Chapter 2

“You’re safe here,” Brent told him. “The youngest person is Neil Dunn. He’s twenty-two and lives over there with his parents.” He pointed to the house two doors down with the fenced backyard.

“Is he…?” Reed started to say, before quickly taking a drink of his tea.

“Gay?” I replied. “We haven’t figured that out, yet. Don’t worry. If he isn’t, we won’t hold it against him.” Looking at Reed, I lifted an eyebrow in question.

He didn’t answer my unspoken query, saying instead, “So almost everyone here—” Reed swept an arm around, “—is?”

“For sure I am,” Tyler said, coming into view across the grass separating his house from Reed’s. “Hi. I’m Tyler Sanders. I keep seeing you, but I haven’t had a chance to come over since you moved in.”

“Reed Fleming,” Reed replied. “Would you like some iced tea?”

“Sure.” Tyler grabbed the last chair while Reed went in to get another glass of ice. “So what’s he like?” Tyler asked quietly.

“Seems nice enough. Not sure he’s gay, but…” I shrugged.

“I am,” Reed said, obviously overhearing me as he came back onto the patio.

Brent grinned. “So we outnumber the others eleven to five. Or twelve to four, depending on Neil.”

“How can you notknow if he’s gay?” Reed asked.

“Because, my dear boy,” Tyler replied, “the only time we see him is when he comes home during semester breaks from college, or over the summer when he’s not…wherever he spends his free time.”

“He doesn’t socialize?” Reed frowned. “Does anyone around here?”

“Socialize? You bet,” Brent said. “For one, we have barbecues in the park on the far side of the turnaround circle. Every holiday and whenever someone wants to celebrate something, like a birthday.”

“Even in winter?” Reed asked in surprise.

I nodded. “Nothing like a warm fire and hot food to make the day special. Now, if it’s snowing like crazy, we will pass and do it at someone’s house. Usually David and Luke’s since they have the largest house other than the Dunns.”

Reed thought a moment. “So the eleven to four means there’s at least two guys who are couples. Well, four if you want to get technical.”

“Yep,” I said. “David and Luke are married. Eliot and Frank are shacking up together.”

“They live—where?”

“Dave and Luke are just to the right of the park, as you face it. Eliot and Frank are two doors down from them on the same side.”

“CC in next to me,” Brent said.

“CC?”

“Chase Clark. Ergo, CC, when we’re in the mood to tease him,” Brent explained. “Nice man. About our age. Well, mine anyway. Adam here’s old.”

I snorted. “Thirty-one is not old.”

“Younger than me,” Tyler pointed out. “So definitely not. For your information, Reed, I’m thirty-two. And Jake, who lives between our two gay couples, is thirty-three, so Adam’s really a youngster.”

“Mick and Ginger Nelson live to the left of the park. They’re in their forties. Owen is twenty-six. The youngest if you don’t count Neil.” I glanced at the others. “Have I missed anyone?”

“Nope,” Brent replied.

Reed said worriedly, “I’m never going to remember all the names.”

“Give it time. Once you get to know them, you will,” I told him. “As a matter of fact, the Fourth is coming up a week from Monday which means…”

“Party time,” Brent and Tyler said in unison.

“One-track minds,” I grumbled, getting laughs from all three men.

“It’s for everyone?” Reed asked.

“Yep,” I told him. “If you live here, you’re invited.”

“Invited, hell,” Brent said. “It’s mandatory.”

Reed seemed puzzled. “If it is, then why don’t you know if, umm, Neil? Right? If he’s gay?”

Brent shrugged. “I was overstating the mandatory part. Of course no one hasto attend—and he doesn’t. His folks may be old timers, but like Tyler said, Neil goes away to college. And when he is here, he doesn’t stick around. He undoubtedly has friends his own age he hangs out with.”

“Okay. That makes sense.”

After that, the conversation got more general. Brent asked Reed what he did for a living. When Reed said he worked for a brokerage firm, they started talking about stocks and bonds, since Brent is a financial planner.

Tyler started to tell me about his newest role at the Playhouse, where he’s one of the principal actors. He wanted to know if the TV station I work for was planning on doing a story on the theater’s upcoming production. Since I’m only a cameraman, I had no clue. Then, when he was certain the others were engrossed in their conversation, he told me he’d see me the next evening. That’s sounds like an assignation, I know. But it wasn’t. We both moonlight at a local film company, making porn films. Me as a cameraman. Him as one of the actors. We were due to start shooting two new ones tomorrow night. Hey, what we do helps pay our mortgages—which works for us. No one who knows seems to care, but we don’t go around bragging about it.