Page 139 of Butterfly

“Yes. I did. But there wasn’t a scary-looking guy freaking out when I hit the dirt, not to mention the way he glared at my bike afterwards. I thought he was going to smash it to pieces with his bare hands.”

“I think he thought about it.”

Leo laughed. “You get your own for him to destroy.”

Ollie laughed. “Will Jess be watching?”

“She will.”

Ollie smiled. “Great. I can tell her some embarrassing stories about you.”

Leo groaned. “Please don’t.”

“That’s what big brothers are for.”

“I hate you.”

“You don’t. Not even close.”

“Not even close,” Leo whispered back.

A brown butterfly flitted past, a meadow brown butterfly to be exact, and Ollie smiled.

“See you Saturday.”

“Saturday,” Leo agreed.

“And if you don’t win the race, I’ll disown you.”

Leo exhaled loudly, then hung up.

Ollie snorted, pocketing his phone, then trudged at a quicker pace to get to the meadow. There were more brown butterflies, orange and white ones too, but no peacocks. A slither of red showed above his T-shirt, the tease of his own butterfly.

He wondered if it would confuse the ones flapping about the meadow if he took off his T-shirt.

Ollie didn’t.

Instead, he found a small clearing to lie down, closed his eyes and enjoyed the sun on his face. He didn’t know how much time passed, suspecting he might’ve had an accidental nap while lying there, but he did know when Teddy loomed over him.

Teddy hadn’t made a sound when he’d stepped through the meadow. He hadn’t nudged Ollie with his foot or even disturbed a blade of grass in contact with Ollie’s body. The sun was still overhead and not blocked out by Teddy’s frame, but Ollie still knew he was there.

It was a sixth sense for the person he was in love with. He knew Teddy stood over him, would even go as far as saying he knew the expression on his face, narrowed eyes, and a tight mouth, and his body language of crossed arms.

“I didn’t go far,” Ollie whispered before opening his eyes.

Sure enough, Teddy stood scowling at him with his arms tightly folded.

Ollie sat up, stretching his arms. “Tell me why you’re upset. Sign it to me.”

Teddy dropped his hands by his sides. His fingers twitched.

They’d been learning sign language together, not that they needed it to communicate with each other. It was for others so that they could communicate with Teddy. Rory, Sebastian, Captain and Jarvis had all joined them, with Jarvis learning far quicker than the rest of them, which made Captain tease him and Jarvis blush.

“We’ve got to practise any chance we get.”

Teddy sighed, sagging with acceptance.

He used his hands, his expression and his body to sign,I was scared.

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