Robert reached over and took Cody's hand. “I get the feeling you won't let me get away with much. I'm forty-six, and I'm broken into pieces. I'm gonna lose my house to the hospital bills. My heart feels like I buried it with Val. I've got his ghost living in my head, and he's really all the company I need, or want. Cody, I think you're hot enough to melt a man's heart who's been stuck in the deep freeze for years. But I would say I'm a bad bet. I wouldn't recommend you waste your time. Since we're putting our cards on the table."
"I'm sure that's good advice. You're old, broken, depressed, and bankrupt. Oh, crazy, too, and talking to ghosts. Got it.” Robert stared up into Cody's face, eyes narrowed, considered getting pissed off, and Cody reached out for him, jerked him forward with a fist in his shirt and kissed him.
Oh, God, he tasted good, spicy and warm and dark, and he felt as big as a mountain, his arms so tight around Robert's body that he felt lifted off his feet. Val, he thought, helpless, dropping the shovel and holding on to Cody. Val, help me, I said I never would again ... And Val's voice in his head, laughing, Robert, don't be a fool.
He was lifted off his feet, which he didn't realize until Cody put him back down on the ground. It made him feel ridiculous until he saw Cody's face, so complicated with yearning, desire, embarrassment, and his shaking hands patted Robert gently on the chest. “Sorry, Robert, sorry, it's just been...” He sighed and closed his eyes, ran a big hand down over his face. “Okay, just ignore me. Back to work."
Robert almost reached for him, tugged him back into his arms. But then what? Were they going to fall into the dirt and make love among the onions? Too much thinking, too much thinking, but Cody seemed very ... tender. Vulnerable. A soft open heart in that big body, and Robert didn't want to see him hurt.
Cody looked out over the wild onions. “I see what you mean about the elevation. It's subtle, but it's there. And it's uneven."
"What does that mean?"
"It means something's down there. A structure, a midden, foundations of a building. It could be a burial mound of some kind, but I can't imagine it, Robert. It's too big an area. In mass graves, people are buried together, and after some time the ground sinks a bit. This looks more like structures."
Cody sounded more cheerful now, and Robert felt it, too. He really didn't want to find the site of some old Indian massacre. Oh, God, what a mess that would be. “Maybe it's the Anasazi. Were they ever this far north?"
"Not as far as I know.” Cody was unrolling the yellow tape along the edge of the area where the land started to rise. “Most probably this was where everyone dumped their garbage.” He stepped on a small spike with his boot, drove it through the tape and into the ground. “I sure hope so."
That surprised a laugh out of Robert.
"Hey, trash isn't trash if it's unearthed by an eager anthropologist, especially if the trash proves the key evidence to support his dissertation."
"So, we're looking for, what, stone axe-heads?"
"Don't even mention lithic technology to me today, or I won't make you some of my famous chili for supper."
"I like chili. How do you make it?"
"It's a traditional Blackfoot recipe. First, we hunt down a bison."
"I've got some hamburger in the freezer."
"Or we can just bow down to modern conveniences, and use hamburger."
Robert looked around the field. “What do you want me to do?"
"Okay, I want you to dig a hole outside the study area.” Cody pointed out a random spot and handed Robert the shovel.
"A hole. You want me to dig a hole? In the middle of the yard? Is this some busy work to keep me out of your way?"
"No, it's not. I want to see the layers of dirt. Then I compare the layers of dirt inside the study area. Can you dig a hole, as old and broken as you are?” He was grinning again, and Robert almost said, if you'll promise to rub my sore hip for me tonight. But he just bit down on his bottom lip and went off to dig a hole.
Cody drew some pictures of the layers of dirt from the hole in a little memo book with Field Notes on the cover. “Stratification,” he explained. Robert still suspected Cody of giving him busy work, like he was some over-eager puppy of a volunteer. But Cody dropped the rest of the rocks from his pocket into the hole, stuck the memo book in his back pocket and waved him over the yellow tape line. “I don't want to waste a good hole,” he explained, when Robert stared down at the rocks. “Okay, let's see what Val found with his metal detector."
Cody moved the machine slowly over the area where they found Val's first flag. “Here, Robert. Hold this.” Robert held the machine while Cody pulled out the memo book. He wrote down the depth data from the machine, then drew a small sketch in the book. Robert stared down at the screen but he couldn't tell what the objects were—a couple of lines of round shapes, in rows, like a row of coins, and there were several groups of them, one on top of the other. “We need to number the flags."
"What does it look like to you?"
Cody looked up from his sketch. “Robert, I think buttons. I think those are rows of metal buttons on a military uniform blouse. And underneath that, the same again. You've got Internet at the cabin?"
"Yeah, I do. I brought my laptop but I haven't hooked it up. We can, if you want to."
"Okay. I can show you a picture of what I think this is."
They moved slowly through the field, and Cody made a careful sketch of each area where Val had a flag. But they saw so much under the ground that by the time they finished he was shaking his head. “I ought to do a proper grid map, Robert. Val marked all these sites with flags? There're twenty-seven flags. Why didn't he tell you what he was doing? What he was looking for?"
"I'm not sure, Cody. I've been thinking about that. Maybe he wanted to know a little bit more before he talked about it. He was a reporter. He liked to get his research done, be sure of his facts before he started talking."
"With so much here it would be easy to lose track, let the science down, you know? That's the big risk, with a project like this."
Robert shook his head.
"It's like the excitement of a treasure hunt. I don't know, maybe the site doesn't have any historical significance. But if it did, I would hate to have that knowledge lost."
"Okay, I guess I agree with you, Cody. I'm just not sure what it all means."
Cody clapped a big hand on his shoulder. “I don't either! This will take some serious thinking in an easy chair, maybe with some iced tea at hand and my eyes closed for twenty minutes or so. That's when I do my best thinking."
"Good. That's settled. While you're ‘thinking’ I'll cut up a couple of onions, a bell pepper, some garlic, maybe some parsley and cilantro for the chili."
"Perfect! And I'll get to work on finding that bison.” Cody dumped the tools on the front porch, followed Robert into the cabin. He washed his hands at the kitchen sink, cupped his hands under the stream of water and drank from them. Then he eased back in one of the easy chairs and closed his eyes. He reached behind his head, pulled the elastic band out of his hair. He sighed and settled, extended the recliner as far as it would go, his long legs dangling off the footrest. Robert felt a strange tightness in his chest, watching him, a flood of tenderness he couldn't remember ever feeling before. He pulled the quilt off the end of his bed, covered Cody's legs with it. Cody opened his eyes and watched him, smiling. Robert leaned over, felt like he was stepping off a cliff, leaned over and kissed his mouth. Val, don't watch this. Just let me ... A little taste, that's all. And Cody sighed against him, sighed and smiled and closed his eyes again.
When the chili was done, Robert put it on the back burner and took his journal out to the porch.
Hey, baby. Cody and I were just out looking in the wild onions. What in the world did you find? Cody says it probably isn't the massacre.
For some reason, he didn't want to tell Val that there was a man asleep in his chair, though he probably knew. A man who kissed like he was throwing his heart into the deal. God, the
people who must have taken advantage of him. There were so many men in the world without scruples. They would have seen that openness, that leap before you look willingness to fling himself into love. But Robert guessed that a lot of men had underestimated Cody Calling Eagle, had overlooked the brain behind that big smile and open heart. Interesting. It would be interesting to get to know him. And what about the wild onion field?
Should he leave it? He had a lot on his plate right now, maybe too much to take on another big project. The sudden weight of remembrance, the hospital bills, the worry about work, and he felt twenty years older in the space of a few seconds. Maybe a nap was a good idea. He went inside, leaned back in the other chair. His leg gave a twinge of warning, high up near the hip, and he closed his eyes. Robert could feel Cody next to him, that strange warm feeling of having another living person near, of not being alone. He'd missed that.
* * * *
When he woke up the light outside had changed to the warm gold of late afternoon. The quilt was over his legs now, and Cody was gone from the other chair. The kitchen table was set, paper towels stuck under the silverware in place of napkins. Robert walked out to the porch, then around the corner of the cabin. Cody was standing in the late afternoon sun, looking out over the field. He was still, concentrating, the sun turning his skin to gold. His sheet of black hair spread across his back like a river. He turned and smiled down at Robert. “Hey, good-looking."
"So what do you think, anthropologist?"
"I'm still thinking, Robert.” He looked out across the field again. “I'm wondering if I'm making more of this than it deserves, just so I can hang out with you."
Robert studied his face. The jaw was rock-hard, and he had a hatchet nose, black eyes. Cody wasn't handsome. He looked like an icon, like something ancient and true. “Do you always tell the truth?"
Cody put his hands on his hips. “Mostly. You can't imagine the trouble it causes me."
"Oh, yes, I can. You hungry? The chili's done."
Cody reached for him, tugged him close. “I'm hungry for you.” His big hands were on either side of Robert's head, kisses pressed against his closed eyelids, against his cheeks, against a chin rough with afternoon whiskers, then Cody opened Robert's mouth with his own, touched him with his tongue.
Robert felt his belly go hollow, his thighs go weak with a thump of lust. He reached out blindly, but Cody was already there, wrapping him up in his arms. Cody took one of Robert's hands, pressed it against his cock. He was massive, straining against the soft denim, and Robert wrapped his fingers around the long length the best he could, rubbed hard. Cody closed his eyes and groaned, pleasure and need chasing each other across his face, and Robert smiled at him, at the sun, at the wild onions, at the joy of the body, filling him up again after so long.
"You can lay down on top of me, Robert. Come on, let's try. I'll lay on my back, and you get on top of me."
"You can't make it thirty seconds into the cabin?"
Cody shook his head, cheeks flushing red, and Robert reached for Cody's jeans and jerked them open, shoved the boxers down over his hips and Cody's cock burst out, dark-skinned, darker than any Robert had ever seen, reaching for his mouth, and Robert pushed the heavy foreskin back, as thick and soft as hide, exposed the sticky purple head.
"Oh, my God, oh, God, Robert, please,” and Robert lowered his head, put his mouth on Cody's cock. Cody jerked and thrust, his hands moving to Robert's head, thighs trembling madly. Robert could see he was trying to control the violence of his response, trying to control his urge to thrust and batter and ram himself into Robert's mouth. So Robert dropped to his knees in the soft dirt, sucked Cody down as deep into his throat as he could take him, grabbed his hips and jerked him closer. Cody's head was thrown back, the muscles in his belly and thighs in spasm, two seconds, three thrusts, and he was coming, shouting, a roar echoing across the field, onions everywhere, and Cody's hands were shaking against Robert's face.
Robert would have been happy to stay right there as the sun went down, on his knees with a good man's cock in his mouth, the taste of semen on his tongue, and Cody didn't seem in any rush to pull out either, stroking Robert's hair back from his forehead like he was petting a kitten.
But eventually Cody reached down for him. “Come on. I'll help you up.” And between Robert's gimp leg and Cody's jeans and boxers tangled around his knees, they staggered and stumbled, clutched each other and nearly fell like some kind of drunken vaudeville act. Then they were both upright again, weaving a bit but hanging on, Cody trying to tug his boxers back over his hips. “For God's sake! I am such a fool. Robert, please, just ignore me."
"Ignore you? Not tonight."
They walked back to the cabin, a little slower than usual with Cody's arm around him.
"I want to tell you something, Robert. I had a big-time crush on Val when I was younger. Then one weekend I saw you at the grocery store, in produce. I was buying green chili peppers for chili rellenos. This guy I was seeing, he was always trying to cook the fancy stuff."
"I like chili rellenos. I never tried to make them at home, though. I think you got to have a Mexican grandmother to teach you. How were they?"
"Not very good, and he found twenty reasons why it was my fault. Like I cared about chili rellenos. Like he cared more about impressing me with his cooking than making love. He was always editing, you know?"
Robert shook his head no.
"Whatever we were doing, he was imagining how it would sound, describing it to someone more impressive than me. I think he wanted me to do something really Indian, you know, let out a war whoop, or talk in some dead native language, or make a quick sketch of a buffalo hunt on a piece of hide. So he could drop that piece of authentic Blackfoot behavior into a conversation."
"You were an ethnic boy-toy!"
"You got that right, brother.” Cody's arm was around his waist. “But all the boys in town who had always been in love with Val, they got a look at you, and they were gone, man, you were so tough and cool. Your hair was longer then, and sort of curly. When I saw you in the grocery store, you had it back in a pony tail, and you were wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. You were shoving raw peanuts into a plastic bag, and I thought, I'm gonna walk over there right now, ask that sexy brother what the hell you do with a raw peanut to make it worth eating. And I took one step forward, but then Val came around the corner with a box of salt. Wow, of course! Those are A-team guys! Val, he was smart and sexy, and he had a sweet face and maybe a little wild streak, too. So I thought, well, okay, it's only right the two of them should be together."
"How long did you stay with the guy who blamed you for screwing up his chili rellenos? After that day?"
"Nearly another year.” Cody's cheeks were flushing red again. “I'm a slow learner, man. I kept thinking, he couldn't really be that big an asshole, could he? Or how could I have ever had ... feelings for him?"
"You boil them with salt."
"What?"
"The peanuts. You boil them with salt in a big pot until they're soft."
"You know, it's funny. I thought I had a dream about Val last night. It was him, but then it wasn't him. Old fashioned clothes, and his hair was long, with these funny mutton-chop whiskers. He was building the cabin.” Robert stopped and stared at him. “And there was a Blackfoot guy with him, pug-ugly, my God. I kind of got the feeling they were together."
"I didn't think he was ugly,” Robert said. Cody looked at him, his eyebrows raised. “I had a dream, too. They were stripping the bark off the logs. To build the cabin."
They both turned around and stared back toward the wild onion field. Cody stepped closer to him and took a bit of his shirt in his fist. “So, did we both ... Um, Robert? You sure you want to ... proceed with this?"
Robert could feel the warmth from his body, standing close, smell his sweat, still taste his semen on his tongue. He was so alive, the fire burning bright in his heart, and Robert reached for him, held as much of him as he could fit into h
is arms.
"I'm sure I want to proceed with the chili that's sitting on the stove. Also the looking up of uniform buttons on the Internet, and I want to proceed with climbing into my bed and making love. We're still thinking about the rest.” He felt a twinge of warning looking at the field, some warning that this was not to be ignored. But Cody's smell was swamping his senses, his taste making his tongue hungry, his hands reaching out on their own, and Robert felt the small frisson of weirdness dissolve and fly away on the wind.
"Okay, I'm good with that. But we need to think about this later. Did you put a Vulcan mind meld on me?"
"What?"
"Never mind. Okay, chili, uniform buttons, love. In that order? I mean, the Internet never sleeps. Those buttons are still gonna be there..."
"Well. Maybe you're right."
"But chili first. I'm starving."
"Hey.” Cody stopped, turned and looked at him. “Val would have said you were an A-team guy. I think so, too.” Robert watched the feelings flooding over Cody's face. “Jesus, kid, you have no filters. Aren't you supposed to be stoic or something? No, no way, stop it.” He pushed Cody's hands away. “Get in the cabin. I'm not screwing in the grass."
Robert pulled Cody into the cabin by his hand. “Slow down, partner. We've got time. Let's get to know each other."
"I have a problem with that,” Cody admitted. “With slowing down, I mean. I know I'm too fast, I come too fast, I don't..."
"Was it Chili Rellenos who told you that?"
"Ah..."
"Listen.” Robert put a hand flat against Cody's chest, started walking forward, and Cody backed up, let himself get pushed until the bed was behind his knees. He sat down hard. “Why don't you just let me do what I want with you? Teach you how hot you are.” Robert was grinning at him, feeling a little like a wolf circling Red Riding Hood, while she sucked on a finger and cried, lost in the woods.
Cody nodded, his eyes wide. “Good. Okay. Teach me, Robert."
A powerful happiness filled his chest. God, this was sexy, unbelievably sexy, the openness, a young man with an open heart and a willing body saying teach me. Take me.
Scared Stiff Page 19
