Page 16 of Boys of Fall

I glanced out across the fence line, where the moon painted a bright line across a pond, and let the quiet dark really touch me. Even with the rowdy crowd and music on the other side of the field, the peace of this spot couldn’t be denied.

“I can see why you like it,” I said softly. Night having completely fallen, my quickened breaths started to fog in the air between us. “Seriously? You’ve never brought another girl out here?”

He shook his head as the start of a frown pushed his eyebrows down. “I’ve never shared it with anyone else.”

Nerves danced in my stomach. “It is really nice and peaceful.”

The tension in his arm melted away. “So, you’ll stay?”

I nodded and pressed my palms to his ribs. My hands rose and fell with the fast pants that fractured his appearance of calm.

“Why me, Jerry?” I traced his ribs lightly with my fingertips. “Why not keep it to yourself forever?”

“I’ve been saving this place for the only person I’ve ever wanted to share it with.”

My face tingled with heat as I tapped over my heart with one finger.

He smiled broadly and nodded. “I waited, wanting you in my life, but there never seemed to be a space for me in yours. Time, our other relationships and stuff always seemed to get in the way. Today I realized there hasn’t been a space because I haven’t asked to be there.” His hands cupped my elbows and drew me closer. “So now, I’m asking.”

I closed the last bit of distance between us. “How long, Jerry?” My breath on his throat raised goose bumps on the skin.

He fidgeted against me. “Since you insisted that I be your date to the Junior Prom.”

“Oh, now you’re just trying to get into my pants.”

Jerry’s laugh echoed across the tips of tall grass. The crispy blades sawed together with a raspy sizzle in the gentle breeze. He burned against me like water dropped onto a road baked by the sun, mirroring the heat blazing inside me.

“That’s a given,” he said as the other hand rested in the curve of my lower back and closed that last bit of space between us. The deeper rumble in his voice touched that part of me that had wanted him badly. “The difference is I want to be the last man in your pants.”

His lips pressed tentatively to mine. Once, timid. A question but I could feel how much he wanted more in the tremble of the hand that slid further into my hair to the back of my neck. “And in your heart,” he whispered on my mouth.

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