He’s got a life in Albany, even if he could work from anywhere. Fox Hollow isn’t the big city. Would he consider moving? Would I be enough to keep him here?
Justin had done his share of dating in college. He’d had his heart broken and his hopes dashed more than once, but in hindsight realized it was for the best. Since he returned to Fox Hollow, when he wanted company he drove to Saranac Lake or Lake Placid, both of which had larger populations and a few gay bars.
After his last dating fiasco, Justin had sworn off casual hookups and partners who had no possibility of being the one. Staying home with a hot video and his own hand beat rejection. That protected his heart, but it didn’t get him any closer to finding someone to spend his life with.
Justin had started to wonder whether he should move the business to a larger tourist town. He liked Fox Hollow and wanted to stay, but not if it meant being alone.
Maybe, just maybe, my luck is turning.
That afternoon, Justin had two regular flyovers, lapsing into the tourist-friendly patter he could do from heart.
“What do you do when the lakes freeze?” his last customer asked, a man in his fifties in town meeting up with some old college friends.
“The floats work like skis.” Justin caught the look of incredulity on the man’s face. “Really. I can’t land in deeppowder, but hard ice with a light snow is just fine for coming and going. I just have to be more careful to avoid icing.”
“I don’t think I could take the cold,” his guest admitted. “I live in Binghamton. It’s hardly Florida, but by comparison, maybe it is. We get a lot of snow, but I’m pretty sure you get more of it up here, and colder temperatures.”
“Most years, yeah,” Justin agreed. “And it’s not for everyone. It’s not uncommon for people who have fond memories of camping to try relocating and then go back home after they dig out of the snow drifts.”
“I can see that,” the man said. “I think I’ll keep my creature comforts in Binghamton, but I admire the grit it takes to live here year-round.”
Justin nodded. “We’ll be here, whenever you want to visit.” He’d had this conversation with guests more often than he could remember.
While it helped to not mind the cold, Justin didn’t think of the necessary attitude as grit.It’s all about what makes you happy or miserable. I didn’t like being in a city without the lakes and forests. Working in a cubicle in an office building felt suffocating. Here, I can breathe.
He didn’t try to explain that to his guest. It was something people either got intuitively or didn’t. Justin didn’t get much of a sixth sense reading on the man, or any deep need to start fresh in a new place, like he did with some customers. Those folks he gently nudged toward the relocation resources at the library and its very helpful librarian. Sometimes they turned into new neighbors. Usually, they became seasonal repeaters.
Justin knew which one he hoped Scott would become.
“Hey, what the hell is that?” his guest exclaimed, pointing to something lumbering alongside the road north of Fox Hollow.
Justin banked the plane and came around for another pass, expecting to be able to easily identify the animal, and surprisedwhen he couldn’t.Is that the sort of “creature” Scott heard people talking about?
“I don’t know,” Justin replied. “But every time someone thinks they’ve found a new species, it always ends up being a bear with mange.”
“If you say so.” The man sounded unconvinced. “But I think I’ll skip taking a late-night walk, just in case.” They circled back, making one last flyover of Fox Hollow before Justin came in for a landing on the lake and maneuvered up to the dock.
“Thank you.” The customer shook Justin’s hand after he got out. “That was a fun tour. I’ll tell my friends about you. Hope you stay busy all winter.”
“I appreciate that.” Justin waved goodbye as the man walked away. He couldn’t shake a feeling of uneasiness at the strange sighting andfigured he would ask around and see if anyone else had spotted anything unusual.
Could be some weird mutation, or an unfortunate hybrid, he told himself.Or it really might be a bear with mange. Probably nothing exciting.
He checked the time, impatient for his date with Scott.
It’sdinner. We didn’t call it a date. I’d like it to be a date. But I don’t know how he thinks about it. He’s here all week. Maybe if I play my cards right, and we really do have the fated mates thing going, we can see what happens. I’m ready to find the right guy, and Scott sure seems to fit the bill.
Justin went through his nightly closedown routine and chided himself for being in too much of a hurry with Scott.I don’t want to move too fast and scare him off or look desperate. I’ve got a feeling I really need to earn his trust.
When Justin searched his intuition, he sensed conflicting responses. Scott had responded to his flirting and hadn’t shut him down. He agreed to dinner. And there was the zing. And yet, there had also been hesitation. That could be normal caution orwariness due to bad past experiences. Regardless of the reason, Justin knew he needed to tune into his psychic connection to guide him. His sixth sense told him that Scott was too important to lose.
Good thing I’m a Taurus. Stubbornness might as well be my middle name.
Of course, his sign also tended toward loyalty, stability, and a love of pleasure, all things he hoped a partner would consider to be good traits. He wondered what Scott’s sign was and whether they were zodiac compatible. If they were, all the better, but he wasn’t about to let a horoscope get between him and the first man who had caught his eye in quite a while.
He checked the time and saw that he had just enough to shower and change clothes before picking up Scott. The hot water sluiced away the concerns of the day, and rubbing one out under the spray took the edge off. Scott pressed all his buttons, but Justin knew that tonight wasn’t likely to end with anything more than a friendly kiss good night if he was lucky.
That didn’t stop his imagination. He wondered if Scott’s body hair was reddish or darker blond, all the way down his treasure trail. In Justin’s mind’s eye, Scott’s cock was proportional to his height, long and thick, and heavy in his hand as they stroked each other off.
