Page 63 of One Little Change

It was the barn, dammit!

This just felt like the right place. Where things turned around for us. He caught me when I fell through the floor of the old barn and we became friends and then more than friends and barn. Barn!

We didn’t have a plan at Joey’s and that went terribly and we didn’t have too much of a plan at the hotel room and that went much better. But I was gonna set the mood dammit.

The night I got home I spent with Dad and the next night he had a date and said to behave. He didn’t want any trouble or funny business in his house, but he didn’t say anything about the barn, so I went and got it ready. Eventually Dad would get used to having a barn and realize he needed to include it but not yet! I had to take full advantage. Naturally. He would be in Fairview with his date and that was a bit of a drive, so this wouldn’t be like the incident with Jeremey. We actually did have time.

I covered Luke’s eyes as I led him to the barn. It was a little weird because I was behind him with my hands over his eyes yet still trying to lead but I wasn’t about to complain as my chest met with his back and I could take in the scent of his shampoo and aftershave.

“Don’t say I never do anything romantic for you,” I told him.

“Romantic?” he asked wryly, and was he arguing already? I was the one who argued already. “I’m worried you’re two seconds away from killing us both.” …That wasn’t a good point.

“Don’t ruin the mood,” I scolded but it was undercut by how I accidentally ran him into the open barn door a second later. “I meant to do that,” I rushed to say. He hit his head, yet I kept one hand over his eyes and used the other to pat his chest comfortingly until I got distracted and just started running my hand up and down his chest.

And then I removed my hands and Luke was distracted with looking around and couldn’t argue and that I actually had meant to do, go me. He was quite for a moment. Did I blow his mind? Were there other things that I could also blo—

“Good effort, babe,” Luke said. “But we’re outside. Think of all the things that can go wrong.”

“I’d rather not.” I put my arms around his waist and my chin on his shoulder. “We don’t have to do anything. But no one’s home and there’s a new barn, so we should christen it.” Huh. Didn’t realize how that sounded until I said it out loud. “That sounds kind of gross, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, turning towards me with a smirk. “I’m sold anyway.”

Both the barn doors were open, so a cool night breeze drifted in and brought the smell of fresh air. There were no animals in the barn yet, so it was relatively clean and I laid some blankets on the ground and had a radio playing softly. There were twinkly lights on the rafters and I hadn’t killed myself when putting them up and they made everything hazy and romantic.

Because I set the mood for romance so perfectly or because we were two hormonal teenage guys or because I had been gone and now I wasn’t, our banter was short lived as our mouths attached themselves and didn’t want to part.

That didn’t mean there was no talking. “Glad you’re back,” he told me between kisses while I tried to take off our shirts.

“You’re not tired, are you?” I said that because of communication, honesty, or owning all the problems and getting them out of the way early.

He rolled his eyes but didn’t get mad. His dimples showed when he gazed at me. “Ryan, you’re back!” Luke seemed too excited by that to be annoyed. Aww. Oh, I wondered how long that would last.

“Was that an answer to my question?” Oh, you know the trick to taking off shirts? One at a time. One at a time probably helped.

“I’m wide awake and happy you’re here.” I wanted to rub his voice all over my body like animals did when finding a scent they liked.

“Same to you,” I told him or his chest as I successfully removed his shirt.

“Didn’t go anywhere.” His hands went under my shirt, not taking it off, but just running up and down what he could reach of my stomach and the tops of my hips and okay that wasn’t bad.

“I was afraid you were going to,” I said quietly. Afraid I wouldn’t get this when I came back.

“Yeah,” he agreed, somber for a moment. Then he grinned. “In case it wasn’t clear? Super crazy about you.”

“Me too about you.” I kissed the corner of his mouth then his mouth. “And just in general,” I added.

His hands settled on my hips and his smile was warm. “Way to own it, babe.”

“Is confidence sexy?” Hopefully as that was all I had going for me at the moment while I tried to remove my shirt and fell down since we were still standing.

“Yeah, but you’re sexy anyway.” Oh, hello new contender for what I want on my tombstone.

Then Luke joined me on my level of the floor, which was nice. The ground wasn’t super comfortable but at least the blankets were soft unlike the sheets at the motel and Luke was over me and this was great. Our kisses quickly turned heated as our tongues danced and it was fun, feeling the breeze in the air, being outside but not super outside as there was a structure over our heads and it had a roof now.

“No more protests about the barn?” I asked as his hands went to undo the button on my shorts.

“No more protests about the barn,” he agreed fondly.

No more protests at all. In fact, no more talking of any kind.

That last part wasn’t true at all. But it was a good night.