“I’m just reiterating so you don’t forget.” Mark came over and kissed her on the head. She pulled away with embarrassment in a way that Nathan remembers from seeing his boarding school classmates squirm from the public displays of affection they received when their parents came to visit. With his free hand, Mark patted Walt, who was sitting on the couch, looking at his mobile, presumably already up to speed on Franny’s news.
“It’s exciting,” Nathan said to Mark.
“When this playhouse put onInto the Woodsyears ago, Mariel played the witch.”
“We should watch the performance tonight after dinner,” Franny said.
“For pointers?” Nathan joked, though inside he was already excited about watching more video of his mum.
“Thank you so much, Nathan. I never thought I could do this, that I could even sing. I wouldn’t have been able to audition without your help and telling me I could do it.”
“You could do it.” Nathan found himself overcome with emotion, but kept it restrained. However, Liam seemed to notice. “It was a whirlwind week of practice, but you did it.”
A few minutes later, Mark announced dinner was ready. Nathan noticed that his folding chair was missing. He looked at Mark and pointed at the empty space where his chair should have gone. Mark exchanged glances with Liam, Franny, and Walt. Nathan was the monkey in the middle of his telepathic moment.
“We decided to put the folding chair away,” Mark said.
He gestured to Mariel’s empty chair.
Nathan was about to say something, but his voice stopped working. His eyes fell on his mum’s chair. The light hit it in a special way and give it an ethereal glow.
Liam pulled the chair out for him. Around the table, he was greeted with the warmest looks, the looks that the ewes gave their newborn sheep.
This time, Nathan couldn’t restrain the emotion. He cleared his throat to say something, but was at a loss for words.
He sunk into the firm cushion of the seat and felt the wood against his back. He was extra careful pulling the chair in, making sure to hold it gently and not drag it across the carpet.
“Much better,” Franny said.
“I’ll say the prayer tonight.” Mark bowed his head.
They held hands. A spark of electricity hit Nathan’s palm when it made contact with Liam’s.
“Dear Lord, thank you for your bounty, for filling our bellies, for filling our hearts. Thank you for bringing this unique web of family into our lives.”
“Amen,” Nathan whispered.
He didn’t let go of Liam’s hand when the prayer was over. Quite the contrary. He squeezed it tight. And Liam squeezed back with equal tenderness.
Chapter 18
Nathan
Over the next two weeks, Nathan and Liam’s life consisted solely of birthing lambs and fucking each other’s brains out. Nathan soon learned how all-consuming lambing season was, and sex was the perfect antidote to get through the stress. Ewes would go into labor at any time of day or night. It seemed like as soon as one finished giving birth, another one would start up, the familiar painful bleats emanating from another corner of the pen. No matter how used Nathan got to some of the more graphic parts of the birthing process, the sight of a ewe with her newborns hit him in the gut each and every time. Liam taught Nathan how to tail dock. They had to put a special rubber band around the lambs’ tails so they would fall off. Liam assured him it was humane and safe because bacteria frequently built up in tails.
The farm was like a department store during the height of the holiday season, or an emergency room after a natural disaster. And yet no matter how busy Liam and Nathan were, they found time to fool around. After a particularly trying lamb birth, Liam would pull Nathan behind the hoof house, and they would make out and suck each other off. Or Nathan would surprise Liam in the outdoor shower. Even eating breakfast together somehow led to sex.
Day after day of watching Liam in action, of him taking charge running the farm and being tender with the animals, made Nathan perpetually stiff in the pants. Farm work was its own form of unending foreplay. The guys didn’t sleep; they got by on wisps of naps throughout the day. The exhaustion became its own aphrodisiac, tearing away their inhibitions. It reminded Nathan of the time he had sex while on Ambien, only this time he remembered everything clearly. He remembered Liam’s calloused, rough hands peeling off his clothes and exploring his body, the storm of passion glowing in his blue eyes as he grunted with orgasm, the moans of pleasure that wafted through their tiny abode, the way his own long cock slid into Liam’s thick ass.
When they weren’t birthing lambs, or fucking, they were building a new pen for their expanding brood. Nathan had never built anything before in his life, save for primary school arts and crafts projects. Mark and the kids would come over to help them out when they could.
Liam and Nathan had to keep track of the lambs being born, make sure their farm’s new additions had food, water, and a place to sleep. That meant more fresh hay, more feeding rounds, and of course, more manure to shovel.
So much manure to shovel.
Lambing season was so all-consuming that after the first week, Nathan stopped sleeping at Mark’s house. Mark set up a cot for Nathan in Liam’s living room, which he used for only the first two nights before he wound up sleeping with Liam. At first, it happened naturally after a bout of nighttime sex. Nathan was so exhausted that he literally couldn’t fathom stumbling to his cot. He woke up in Liam’s arms from what was probably the best sleep of his life. There was something about Liam’s arms and his warm chest that dipped Nathan right to sleep. Everything felt strangely natural, as if they’d been sleeping like this for years, though Nathan chalked that up to the fog of sex. Each morning, Nathan purposely mussed the blankets on his cot in case Mark dropped by.
“You don’t have to do that,” Liam said while sipping his coffee. He watched from the kitchen area as Nathan balled up portions of his cot’s top sheet in his fist to create creases.
