Page 13 of Summer Lessons

“Sounds compelling and life-changing—I’m in.”

“Are youlookingfor compelling and life-changing?” Jefferson asked, and even though he was still being playful, Mason couldn’t help remember what he’d been trying to say to Dane the night before.

“A man can always hope,” he said a little wistfully.

“Yeah.” The sigh on the other end of the line hurt something in Mason’s chest, but he couldn’t say why. “I’ve given up hope. I’ll take soccer instead.”

“Would you take golf, or are you too scared of rich douche bags?” The words were out before Mason could stop them.

“Fine. I’ll play your silly rich person’s game, since you’re going to clean your own cleats and all.”

Mason was about to fist pump before he realized he didn’t know if this was a date or not. Or if Jefferson was really gay. Or if he’d be interested in Mason if he was.

“So when’s good for you?”Caution, Mason, caution—let’s try not to say anything about sucking on his neck and fondling his penis before we know the important things.

“No time is actuallygoodfor me,” Jefferson muttered, “but since we have three weeks before the next soccer season picks up and my mom’s used to me being gone on Saturdays, can we fit it in there?”

Mason had to think about it. Tee times usually had to be reserved a couple of weeks in advance at almost any course in the area, but…. “How early can you be there?” he asked hopefully. “Because if we can do a six-thirty tee time, we can squeeze that in.”

Jefferson’s low-throated chuckle was one of the dirtiest, most sexually arousing things Mason had ever heard.

“Squeezing things in? I can do that.”

“Gurgh.” So help him, it was the only thing he could say. That one sound, and he was suddenly sporting a chubby in his family gathering slacks, and his only hope was that he didn’t go for full-blown wood or he’d renew the lease on his circumcision.

“So, the Saturday after New Year’s? Like, a week and a half from now?”

“Yeah,” Mason managed. “I’ll call you if they’re full up.”

“I can do full up too,” Jefferson said, and how did that sound suggestive? Mason hadn’t been laid in nearly ten months—that was the only answer for how “full up” could sound like an orgy porno.

“I, uh, don’t know how to take that?” Apparently Mason took it like sex on tap, but that was probably his own hormonal imbalance at this point.

“Reserve the day, even if you can’t reserve the course,” Jefferson said cryptically. In the background, Mason heard his mother’s voice shouting, “Terrence, are you going to be on the phone all day? It’s Christmas. Do you even care? Weren’t we going to church in half an hour?”

“I’ll be there,” Jefferson said, his voice firm. “You just text me with where.”

“Will do,” Mason said, and then, because he could hear some of the desperation in Jefferson’s voice, “I promise.”

“See you then.” And then he hung up.

“Dane!” Mason hissed, grabbing his phone from the island console and thrusting it at his brother.

“What?” Dane snarled, because losing sleep had never been his favorite thing.

“I need you to do something for me—”

“Now?”

“Shut up and reserve a tee time for me at Timber Creek.”

“You woke me out of a sound sleep for agolf game? I’ll never make you breakfast burritos again!”

Mason fumbled with one hand andmadeDane take the phone. “What you just slept through was Jefferson calling me up and scheduling a golf game. And inviting me onto the soccer team. And… and laughing. Laughing like… like chocolate-coated hormone sin. AndI really need to play that fucking golf game!”

He was hyperventilating, oh yes he was, but his groin still ached a little from that laugh. And his heart was still beating with the adrenaline high of being called up and… oh hell. At the very least it was a play date with a friend, and since Ira had gotten all of those with the split, Mason was going to take that at face value and run gleefully onto the golf course.

“Oh. Isleptthrough that? Talk about unfair.” Dane straightened up and started messing with Mason’s phone. “Of course, you need to make that reservationright now. But you know what the price is gonna be?”