Chapter 8 Gentle Crucibles #2
“It’s worth it,” Luca said, watching Euclid fondly. Give the cat five more minutes and he’d find his favorite sunbeam to nap in, and Luca and Jimmy Bob would be able to leave without worrying about Euclid even trying to escape.
“You said he was cute?” Jimmy Bob asked hopefully.
“So cute.” Luca pulled out his phone and found the pictures he’d taken on Saturday, featuring Isaac, Allegra, and his grandparents all sitting in the living room talking.
They hadn’t noticed Luca, coming in from the kitchen, and the moment had been so charming.
The perfect tea set and all his favorite people in this sunshiny moment of grace.
One of the pictures had been of Isaac, his brown hair curling a little at his crown and in the front, his giant hazel eyes open and earnest as he spoke to Luca’s nonna about something Luca didn’t understand.
He was wearing slacks and a button-down, conservative clothes obviously picked out to impress Nonna and Pop Pop, and Luca’s heart had just swelled.
This man—baggage and all—was so pretty. So smart. So kind and funny.
A keeper.
“Nice,” said Jimmy Bob, taking the phone from him and rifling through the pictures.
“Oh wow—Luca. This is nice. I mean, I don’t understand it, but…
.” He glanced around at the front room, which was so much more Isaac’s than it had been a month ago.
“Your guy. Once he finds himself, he’s going to be so worth looking for. ”
“I know,” Luca said softly.
“Gonna be a loooong summer,” Jimmy Bob warned. “Good thing I got a pool.”
Luca grinned at him. “Really? You’d be willing to let us come over?”
“Bring your sister,” Jimmy Bob said. “And not for creepy reasons either—she’s fifteen years younger than me, there should be a law.
But because she’s pregnant, and I understand that sucks in the summer.
So yeah. Come over. Bring your guy. Let him pet all the cats and play with all the dogs and find himself some more. He’ll be worth it.”
Luca laughed a little. “It was only a sandwich, Jimmy Bob.”
“Yeah, sure. But it was a really good sandwich.”
But Luca knew it was more than that. Jimmy Bob had chosen animals over people in his personal life. But that didn’t mean he didn’t like people too, Luca’s family included.
LUCA PARKED in front of the house to drop Allegra—and her clothes—off, and while he was not surprised to see that Isaac had already started dinner for the three of them, he was pleased.
He hauled in random shit and set up her little TV and entertainment system, and then she shooed him out of the room so she could put away her clothes and put her girl stuff on the shelves, and he found himself in the kitchen while Isaac, wearing a plain red apron over his button-down and slacks from graduation, pan-fried chicken.
“That smells amazing,” Luca praised. “Want me to do anything?”
“Salad in a bag?”
“Salad in a bag,” Luca confirmed, and he went to the fridge to get it. “You’re quiet—too much sun?” Isaac had obviously put sunscreen on his nose and cheeks, but his ears were a little crispy.
Isaac glanced up from the chicken and shook his head, giving a melancholy smile. “No,” he said. “It’s… you know. Anticlimax. Letdown. You work so hard to get them to graduation, to the last week of school, and then boom! All done. And you’re a little lost afterwards. This happens every year.”
Luca blinked. He’d never really thought of what it must be like to have his heart beat in the pulse of the school bell. “What… what do you usually do?” He hated to ask it like this, but… “What did you do with Todd?”
Isaac shrugged. “Well, I used to go out with Roxy, and Todd and Brian would have to come fetch us because we were sloshed. Then she started getting pregnant, and that was out, so… I don’t know. I came home and sort of powered through it.”
Aw!
“What do you want to do?” Luca asked, pulling the salad out. “I mean, are you in a ‘Go out and dance!’ mood, or a ‘Snuggle and watch movies!’ mood.”
“Todd used to hate it when I watched my end-of-the-year movies,” Isaac said, and then he smiled a little. “Probably because they made me sob like a baby.”
“Catharsis?” Luca asked. Made sense to him!
“Yes!” Isaac said. “You get it!”
“What are your movies?”
“Mmm… they’re all old. Say Anything, Dead Poet’s Society, Stand and Deliver—”
“I have heard of none of those,” Luca said seriously, wondering how bad this could be.
Isaac brightened. “Really?”
Luca chuckled. “I’m going to hate this, aren’t I?”
“So much,” Isaac said, nodding. “Is it…. Is it okay if we do it?”
“Course,” Luca murmured. “Just know I’ve got my own sad day and my own movies. You good with that?”
Isaac’s smile was still sad—but it was also luminous. “It’s a deal,” he said.
FOR THE first movie—an old teen comedy that Luca had never seen but really enjoyed—Isaac and Allegra each took their places, Allegra on the couch and Isaac on the chair he’d settled Sophia in, while they did their yarn thing.
After the first movie, Allegra yawned and excused herself, after telling them both they were on to help her pick out curtains and a new area rug in the morning.
After she left, Luca, who had sprawled on the opposite corner of the couch, spoke up.
“Isaac?”
“Hmm?” Isaac paused while piloting the remote control.
“You and Allegra, you’re making progress on your blanket, right?”
Isaac smiled. “Yeah—both of us are working pretty fast. Why?”
“Because I was wondering if you, uhm, maybe wouldn’t want to sit next to me on the couch?”
Isaac paused and frowned, but he stood up. “Why would I have to stop yarning? I could simply move—”
“Okay, let me rephrase that. I was wondering if maybe you wouldn’t want to sit on me on the couch.”
Luca shoved himself back into the corner and lifted his leg—and his bare foot—so that Isaac could fit himself in the vee of his legs. “I’ll behave, I promise.”
Isaac’s smile went shy, and he set down his project and moved to fit himself against Luca’s body. Luca sighed, the other man’s weight just so, so sweet against him.
Carefully he wrapped his arms around Isaac’s shoulders, giving him a chance to wriggle and make himself comfortable before using Luca’s chest like a pillow and turning toward the TV.
Euclid got into the act by draping himself over Luca’s shoulder and purring in his ear, but still, they managed to achieve a pretty comfortable equilibrium in a short time.
“Luca?” Isaac murmured, before pulling up the next movie.
“Yeah?”
“You only have to behave a little.”
Luca hmmed and took advantage of that invitation.
While they watched the movie—and God, it was horribly sad—Luca thrust his hand under Isaac’s shirt and rubbed his concave stomach, up over his ribs, along his hips.
He didn’t tweak any nipples or tease any waistbands, and when Isaac twined their fingers together and rested them both atop his abdomen, Luca stopped.
“Tickling?” he murmured.
“Turning me on,” Isaac confessed. “I’m working on catharsis here—I’ve got twenty minutes before this one makes me a sobbing wreck, and I have to be in a mood.”
Luca chuckled, and then he got as immersed as Isaac in the movie.
And then he held Isaac while he cried, and he shed a few tears himself.
When the movie was over, Isaac hit pause on the algorithm, and lay quiet in Luca’s arms. Euclid continued to drool, and Luca was uncomfortably aware that there was a drool spot about the size of a quarter on the shoulder of his T-shirt.
“Feeling better?” he asked. “Or falling asleep?”
“Both,” Isaac murmured. “I… this is the most wonderful moment. I can’t remember the last time I was this content.”
Luca couldn’t help it—he let a wicked laugh escape. “You want to be more content?”
Isaac froze, and Luca could have kicked himself. And then, to his shock, he heard Isaac say in a small voice, “Eventually, yes.”
“Yes?” Nobody was more surprised than Luca himself.
Isaac turned in his arms. “Look at you, Luca. You’re beautiful, you’re kind, you’re funny, and you’re a hard worker with his own business.
Which is important because it means you’ve got goals of your own and things that you love.
You’re… you’re awesome. Did you think I’d draw a line?
I’ve already decided I want to live—do you think I’d go find somebody else when I found a guy who will hold me while I cry through a sad movie? ”
Luca stared at him in bemusement… and excitement. “I was sort of hoping not,” he replied. “I just… I have to let you steer this ship, Isaac. I-I don’t have any damage here. You’re the one who knows how far, how fast you can go.”
“That’s an amazing metaphor,” Isaac said with a playful scowl. “Too bad I’m a math major.”
That made Luca laugh. “Yeah. I can tell you let that limit you.”
Isaac’s smile was boyish, delighted. “You’re doing fine,” he said softly. “I… I need to make sure, in my heart, I’m being fair to you. That you’re getting one hundred percent of me in a relationship, and not seventy-five percent Isaac and twenty-five percent Todd’s Husband.”
“You’ll get there,” Luca murmured, and unlike that afternoon, when he’d been talking to Jimmy Bob, he could see sunshine at the end of this tan and ecru dawn.
Which reminded him…. “By the way, my buddy Jimmy Bob extended an invitation today. He wants you and Allegra to use his pool at least once a week this summer—and to pet his cats and play with his dogs. He’s got five of each, so hopefully he’ll be a cautionary tale on why Euclid should remain an only child. ”
“Oh wow,” Isaac said, but he sounded excited. “That’s amazing! And yes, I’d be happy to go to the pool with Allegra.” He sobered a little. “And to pet all the creatures. That’s really generous of him. What prompted that?”
Luca grinned and dropped a kiss on the corner of his mouth, which was the nearest place he could reach from this position.
“You made us sandwiches, Isaac. I mean, don’t leave a working man sandwiches unless you want a marriage proposal.
In this case Jimmy Bob is straight and I’m a little possessive, so you got an offer of a pool instead. ”
Isaac laughed in his arms and then—not surprisingly because a couch was only so big—had to stand up as he slid off the couch.
He stretched, and Luca stood and rubbed his hands up and down Isaac’s stomach as Isaac stretched too, hands over his head.
Then, unable to resist, Luca lowered his mouth to Isaac’s and tasted.
Isaac answered, moving his arms to wrap around Luca’s neck as they explored, took in each other’s breath, responses, moans.
After a few moments, Luca pulled back and grinned. “I could get so used to kissing you.”
Isaac kissed him again, and for the moment they just stood, kissing, allowing their attraction to grow until it got urgent enough for Luca to pull away.
“You promise?” he asked, panting a little. “You promise this ship is heading to Fantasy Island?”
Isaac moaned a little. “I can’t imagine anywhere else we’d dock,” he muttered. Luca rested their foreheads together and then tore himself away.
“In that case,” he said with regret, “I’m going to take myself home so I can be back in the morning with doughnuts. You get some sleep, okay?”
Isaac nodded. “I’m the dumbest person in the world for not dragging you upstairs right now.”
“I’m even dumber for not doing the same thing.
” Luca leaned forward, took his mouth again, and then started toward the door so he could put on the boots he’d been leaving on the porch.
Isaac had gotten him a boot block and scrubbing brush and everything.
“Soon, okay? You tell me when, Isaac, but boy, I gotta tell you, I’m wanting this with everything in my body. ”
Isaac sighed. “Same,” he said. “Drive safe.”
Luca glanced up and grinned. “Like an angel,” he promised. “You can’t get rid of me that easy!”
And then he was gone, knowing he’d dream about more kisses for the rest of the night.