Summer Fever

jeans, after wiping his hand on his sodden shirt. “Well, I better let you go,” he said.
    I walked him to the door and when I opened it, I wasn’t expecting him to cup my cheek in his hand. His eyes were soft as he looked into mine, and I felt as if he was reading something in my soul that I didn’t want to 21

    Summer Fever | Catt Ford

    let him see. Before I could look away, he bent his head to kiss me gently and then he was gone.
    I closed the door and leaned against it, forgetting to watch his ass as he walked to his truck. I heard him drive away and wondered what I was doing.

    I FELT kind of relieved not to see him the next day, but also disappointed.
    I’d come up here for some well-earned rest and relaxation. A little fun was all well and good, but somehow this felt like something bigger. Something that I was most definitely not ready for, if I ever would be.
    So the next day, I spent time on the dock. I swam, I read, I went out in the canoe, testing my adult strength against the currents. They were still strong, flowing unseen under the surface of the lake, but now I had my own reserve of strength and I knew how to ride the waves.
    It was late when the phone rang, startling me out of a year’s growth.
    The only ones who knew I was up here were my parents, so I answered, thinking it was my mother.
    “J.D.”
    He kind of slurred the letters, so it sounded like he was calling me
    ‘Jadey’. I kind of liked it, like it was some sort of intimate nickname between us.
    “Hi Russ. How was your day?”
    “Average. Yours?”
    “It was nice. I was out on the water. Write any tickets?” 22

    Summer Fever | Catt Ford

    “If you’re asking if I had a better offer, no.” He was quiet for a moment. “So what do you do? Advertising? Marketing? Executive of some kind?”
    I laughed. “I’m a scientist. A biologist.”
    “Really?” He sounded genuinely surprised. “There much call for mouthy, sassy, hot scientists?”
    “I’m not like this at work. Much.” I chuckled.
    “What field are you in? Manufacturing? Research?” He surprised me into silence. Usually people only think one thing when they hear I’m a scientist and gay: AIDS research. “Research for a big drug company. But I….” I hesitated. I hadn’t told anyone this yet.
    “You what?”
    “I… I have an opportunity… to go out on my own. I discovered something… the company I work for was more than fair. I’ve got a royalty agreement,” I said slowly.
    “So what would you do if you could do anything?”
    “I’m really interested in TB research. You know that we thought we had eradicated the disease, but it’s popping up again. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg; TB is killing people in third-world countries that have AIDS and we know how to cure it. Cases are beginning to be reported in the U.S. –” I stopped short, aware I had mounted my hobby horse and was galloping away on it. “I’m sorry, didn’t mean to bore you.”
    “You’re not boring me. I love that you’re so passionate about it. I wondered…”
    I worried that maybe he thought I was just a completely frivolous guy.
    “You want to have phone sex?” I blurted.
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    Summer Fever | Catt Ford

    “You don’t have to do that,” Russ said quietly.
    “Do what?”
    “Offer sex so I won’t get to know you. You throw it at me like I’m a dog begging for a bone.”
    “I thought you liked my bone.” I couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice, but maybe he couldn’t hear it over the phone.
    “I like your bone a lot.” His voice was suggestive, sending shivers up my spine. “But I like other things about you too. I’d like to get to know you, the person you don’t show everyone.”
    “Like what? What do you like?”
    “You have beautiful eyes,” he said lightly. “They stole my heart that first day. I could drown in your eyes.”
    “Wow, I don’t know… what to say.” I sat down on the little chair my mother kept by the phone.
    “I like the direct way you go after what you want. I like the joy on your face when you come. I like that you know how to have fun.” He paused. “So what do you like about me?”
    “What don’t I like?”
    “That’s no answer. Come on, give me some sugar.” I laughed. It just sounded so incongruous coming from a muscle man cop. “It goes without saying that I think your knob is the most perfect one I’ve ever seen.”
    “No, it doesn’t. My knob needs all the positive reinforcement it can get,” he