Page 60 of The Jock
Wes was more restrained, shaking hands and tolerating the hugs, but not returning them. He searched the crowd, scanning faces, searching farther and farther down the street—
Until his eyes found Justin, leaning against his porch railing and sipping his beer.
He beamed at Wes. Raised his bottle in a silent toast.
Wes’s expression went from guarded happiness to unbridled joy in an instant. He tried to thread through the crowd, but at every step he was stopped. Congratulated. Fist-bumped. One girl wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. Every time, Wes’s gaze flicked to Justin, his impatience growing.
Justin smiled.
Wes finally stopped in the middle of the crowd and dug out his phone. He swiped a quick text, then looked up at Justin.
Justin’s phone buzzed.Meet me at my truck?
Sure.
It took ten minutes to get around the corner, but finally he was off Opal and walking down Twenty-Ninth. There were still people everywhere, but at least the street itself was mostly clear. He headed for Wes’s truck and waited, leaning against the rusted tailgate with his shoes up on the hood of his own Honda.
Wes appeared five minutes later, jogging down the street with his head down, ball cap forward, trying to shield his face. It didn’t work, and three different groups called out his name in the space of twenty yards. He waved back, then zigged into the gap between their cars, collapsing across the hood of Justin’s Honda. He groaned and laughed, rolling his head to the side and peering at Justin. “Oh my God…”
“Your adoring fans love you, m’lord.” Justin kept his hands to himself, holding on to the bottoms of his knees. If he touched Wes now, he wouldn’t ever stop. “You gave them quite a show in the gladiator arena today.”
Wes laughed. He propped himself on his elbow and spread his fingers across the hood of Justin’s car as if he were reaching for Justin. “This party is going to go until dawn.”
“This is insane.”
“Do you wanna stay?”
“Is there another option?”
Wes’s eyes flashed. “Wanna get out of here? With me?”
“Oh, withyou?” Justin pretended to think. Wes grinned, burying his face in his biceps and the metal of the hood as his eyes peeked over the curve of his muscle at Justin. “I guess I could go with you. Where to, cowboy?”
Wes hauled himself to his feet and headed for the driver’s door of his truck. “Hop in.”
* * *
Wes drovethem way outside the city to a country road that led into a state park, the sun setting as they pulled into the gravel lot. “There’s a lake about a mile into the park,” Wes said, parking. The only other car there was a Subaru, and it had an overnight camping permit taped inside the windshield. “Colton and I used to hike out and fish there last year.”
“Not anymore?”
Wes shrugged. “Got too busy.” He stepped out, jogged around to Justin’s side, and then held out his hand when Justin pushed open the passenger door. Justin flushed, but he took Wes’s hand as he hopped out.
Night came quick in the country, and by the time Wes had grabbed his duffel and shut and locked his truck, the shadows were so deep that Wes kept their hands laced together, fingers interlocked. He led Justin into the park, picking the rightmost trailhead that wound into the trees. “Lake is to the left,” he said, gesturing behind him. “Usually that’s where the campers go.”
He turned on his cell phone flashlight and led them down the trail. Justin stayed close, almost right up on Wes. He’d camped before, in Boy Scouts and when he was a kid, but there was something about creeping through the woods in the dark that felt very horror movie to him. There weren’t any bears in Texas, and he didn’t think there were any chain saw murderers on the loose, but there was still that primeval fear, that little monkey brain that would rather be inside than ducking branches by the light of a cell phone. He squeezed Wes’s hand, hard, but kept his fears to himself. Wherever Wes was taking them, he trusted Wes.
Wes led him to a break in the woods that opened up to a field of swaying golden grasses clinging to the last dusky remnants of the setting sun. The tips were tinged in blood orange and marmalade, the stalks already turning silver by the light of the risen half moon. Fireflies flickered in waves all around them. Wes tugged him close, wrapping his arms around Justin’s waist from behind. “Gorgeous, huh?”
“That doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
“I wanted to bring you here and show you. Especially like this, when the fireflies are out.” He kissed Justin’s neck and took his hand again. “C’mon.”
Wes led him into the center of the meadow. He dropped his duffel and unzipped it, then pulled out a bedsheet, a blanket, and a bottle of champagne. “Thought we could have our own celebration.”
Justin helped him spread out the blanket, and Wes shook up the champagne before twisting the top off. Bubbles flew everywhere and soaked his T-shirt. He tried to suck the spilled champagne off his fingers, but Justin grabbed his wrist and pulled him down, telling him, “That’s my job.”
Licking Wes’s fingers clean turned into kissing, and abandoning the champagne bottle in the grass, and then Justin peeling Wes’s soaked T-shirt off and rolling him to his back on the blanket. He tugged his own shirt over his head, and Wes reached for the button of his jeans. He laid his naked chest across Wes’s and slid his fingers through Wes’s hair. “Do you have a condom in that duffel, or just champagne?”
