Page 37 of Herds and Hooves

“Ready to go for a swim? Might be a little cold.”

I pulled my shirt over my head and picked up the backpack and ice chest from behind the seat. “Let’s go check it out.” We took a few steps before he took the ice chest from me and took my hand as we walked closer to the edge.

“Watch your footing and be aware of snakes.” He said it so casually. Like he was pointing out one of the cows looking cute in the pasture. I stopped in my tracks and looked at every possible place I thought a snake could be. There was grass, and rocks, so many rocks that a snake could hide under or behind.

“Exactly what kind of snakes?” I asked, even though I knew.

“Mostly rattlers.”

“Keith, why are you taking me someplace so dangerous?” I yelled loud enough to echo off the rocks.

“Don’t worry, the snakes don’t want to be around us any more than we want to be around them, and I’m pretty sure you just scared any of them out of here with that shout.” He smiled and gave me the look that made my insides turn to goo every fucking time. How could I ever be mad at someone like him?

“Good, come on. I want to swim,” I said and started to walk down in front before changing my mind and letting Keith lead.

Thirty

Keith

We made our way down the short path to the water. It was so clear we could see a few fish swimming along the rocky bottom. I set the ice chest down and turned in time to see Bart strip down and jump off one of the boulders into the water. As soon as he hit he burst out of the water screaming. “Oh my god it’s so fucking cold. Get your fine ass in here with me.”

His jaw trembled slightly as he watched me and I ignored the fact it probably was still too cold to go swimming and jumped in next to him. I broke the surface and struggled to catch my breath. “Oh my god it’s too fucking cold.” My arms and legs flailed around as I continued to gasp for air.

“Hey, it’s not that bad,” Bart said, and swam over before wrapping himself around me. Now it was my jaw that trembled from the cold.

“So cccccold.”

“I’ll warm you up.”

I moved us closer to the shore where I could touch the bottom, and he squeezed me tighter with his legs before leaning in to kiss me. Our tongues explored and eventually I relaxed enough the cold didn’t feel so penetrating. “I’d ask you to fuck me, but I’d probably be clenched too tight.” He met my eyes and laughed.

“Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of fucking in the wilderness. I’m much happier in a bed, or at least a couch, possibly a truck.”

I gripped his legs and moved us through the water, until Bart was finally able to unlock his legs. “The old man was right, this is beautiful.”

“You’ve been here before.”

“Only once, and it was a long time ago. I didn’t swim.”

“Did you come here with another boy?”

“Yeah, but he had no clue I was gay. We were good friends in school, but he ended up moving away after graduation.” I hadn’t thought about Gabe in years. We were always together from kindergarten to graduation, and then his family moved and I never heard from him again.

“Where did they move?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t remember him mentioning that. It was a different time then. When someone moved out of town you didn’t expect to ever see them again. Social media wasn’t like it is now and even though we had cell phones it was just different.”

“More small town shit?”

“Pretty much,” I admitted.

“I’ll help you look for him online if you want. Maybe he didn’t move that far away.”

“I might take you up on that, but right now I have another guy in my arms that I’m much more interested in,” I whispered before kissing him again.

“Good thing, because this guy has lots of interest in you too,” Bart said and for a while we floated around talking about anything and everything, and I just enjoyed the feel of his skin against mine.

“Look out below,” a voice from above yelled and four guys I knew from Foggy Basin jumped in on the opposite side. “Holy shit that’s cold.”