“Honey, are you okay?” Ronnie asked and sat next to me on my bed. She pushed my lopsided hair away from my face.
“Yeah, just really happy right now.” I rested my head on her shoulder. “We’re going to have fun today.”
“You bet your cute butt we are,” she said, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a playful shake.
Jere looked like he wanted in on a group hug but grabbed the duffle bag containing our gear instead. “I’ll load up the car.”
When he was gone, I glanced at Ronnie, wondering if I should confide in her about our developing relationship. I decided I wanted Jere to myself for a little while longer. It was thrilling keeping him my little secret.
“I hope I see a plover today,” I said to distract myself from my thoughts.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a feather-head.”
“The term is twitcher,” I corrected with a little laugh and plopped a straw beach hat on her head.
We held hands as we made our way down the stairs. By the time I got to the bottom, Jere had loaded the car with our bags, the umbrella, and the giant blow-up beach ball Ronnie had decided was a good idea to buy. He came around to my other side and I pushed my arms through the crooks of my friends’ elbows, ready to skip along the yellow-brick road.
The drive to Montrose Beach took about an hour from my mother’s house to downtown Chicago on a weekday morning. Looking up at the looming skyscrapers, a pang of longing poked me in the chest. I missed getting up for work and strolling into the office with a hop in my step. My goal was to return one day when I could walk without aid, even if it were at another job.
I watched with a quiet peace as the buildings broke to reveal the sapphire waters of Lake Michigan. At eight in the morning, the sun was rising over the waters, and resembled a scarlet ball burning the sky and turning it into all kinds of pretty colors. The gulls were already out, soaring overhead and waiting for the opportunity to pluck a morsel from someone’s unsuspecting hand.
“Not to make you feel depressed, but you should apply for a disability placard. It would give us prime parking opportunities,” Ronnie said.
“That’s not a bad idea,” I admitted. “I’ll look into it.”
I knew she was surprised by my response, but I’d come to accept my situation. Getting angry and frustrated about it wouldn’t change anything. I needed to learn to work with what I had. Jere single-handedly loaded our gear into his arms while Ronnie took my hand and dragged the cooler with the other.
“You’re very useful,” I said to Jere. “And look good being of use.”
“Of course I am,” he said with a proud smile.
Getting to the beach proved to be more difficult than I’d anticipated, the uneven and shifting sand making it difficult to keep my balance, but Ronnie guided me with a strong hand. Self-consciousness wrapped its hot fingers of embarrassment around me. I was afraid of being noticed and pointed at, whispers of,look at that grown man who can’t walk on his own,ruining my good mood.I pushed the intrusive thoughts away.
It was early so some of the best spots were available for grabs. I chose a place as close to the bird sanctuary as possible and Jere set up the umbrella while Ronnie laid some towels down. I sat on the cooler as they worked on getting us set up, feeling like a kid wishing someone would pick them to join the team. I added setting up a beach umbrella to my get-back-to-normal bucket list.
When everything was ready, I slid down onto a towel, laid on my back in nothing but my swim trunks and spread my limbs out, the sun-warmed sand and soft fabric remarkably comfortable. Ronnie lay next to me and started slathering herself in sunblock. She was spectacular in a yellow bikini top and matching sarong, her self-confidence shining through.
Jere pulled out his own bottle of sunblock from the duffle bag and sat next to me. I crossed an item off on my ledger of things to do with your boyfriend as he started covering me in the lotion. He got every nook and cranny of my body, from the tips of my ears to my toes. And when it was his turn, he pulled his shirt off and turned his back to me. The sight of my creamed fingers sliding up and down his skin, and in between each and every muscle was hotter than the Sahara sun at midday. I was relieved Ronnie had decided to sunbathe as I lathered him up because my cock hardened in my trunks. His shoulders were so big and firm, and his biceps were like cantaloupes that made me want to lick them. If it had been just us, I wouldn't hesitate to make out with him on the beach.
I leaned in and said against his ear, “I’m sure you’ve been told this endlessly, but you’re hot.”
His cheeks rose. “Unintended side effects.”
“Still,” I muttered, spreading the sunblock over his shoulders and around the bulge of his biceps. “Your body should be appreciated and I’m going to be the one to do it.”
He rumbled a little laugh and said, “Tell me about this bird you want to see.”
I wanted to talk more about his body and how amazing it was, but his question hit that special nerd place inside my heart. “Piping plover, a rare shore bird that nests throughout the Great Lakes, known for being a beach-cleaner by eating insects and small crustaceans. Their numbers have dwindled around the Great Lakes to only seventy nesting pairs the last time I checked. There has been a huge push to restore their numbers in recent years, so seeing the first Chicago-area pair was a huge event. God only knows why they chose this location, but they did, and it was a struggle ensuring their nest was protected.”
“Why was it a struggle?” he inquired, turning to face me. He slapped his chest, signaling me to apply more sunblock.
To distract myself from the supreme pleasure of feeling up his pecs, I said, “It’s a busy area with lots of foot traffic. Most people don’t think about little things like rare birds and their nests. They look at these little creatures no bigger than their hands and can’t imagine their importance or see their intrinsic value. Then there was the little issue of the music festival. Succeeding in getting it canceled was divisive. We won out in the end and Monty and his mate, Rose successfully reared two chicks.”
“I always thought you gushing over things like that was adorable,” he said, taking the bottle from me and squeezing a large amount of lotion into his hand.
“Yeah, well, I can’t help it. Someone has to care about this planet. We only have one home and when the roof springs a leak, you don’t move out, you stay and fix it.”
“My Danny is going to save the plovers,” he said, a proud smile creasing his face as he rubbed the sunblock all over his arms.
