed to dating someone seriously again and Lance had seemed like a great guy, not to mention how hot he was, but he wasn’t going to jump into anything just because a guy was hot. He’d done that, Chris hadn’t been wrong there, and he was tired of it and no matter how hot Lance might be he wasn’t willing to go short term again, not even for Chris.
Had his hotheaded friend stuck around for a few more minutes, Josh would have told him that just that.
So, Chris would just have to stew a bit and Josh would have to wait and see. Lincoln was a very small town; he was bound to run into Lance again before too long.
It turned out to be sooner than Josh might have anticipated.
**It was crowded in Movie Mania, Lincoln’s only video store, when Josh walked in a little after nine that night and he knew several of the people milling about picking up videos.
Coming back into town for a movie hadn’t been in Josh’s plans for the evening, but he’d driven home and thought of David, eaten, showered, taken Bear for a walk, and thought of David and though he should have been tired when he’d settled into bed with a book– after pulling an all-nighter at a campground the evening before – he’d found himself unable to concentrate and surprisingly wide awake.
After padding downstairs and perusing his video collection, he’d decided to head into town to the video store and see if they had anything new. He was reading the synopsis for The Life of David Gale when he realized he was being watched. Casually, he replaced the box, took down one of the DVDs, and turned to see who was staring at him.
“Lance.”
“Hey,” Lance took the final few steps needed to put him within touching distance of Josh. “I didn’t want to interrupt you while you were reading,” he offered in explanation for his hovering. “But I didn’t want to leave without saying hi either.”
“You done picking your stuff out?”
“Yep.” Lance held up a bag containing several videos.
Josh’s eyes widened at the size of the bag. “You’ve been in here a while, huh?”
“A little bit, yeah,” Lance confessed. “I’m kind of thinking I won’t be sleepy at first when I get back from the restaurant, so I thought I should buy a few new movies to have on hand, just in case.”
“What’d ya get?” Josh asked as they made their way to the register.
“Daredevil, God and Generals, Final Destination 2, Shanghai Nights, and Piglet’s Big Movie.”
Josh grinned impishly at the last title. “See, I thought about getting that one, but I was afraid there’d be too many scary scenes in the Hundred Acre Wood and then I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
“It’s not for me,” Lance hurried to explain. “It’s for my niece.”
“Uh huh,” Josh teased as they stepped out into the cool night.
“Seriously,” Lance protested. “She’s two and loves Piglet.”
“I think I’m going to need confirmation on that,” JC continued to tease. “Cause I’m not sure I’m buying it.”
“Look, I’ll show you,” Lance reached for his wallet thinking he could show Josh the picture he had of his niece holding the stuffed toy. Thankfully, he caught the twinkle in the other man’s eye before he did and made an even bigger idiot of himself. “You’re evil,” he declared, though he laughed along with Josh as he shoved his wallet back into his pocket.
“I’m sorry.”
“Uh huh.” Lance took in his companion’s wide grin and declared, “Sure you are.”
Josh tried – and failed – to look contrite as he assured, “Really, I am.”
“Fine, I’ll let you off the hook this time, but I’m keeping my eye on you, mister.”
They shared a chuckle as they made their way towards Josh’s truck.
“This is me,” he told Lance, pointing to a muddy Jeep.
“And this is me,” Lance grinned, gesturing to the gleaming Explorer sitting next to it.
“So, uhm, enjoy your movies. And try not to let the heffalumps and woozles scare you too much.”
“Funny.” Lance unlocked his truck, tossed the bag of videos onto the seat and turned back to Josh. “Very funny.”
“I try.”
“Yeah, well, don’t quit your day job just yet,” Lance advised with a chuckle.
“I won’t.”
“Good.” Lance shuffled around to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. “I’ll see you around, Josh,” he called through the open window.
“Yeah.” Josh strode over and leaned in the passenger window. “Uhm, about that,” he hesitated for a minute. He knew that if he went through with this Chris was going to drive him insane with a million ‘I told you so’s’. Then he looked up into the clearest green eyes he’d ever seen and asked, “How do you feel about pizza and miniature golf?”
**He wasn’t nervous.
It was after all only a casual date. They’d grab a pizza, have a beer or two, play a round of miniature golf and that would be that.
As he checked his hair for the fifth time in two minutes, Lance took a good look at his shirt. Maybe he should tuck it in, or change it entirely. It wasn’t dressy, by any stretch of the imagination, but still, it had buttons, and a date of pizza and beer probably called more for a tee shirt than button down, so yeah, he should change it.
Of course if he did that, he’d have to change his khakis’ for jeans shorts and his sandals for flip flops, which was probably a better choice for miniature golf than the preppy attire he was currently wearing.
Still, he wanted to look nice, and the cream striped shirt he was wearing set off his tan perfectly, so maybe he should just keep it on. They were going to a restaurant of sorts for the pizza, and if things went well, they might even go for a drink after their round of golf, so it was probably better to stay with the button down.
Yeah – definitely – except, what if Josh showed up in shorts and a tee?
Lance was just about to begin stripping when he caught sight of himself in the mirror and shook his head. His hair was fine, what he was wearing was exactly right for a casual evening out, and he – he chuckled – was losing his mind.
Okay, so maybe he was a little nervous after all.
**Josh, for his part, had opted for a red pullover over crisp jeans and flip-flops. He debated pulling a cap over his curls, but a quick check had shown him they were behaving for the most part, so he made his way to his now pristine truck bare headed and whistling.
He’d been looking forward to this date all week, had thought Thursday would never get here, and now that it was, he was eager to get this show on the road and see Lance.
They’d talked at length only once since the night Josh had asked him out, when Josh had called to confirm the day and time for their date, but they’d seen each other on the nights he’d gone into The Common Man to pick up his dinner.
Still, with Lance working, Chris hovering, and Josh tired after working all day, they’d barely managed more than a few minutes of idle chatter.
Josh was happily anticipating being able to have an actual conversation with Lance tonight. There was so much he wanted to know, starting with how a southern boy like Lance had ended up so far north.
Not that he was planning on bombarding Lance with questions, that might scare him off and Josh was in no hurry to have Lance go anywhere, other than maybe on another date with him.
Whoa, he’d better slow down. He hadn’t picked Lance up for their first date yet, and he was already planning the second. It was just that he felt more alive tonight than he had since – since David’s doctors had started talking diagnosis, prognosis, and life expectancy.
That should probably scare the hell out of him, because he was unlocking feelings he’d kept a tight rein on for a long time now, but he wasn’t scared, not at all. He’d given a lot of thought this last week to the promise he’d made David, and though he wasn’t sure why, this time he thought he had a good chance of keeping it. There was something about Lance that made it feel right, and it had been a very long time since he’d looked forward to something as much as he was looking forward to tonight.
**Okay, so that hadn’t been so bad. Josh had picked him up – looking perfect if Lance did say so himself – and Lance had managed to show him around his apartment, skipping the bedroom with all his discarded clothing choices littering the room, without babbling once. They were now on their way – in Josh’s newly cleaned, Lance couldn’t help but notice, truck – to Fresolone’s, easily talking about their respective weeks. The conversation was comfortable, light, and Lance felt at least one of the knots currently inhabiting his stomach ease as they pulled into the parking lot.
“It doesn’t look like much,” Josh told him as they made their way inside, “but the pizza is incredible, I promise.”
“It smells great.” Lance took a deep breath just inside the door, closed his eyes, and declared, “I’m starved.”
They ordered a large with everything but mushrooms and onions, a pitcher of beer, and, after much debate mozzarella sticks, for an appetizer. Assured by the young girl who’d taken their order that she’d bring the stuff out to them as soon as it was done, Josh grabbed the beer, Lance the mugs, and they made their way to the outside deck to nab a table.
They chose one towards the back where they could hear the water running behind the building babble over the rocks and made themselves comfortable.
“So,” Josh ventured when they’d filled their mugs and taken the first icy sip. “How’d a southern boy like you end up living in the great white north?”
“Oh, man,” Lance leaned back in his chair to gape at Josh, the slice of pizza in his hand forgotten. “You really painted a rainbow on your wall?”
“I did,” Josh chuckled, remembering. “I’d been wracking my brain for days trying to come up with a way to tell my parents I was gay, and I was sitting in the living room watching TV when a thing came on the news about it being National Pride Day. There were all these people there wearing things with rainbows on them, my brother’s paints were all sitting out and I don’t know, the idea just hit me so I went with it.”
“Wow.” Lance couldn’t imagine doing something like that, or his parents reaction to it if he had. “What did your folks say?”
“My dad walked in my room, stopped dead, looked at me, looked at the rainbow and yelled, ‘Karen, we need to have a family meeting. Now!’”
“Did they flip?”
“No, not really. I mean they weren’t thrilled and it changed some things, but for the most part, they’ve been pretty good about it.”
Josh finished the last bite of his pizza, picked up his beer and asked, “What about you, how did you tell your parents?”
“I came in from a date one night walked into the living room where they were watching television and said, ‘Mom, Dad, I need to let you know that Carra’- she’d been my girlfriend for two years – ‘isn’t really my girlfriend, she’s just pretending to be around you because I was afraid to tell you that I’m really gay.’ And then I sat down while they totally freaked out.”
Lance smiled wryly, took a long pull from his mug and added, “That was only about a month ago. They’re uh,” he thought about the stilted goodbye he’d shared with his parents before moving up here, “still slightly freaked out by the whole thing.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, they’ll come around. They’re good people, you know? I just shocked the hell out of them. I mean for twenty-seven years they saw me as one way, it’s going to take them a little while to get used to it.”
“Is that why you moved up here, to give all of you some breathing room?” Josh wondered whether once Lance and his parents came to terms with each other, if he would up and leave to go back home again.
“No, I had taken the job here before I decided to tell them that I was gay. It just seemed a good time to come clean. I was starting over with a new job in a new place, I wanted everything to be out in the open.”
The waitress coming to clean off the table interrupted them, and when she cleared out Lance eased away from the subject of his family by asking Josh a few things that he’d been wondering about the area.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk about his parents or the situation he found himself in, because he actually wouldn’t mind having someone to confide in, especially in those times when the whole thing weighed on him and got him down, it was more that this was their first date, he was really enjoying being with Josh and he didn’t want to blow any chance he might have of repeating the experience.
Talk of Lincoln and the surrounding area kept them occupied through the process of taking care of the bill – which Josh insisted upon paying – and the drive to their next destination, Hobo Hills Adventure Golf.
It was then that Lance got a little nervous.
“Uh, so, I think I should tell you that I, ah, prettymuchsuckatthisgame.”
Josh eyed Lance over the top of his Jeep, took a moment to let that little tidbit sink in, and grinned. “Good, that means I’ll win.” Slamming the door shut, he made his way around to Lance. “And then there’s the added benefit of maybe getting to show you how to hold the club, which means I get to,” Josh moved in behind Lance and slid his hands around his waist,” do this.”
Lance blinked, looked down at the hands loosely linked over his stomach, and thought, “Yes!” What he said was, “But that would be cheating.”
Josh rested his chin on Lance’s shoulder. “Why?”
“Because I’m already bad enough at it, and you doing that would just distract me and make me worse. That wouldn’t be fair.”
“All’s fair in love and war.”
“And this is?” Lance turned his head and their lips brushed.
Josh sighed, his breath feathering over Lance’s mouth. He was never like this, not since David, but there was something about this man pulling at him and he wanted nothing more than to go with it. Easing around so that he was facing Lance, he took a risk and leaned in for a kiss.
“This is me,” he confessed when they parted, “hoping tonight never ends.”