Page 31 of Summer Lessons

“Making love to you,” Mason said, thinking that as vocabulary lessons went, this one wasn’t bad.

“Oh….” Terry’s mouth went slack, his lower lip as vulnerable as anything Mason had ever seen.

“We were making love,” Mason insisted. “Is there anything wrong with that?”

“I just didn’t know that’s what that was,” Terry said, eyes big. “That’s… that’s awesome.”

Mason wished he could bury his face in Terry’s shoulder forever. “It is,” he said tenderly, dropping a kiss on his sweaty forehead. “Would you like to do it again?”

“Yeah!” Enthusiasm unbound, and Mason smiled weakly.

“Good,” he said quietly, lowering his head for another kiss. Terry gave it to him, but Mason could feel his cock softening in the chill. He pulled back from the kiss and glanced at his clock, heart sinking. “Are you sure you can’t stay another….”

Terry glanced too, and his unhappiness was palpable. “No,” he said, looking away. “I’m sorry.”

Mason kissed him one more time. “Next week,” he said. “After the soccer game.”

And that smile, the one that said Mason would never know the gift he’d just given—thatsmile practically blinded him. “I’d like that.”

Mason closed his eyes against the separation and then rolled away. He disposed of the condom and stared blindly around for his clothes. “Me too,” he said, voice thick in his throat. A weekend thing? Was that what this was? What they’d just done had felt much bigger.

“Hey,” Terry said, putting his hand on Mason’s back. “I… I mean, maybe I can get away other nights too.”

Mason swallowed and nodded, not meeting his eyes.

Terry’s hand fell away, and he found his boxers and yanked them up with unnecessary force. “I knew it,” Terry muttered. “You’re going to get all pissy and possessive—”

“No,” Mason said quietly, standing up and finding his own underwear to put on. “I’m not. I… I like spending time with you, that’s all. It doesn’t all have to be sports and sex.”

“Oh.” Terry paused in the act of pulling his shirts on. One of those was the sweatshirt Mason had provided for him, and Mason wasn’t going to say a word about Terry having something of Mason’s on his body. “What do you—”

“We could see a movie,” Mason suggested hopefully. “Or you could come over and watch one. Or play… well, I don’t play them, but my brother plays video games, or….”

Oh Lord, this was embarrassing. This was like being in grade school and looking for a playmate after the debacle of the puberty video.

Terry hadn’t put on his shorts yet, but that didn’t stop him from moving into Mason’s space and wrapping strong arms around his waist. “My mom is… needy,” he said at last. “She wants me home all the time I’m not working. And I keep trying things—got her enrolled in classes or job placement or stuff—but….” He let out a half laugh. “She’s so mean, Mason. Nobody wants to talk to her. But I’m all she’s got. I… I don’t know how to—”

Mason captured his chin and kissed him as sweetly as he knew how. “Just think of me when you can,” he said, his heart twisting in his chest. “Just… if you can come over, don’t worry about time for sex. It can be time for television. If you’re near Tesko and it’s lunchtime, text me—we can eat together. I’m just….”

Terry’s lips twitched. “Think bigger,” he said, then laughed a little at the dirty pun. “You want me to think bigger than a meet-and-fuck.”

“Yeah.” Mason’s heart untwisted—not completely, but enough to beat.

“I can’t promise you movie dates or anything like that.”

And then it stopped.

He must have made a sound then—of hurt, or disappointment, of something—because Terry took his cheeks in both hands and looked up to meet Mason’s eyes through his wedge of streaked brown hair. “Wait,” he said softly. “I’ll tell you what Icanpromise, if it’ll help.”

And oh! Mason hadn’t counted on how much this interlude would mean to him, because it was like spring had arrived in the bleak, foggy January.

“What?” he asked, knowing he sounded young and needy, and too damned hurt to be embarrassed about it.

“I promise I won’t do this with anyone but you. So, you know, next time, remember the lube, forget the condoms. That is if….” Now Terry bit his lip.

Oh.

“Yeah, I want that. As long as we’re doing this, we’re only doing this with each other.”