Page 21 of Summer of the Boy

“Rid, it’s okay.” I remind him again.

“No.” He won’t look at me. “You drive. I’m a man Leif. Just like you, butolder.”

“No one’s denying that. Of course you’re a man. Someone had to teach me.”

“My mom will use this against me.”

“Babe. We won’t tell her. I promise before the end of the summer you’ll be ready to get your license. Okay?”

“I’m a man.” He mumbles. Over and over again, he mumbles, “I’m a man.”

Not knowing what else to do, I lean over the center console, grab both sides of his face and plant a big, wet kiss on his lips. I feel him relax and allow him to take over the kiss. A risky move, anyone could see us making out hot and heavy in my front seat. But right now, I don’t have two shits to give.

I’m in love with my boyfriend.

“You should drive us home,” he murmurs with his lips still pressed against mine so I feel every word.

“Don’t want to stop kissing you,” I murmur in response. Not lifting my lips either.

“No. No.” Leave it to the autistic guy to be practical in this situation, pushing back from me. “We won’t have to stop when I’m at school with you.”

Both of us only capable of shallow breaths, Ridley waits a couple long minutes before he even attempts to finger-comb his hair, so he doesn’t look like he’d spent his commute between work and home making out with his boyfriend. I wouldn’t mind marching him in that house and pointing out his swollen lips and messy hair to his mother so she could get off his back. But he’s right, it’s not time for that yet.

“You’re a stronger man than me, Rid. I didn’t have the strength to push you away.”

Before we switch seats, he leans over the center console one more time to rub his thumb over the skin by the corner of my eye. He hasn’t said the words yet, but that one touch makes me feel more loved than I have any other time in my life.

“You called me a man.” Then he presses his lips gently where his thumb had been just a breath before. It wasn’t even on my lips, but that kiss lit up something inside me that even people who had experienced this feeling before us lacked the words to communicate.

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