He nodded and I helped him climb out of the window so that I could pull him all the way into my arms. He hugged me back, thank goodness. I kissed his curls and breathed him in. I missed falling asleep to his familiar scent. I missed cuddling and waking up to him every morning. He was the home I’d been searching for, for so long. So why was I fucking everything up?
“I think this is officially a crop top on you now,” I said and poked his stomach.
He smiled, tugging at the bottom hem of his shirt. “This is my favorite shirt. It’s perfectly worn in and soft, just the way I like it.”
“Yellow is your color,” I said, and he allowed my hands to linger, brushing the soft skin of his navel.
“Are you working tonight?” he asked.
“Nope. I’ve got the night off, so I can come home right after dinner and give you some special attention.”
He nodded and gave me a tentative smile. “I’d like that.”
“I’d like that too.” I kissed the few freckles that dotted the bridge of his upturned nose like a speckled egg. “I’m sorry for being such a grouch lately.”
“You haven’t beenthatbad,” he said, trying to be kind.
“You don’t have to lie, sweetness.”
“I just miss you is all,” he said softly. “And there are things we still need to talk about.”
“I know.” The conversation was coming, and I wasn’t going to avoid it any longer. There was too much at stake. “We’ll talk when I get home, I promise. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I kissed him slowly, sweetly, enough to last us both until we could be together again, then I patted his rear and told him I’d be back soon. I walked with him and the others until I had to peel off from the group, and as I made my way to Larry’s house, I thought about what Kitten had said.
Hopefully there was nothing to worry about. Jeremiah was rough around the edges, certainly, but Larry had known the man from way back, and he went to great lengths to veteveryonewho came into this community.
Even so, I’d be keeping a close eye on him.
* * *
“Cipher,welcome, glad you could make it. Care for a beer?”
Larry flashed me a full cooler of beer, already on ice. I hadn’t had an ice-cold beer since Macon and I used some of our earnings in Atlanta to buy a twelve-pack and split it between us, which made it nearly impossible for me to say no. Besides, just one beer wouldn’t get me drunk or even all that tipsy.
“What about the no-nonsense rule?” I said to Larry as I twisted off the cap and felt the icy mist tickle my nose.
“Special occasion. Catching up with old friends.”
Not my friend,I thought, but I swallowed down the sentiment along with my first swig of beer. Jeremiah was already outside on the patio, and we joined him there, shooting the shit as the sun set behind the wooden privacy fence that surrounded Larry’s algae-infested pool. Jeremiah asked us why there’d been a goat tied up outside the gates, so I told him about the tiger attack and our plan to catch it, leaving out the part where I’d had it in my sights and allowed it to slip away.
“Whoooweee, a tiger? That’s something else,” Jeremiah said. “About the orneriest animal I ever came across was when I was on a foraging mission outside of El Paso. I was stationed at Fort Bliss at the time and I stumbled on a family of badgers living in the garden center of a Walmart. And they are mean sons-of-bitches if you catch them unawares. One of ‘em scratched the hell out of my arm, and I was scared to death I was gonna turn Rabid–that was before we knew animals couldn’t transmit the virus–but the medic gave me the old school shots and some strong antibiotics because by the time I got back to base, it was oozing pus like a motherfucker. Ever since then, I know better than to go poking in places where critters can hide. Shoot first, ask questions later, am I right?”
I shrugged because I didn’t go around shooting up harmless animals unless I intended to eat them. “I’m a live and let live sort of guy, unless I’m hunting an animal for food. That and scavenging is pretty much how we survived out in Rabid Country.”
“Oh yeah, where’d y’all come from?”
“D.C.”
“Shit, and you walked all the way here? I’m surprised you made it. Those woods are chock full of Rabids. Seems like there’s more of ‘em every day.”
“We slept in shifts and kept watch overnight. There were a few close encounters.” My mind flashed back to the night Kitten saved my life, his first kill. I’d underestimated him then. I probably still did.
“I’ll bet. Hey, what’s the best thing you ever found when you were out there scavenging?” Jeremiah asked.
The answer to that was easy: Kitten. But there was no way I was going to tell them that, so I went with the most expensive item I’d ever discovered. “I once found a diamond tennis bracelet that was worth a few thousand dollars. I traded it at an outpost near Fredericksburg for a gun and some ammo.”
