"I have no idea." Zed hung Travis' shorts off his finger. "Why don't you come and get them?"
"You're naked!" Jon feigned shock and disgust. "Alex, make Zed give 'em back!"
"Hey, Alex! What're you doin', buddy? Get in here," Phil called. "You gotta keep Zed in line. You're the only one that can control him."
"Ha! Only when I let him." Zed swam across to Travis and dangled his shorts. "What are you willing to do to get them back?"
Travis shrugged. "I don't care whether I get them back or not."
"Eww. Zed, give them back now. There are some things that a guy's friends shouldn't see." Blake mimed puking. "Alex!"
Zed rolled his eyes. "You're all a bunch of babies. What's Alex going to do? Spank me?" Plus it seemed as if Alex was ignoring them anyway. Sleeping or having an anxiety attack?
"Fuck, Zed! TMI." Jon laughed.
"Jealous." Zed threw Travis' shorts to him and swam to the edge of the pond. He shook his head and sent water droplets flying, before loping over to Alex.
"Don't go to sleep, love, you'll burn that pretty nose." Zed leaned across to kiss Alex's nose, dripping water across his face and neck.
"Done swimming?"
"For now." Zed lay on his front next to Alex. The sun warming his back was always a turn on. "You think the back's an erogenous zone?"
"No idea." Alex rolled onto his side and ran a warm hand down Zed's spine. "Why?"
Zed shivered. Yup, definitely an erogenous zone. "Feels so good," he mumbled.
Alex laughed. "Maybe you'd better go back in the water and cool off."
"You know what I'd rather be doing. Or who..." Zed wriggled and pushed his cargo shorts down a few inches. "They'd dry a lot quicker if I took them off."
"I don't think our friends want to see your ass."
"Alex, Alex, Alex, don't you remember that last camping trip? Just after high school? They've all seen my ass." Zed flashed a quick smile at Alex. "And more."
Alex laughed. "That had to be the oddest and best game of truth or dare we ever played. But I'd rather you keep your shorts on."
Zed gave a fake sigh. "The things I do to keep you happy." He leaned his forehead on his arms. "Stop watching Becca."
"I'm not. I'm watching you."
"Am I doing anything interesting?"
"Just being you." Alex's fingers ran through Zed's hair. "Thanks for getting out and sitting with me."
"I can be a good boyfriend. Draw me." Zed never tired of being drawn and, luckily, Alex never tired of drawing him.
"I did. I'll draw you later, too, when we're alone in our tent."
Zed grinned. "Make sure you make some time to draw this place. Phil and Tania might like a painting of it." Zed turned over, his shorts almost indecently low. "Don't wanna fry my back."
"Pull up your shorts. Don't want you to fry that either."
"They're not that low. You're turning into your mom."
"You're such a sweet talker."
"You know it."
Travis loped up to them and sat next to Alex, shaking his head and showering water all over. "So, Alex..."
"Yes, Travis?" Alex sat up and wiped the water droplets off his cheek.
"No offense to Zed -- he's quite pretty for a guy -- but fucking him?" Travis questioned.
Zed laughed. Travis' question wasn't rude but, as this was the first time he and Alex had seen their friends since they officially became a couple around Christmas, there was bound to be curiosity. Especially as Alex had a string of ex-girlfriends.
"Are you really that interested in my sex life? I could go into detail if you want."
Zed sat up and draped himself over Alex's back, arms around his neck. "Mmm, please do."
"Well, when a nice boy meets another nice boy--"
"Lunch is up!" Tania's shout came from the house.
Travis jumped up -- the story of Alex's sex life obviously becoming unimportant when food was being offered -- and ran toward the house. Zed and Alex followed at a more sedate pace.
"Was a time you'd have been first to the food. Mellowing?" Zed asked.
"Just not that hungry I guess."
"That'd be a first." But Zed still bet that Alex would eat his share and part of Zed's as well.
By the time they made it to the house, Tania had placed two plates of sandwiches, a few bags of potato chips, a bowl of salad greens and a stack of paper plates on a ramshackle picnic table.
"Need any help?" Alex grabbed two ice-cold beers, handing one to Zed, and twisted off the cap.
"Thanks, but I think I have everything we'll need." Tania took a seat on the bench. "Hopefully this..." She tapped the picnic table. "...will last until we finish the renovations."
"It looks sturdy enough." Alex took a seat opposite her. "Food looks great."
"Thanks. Dig in. No need to wait for the others. There's plenty."
"Just what I wanted to hear." Travis grabbed a plate and filled it with chips.
Zed grabbed a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and some salad, figuring he'd at least have some sustenance before the hungry hoards got to the spread.
The rest of the workers arrived, still dripping from their dip. Towels didn't seem to be mandatory. Within minutes, the mounds of sandwiches had been reduced to a layer and the potato chips were just crumbs.
Phil dropped a kiss on his wife's head. "This is awesome. Marry me and feed me forever."
"Idiot," she returned, fondly. "If I'd realized how much food prep was required in marrying you, I'd have thought harder about my answer."
"And missed all this?" Phil encompassed the run down farm and garden with a sweep of his arm. "I couldn't do it without you, honey."
"Aww, how sweet," Kitty cooed.
"Not that sweet." Tania laughed. "Have you ever tasted Phil's cooking?"
***
"A gallon of WD40 would come in handy," Zed observed as he and Alex struggled to open the huge barn door. "How long since it was last opened? Think we'll find anything cool in here?"
Alex shook his head and laughed. "How the hell would I know?"
"Which question are you answering?"
"Both." Alex grunted and pushed the sliding door again. "C'mon, if you'd put as much energy into pushing as you do into speculating, we'd be in already."
"Bitch, bitch, bitch." Zed laughed and doubled his efforts. Was it his fault he was a city boy and the most exercise he ever got was working out at the gym and sex? Having never even seen a barn close up, he was naturally curious. The writer in him contributed to the speculation. "Ghosts maybe?"
"Probably just rats and mice. Possibly snakes, raccoons and opossums." Alex stopped pushing and faced Zed. "Maybe spiders... you know, big ones."
Zed hadn't even let the thought of spiders cross his mind until now. "And you want me to go in there? Are you insane?"
Alex laughed. "I don't want you to go in there -- Phil does. It won't be so bad. Don't you have any fantasies about getting groped in a barn?"
"My fantasies are never as tame as being groped, and they never involve spiders." Zed looked Alex straight in the eye. "Promise me more than a grope, and I'll do it."
"Let's see how bad it is before I agree to anything more." Alex gave another hard shove and the door slid open.
"Dark," said Zed, gloomily, and pushed the door open wider. If he was going in, he was going in with as much light as possible.
"That's why we have our handy dandy flashlights." Alex held up his flashlight and turned it on. "C'mon, the sooner we go in and look around, the sooner we can fool around."
Zed hung back. That was a tough one; entering a spider infested barn with the promise -- yes, that had clearly been a promise -- of fooling around, or not entering said spider infested barn and probably not.
"Fuck it," Zed mumbled and flicked the flashlight on. He was right on Alex's heels within seconds and not a spider to be seen. Well, no gigantors anyway. There were plenty of webs playing host to smaller spiders. As long as he knew where they were, it would be okay. "Hey, it's not so bad. Bit smelly and damp." He tapped Alex's shoulder. "Think there might be ghosties?"
"Why haunt a barn? Unless it's the ghosts of cows past."
"You have no imagination."
"What do you mean I have no imagination?" Alex walked over to a stall, the flashlight beam illuminating the area. "I'm an artist. I can envision dueling dragons and paint them on you."
"That was pretty hot." Zed shone his flashlight into the depths of the barn. Moldering hay covered most of the floor, and Zed was sure the floor boards beneath it had seen better days. Little squeaks and rustling in the dry hay meant they weren't alone, but it was doubtful that spiders -- no matter how big -- were making those noises. Mice and rats probably. Tania would need a couple of cats to keep them under control.
Zed wandered deeper into the cavernous barn. "What's up there?" He pointed to what appeared to be another floor.
"Probably the hay loft," Alex said. The light from his flashlight landed on a set of boards nailed between two of the supporting beams. A makeshift ladder that Zed didn't trust for an instant.
"Let's check it out." Alex, not waiting for a response, proceeded to climb the ladder.
Hay loft, huh? Didn't sex always happen in hay lofts? Good enough. Conquering his mistrust of the home-made ladder in record time, Zed scooted up after Alex.
"Ugh, this is no better than down there." Zed's hand landed on a soggy clump of hay. At least, he hoped it was only a soggy clump of hay.
"You really are a city boy. Hay lofts were made for fooling around. Get over here and kiss me."
"I just didn't think they'd stink or be wet." But that didn't stop Zed from clambering up the last few steps and stopping in front of Alex. "Just so you know, I'm not fucking you up here."
Alex laughed. "That's not a problem."
With one hand behind Alex's neck and the other cupping his cheek, Zed pressed his lips to Alex's. Zed was pulled closer to Alex as Alex deepened the kiss, his tongue invading Zed's mouth, trying for domination. Zed's tongue thrust back, not to be overcome so easily. But his body was giving in to Alex's hands, one of which was between them, alternately palming his cock, then Alex's. Zed moaned and thrust against Alex's hand. If his boyfriend wanted to fuck right here, right now, he'd do it.
"Alex." Phil's voice drifted up to them. "Zed. If you're defiling my hay loft, I'll kill you."
Breaking the kiss, Alex answered, "Would we do such a thing?" He kept rubbing Zed's cock -- for which Zed was grateful.
"Dunno about you, but I know Zed would," Phil shouted up to them.
"If I come in my jeans, you are in big trouble," Zed murmured against Alex's neck.
"Is it my fault you have no self control?"
"Is it my fault I have a thing for public sex?"
With a chuckle, Alex stepped away and walked over to the edge of the hay loft. He looked down at Phil. "I take it you came out here for a reason other than interrupting us."
"Yeah, wanna know what you and Zed can do and what I need to get a contractor in for. That sort of thing."
"All of it if you don't let Alex blow me," Zed shouted.
Phil laughed. "So the price of having you help me out is Alex blowing you? Can't beat that."
"The things I'm willing to do for you and Tania. Think we can commandeer the radio so I can listen to the Uruguay/Ghana game?"
"Not while I'm getting head." Zed couldn't resist interjecting. Besides, he wanted all of Alex's attention on him.
Phil just laughed more. "Sure. Give me a yell when you've um... finished. And boys?"
"Yes?" Alex turned back to the edge of the hay loft.
"I don't want to hear any more about your sex life."
"If you stay there, Zed will come quicker and we can get back to work," Alex said, and Zed could hear the laughter in his voice. "He has this kink for public--"
"Not listening."
"Has he gone?" Zed asked, when Alex turned to face him again.
"Yes."
"Damn."
***
Leaning against Alex -- his boyfriend's arms around him -- and listening to Blake strumming his twelve string guitar, Zed was content. Grasshoppers chirruped, and frogs seemed to answer in their guttural way. Fireflies blinked over the garden and amongst the trees. The bonfire was now low, casting just enough light and seeming to keep away most of the mosquitoes. Good food, good friends, cold beer, and the only man he'd ever love unconditionally. Zed considered himself to be one of the lucky ones.
"Phil, why restore the house? Wouldn't it be better to knock it down and start again?" he asked the man sitting a few feet away from him.
"Too much history," Phil said. "Place belonged to an infamous bootlegger in the twenties. Ever heard of Ellison Palmer? Lucky Palmer?"
"Nope."
"Yes." Alex lifted his head from Zed's shoulder and was looking at Phil instead of breathing softly in Zed's ear. "He had an awesome art collection, apparently."