“Well, I’ll be darned.” Drew’s eyes lit with delight. “I have one just like that. Somewhere.” He gestured vaguely at the stacked-up storage totes.
“Similar, maybe,” I agreed, a bead of sweat running down the back of my neck that had nothing to do with the warmth in the kitchen. “Sort of. Not really.”
“No, it is,” Drew insisted. With a hand from Porter, he hauled himself to his feet and went to inspect the rooster. “The resemblance is uncanny!”
“Well, lots of people have things that look alike,” I said. “They just buy them at the same places.”
Drew turned with the rooster in his hands and gave me a look of rebuke. “Not possible with my rooster. It’s one of a kind! I got it at an artists’ fair over in Burlington,” he explained to Porter and Theo. “It was a summer day as hot asthis one, and I was strolling up the aisles looking for some hand-dyed fabric to make harem pants—you remember my harem pants era?”
Porter smiled. “I think everyone in the Hollow remembers that era.”
“It hadn’t even occurred to me to look at ceramics that day, but suddenly, there was this beauty just gleaming in the sunlight, like the Universe was sayingThis! This is what you didn’t know you needed, Drew. So of course, I rushed over to the table… but by the time I got there, someone else was reaching for it.”
Theo chuckled. “Ooof. Did you two have words?”
“You better believe it. I told the guy I’d wrestle him for it, and I meant it.” Drew clutched the rooster to his chest with one hand and flicked the skirt of his caftan sassily with the other. “I won.”
“Hell yeah.” Porter held up his hand for a high-five. “You scared him off, and you got the cock.”
Drew’s mouth twisted up in a tip-tilted smile as he slapped Porter’s hand. “I certainly did.”
I rolled my eyes.
“And on that note,” Theo said dryly, “Porter, the pond?”
“Lead on. We’ll see you guys later.” Porter grabbed Theo’s wrist and stepped in front of him. “On second thought, letmelead. Kinda liked it when you ran into me on the way in.”
There was the brief sound of a scuffle, followed by Porter’s yelp and Theo’s laughter, and then the door closed behind them.
Drew chuckled to himself, then turned his attention back to the rooster… exactly where Ididn’twant it. If he looked hard enough at that thing, he was going to realize thatthisrooster had a distinctive chip in its wing precisely where Drew had knockedhisrooster against the sink one day while cleaning it… and then I was going to be in serious trouble.
“You know, I don’t think it’s fair to imply that you won awrestling match to get the rooster,” I said, casually walking over to him. I took the rooster from his hands just as casually and set it on the sideboard. “Iletyou have it. It was a chivalrous gesture.”
As I’d known he would, Drew narrowed his eyes and set his hands on his hips. “Chivalry? Is that what we’re calling it? I call it blatant flirtation, Marco Vanzetti. You wanted my cock… and I don’t just mean the rooster.”
I laughed genuinely. “Hardly. I didn’t know how to flirt with a hot guy then. I’d barely admitted to myself that I was attracted to men at all. But then suddenly, there wasthisbeauty—” I gripped his chin with one hand as I repeated his words from earlier. “Gleaming in the sunlight like the Universe was sayingThis! This is what you didn’t know you needed, Marco.” I winked. “And I had to have him.”
Drew snorted, waving my words away, but his face softened, like he was remembering that day, too. The warmth of the sun and the buzzing of the crowds and how it had all faded to a blurry, gray background noise the minute his hand touched mine.
Drew Sunday was like a prism, crystal-bright and multifaceted, making me see rainbows where none had been before. I’d had a life before him, sure—a failed marriage, a grown daughter, a stable job—but I hadn’t known how tolive.
I looped my arms around his waist and pulled him in for a kiss. “I still feel that way, you know,” I said. “Meeting you changed my life.”
Drew’s eyes met mine, and he blushed just a little, even after all these years. “I admit, it impressed the hell out of me that you managed to track me down after that.”
“When all I knew was that you were wearing a shirt that said ORCHARD STAFF, with Drew embroidered on the pocket?” I shook my head. “I think I spent the whole nextweek making phone calls at my desk when I was supposed to be handling insurance claims. I didn’t realize just how many orchards there were in Vermont.”
He laughed. “And I like to imagine you calling all of them and choking out, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, I’m looking for a man named Drew who took my cock…’”
“Hush.” I slapped his ass lightly. “I’m spouting sentimental shit here.”
“Yes, you are.” Drew frowned suspiciously. “And that’s very unlike you.”
“Hey! I can be sentimental.”
“You can,” he agreed, still frowning. “But usually much more subtly and rarely out loud. What gives?”
I chuckled uncomfortably, while the rooster on the sideboard pulsed behind us like a telltale heart, and tried to sidestep. “Do you remember our first date?”
