Page 1 of Boys of Fall

CHAPTER ONE

Autumn

A warm breeze washed over me through the open den windows. Tiny hairs at my nape tickled the back of my neck. Every gust held the sharpness of fresh cut, crisp October grass and a lingering hint of Eternity mixed with the musk of sweat baked onto tan skin. The craving for that sensation to be his breath instead of wind on my skin sent tingles racing through my stomach. I shook my head then re-read the paragraph for the hundredth time to find my spot as I swiped a hand over the back of my neck to stop its prickling.

The growl of the mower died with a gurgling hiccup.

“Hey, Jerry!” My little brother Kenny’s raspy, pre-pubescent shout shattered the sudden stillness. “This turd says you can’t hit me at the end of the driveway.” The smack of leather against a palm echoed off the wall behind me.

“Oh yeah?” Jerry’s distinct bass set off a heart-flutter that tickled my ribs.

Another harder smack. This time more aggressive and full of the challenge. “Start running.”

“I’m open!” Two voices sang out on repeat as the thump of footsteps on the driveway faded.

I pushed the curtain aside as Kenny turned to sprint across the half-mowed lawn with Thomas, his next-door neighbor friend, close at his heels.

Jerry had his back toward the window where I peeked around the curtain to watch. He’d shed his t-shirt at some point in the mowing, and his skin glistened. Rivulets of sweat streamed down to the V at his waist that framed his spine and had soaked into the waistband of his shorts. When he drew back, every muscle in his arm and shoulder tensed as he let the football fly. It rocketed through the air toward the boys, a perfect spiral of flashing white laces as it twirled.

Their shouts were garbled with gasping laughter as the ball’s arc of momentum peaked and it plummeted toward the ground. Kenny ran with his arms extended and only a step or two ahead of Thomas. The ball drilled him in the chest and they both went down in a flailing tangle of arms and legs.

I covered my mouth with one hand and squeezed my eyes shut to hold in the laugh. When I opened them a second later, Jerry stared back at me wearing a sly smile.

“Hey there, Autumn.”

I cleared the lingering trapped laughter with a cough. “Picking on the tiny people, again, I see.”

“They started it.”

I snorted. “Of course. And you aren’t super competitive or anything like that, huh?”

His smile widened as I leaned on the window sill with both elbows. “Ready for the big game tomorrow?”

Jerry nodded. “You coming to the bonfire tonight?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Cara wants to go, but you know me and outside.”

He laughed. “How could I ever forget the frog incident of two summers ago?”

“I can’t help nature hates me,” I said. “I’m like the guy in that movie who gets bit by the dolphin.”

He bent at the waist laughing. “You really are.”

As his laugh died away, I picked nervously at a groove in the wood. “So who are you going with?”

He shook his head. “Just me.”

“What happened to Jana what’s-her-face from Oak Grove?”

His eyebrows pinched into a frown. “I found out the hard way that dating girls from Oak Grove is a bad idea,” he said and leaned on the handle of the mower. “I’m not a fan of so much school rivalry where my dates are concerned.”

“I can see where that might get old fast,” I said. My phone buzzed with a text, and I glanced at the screen. Cara again.

“You should really think about coming,” Jerry said.

I tucked the phone under my leg. Cara could wait. It wasn’t often I got the chance to talk to the star player for Calhoun County Junior College with no crowd of groupies around to distract him.

“I’ll probably see you there at some point.”

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