Page 32 of Home Between Homes

At first, he just stroked my hair, but when that made me purr like a cat, he got more into it. Both of his hands crawled from my crown to my beard, working their way to my chin and then down my neck back to my crown again. “Is that good?”

“M-hm,” I replied, surrendering to the magic of his hands. I had already experienced that wherever they touched my skin, new life was infused into me, but this was even more addictive. He caressed my shoulders, reached through the top of my sweater, and crawled through the five hairs that grew on my chest, only to start the entire process over again.

After three rounds, I couldn’t even squint both eyes at the same time.

He leaned his head over mine, his fingers crawling through my beard. “Who’s a good boy?”

My whole body tingled at his words. But unfortunately, that was the end of this heavenly bliss.

He withdrew his touch and grinned at me. “I’ve been clogging up the line all morning. You want to call someone?”

I opened my eyes up again. “I already sent my parents a text, which I think went through.” I fumbled for my phone, which had fallen into the crack at the side of the couch, and opened the Messenger app to show it to him. Two gray checkmarks below the message let me know it had at least reached their end. “They don’t like to talk much on the phone, in case you were wondering. If I called them, it would be over in a minute anyway. And besides them…” I stopped. My eyes sank to the floor. “...besides them, there is no one else I could call.” I lifted my head again, smiling as if I didn’t care. “Is that sad?”

His eyes lingered on me before he shook his head. “No, just a little reckless. Great people like you shouldn’t have to go through life alone.”

I had never thought of it that way, but he wasn’t wrong. Once I started vet school, it became harder to keep in touch with people. I learned better on my own, and through all the rotations and internships, I was constantly meeting new people and growing apart from others.

Jack kissed me on the cheek. “Well, you can call me from now on. I will always be happy to hear from you.”

“Even if we haven’t talked in years?”

Jack opened his arms like a talk show host greeting the audience. “This is exactly our situation, and look how close we are. Who cares about five years?” He put his palm on my head and left it there for five seconds, just like I did when the dogs at the clinic needed their emotions acknowledged, and it had exactly the grounding effect I was told it would.

“How many people do you have to call?” I asked, now wanting his hand to stay on my head longer.

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, the fingers of his right hand twitching as he counted. “Four, no six if I count my friends. But they’re a couple and as chatty on the phone as your parents, so it’s only a short fifth call.”

“Then I don't want to keep you from it.”

“You want me to be done so I can get my hands back on you,” he said, sticking out his tongue. “I saw it in your face, and I will gladly oblige.” He shuffled back to the landline. His smirk lit up the room as he continued to eye me for the next hour he was on the phone.

The next day,my list of things I learned to love about Jack grew longer when he told me he was a‘total softie,’as he put it. I had suggested we could watch a movie, and when I say movie, I usually mean something from the horror genre. Strangely enough, they calmed me down, probably because the characters had a harder time than I did.

As soon as I suggested it, his ears flicked back as if trying to hide, which they couldn't, given their size.

“You’re the first gay guy I’ve met who doesn’t like horror movies,” I teased him.

“Well, if it helps, my friends are crazy about them. They have amassed quite a collection over the years. I bet you’d have a fantastic evening with them.”

“I want to have a fantastic evening with you, so let’s do something else.”

“No, no. We can watch one. Just know that I will look away half the time.”

The image of him hiding his face on my shoulder every time he got scared made me blush and want to go through withit now.How darn cute would that be?But the urge to do something we would both enjoy was stronger.

I let my eyes wander around the room, trying to think of something else, when the gay cowboy book Mrs. Candice had given me caught my attention. I walked over to the coffee table and held it up. “How about this instead?”

His ears turned red as he stared at the bare chests of the two cover models.

“From one horror to the next, huh?” I joked, turning the book over to take in their six-pack abs. They were what most people would call good-looking, but oddly enough, they didn’t turn me on half as much as Jack did fully clothed.

“Have you ever read anything like this?” Jack asked.

I hadn’t read fiction in a long time. I loved novels when I was younger, but they were replaced by textbooks in college and by doom-scrolling Instagram at night in veterinary school. “I found a similar book in the library not long before I moved out of Glenn’s Creek.” I was still at the point in my life where I was figuring things out. “It was a fascinating read.”

“I knew it,” Jack laughed.

The one I had read back then didn’t have any scenes in it that would justify such a reaction. The hottest scene mentioned only a kiss and a hand sliding under a t-shirt. I still masturbated to that fantasy for days. Judging by the cover, Mrs. Candice’s book would not fade to black.

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