Page 66 of Summer Lessons

“Please tell me you’re kidding.” The horror on Terry’s face would have been comical if Mason hadn’t spent too many weekends like that with Ira to count.

“My last ex had a thing for organic produce and cooking stuff—I mean, I get new recipes and all, but God! Shopping! Why?”

Terry chuckled. “I don’t really have exes. There’s guys I’ve fucked and you.”

Mason looked at him. Just looked at him until he squirmed as he sat.

“You’re better,” he clarified.

“So glad to hear that.” Mason kissed the top of his head and then asked the thing that had been pressing on his chest forever. “Can you leave her? Can you move out? Do you want to be a grown-up bad enough to do that?”

Terry took a deep breath, and then another, and then a third. Every time he let out a breath, he collapsed a little more, becoming part of the landscape of Mason’s chest. “Yeah,” he said after the last breath. “I’m going to start cleaning up her house. When she gets to a place where she can take care of herself, I’ll get myself an apartment or something.” Terry looked up at him hopefully. “And then we can have lots more days like this one.”

Mason smiled widely. That sounded like a plan.

But it must not have been wide enough.

“Is your brother going to be okay not at home?” Terry asked tentatively. “Because most of you is here with me, but some of you is….”

“Worried,” Mason supplied. “And I’m sorry.” He grimaced. “This might be a good time to tell you that the worry never goes away. Dane will be dealing with this for his entire life, and I’m going to be worrying for him that long. Even if he finds someone, you know?”

“Yeah, but if he finds someone, then you got a cocaptain, right? Someone you can work with who’snotMom and Dad?”

Mason remembered the helpless anger from that morning and the incessant anxiety that came from trying to monitor his brother’s anxiety levels.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “A team approach would be nice. It’s just so private. You know,myboyfriend and then Dane’s, when he gets one. It would just be okay to not feel alone.”

“Not alone,” Terry whispered. “I can’t promise much, but for right now, not alone.”

They were quiet then, and Mason reached for the remote to turn the movie back on when Terry stopped him by putting an ear to his chest.

“I can hear your heart,” he said, a smile in his voice.

“It’s beating special just for you,” Mason said, not sure if he should be proud of that line or cringe.

“It’s warm, just for me,” Terry said.

“Course.”

He hit Play on the movie and Terry stayed there, listening to the warm beat of his heart.

At around six they went downstairs and warmed up some soup for dinner, and then they went back upstairs, where a lazy hand job turned into an intense sixty-nine that left them both breathless. Terry went and got a washcloth and wiped Mason down, his motions efficient and gentle.

And that turned into a kiss.

Which turned into Mason propping one knee on the bed while he stood up and fucked Terry into the mattress from behind.

Terry’s noisy hollers as he came made Masonveryglad Dane wasn’t there. Something about how uninhibited he was, how eager he was to enjoy what they were doing, made the sex…

Amazing.

And exhausting. Mason was sort of glad when they finished off that last time. He thought he might be starting to chafe. When Terry collapsed limply on the bed, giggling, Mason figured he’d had his limit too.

“You okay?” Mason asked, nuzzling his ear.

“I had no idea,” Terry whispered, turning to look at him.

“No idea what?”