I had my eyes closed but I felt him shrug next to me.
My tone was careful when I asked, “Do you realize you played that on the guitar yesterday?”
Luca froze. I gave him space by not turning my head to look at him.
“I did?”
“Yup.”
“Oh.”
I didn’t comment anything more, just released a long breath and continued to soak in the afternoon sunlight.
A while later I heard someone approaching on the path, then the breeze turned and brought us the scent of my brother. Wolf and motor oil. I knew it was one of Luca’s favorite scents, too.
“Brace yourself,” I said, knowing what he’d do.
“What?” Luca sounded confused.
Three seconds later, Ben cannonballed into the swimming hole, splashing us both with the cool river water.
Luca sat up, sputtering as he wiped his face.
“Told you so.” I gave my brother the finger as soon as he surfaced, but it just made him cackle.
He waded to us and sat on the edge of the little platform. “So I’ve good news,” he started, looking at us. He was beaming, as much as Ben ever did that sort of thing. “I got a raise.”
“Holy shit!” I sat up and went to hug him. “Congrats. That’s so great.”
“What he said,” Luca said and came to hug him, too.
Then he pushed Ben back into the hole.
Once Ben was done coughing up river water, he joined us in sunbathing.
Some time later, Luca wanted a bite, so he nudged me until I sat up, then straddled me and bit into my neck.
It led into hand jobs all around, and even that felt risqué. We didn’t want the girls to get accidental eyefuls of something they couldn’t unsee, after all.
Eventually, we grabbed our stuff and walked back to the house.
“It looks so good now,” Luca said as we got into the yard.
The sun hit the large house just right, and the green popped against the equally vibrant background.
“It does,” Ben agreed.
The chickens were digging around in the backyard, looking oddly photogenic against all the wildflowers.
“We should celebrate all the good things,” Luca said apropos of nothing. “Just the three of us.”
I turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“Ben’s raise, you figuring out your studies, me maybe starting to write music again….”
“What do you suggest?” Ben asked, taking his hand.
We’d come to a halt near the chicken coop of all things, and the ladies were starting to wonder if we were about to feed them.
