Cory sent him a warm smile and stood up to close the door. “I’ll see you later. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Jasper said, shifting into gear and swerving onto the road.

Cory watched him drive away. He raised his hand and waved, smiling when Jasper sent him a backhanded wave.

Aside from his car problems, Cory had never been happier in his life. Thanks to Jasper, he’d finally come out of the closet and he’d come to terms with being bisexual. After dating more women than he could count, yet still being attracted to men at the same time, it was more of a relief than anything else to finally be the man he wanted to be. He’d grown tired of pleasing his family and his small-town friends. And he couldn’t have done any of this without Jasper’s help. They’d known each other for years. Their relationship began as a good friendship in high school and continued for a long time without either of them ever mentioning their true feelings for each other. Though Jasper had been openly gay since his high school graduation, Cory had always considered himself bisexual and he’d hidden his gay tendencies from everyone, including himself. It took almost ten years, on a cold snowy night in late January, for Jasper and Cory to finally validate their love. Cory had been smiling ever since.

As he turned to walk back to Cider Mill Farm, he heard Hunter call out his name. “I’m late, Cory. I hope I didn’t miss the bus.”

Hunter was running toward him, now visible from the slight bend in the road. Cory smiled. Hunter’s little legs were moving as fast as they could carry him. His backpack jumped at his side and his hair bounced on his forehead.

Then Luis came jogging up behind Hunter. “Did you see the bus, Cory?”

Cory knew they were talking about the bus that took Hunter to baseball camp every morning. He shrugged and said, “I just got here, buddy. I didn’t see anything.”

But as Cory was about to turn, the school bus pulled up to the side of the road and Hunter sped past him. The school bus door opened with a familiar clank. “See you later, Cory,” Hunter said, running for the open door. Without looking back, he called to Luis, “I’ll see you later, Daddy.”

Luis slowed to a stop beside Cory. His face was red and his chest was heaving. “Have a good day, Hunter. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

When the bus pulled away, Cory and Luis waved goodbye. Then Luis bent over and rested his palms on his knees to catch his breath and said, “That was a close call. I always set the alarm clock to go off at seven, and this morning nothing happened. I never even bother to check it. I reset it when I switch it off in the morning so it’s ready for the next day. But this morning it didn’t ring, and we all wound up oversleeping. Jase had an important meeting in New York and he practically flew out the door, knowing he’d get stuck in traffic. I can’t believe how forgetful I’ve been lately. I’m going to have to start writing notes to myself.”

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Cory smiled and nodded. Luis had been forgetful lately, especially since that creepy new housekeeper, Darius, had come to Cider Mill Farm. “At least Hunter didn’t miss the bus and Jase got out in time. All’s well that ends well.” He didn’t feel like talking about Luis’s forgetfulness this morning.

His stomach was still turning thinking about his Jeep.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Luis said. “Yesterday Jase handed me a proposal Roland had given him at Roland’s Fourth of July party. It was the only copy in the world, some kind of new invention Jase is going to work on with Roland. I somehow managed to lose it. I was certain I’d left it on the table. But when it was time to leave the party, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I felt awful. Jase and Roland were nice about it.

Roland said he’d write up another proposal. But it’s not like to me lose something that important. Maybe I have been working too much and I need this time off. I don’t know. I’m going to have to concentrate harder.”

Cory rubbed his jaw and frowned. “It must have been somewhere at the party. Things don’t disappear into thin air.”

“That’s what Darius said. But we looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. Darius even looked in places no one would ever think to look. He’s such a great guy. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Cory frowned. “Was Darius with you when Jase handed you the proposal?”

Luis sent him a blank stare. “Why?”

“I’m curious,” he said. He would have bet his last dollar Darius, indeed, knew where the proposal was.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Luis said. “All I remember was Jase handed me the envelope, then Hillary called me into the house to look at something. I guess I was too worried about Hillary torturing me with her big mouth and her endless jabbering that I forgot all about the envelope. I’m not even sure if I brought it into the house with me.”

Cory shrugged without saying anything. But he couldn’t help thinking all these little issues had started to happen around the same time this Darius Denby guy had arrived at Cider Mill Farm. He could see Luis had had a stressful morning and he didn’t want to make it worse. So he smiled and said, “Hop on my back and I’ll carry you back to the house.” They hadn’t flirted or teased each other in a while and he felt like lightening the mood. At the very least, it would shut Luis up the proposal. And he’d get to grope Luis’s soft legs.

Luis tilted his head and smiled. “Be good, Cory. I thought we decided to stop all the silly carrying on we always do with each other. Besides, now that you have a boyfriend and you’re in a relationship, it only makes it worse. We have to be good from now on. People will get the wrong impression and they’ll think we really are playing around with each other.”

Cory reached around and lowered his palm to Luis’s ass. He squeezed and said, “We were never definite about anything. So hop on my back and wrap your legs around my waist.” Luis was wearing beige shorts. His smooth legs were tan and shiny.

But Luis shrugged. “I can’t. I’m not going back to the house yet. I’m going to spend the morning with Thomas. He’s finally agreed to read for me. He’s going to use his tarot cards, his crystal ball, and a special candle he keeps for special occasions. I’m very excited about it.” He rubbed his palms together and smiled. “I love this sort of thing.”

“Maybe he can help you locate the missing proposal,” Cory said in his driest tone, squeezing Luis’s ass harder.




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