Spark

by J. P. Scott

  He ran a gallery that had just finished a successful exhibition of some up and coming artist. “Everything sold out—I couldn’t believe it! If he could only paint faster, we would still be making money hand over fist. I told my business partner that I earned a few weeks off—I found the guy after all. Let’s see what kind of sales he’ll do without me finding the talent.”

  “It’s really great that you could come out to help Josh and George.” Cody had attempted several times to get in on the conversation.

  “I needed a break! Didn’t know that I was coming to the direct opposite of my life—from frantic and crazy to silent and boring.”

  Josh shifted in his chair and looked over at his boyfriend. Life here on the Rim was certainly different…even from Phoenix just a short drive away. Did Josh share Ethan’s boredom with life here? If so, he needed to decide what he was going to do with George and the property or face potentially a whole season next year keeping the place up. Would Ethan be willing to be apart for that long? Or maybe this was a good excuse to end things?

  Ethan paused as he took a sip from his wine.

  “Dinner was wonderful. Thank you, guys.” Josh smiled first at Cody and then to me, holding the gaze longer than he should.

  Cody stood up and began to grab plates, “I’ll start on dishes.”

  “I’ll help you!” The three of us looked at Ethan, shocked that he was the first to volunteer.

  “Thanks, that’ll help a lot.”

  The two filled their hands with dishes and silverware and carried them to the kitchen. Josh winked at me, “Let’s step outside.”

  We topped off our glasses with wine and stepped out onto the front porch, Beau following me and curling up in the corner of the porch with his bone.

  “Really, Alex, thanks for dinner. It’s nice to get out of the house for a bit. George and Ethan aren’t very compatible with conversation, what to watch on TV, or anything in between. Most nights have been awkward. I know Ethan talked a lot tonight, but that’s because he hasn’t had anyone to talk to besides me in a while.”

  “He did seem more animated than when we first met. Is he planning to stay for long?”

  “Originally a couple weeks. I may encourage him to head down to Phoenix or maybe over to San Diego for a bit. He might just head home to work at the gallery—that’s his favorite. Even when it stresses him out, that’s what gives him his fire for life.”

  We leaned on the railing and looked back into the cabin where Ethan and Cody were filling the sink with sudsy water and making the plan to tackle the nights dirty dishes. Ethan continued to talk but must have included Cody in the conversation because he was laughing and seemed engaged.

  “It was nice to get to know Cody some more. I can see why you like him.”

  He was a great guy. I was very lucky. I knew that.

  Josh’s arm brushed against mine and I felt the tingle expand from the contact point. Why did he have the ability to make me feel this way? One touch was not enough. I needed him to take my hand, then to wrap his arms around me, to kiss me, and then…

  “Sorry,” he said and took another drink. “I don’t know why, but you still drive me crazy.”

  He felt the same way that I did. No doubt he also felt there was a line that we should not cross. If Josh has the freedom to play when he was apart from Ethan, there may not be the same forgiving aspect of their relationship. Or were they open even when they were together?

  “There’s always been an attraction between us.”

  Josh nodded, “To put it mildly.” We both stood in silence watching our significant others chat and laugh at the sink. They seemed to be about finished, but they had slowed in the process. Their attention was more towards each other than to the dishes, bodies turned to face each other. Ethan reached up and grabbed Cody’s arm lightly. Flirting?

  I drank more wine as my heart raced. Was this more than a dinner party? Were Ethan and Josh looking for more than conversation to spice up the quiet country nights?

  “I think Ethan is taking a shine to Cody as well. But how could you not? He’s a sexy man.” Josh moved closer to me. “Not as sexy as you.” His mouth was close to my ear as he whispered. His breath was warm against my neck.

  I closed my eyes and imagined we were alone. That Josh and I had been dating all summer and this was just a romantic evening alone. Good food, drinks, and a night of taking turns entering each other until consumed by exhaustion.

  Josh’s hand was on my crotch, rubbing gently, encouraging my cock to grow harder. His whispers had turned to kisses on my neck that shot streams of pleasure through my body.

  I opened my eyes and steadied myself as Josh continued to push in closer to me. I looked into the cabin. What would Cody do if he saw us kissing? Through the window I saw Ethan and Cody, still by the sink, but instead of talking, they were also kissing. Ethan’s hand cupped the side of Cody’s face while the other held him close.

  Cody was kissing someone else. I was kissing someone else. What was going on?

  Of course, I knew what was going on. I had spent time with couples in open relationships before. Dinner and drinks moved to kisses and gropes. Then the bed became a tangle of limbs and grunts. Everyone received pleasure in multiple ways from multiple people.

  Was this what I wanted tonight? Was this what Cody wanted? We had not talked about any of this as possibility.

  Just as I had experienced incredible sex in these situations, I had also experienced awkwardness and jealousy. If one person felt slighted or not included, anger could erupt. A heated moment could dissipate in an instant.

  It was inside me that jealousy rose. Cody kissing Ethan felt wrong. Was it that there had been little to no sign that Ethan was attracted to Cody or Cody to Ethan? Was I just shocked? Or did I want Cody all to myself?

  Did I have any place to be jealous? I was out here kissing Josh and imagining the two of us were together? I was a hypocrite to think it was wrong for Cody but okay for myself.

  Josh sensed my disconnection to the moment, “This was a mistake, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, I think it was.” I stepped away from Josh and kept my eyes on Cody, still locked to Ethan.

  “We knew Cody would be easy to convince—I wasn’t sure about you.”

  “What do you mean it would be easy to convince Cody?”

  “Well, George told me about Cody’s past.”

  I turned to Josh. What was he talking about? George had said that he knew who Cody was and that I should keep my eye on him. Did he know that Cody had been to the same spot at Crystal Reservoir as Gray Whitlock? That was certainly the past and nothing that I could not look beyond. I also had done questionable things in my past. Was there something more?

  “I don’t think there’s anything Cody has done that we’re all not guilty of.”

  “I know you know about his hook ups in the woods. You probably don’t know that he usually did things for money.”

  “That’s a lie.”

  “David Farnham asked me if I knew him one day. He had been in the restaurant and saw Cody working and stopped by the office. Was there someplace closer he could meet up with Cody that his wife would not see? Maybe another cabin that wasn’t rented.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “People talk around here. Guests say all kinds of things in that office.”

  I shook my head. “No. I don’t believe you.”

  “Do you believe George? He said he often saw Cody visiting the cabins rented by single men here alone. How else would Cody afford a trailer and a pickup?”

  “He works hard. He hustles at the restaurant and wants to make a living.” Before this summer I had never seen Cody before. If he was visiting cabins here on the property, I would have seen him at some point. My porch had a view of whoever was coming or going. As much as I was here to work, I spent a great deal of time on the porch watching the world go by.

  “I thought you knew.”

  I started at Josh and blinked. A fire of a
nger exploded from my gut. I wanted to scream that he was an asshole for entertaining the idea. Instead, I charged him and grabbed his waist. He lost his balance and we toppled backwards and cleared the two steps to the ground.

  “Jesus!” Josh writhed beneath me, “Are you crazy?”

  I still could not form words. I sat up and held Josh down by my weight. I punched him in the jaw and then rolled off, clutching my hand as pain radiated up my arm.

  Ethan and Cody had been alerted to our scuffle and were on the porch.

  “What the hell?” Ethan was down to the ground and at Josh’s side. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, the fall hurt more than the punch. I’ll live.” Josh slowly stood and brushed himself off. “You don’t have to believe me, Alex. You can ask him.” He grabbed Ethan’s hand and pulled him towards George’s cabin.

  “What was that all about?” Cody walked slowly to me as I stood watching the two men walk down the hill. I wanted Josh to turn around so that I could flip him the bird.

  Yes, what was this all about? Lies. Deception. Lust. Rage.

  “He kissed me…Ethan was kissing you. Then Josh said awful lies about you. I couldn’t help myself.”

  “What did he say?”

  I shook my head. It was not true and I did not want Cody hurt by these lies. I would take him away from all of this.

  “What did he say, Alex?” Cody wiped tears from his cheek. “No, I think I know.”

  I stopped watching Josh and Ethan and turned to Cody. Why the tears? Why was he shaking?

  “I was always afraid George would tell you. Or maybe Molly.” He hugged himself and hunched over as he cried. “I wanted to tell you. I almost did…the day at the lake.”

  I stepped closer and put my arm around him. He fell into me and sobbed. Cody had a secret, but was it what Josh had said? Or was it something else?

  “Let’s go inside. We will sort this out.”

  Finally, Cody looked at me. There was shock on his face and he resisted my pull towards the door. “You’re…you’re not going to tell me to leave?”

  Leave? And be left to wonder what was going on? I wanted to get to the bottom of this and know exactly what Cody had done. I wanted to understand George’s attitude. And why did Ethan and Josh come tonight expecting they could kiss us and it would be no big deal?

  “Come inside,” I said and held out my arms. This time he came to me and accepted my hug as we stepped inside. I lead him to the couch and we sat down. I wanted the answers but felt I needed to give him a few minutes to collect himself and just held him. Cody was still crying into my shoulder and I stroked his hair and rocked him. In a few minutes he was fast asleep.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I stepped out on to the porch with my cell phone. Cody was asleep under a blanket and snoring lightly. Our conversation would have to wait.

  As much as I wanted to hear Cody’s side of the story, I wanted more to hear the truth from someone so I could begin to sort through everything in my own mind. I looked down at George’s cabin and the light in his bedroom and thought about marching down and confronting him about what Josh alleged that George had witnessed over the years. I was not sure if I could hold my emotions together knowing that he knew something about Cody but had not told me. I considered him a friend that I could discuss things with—had I not told him so many personal things about myself over the years? Keeping Gray Whitlock a secret was his business, but not telling me about Cody seemed a violation of our friendship.

  I scrolled to my contact list and found Molly’s name. Finally, I pressed the button to initiate the call. She picked up after three rings.

  “Hey, stranger.”

  “Molly, how are you? I keep waiting to hear that you’ve had the babies.”

  “Literally any day now. The doctor has me on bed rest and may induce labor if things don’t start progressing.” She sighed, “I’m ready.”

  I laughed but it must have sounded less than authentic to her ears, “What’s wrong?”

  I exhaled slowly, stalling what was an inevitable conversation. “What should I know about Cody.”

  Molly ruffled sheets and pillows as she adjusted herself. “I thought you had time to get to know Cody yourself. What did you want to know?”

  “Well, someone said he had a reputation and a past. I didn’t believe it.”

  “And have you asked Cody about this?”

  “He’s here. He was upset and is now asleep on the couch. We haven’t gotten into it yet. It’s just been a confusing night with the accusations…and other shenanigans. I wanted to talk to someone that I could trust.”

  Molly giggled, “And you called me. No one else must have answered.” She was silent, and then continued, “Here’s what I’m going to say. I want you to think about the accusation you heard…think about it clearly.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Does that make you stop loving Cody?”

  “No…but I—”

  “No ‘buts’. If you love him, you’re going to let him tell you in his way. I’m not going to take that away from him. If you want to talk about it afterwards, I’ll be a listening ear.” She was silent and I contemplated her words. They surprised me. Her father and mother had kept secrets from her for years—the last time I saw her she was so upset at the realization of what I had uncovered.

  “I had a long talk with my mother about my dad. There’s a lot more to the story than you know. I’m glad you didn’t find out everything. It needed to come from her. We needed to have that moment where we were honest with each other. I needed to see her as the person who told me the things that were hard to say. You need that moment with Cody.”

  I had never seen the situation with Gray, George, Valerie, and Molly as stealing an important moment from anyone. Maybe Molly had a point. But what if I had never asked questions or poked around—would that moment have been lost forever? What I did seemed to be a good thing—a spark to get the conversation going.

  If it was true that it was a good thing, could I now be mad at Josh for the events of tonight? Whatever scheme he had with Ethan with dinner brought a truth to light that Cody and I needed to talk about. Cody said he had tried before—what stopped him? Fear? Some disruption? A plan to tackle it another day?

  “It’s getting late, Alex. I should be getting to sleep.”

  “I’m sorry, Molly. I wasn’t even thinking about the time.”

  “It’s okay. Friends need to be there for—oh!”

  I sat up in my seat at the sound of her cry. She breathed heavily and whimpered. “Molly, are you okay? Is it a contraction?”

  “Yes. It’s my fifth one tonight. I had some before but they subsided and I thought the same was happening today. However, I don’t think they’re going away.”

  “What? Is Jim there?”

  “No, he’s at the restaurant. I’ve been timing them. The doctor said I didn’t need to be concerned until….” Her voice faded off and I heard her wince and pant. “Maybe it’s time to get Jim.”

  “I’ll get him. We will be right there.”

  I ran into the cabin and shook Cody. “Hey, we have to go. Molly’s in labor. We need to go pick up Jim and get them to the hospital.”

  Cody threw the blanket off himself and stumbled to his feet. “Wait, what time is it?”

  “Jim’s still at the restaurant,” I looked at the time on my phone, “It’s after eleven. Grab your shoes.”

  “You want me to go with you?”

  “Grab your shoes. Come on.”

  I scanned the table and counter to see if there was anything I had to keep out of Beau’s reach from dinner, but all of the food was stored away and the dishes in the sink. Cody appeared from the bedroom with a hoodie and we both got our shoes on.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  We found Jim at the bar opening another round of beer for three of the regulars who were camped out for the evening. The bartender scheduled for tonight had gone home sick.

  “I’ll take over. You guys g
o.” Cody waved us towards the door and we left. I turned and whispered, “I love you.”

  Cody held up his hand with thumb and pinky extended at the side of his face, “Call me.”

  Our moment would have to wait.

  Molly was in their bedroom in the middle of another contraction. Jim got Molly’s robe and tossed it at the foot of the bed and then retrieved the suitcase Molly had packed. He returned as the pain subsided.

  “I called the doctor. He’s on his way to the hospital, too. He says everything should be fine. Help me get my robe on.”

  We worked to get her out of the house and into Jim’s car. “Do you want me to ride along or follow in my car?”

  “Why don’t you follow? Call me on your cell phone and we can communicate if there’s any problems.” Wouldn’t it be better to be in the car and helping Molly? Or was having a back up vehicle a better option for the drive down off the Rim to Payson? The later seemed to be the better option.

  I ran to my car and hopped behind the wheel. Jim and Molly were pulling out the drive and headed towards the highway to Payson. I knew I could catch up but quickly buckled and started the ignition. Jim answered on the first ring when I called. I set the phone in the center console in case they needed to communicate something to me.

  I was left to drive with only my thoughts to keep me company. I wished Cody was here so that we could talk about the evening. He did exactly what Jim and Molly needed him to do—be there when the baby came. However, tonight was the worst timing.

  I also wanted Cody just to be here with me. This was my first time seeing a woman go into labor and had me shaken. Was she going to be okay? Her reactions to the labor pains seemed intense—was it always like that? Molly had been on bed rest—were the doctors worried about the delivery?

  Here I was with my own thoughts again and slipping into the pattern of thinking the worst instead of focusing on the facts.

  I scanned through the radio stations hoping for a distraction. The few that came through without static were all commercials instead of music. Finally, I turned down the volume and focused on Jim’s taillights in front of me.