He wipes himself clean with an appreciative hum. “It’s even warm.”
“Modern marvels never cease.”
Lee drops the cloth off in the bathroom before coming back my way, his cock soft now but the man no less enticing. With a deep groan, he stretches out beside me on the bed, seeming in no hurry to be anywhere else. It’s early still. Only nine in the morning, the sun doing its best to warm us before the winter descends.
Lee’s fingers trail a pattern on my thigh, his head in his hand and a pensive frown on his face. I give him time to think,sensing he simply needs a minute. It’s no surprise when he finally speaks up. “Why do you have the visions?”
I pull in a slow breath, having wondered that many times throughout my life. Why now? Why never before? Why, as far as I can tell, never again?
“I don’t know,” I admit. “Why were you born with a heart defect?”
His eyes meet mine, gentle amusement there. “Are you saying we’re a broken set?”
“No,” I answer around a chuckle. “I just think…some things aren’t meant to be known.”
He hums, his amusement slipping away, seriousness taking its place. “Every time… Every time, it’s me?”
I nod.
“How do you know?”
“I just do,” I tell him. “I’d know you anywhere.”
He inhales a stuttered breath, his fingers rolling together before he goes back to tracing shapes on my thigh. “Why is this happening?”
A glint of metal. A sunny day.
I unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “A curse,” I answer. “A gift.”
I can see the questions in his eyes, but I don’t know what to tell him. How do you tell someone they sacrificed everything for you?
“Will you share it with me?”
“Someday,” I promise.
He nods, accepting that, his forefinger writing what I think is my name. One of many I’ve been given.C-A-S-P-I-A-N.
He writes his own next, each letter drawn slowly and methodically against my skin.L-E-E.
He has no clue who he is. I can’t decide if that, too, is a gift or a curse.
We stay in bed for most of the morning, until our stomachs start to protest. Our afternoon is spent largely outside, enjoying the last of the fall weather before it’s gone. I look for the constellation I know sits high to the north.
But like every day, it’s hidden in a sky full of blinding light.
Twigs and leaves crunch underfoot as I follow Lee up the path toward the cliff where we met. He knows these trails far better than me, having been walking them for most of his life.
He wasn’t particularly happy when I packed the portable defibrillator just in case. But considering what happened last time we were here, he didn’t fight me on the decision.
My backpack bumps against me lightly, my jacket tied around my hips. The trees are a multitude of colors now, no longer only green. We take our time hiking, reaching the cliff after an hour or so.
Lee stops there, pulling out his water and sitting on the rocky ground. I do the same, the river below glinting.
“I talked to my sister yesterday.”
“Oh?” I ask, glancing at Lee’s profile. The sun lights the side of his face, making him shine golden. “Did you finally tell her about the cardiac arrest?”
He groans. “Yes. And about you.”
