Page 58 of Say Uncle

“Have you thought about what will happen when the summer is over?”

Another swig of beer, another long, heavy sigh. “I don’t wanna think about it.”

“You don’t have to torture yourself with the unknown. Just talk to him.”

I shook my head. “He’s still figuring things out. I’m not trying to push my future dreams on him.” The part I didn’t say out loud was that I was afraid to ask for what I wanted, because if Mattie said he wasn’t interested in a long-term arrangement, I wasn’t sure how to come back from that.

He raised his bottle toward me, and I clinked mine against his. “I hope you get what you want. You deserve to be as happy as I am.”

“Who said I’m not happy?” I challenged. “I’m plenty happy.”

Cass snorted. “With what, being the third wheel on me and Nicky’s bicycle?”

“I’m not your third fucking wheel. You couldn’t find your own cock if it wasn’t for me pointing it out to you.”

Laughing, Cass asked, “Is that right?”

“Sure is. And I think your boy’s dick gets harder for me than it does for you,” I taunted.

“In your fucking dreams,” he choked.

Sitting around, biting my nails and stressing aboutmy future, leaving it all to chance, wasn’t my style. I was a doer, so when something weighed heavily on me, I searched for solutions to the problem. In this case, my problem was figuring out what came next. I knew what I wanted my next steps to be, but what were Mattie’s?

How was I going to work out this problem?

That led to a series of events over the next few days. Cass and Nicky took off on a charter to Jamaica, and I convinced Mattie to tag along with them. I stayed behind, putting things into motion while taking on two fishing charters.

At night, I spent hours on my laptop checking real estate listings in our area. I got to work on some minor repairs around my house. I’d been putting off getting it ready to put on the market.

It was a huge step forward, but it was a step in the right direction. I was probably putting the cart before the horse, setting things into motion without having discussed it with Mattie, Nicky, and Cass, but time was running out, and I felt immense pressure as the summer drew closer to its inevitable end.

“Sam!”

Mattie slammed the front door behind him and tore through the house in search of me. I could hear his footsteps coming closer as he checked every room between the front door and the back porch. I was in the middle of pressure washing the back of the house, just one of the many things I had to knock off my mile-long to-do list in order to get it ready to sell.

He poked his head out the sliding glass door, and when he spotted me, he ran across the yard and jumped on my back.

I was laughing too hard to ask what the hell he was doing.

“They want me! They fucking want me!”

I didn’t know whotheywere, buttheybetter watch the fuck out, because Mattie belonged to me.

“They bought my fucking pictures. Like six of them, for a spread, and they want more! Lots more!”

“Who? Who bought your pictures?”

“I don’t know, some travel magazine. Just like Nicky promised. I also got a reply from two of the travel blogs we reached out to, but they haven’t bought anything yet.”

“But they will.” I dropped the pressure washer nozzle and used both hands to peel him off my back so I could hug him properly. “This is just the start,Mattie-boy.”

The day his pictures were published in Salt Life magazine, we went out to celebrate. I bought sixteen issues and left one open to his full-page spread in every single room of the house, including the bathroom. The other two travel blogs had reached out since and signed a contract with him to feature his pictures, along with commentary from him on the remainder of his summer travels.

Mattie officially had a career in photography. It was a small start, but it was a start, and to him, it was huge. Which meant that it was huge to me, as well.

Fuck, I was so damn proud of him. Like, make-my-eyes-water proud. He’d come so far from the brat from SaveWay with the chip on his shoulder. Mattie had confidence, ambition, and a tighter lid on his anger.

I took him to a steakhouse on the Cooper River, where we stuffed ourselves on twice-baked potatoes, crab-stuffed jumbo prawns, and thick juicy filets. After dinner, we walked down the pier, and I slipped my hand in his.

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