“For watching you suffer?”
“For being my oak. Thenandnow.”
“Humph!” Joshua huffed out. “What does an oak do except stand around molting leaves.”
“You hold me up when I’m about to crumble,” Colin told him.
“Well, backthen, you wouldn’tletme hold you up,” Joshua told him. “I was just your Title IX coordinator and occasional lover, and if I was smart, I kept my personal feelings to myself.” He winked and nudged Colin with a gentle elbow. “Lest I find myself kicked to the curb!”
Colin ruffled Joshua’s hair and smirked. “You held me up more than you knew, my sweet boy. And you were never in danger of being kicked to the curb.” He glanced toward the balcony and smiled when he noticed the closed curtain. “Did you guys go on the old forest trek?”
“No, we did not.”
Colin wrapped his arm around Joshua’s shoulders and pushed the curtain aside. “You guys didn’t do the trek?” He asked, nudging Nate’s shoulder.
“We wouldn’t trek without you,” Nate told him. “Wouldn’t be any fun. Besides, Josh refused to go, so that settled that.”
“Is it too late now?” Colin asked. “And is there any coffee and pastry left?”
“Right here, Colin,” Nate said, offering a tray covered with elaborate pastries.
“It’s too late for the old forest trek,” David said, consulting a pamphlet. “But we have time to catch a raft float on a bald eagle preserve.” He glanced up at his friends. “Everyone on board for a raft float?”
“Sign us up, Professor,” Colin told him. He collapsed into a chair, grabbed a pastry from Nate’s tray, and then lifted a mug of coffee from Joshua’s hand. “Louise said she’d like to talk with you, but she was going to see the ship’s physician first. She said she’d text you later to schedule a time.”
“That’s good news, Colin,” Joshua replied, tilting his head toward his husband’s mug. That’s the last of the coffee,” Joshua said. Should I make more?”
“I wouldn’t, Josh,” David told him, holding the stateroom phone away from his mouth. “I’m signing us up for the eagle thing, and our tender leaves in about twenty minutes.”
“Well then, I need to change clothes,” Colin said.
“Why?” Nate asked him. “You’re wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Works for a raft float if you ask me.”
“And they even give us lunch,” David announced.
Colin blew out a long breath and forced himself to relax. “Perfect.”
* * *
Their journeyto the bald eagle preserve began with a half-hour boat ride to Haines, Alaska, a tiny hamlet approachable only by water or air. After disembarking, the four friends were directed to a van covered with decals depicting many eagles soaring above pristine mountains. Nate grabbed Colin’s arm and tugged him into the vehicle. “C’mon, Irish! Eagles! You like eagles, right?”
“Oh,hellyeah,” Colin told him, clambering into the vehicle behind him. “Love them. I’m a huge fan of how they shriek and dive and snatch up little children from the playground.”
Behind him, Joshua snickered and pushed gently on his husband’s broad back. “Just grab us a seat and stop torturing Nate.”
“Andshit all over tourists’ heads!” Colin concluded, falling into the seat behind David and Nate with Joshua beside him.
“Don’t be an eagle basher, Colin,” Nate snapped. Then he turned to face them, waving a pamphlet in their faces. “Eagles have an incredible ability to soar higher than any other bird, reaching heights of up to ten thousand feet,” he read. “And they’re known for their keen vision and ability to focus on their prey from afar.” He glanced up at Colin. “That sounds likeyou.”
Colin smiled and shook his head. “Thanks, buddy. But I’m more of a turkey vulture than an eagle.”
For a long time, Nate stared at him in silence. Then he laid his hand over Colin’s as it rested on the seat back. “Colin, that is just not true.” Then he faced the front of the van and leaned his head against David’s shoulder.
Colin turned toward Joshua, but his husband’s head was bowed, and his face was lit with a soft, knowing smile. “Thus speaketh the prophet Nathanial.”
“He was a prophet?”
Joshua laughed and shook his head. “Nope. He was one ofyours. One of Jesus’ disciples.”
