Page 70 of Sass in the Grass

“Not a chance, Alan Birmingham the third.”

“Birmingham?”

“I had to think fast.”

Clearing his throat to get attention back on himself, Jovian grew annoyed by the two. “I was speaking.”

“Sorry, sorry, go ahead,” Alan said.

Jovian wasn’t thrilled with them, but they were funny. “Bastards, the both of you. I shouldn’t tell you a thing.”

“Please?” Mike pled. “We’ll behave.”

“Fine. Well, he took me to his cabin, which wasn’t some shack in the middle of nowhere! It was quaint.”

“Quaint,” Alan whispered.

“Are you starting again?”

“No! I’m behaving. We’re behaving.”

Jovian was smiling. He couldn’t help it! Thinking about Cherokee and the house and the time they’d spent together…

“Okay, stop wistfully thinking about it and talk,” Alan said.

“Oh. Oh, right. Well, we were just going to have tea and talk, but then, we…did more than talk, and I’m telling you he was the best. I mean…he was so good.”

“I knew he would be,” Mike said in awe. “How’s the…you know?”

“I refuse to describe his genitals, but let’s just say, they more than lived up to expectation.”

Alan and Mike high-fived one another. “We had a bet going, and neither of us wanted to bet on it being…not large,” Mike informed him.

“That person would have definitely lost.”

“Le sigh,” Mike whispered.

“Where’s Kathy?”

“Having lunch over there with her new beau.” Mike nodded to the right of them, and Jovian caught her laughing with him.

“Lovely. They make a nice couple.”

“So do you and Coach,” Alan said. “So, tell us…are you two together?”

That was a question Jovian wasn’t sure he could answer. “I mean…we like each other a lot. He doesn’t want me to date anyone else, not that I had any thoughts to. I suppose we are, but…no one officially asked, and no one officially answered.”

“That’s confusing,” Mike said. “But, knowing him, and knowing he likes you, I’d say that yes, you are.”

Jovian felt warmth travel through him. “Well, regardless, I wasn’t planning on being with anyone else. He’s…so wonderful.”

“Jovian’s in love,” Alan said. “Nice to see.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but very much in like.”

That afternoon, when the survival training began, Jovian hung on every word. Cherokee’s deep, rumbling voice put him in a place of peace. Maybe Cherokee’s place of peace was his garden, his home, but for Jovian, it was him.

Cherokee Dixon.

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