Page 153 of Wrath

I blow him, too, and then we hurry to get dressed.

When we're stepping out onto the porch to go to his dad's, I miss a call from my mom. By the time we leave his dad's house four hours later, I've missed three calls from her. And I've got thirty-seven texts.

Fuck.

I don't turn the phone back on till Mills is sleeping. Then I slip onto the roof.

Six

Josh

Thanksgiving day, we eat a big lunch with my grandma, Mom, and Carl. It’s a good day. Grandma’s really into Ezra, even calling him her new grandson. When no one’s looking, I catch his eye and mouth, “Grandson in law,” which makes him smile.

He’s wearing one of my hunter green Polo shirts and a pair of my jeans, which fit him a little loose. At one point, as he gets up from the table, I see my mom noticing he’s got on my clothes. She smiles this funny little smile and then lifts her eyebrows at me, which makes my face heat up.

But they’re cool with it. Somehow, we fucking lucked out.

After lunch winds down, my dad calls, inviting Ez and me to come over to his place an hour early for the pie buffet—this thing he does where they put out like twenty kinds of pies and invite the whole extended family over to induce a sugar coma.

“Figured you boys might want to get in and get out, maybe fish a little while before it gets too crowded,” Dad says.

I’m pretty sure that’s code forI want a whole hour to talk toEzra about which college he’s going to next year. But it’s okay. I’m glad my dad is into Ezra. I’m not coming out to him anytime soon, but one day maybe he’ll be happy with who I chose.

Just as I suspected, Dad talks Ezra’s ear off as Ez polishes off slices of pumpkin, chocolate, and pecan pie. I end up inside a sheet fort with Pipsa, helping wrap her baby dolls in toilet paper casts, which she makes me promise not to tell her mom about.

Finally, Ezra and I make our way into the garage, grabbing bait and poles and kissing over a bucket of crickets.

“Mmm.” I laugh, and lick his lower lip one more time. “Tastes like chocolate.”

“Sounds like crickets…” He side eyes them.

“Too much Alabama for you?” I laugh—really more a giggle, and he laughs at my laugh.

“I don’t know. Why can’t we just use fake worms?” he asks.

“Well, we could, but for the fish around my Dad’s dock, crickets work best. We could also get into the hammock down there by the lake shore. Nobody would notice since there’s so many trees.”

His eyes round out, and I snicker.

Despite Carl and Mom being cool with us, Ezra is still worried about his mom. The other day, I tried to broach the topic with him, but he quickly changed the subject.

“I’m just joshin’.” I wink, and we walk across the lawn together, so close that our arms brush a few times.

“Six months,” I say as a storm cloud drifts over the sun, making all the pine tree shadows in our path disappear. “In six months, we move to wherever you pick, and we can have our own place.Ican. I know you might be in the dorms.”

He gives me a sidelong smile, which looks somehow both wistful and apprehensive.

“I’ll pick somewhere in-state,” he says quickly.

“No, c’mon. I told you this already. Pick the best place. If I have to move there and just work for six months till I’m an in-state resident, so what? Anything that’s good for you is good for me. What’s good for the gander is good for the other gander.”

He makes a thoughtful duck face.

“I heard my dad say you’d be a fool to go off anywhere but Tuscaloosa.”

Ezra arches his brows as we get to the dock. “Yeah. He might be right. They’re gonna lose Brandon Winters come spring, and then it’s just that sophomore guy, Kip Hollis.”

“Plus their scout was telling you that, wasn’t he? Telling you they’ve got a vacancy? I know you said they say that shit to everyone, but I don’t think so. They want you to start.”

---