Strays and Lovers

by John Inman

  Gray stared down at him, one hand resting on the top of the ladder. After taking a long pull from the beer, he rolled the cold bottle across his forehead to cool himself off, giving Eddie a most enjoyable glimpse of Gray’s hairy armpit.

  Gray continued to gaze down at Eddie standing below. He had an odd expression on his face, like maybe he knew exactly what Eddie was doing and was trying to decide whether he liked it or not. “I walked,” he said. “Why?”

  Eddie stood with his head tilted back, shielding his eyes from the sun, still trying to overlook the enticing khaki bulge staring him in the face and the intriguing spread of belly hair shading Gray’s navel. “You walked from town? In this heat? That’s over three miles.”

  “I live closer than that.”

  “You do?” Eddie asked. “Where?”

  Gray’s eyes grew guarded. He took another drink from his beer but didn’t answer.

  Eddie couldn’t figure out what the big mystery was. The guy had to live somewhere. He couldn’t imagine why Gray wouldn’t tell him where it was. Still, he didn’t push.

  “Well, don’t worry. After dinner, I’ll run you home.”

  “No, you won’t. I’ll walk.”

  “Whatever for?” Eddie pointed to his Jeep. “My car’s right there.”

  Gray didn’t answer. Instead, he leaned his head back and drained the beer. Smacking his lips with enjoyment, he handed the empty bottle to Eddie and went back to work nailing the centerpiece across the top of the dog run. Only after pounding a couple more nails did he say, “I don’t mind walking, so please don’t worry about it, okay? It’s no big deal.”

  Still not understanding what the mystery was, Eddie stepped away from the ladder. Once again he held his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. And maybe this time to purposely prevent Gray Grissom from realizing Eddie was actually checking him out.

  “If that’s the way you want it,” Eddie said. “Seems kind of silly, though. I’d be more than happy to….”

  “Hand me that board there,” Gray interrupted, pointing to a previously sawn three-foot section of 2x4 propped against the wall at the foot of the ladder.

  So Eddie did. He stepped farther back and dropped his hand. “Guess I’ll go finish getting the meatloaf in the oven.”

  “You do that,” Gray said and quickly turned away. A flurry of pounding ensued behind him as Gray drove another nail home while Eddie walked toward the house. It was all Eddie could do not to shake his head in frustration.

  Was Gray ashamed of where he lived? Was that it? And where the heck did he live? If it was on this road, Eddie knew all the residents within a ten mile radius, which were darned few, and as far as he knew none of them were renting rooms. If Gray had bought one of the small vacation homes scattered around the area, surely he would also be able to afford a car. Maybe the next time he went into town, he’d stop by the hardware store, and while Gray was busy out back, he’d corner Ruth and casually dig for some answers. God knows she wasn’t one to steer away from a little gossip.

  Eddie stood at the kitchen sink throwing meatloaf ingredients into a baking dish while behind him the oven preheated, which brought the ambient temperature in the kitchen up to where Eddie was almost sure he could feel his hair crisping on top of his head. While he worked, he stared through the kitchen window at Gray slaving away outside. He seemed to be having a fairly good time, since he was whistling softly to himself while he worked. It was midafternoon now, and the sun was really beating down. Eddie noticed Gray’s shoulders were getting red.

  It took a few minutes for the thought to soak in that Eddie actually liked young Gray Grissom. He was mysterious, to be sure, and you kind of had to watch what you said around him since he had the propensity to jump off the handle if he took something the wrong way…. But still, Eddie liked him. Crankiness and all. And not merely because he was pleasant to look at, although that probably had a lot to do with it.

  When the meatloaf was mixed and molded and shaped into a perfect lump, Eddie applied a karate chop to the top to make a ditch for a generous squirt of ketchup. Then he tucked the whole thing neatly into the oven and set the timer for sixty minutes. Grabbing two more beers from the fridge, he fled the heat, stomping out onto the back porch. He dangled one of the beers at Gray, and called out, “Come sit in the shade for a while. You need a break!”

  Gray didn’t argue. He flung his hammer into the dirt, hitched up his pants, and climbed down off the ladder. When he headed for the porch, a smile spread across his face.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you enjoy building things,” Eddie said, plopping down on the edge of the porch between Lucretia and Fred. Before he was situated, little Louie had climbed happily into his lap and started chewing on his belt buckle. He handed over the tube of sunblock and with little more than a glance at Gray’s reddening shoulders, indicated what it was for.

  Gray nodded his thanks and accepted the beer Eddie offered, along with the sunblock. After squeezing a puddle of SPF 50 into his hand and smearing it over his shoulders and the back of his neck, he went to work on the beer, pouring half of it down his throat before he ever sat down. He wedged himself in between Lucretia and the porch post. After the dog yawned and made room for him, Gray stuck his legs straight out in front of him and regarded his dusty shoes. “I guess I do,” he said, as if he’d never really considered the matter before. “Enjoy building things, I mean.”

  He swiped the hair away from his sweaty forehead and turned to study Eddie, watching him play with the pup for a minute before saying, “And I guess you like animals.” He waved his arm to encompass everything that made up the Desert Sky Pet Refuge. “This whole shooting match,” Gray added, his eyes softening, his gaze warming. “It’s a good thing to do. It’s a good way to be. I’m sure the animals would thank you if they could.”

  A little embarrassed by the praise, Eddie tried not to roll his eyes in fake humility, for truthfully, he was proud of the refuge. “They thank me well enough,” he said, squinting down at the pup in his lap, his other hand resting lovingly on Fred’s knobby head. His eyes skittered across the backyard to where three of the cats were laid out in a clump, snoozing in the shade of the cholla. No doubt Chester was sprawled across the windowsill upstairs, dreaming of dinner and lamenting his misspent youth.

  Eddie concentrated on his beer for a couple of ticks. When he lifted his eyes, they homed in on Gray’s young face as if pulled by invisible strings. “I really appreciate you helping me out,” he said.

  It was Gray’s turn to look embarrassed. “Happy to do it.” As if determined to steer the conversation into a new, less bothersome direction, he said, “Ruth tells me you live alone and never married.”

  Eddie laughed. For years now, Eddie had been convinced Ruth knew—or suspected—more about Eddie’s private life than was good for her. It was all conjecture on her part, of course, since Eddie had never bared any truths to her about his sexuality, or anything else for that matter, but like a hog with a truffle, Eddie was pretty sure Ruth had rooted out the truth anyway. Not that she treated him any differently because of it.

  Consequently, Gray’s words didn’t surprise him much. And since he wasn’t ashamed of who he was, he let Gray know he was amused. “She told you that, did she?” Eddie wasn’t surprised. She’d done everything but pull teeth to get the two of them to meet each other.

  Gray grinned. “She seems to think we should be friends. I can’t imagine why.”

  It was all Eddie could do not to let his eyes travel over Gray’s bare chest and belly. “No, I can’t imagine either.”

  Gray gave him an inscrutable smile, and Eddie wondered if he had caught him peeking. If so, it didn’t seem to bother him much. Gray poured the last of his beer down his throat, mumbled, “Back to work, then,” and sauntered off across the yard, leaving the empty beer bottle standing on the porch behind him.

  Eddie watched him go. The freckled shoulders. The lean waist and hips. Gray moved on his long legs with a lazy
, leonine grace that ate up distances really fast and which Eddie found extremely attractive. There was a little patch of hair at the base of Gray’s spine before it dipped down beneath the waistline of his pants. Eddie wondered how far down the hair went, and how Gray would react if Eddie nosed his way down there to find out.

  He gave himself a shake and tried to ignore the baby boner shifting in his trousers. God, he really was a perv.

  Eddie polished off his own beer and called out, “Let me check on the meatloaf, and I’ll come back out and help you.”

  Gray was back on the ladder already, balancing a section of chicken wire on his shoulder. He didn’t turn when Eddie called out to him, but he lifted his free hand and shot Eddie a thumbs-up to show he understood.

  With a shudder of something or other he was reluctant to admit to—hunger, maybe, or quite possibly full-fledged desire—Eddie moved off into the house with Louie padding along behind him. The pup’s little white tail was going a mile a minute, not unlike Eddie’s thoughts. At the kitchen door, Eddie paused one last time to cast another glance at the half-naked Gray Grissom perched on the ladder amid the skeletal framework of the shiny new dog run. The blond in his hair shimmered beneath the blazing sun, the skin on his back glistened with sweat and sunblock. Eddie could hear him whistling softly again as he worked.

  Beautiful, he thought. So beautiful.

  Eddie swallowed hard, lifting his hand to stroke it across his chest, as if imagining another’s skin beneath his touch. And with that, he turned away and quietly closed the screen door behind him.

  Already, the smell of bubbling meatloaf was starting to permeate the house.

  WITH EDDIE’S help to stretch and tighten and keep some tension on the chicken wire, Gray attached it to the framework he had built. It took a while to cover the entire structure, but just as the sun began to sink behind the stand of cholla at the edge of the property, both men stepped back and eyed their finished creation.

  Smiling broadly, Eddie opened a connecting door from the Quonset hut the new dog run was attached to, and out poured half a dozen dogs of varying sizes to explore their new territory.

  Eddie and Gray both squatted down at the side of the run and poked their fingers through the mesh to greet the dogs on the other side. Eddie was happy to see that Gray’s smile was as broad as his own.

  He duck-walked a little closer to Gray’s side and laid an arm across his shoulders. Gray didn’t seem to mind the familiarity, so Eddie went one step further and gave the back of Gray’s neck a squeeze.

  “You did good,” he said. “Thank you.”

  Eddie was pleased to see an embarrassed blush rise up to redden Gray’s sunburned cheeks.

  “You’re welcome,” he said shyly.

  Eddie’s dogs, including young Louie, ran up to join them. They pressed noses to the dogs behind the wire, and squirmed around in bliss to find Eddie and Gray kneeling so close to the ground where they could really get at them.

  While Eddie held Louie protectively under his chin away from the fray, Lucretia and Fred climbed all over Gray, tails flying, licking every part of their new acquaintance they could reach. When Gray lost his balance and toppled over, the two dogs were suddenly prancing around on top of him having the time of their lives. Gray let out a whoop of laughter, which spurred the dogs on even more.

  Still howling with laughter, and trying to get away from their swiping tongues, Gray rolled toward Eddie, burying his face in Eddie’s naked rib cage.

  Eddie’s breath caught at the surprise of such closeness, and the next thing he knew, he had folded himself over Gray to help shield him from the dogs. Together they lay hunched over in the dirt, practically tied in a knot, giggling and hooting like idiots while the dogs wiggled around trying to squirm between them, snorting and snarling with merriment of their own. Gray, still sputtering with laughter, tried unsuccessfully to escape the stampede. Since Eddie was enjoying the hell out of Gray being so close, he also took the opportunity to lay his cheek to Gray’s lean back and absorb the heat and scent of the man beneath him. Out of Gray’s line of sight, Eddie allowed his lips to brush the skin of Gray’s shoulder for a split second, long enough to accept the taste of the man onto his tongue.

  He felt a tremor course through Gray when he did.

  Still giggling, the two slowly unwound their tangled limbs and eased themselves apart. Eddie pushed Lucretia and Fred gently away, and they finally refocused their attention on the dogs inside the run. Even Louie once again bounced off with the other dogs to greet the ones inside the wire.

  Eddie turned to study Gray’s flushed face. Those beautiful gray eyes, damp with happy tears, fell on Eddie with what appeared to be a look of surprise, as if Gray had never seen him before.

  Hesitantly, a dusty, work-hardened hand came out and touched Eddie’s breast. The fingers moved through the hair there, as if testing the flesh, or perhaps gauging either the softness or the strength of the muscle beneath.

  Again, Eddie’s breath caught. Before he could react, before he could find the courage to reach out and touch Gray in return, Gray pulled his hand away and stood up. All business again, he dusted the dirt from his pants. Avoiding Eddie’s eyes, he moved quickly toward the back porch and grabbed up his shirt from where he had tossed it earlier. Not until he had wiped the sweat from his face with his wadded-up shirt did he turn back to Eddie.

  “Mind if I wash up before dinner?” he asked, his attention now centered on the new dog run, as if he couldn’t quite bring himself to look directly at Eddie. There was still a flush in his cheeks that Eddie was pretty sure did not come from his hours in the sun.

  Eddie pointed to the door. “Inside. Make a left down the hall. You’ll find towels and everything you need in the bathroom.”

  “Thanks,” Gray said, and with his eyes finally skipping to Eddie’s face long enough to show gratitude, he slipped into the house, closing the screen door quietly behind him.

  Eddie watched him go. The smile had not left Eddie’s face for a minute, and he damn well knew it. He licked his lips, recalling the taste of Gray’s flesh. When he did, his smile broadened.

  Hoo boy. What the hell just happened?

  FROM THE hallway, Gray stuck his head around the corner to peek into Eddie’s living room. He opened his mouth to speak, not sounding particularly impressed.

  “Maid’s day off?”

  “Yeah, wiseass. Why do you ask?”

  Biting back a grin, Gray threw his hands in the air like Eddie had just pulled a gun on him. “Oh, no reason. No reason at all.”

  Gray’s cheeks, clean from a good washing, were pink from a long day’s exposure to the desert sun. Eddie’s not so much, since he was used to the sun and darkly complected anyway. Gray at long last pulled his dusty shirt down over his head and tried to tug out the wrinkles before facing Eddie’s kitchen table. When the shirt fell into place and Gray’s scrumptious belly button disappeared from view, Eddie felt like a kid who’d had his candy snatched away. Reluctantly, he pulled his own shirt on as well.

  Together, now dressed like two civilized people and groomed as well as could be expected after a hard day’s work, they sat down to dinner across from each other. The three dogs and four cats were lined up along the wall in front of their individual dishes, tails alternately laid flat along the floor or wagging high in the air, according to the species. Even Chester, the ancient tabby, had ignored his arthritic joints long enough to brave the stairs and join them for dinner.

  Gray appeared shy about serving himself, so Eddie did the honors for him, piling his plate high with meatloaf, potatoes, gravy, peas, and as an added treat, fresh-roasted ears from a patch of corn he had planted at the side of the house. As more and more food found its way to Gray’s plate, Gray’s eyes got bigger and bigger.

  “I don’t remember the last time I had a meal like this.” He looked up from his plate and gazed at Eddie across the table. A touch of embarrassment dulled the gray in his eyes. “Thank you, Eddie. This is terrific.�
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  A blush heated up the back of Eddie’s neck, but he tried to ignore it. “Don’t be silly. You earned it.” He flapped his hand at all the animals lined up against the wall, scarfing down their own dinners. “As you can see, we don’t stand much on ceremony around here. So eat up. You must be hungry.”

  “I am,” Gray agreed, and with that out of the way, he lit in like he hadn’t eaten in a month.

  Pleased by Gray’s enthusiasm, Eddie watched him for a moment before remembering he had his own plate to tackle.

  But for a little lip-smacking and a dainty burp or two now and then, they ate in congenial silence. A platter of meatloaf, bowls of mashed potatoes and peas, and a mound of sweet corn all gradually eroded away before them. Eddie’s animals, all four cats and three dogs, now finished with their own meals, sat at attention around the table. All but trembling with anticipation, they were waiting for someone—anyone—to drop something. When nobody did, they eventually dropped their heads on their paws and despondently drifted off to sleep.

  Gray’s gaze flitted about the room with apparent interest, checking out Eddie’s kitchen while he wolfed down the food. He glanced at the rooster clock on the wall over the stove that was twenty minutes late, the greasy meatloaf pan sitting by the sink waiting to be scrubbed, and a half-empty bag of Idaho potatoes lying open on the kitchen counter. Then he popped a last chunk of meatloaf into his mouth and chewed it to extinction.

  As if that was the big finale and there was nothing more to see, Gray collapsed back in his chair and placed his knife and fork neatly across his plate. The plate was so clean it looked like it had been run through a dishwasher. Twice. Gray wiped his lips with a paper napkin and let his eyes drift uncertainly to Eddie’s face. Eddie could practically see him scuttling through his memory banks trying to dig up a polite piece of conversation, finally settling on, “That was great. Thank you.”

  It was all Eddie could do not to laugh. “Well, you ate like it was.”