Page 13 of A Little Campfire Blues
Now the funny thing about those short jokes had always been that Axis wasn’t much taller. Just two inches, unless Ezzy was wearing one of the many pairs of platform boots they loved, then they’d be at least three inches taller, at which point Axis would start making sasquatch jokes, Ezzy would have flipped him off, and Axis would have replied that he could work with that if Ezzy was offering. Either way, I won in the end because watching them always got me revved up, and once that happened, I’d have had them side by side, fucking both of them.
“Found out different, didn’t you?” Ezzy said as they headed in with three bags while I grabbed the second cooler and a box I couldn’t resist putting on top of it, since I was tall enough to see over it.
Axis followed me up the steps with a smartassed comment not to trip, which just got Ezzy giggling again.
“He’s not the one with a history of falling up stairs.”
“It was one time, one goddamn time,” Axis complained. “When are you two fuckers gonna let me live it down?”
“Never,” we replied, dissolving into laughter as we headed in.
Damn, it felt good to laugh with them again. In the back of my head, I knew that our reunion, as amazing as it was, would eventually lead to hard topics at some point over the next two weeks, but I was content to enjoy the moment, and wait to see who brought up what, before I started worrying about what was going to happen down the line.
Of the three of us, I’d always been a bit of a worrier, but then, of the three of us, I was the only one who was an older sibling. Ezzy was an only child, while Axis had been three years younger than his brother and unused to having anyone pay enough attention to him to notice when he was about to get into shit. It had been ingrained in me from a young age to watch out for my siblings. The protectiveness I’d felt for them was part of what had made me a good lifeguard, and in a way, that had contributed a lot to my decision to go into the military, specifically the Coast Guard, where I could help people who’d gotten themselves into sticky situations. I’d loved my job and hated like hell to be told that I was medically unfit for duty after my accident, but even on appeal there had been no changing the doctors’ decision.
It had taken everything in me not to give up. Whether they knew it or not, those chats and texts and emails with Axis and Ezzy had been a big part of what had kept me going during that time. I’d wanted to crawl into a hole and give up on everything until Ezzy had suggested coaching, reminding me of how much I’d always loved helping the younger kids improve the fluidity of their strokes, and thus their times, when a meet rolled around.
Axis hadn’t had any suggestions for me, except to get off my ass and quit wallowing because we’d always had a rule about only one of us being allowed to be a miserable fuck at any given time, and he had miserable on lockdown at the moment. I’d wanted to be pissed and tell him it was my turn, only he was right. I couldn’t just sit there on the couch catching up on daytime television and feeling sorry for myself, not after all the shit I’d given him when he’d talked about selling his guitars after the band had broken up. I could do no less than what I’d pushed him to do, and he’d known it and pushed me back, something I was eternally grateful for.
With our lives falling to pieces less than six months apart, we’d flirted with the idea of moving in together, but he’d been dead set on staying in Portland while I’d decided that if I was going to coach, then I wanted to do it back home, where I could be close to the rest of my family. Not to mention the school had been in need. The other reason I’d held back had been more complicated. It hadn’t been a good time to tell him that someone else had made a similar offer, because if I had, he’d have asked who, and I hadn’t been sure of how he’d take finding out it was Ezzy.
Even with Ezzy’s decision to move back home, it was a discussion we’d never had, because choosing to live with one had felt too much like cutting the other out of something we’d always planned to do together. It was too early to start hoping we’d still get to live that dream, but it was hard to deny my heart the thing it had wanted most since we’d made those plans so many years before, and I’d never been good at denying myself anything.
Especially when it comes to them.
Chapter Seven
Ezzy
“Man, I could lay out here all day,” Axis murmured, his voice a bit sleep-slurred as I cracked an eye open to stare across the inflatable island at him lounging on the edge of the center hole where we’d dangled our feet earlier.
The thing was huge, easily fitting the three of us with space for at least another person, maybe two with the way it was designed. The inflatable seatbacks had made relaxing chairs, while the flat section allowed sunbathing and easy access to the water.
“We have,” Roman grumbled. “And it shows. Look at the sky.”
Clearly, Axis hadn’t realized how close to the edge he was lying, one hand dangling in the water, which he promptly fell into the moment he rolled to try and do as Roman said. He came up sputtering, laughing, and splashing water all over us as he sunk beneath the surface. He popped up on the other side of the raft and rolled, floating on his back with his feet lightly kicking beneath the surface.
“Damn, when did the sun start going down?” I asked, no longer having to shield my eyes when I looked up.
Reddish orange streaked with hints of pink, it was an amazing sunset, backlighting the tree line on the other side of the lake.
“Shit, aren’t we supposed to go to that campfire welcome thing?” I asked as I straightened up from where I’d been slumped against the arm of my seat, rolled my shoulders, and slid to sit on the floor of the island with my feet in the water.
“Yup, which means we’d better tow this thing in and shower off before we head down there,” Roman said. “Guess we all lost track of time this afternoon.”
“When have we ever been together and not lost track of time?” Axis asked, lazily kicking his feet as he floated around the inflatable island.
“Never,” Roman shot back, sitting up now and brushing the hair out of his eyes.
Giggling, I slipped into the water too, enjoying the cool feel of it against my skin after the long bask in the sun. Of course, Roman had insisted upon slathering us in sunscreen on and off all afternoon, especially me, since the two of them were as tanned as ever.
He dove off the island with a splash that sent water all over me, grabbed the tow rope, and started pulling the island in with Axis and me trailing behind it.
I still couldn’t believe he was here, that we were here together with Roman in this amazing setting. I’d pinched myself twice when they weren’t looking, just to be sure it was real. There had been a moment of awkward silence once we’d gotten everything put away. It had been clear that none of us were ready for words or a long, drawn-out conversation, so when Roman had mentioned the raft Axis had brought, we’d all jumped at the chance to swim, float, and settle whatever emotions had gotten stirred up in the kitchen.
“Where the hell did you find something this big?” Roman grumbled as we neared the shore and his feet could finally touch the bottom.
That just meant Axis and I had to swim a little further before we could stand without water over our heads.
