Page 39 of String Boys

“Your lips are blue,mijo,” he said softly. “You need to get out of the water sooner, or your balls will disappear.”

Seth made that dorky little laugh in his throat and bobbed his head, and Kelly wished they were alone so he could rub his thumb on Seth’s blue lips and maybe put some color back in them.

“So,” Seth said, his voice still an undertone, “you think your b-b-rother will still—”

“Sneak off to get laid?” Kelly finished. “I hope so. Best time of the trip!”

They didn’t do anything, not really. Last night, Matty had waited until they both grew quiet and their breathing grew even, then had snuck out of the tent, mumbling something about the bathroom. But they’d both heard Isela getting out of the girls’ tent at the same time. Mom and Dad were sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of the minivan, so they probably didn’t hear. Either way, Matty and Isela snuck off to be alone at night, and Kelly and Seth kissed.

That’s all. Kissed. Cuddled. Held hands.

Quietly acknowledged that they were there as a couple.

It was the first time Kelly wondered if it might be worth it to call a halt to Soccer Wednesdays. It would almost be worth it to work harder to find time for sex if they could kiss everywhere—or even just touch hands, or hips, or shoulders.

If only Kelly could rub his thumb over Seth’s lips and make them pink again.

“Kelly!”

They both jerked, and Kelly wondered how long his dad had been calling his name. He was out of the water already, and Seth’s lipswerepink again, and they’d apparently been staring into each other’s eyes like his totally disgusting brother and his bitchy girlfriend.

How gross.

But it was totally unavoidable, and he’d stare into Seth’s eyes again and again if he could.

“What, Dad?” he asked, seeing Seth looking away at the lake with his secret Kelly-smile on his lips.

“If you two are dry, go put on some sweatshirts and help your mother like she asked. Geez, you guys, you were totally….”

Kelly’s dad turned his head sideways and stared. His lips moved, and he looked hard at Seth and then back at Kelly, and Kelly kept his eyes big and round and innocent, like he had when he’d been little and had taken the last cookie, because the girlsalwaysgot the last cookie, and sometimes Kelly just liked more than one, that was all.

Kelly stood up and tagged Seth on the shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get dressed. The skeeters’ll come out and eat us both if we don’t.”

Seth nodded and gave Kelly’s dad an absent smile. “I hate mosquito bites,” he said serenely, with so much space cowboy in his voice that even Kelly doubted he’d been mooncalfing at Kelly the way Kelly had been mooncalfing at him.

It worked, because Kelly’s dad shook his head like he was shaking off a particularly new and scary idea, and Seth and Kelly ventured through the woods, using the path that cut from the campground to the lake.

“That was close,” Kelly muttered.

“That wasn’t close,” Seth said, surprising him. “That actually happened. Kelly, I’m betting Soccer Wednesdays aren’t gonna continue after this week.”

As. If.

“What? They’re gonna make me go with them? With all the other kids playing? I don’t think so. What are they gonna say? ‘Erm, Kelly, you have to do homework up in your room because, even though you’re getting As and Bs, we think you need to be alone to get more As and Bs?’”

Seth let out a sigh. “They could just say it’s inappropriate for two young people who are dating to have so much time alone together.”

Kelly scowled and kicked a rock. “Like my brother?”

“Those were actually your mom’sexactwords to your brother last night when they went for a nature walk.”

Kelly guffawed, worry forgotten. “Nature walk. Seriously. They probably mean walk au naturale!”

He heard Seth choke on a snort, and the topic was dropped as they negotiated the divots in the path and the logs lying on top of it. Suddenly Seth hissed, “Shh!” He put his hand on Kelly’s shoulder and moved close enough that Kelly could still feel the chill of the lake water radiating from his skin. He leaned forward and whispered, “Look!” into Kelly’s ear.

And besides the insta-boner, because Kelly’s ears hadnotgotten any less sensitive, Kelly was also alerted to… “Ooooh….” Both of them took the moment to look at the mama deer and her half-grown fawn, moving through the woods at a leisurely pace, picking delicately at the grass growing between the trees and the rocks on the ground.

They stood, frozen, watching the tableaux, enchanted, when Seth’s body behind Kelly’s became an unbearable temptation.