Rhett pulled his feet in and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “When I was fourteen I was adopted by the Hayes. You knew that part. But you don’t know what happened before that.” He glanced at me.

I put my hand on his shoulder.

He took a deep breath. “When I was little, it was just me and my mom. My biological mom. I have no idea who my biological father was. I’m not sure she did either.” He looked at me, checking my reaction.

I squeezed his shoulder and looked into his stormy blue eyes.

He took a breath and continued. “When I was in elementary school, she would fill up the house with food, and then leave.”

“What do you mean, leave?” I said.

“I mean like — for a week or more,” Rhett said. He rocked a little, forward and back. It was like the tension of the story needed to come out his body too.

“Jesus,” I said. I thought my parents were bad. No, they were just uptight. This was… I couldn’t fathom.

“Yeah, it’s funny,” Rhett laughed a little. “I wanted so hard to show her how responsible I was. When she was gone I went to school, came home, tried to do my homework, and usually went to bed on time.”

I blinked. “Wow!” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I preferred her gone because when she was home I had to take care of her. All she did was drink, usually.”

I slid my hand from his shoulder and around his back and pulled him toward me, my arm around him. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Rhett sat in silence. Then he said, “Then I fucked up.”

“You fucked up?” I said. “How?”

“I let someone find out my mom was gone.” Rhett’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “They took me and put me in foster care, and I never saw her again.” He cleared his throat again. This time the sound was more ragged.

Anger rose inside me. He thought he screwed up? “You were a child,” I said. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I shouldn’t have let them in,” Rhett said. “I couldn’t take care of myself. I wanted to be responsible, and I wasn’t.”

“You were a child,” I repeated. “Children aren’t responsible to take care of themselves. It sounds like you were more responsible than most other little kids.”

Rhett shook his head. “Maybe, but I spent the next several years in foster care. That’s where I learned not to get attached to anything. Or anyone.”

So much made sense now. My heart cracked for the little boy left all alone with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and then again for that little boy feeling like he failed and then had no home. I pulled Rhett closer to me.

Rhett accepted my side embrace. “No one evaluates the foster kid for reading problems,” he said. “By the time the Hayes took me in, it was too late. No one realized, I guess. All of my academic problems were chalked up to my erratic childhood. It seemed like a reasonable explanation.”

“So how did you pass high school?” I asked.

Rhett grinned to himself. “I took a lot of shop classes,” he said. “And they don’t hold people back from high school anymore. I got my diploma, and then my dad, the fire chief, helped me learn what I needed to know for the fireman exam.”

He inhaled and then blew the breath out. “I’m barely capable of taking care of myself, let alone a dog. But I couldn’t abandon Tiger. Everyone said I was trouble, and no one wanted me either. I couldn’t do that to him too.”

I sat, eyebrows furrowed, as a cloud roiled through me. “Can I be an asshole for a second?” I said, trying to control my voice.

Rhett leaned back and looked at me wide eyed. “Sure, man. I just spilled my soul. You can kick me when I’m down.”

I frowned at him. “I’m not going to kick you when you’re down. I just… you mean to tell me that you think you can’t take care of anything because you couldn’t take care of yourself when you were seven???” My voice rose, as much as I tried to keep it even.

He stared at me, unblinking. Then he rubbed his face and said, “Um, yeah?”

I stared at him. “Do you realize how crazy that sounds? If you as a first responder went into a house where a little kid was by himself, would you expect him to be able to act as an adult?”

Rhett shook his head. “Of course not.”

“How is this different?” I said, my voice incredulous.

He dropped his head. “It’s not, I guess.” A long pause passed, and then he said, “Fuck.”

I squeezed him again. “You were a little kid. It’s not your fault. Besides, you are good at taking care of things, you just don’t realize it. You look after your mom, you are a damn good fireman, by all accounts, and you take good care of Tiger.”

“Yeah?” Rhett looked at me, his mouth twisted.

“Yeah,” I said. “You’re awesome. Now you just have to believe it too.”

“I’m going to believe I’m awesome by finding out if I am dyslexic?” Rhett’s face rolled into a smirk.

I laughed. “Maybe! Think of it like you’re the adult taking little Rhett to be evaluated so he can get some help.”

“Huh,” Rhett said. “I can take care of the city, and I can take care of Tiger. I guess I can do that too.” He paused and studied my face.

“What?”

“You’ll go with me?” he said. “Then if this is the dumbest idea ever we can blame you?”

I laughed. “I will go with you and I will take all the blame. In the meantime, let’s see what we can get through tonight.”

Rhett scrubbed his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up every which way. “Okay.”

And so we began again.

It was tough. But he could do it. We just needed to break it into manageable chunks.

Even though the work was hard, when we finally quit for the day, Rhett seemed more relaxed than when we started. “That wasn’t horrible,” he admitted. “I’m not saying I’m going to ace the test, but thank you for helping me.”

I shrugged. “I’m happy to help. I’m not good at a lot of things, but with the things I am — I’m happy to help.”

“Speaking of things you’re good at,” Rhett drawled. His face was so close to mine.

“Do we have to talk about that right now? I can think of some other things I’d rather do right now.”

He smiled and tucked some of my stray hair behind my ear. “Me too, but then I’d think you were only trying to get out of working, and not actually into me. My ego can’t take that kind of hit.”

“What is it you said? Can’t it be both?” I said.

He shook his head. “Nope. First let’s talk about your next video. What kinds of videos do you really want to make?”

“Ahh,” I said. It was easier to worry about Rhett’s test than putting myself back online.

“Don’t think, just say it,” he said, gently tugging me closer to him.

I closed my eyes. “I wanted to do videos about training dogs. I wanted to do advocacy for shelters and for adopting rescued animals. And, I don’t know. I wanted to do something interesting, like that would matter.”

“Your videos didn’t matter?”

“They did in that they entertained people, and that’s worth a lot. But…” I sighed. “I think it was just my teenage idealism, really.”

“I don’t know a lot about that, but it sounds worth thinking about. The question is, do you need all these questions answered in order to make one new video?”

I slumped in my seat. “I suppose not. But it’s such a handy excuse!”

He threw his head back and laughed. “At least you’re honest!” He paused and then said, “What if you did videos featuring Tiger? He’s cute enough to be on camera, and he doesn’t mind.”

“Do you mind? He’s your dog. This would thrust you into the spotlight.”

“Bah,” Rhett waved his hand. “What spotlight? I’m training my dog? You’re talking to the guy who went to New York to try to build a modeling career.”

“Oh yeah. Okay, so you aren’t afraid of the camera.”

“Nope, but the focus should be on Tiger. Remember what you said about Rory? That your interactions with someone else were so popular the videos became the relationship?”

He had a good point. And I didn’t want to share him with the internet. He was already Mr. June. I liked the sanctuary we made with each other. I didn’t want to give it up or share it with the world. I nodded. “Dog is the star.”

“You too,” Rhett said, chucking me under the chin. “You’re the star. Tiger can be your best supporting actor.”

I couldn’t take it any more. Sitting so close to him, I could smell his skin. He smelled like musk and soap and shaving cream and god knows what else, but I wanted to get closer. “Are you satisfied with my answers about videos?” I tipped my head back and gazed into his blue eyes. The proximity made me bold. “I want more of what I had last night,” I added.

Rhett’s eyes darkened and he pulled me onto his lap in one fast movement, pulling one hand under each knee and straddling me close on his lap. I was in a completely new position before I realized what had happened. “High school wrestling,” he chuckled in my ear.

My head lolled back. Wrestling. Oh my. My heart pounded at the physical contact and the excitement of being so close to him.

I held his head in my hands and looked into his eyes. “What is it about you?” I wondered.

He pulled me closer. “You mean besides my devastating good looks and my irresistible charm?” he husked into my ear.

“Yes, besides those things.” I leaned back and gripped his face and turned it this way and that, scrutinizing him. “You’re different.”

A cloud passed over his eyes and he looked away.

“Hey, hey.” I pulled his gaze back to mine. “I like it. You look like every other All-American hunk, but there’s more. There is an extraordinary depth to you.”

Rhett closed his eyes and leaned back before meeting my gaze again. “You see me,” he said.

“I see you,” I whispered. His lips met mine, and I crawled as close as I could, straddled on his lap, wrapping myself around him. I felt frantic, like I couldn’t get enough, I couldn’t get close enough.

His tongue swirled around mine. He bit my lip, I bit him back. We teased, and kissed. The fire blazed inside me and my desire grew. My cock strained against the seams in my shorts. Thank god I wasn’t wearing tight pants. I squirmed and pressed against him.

He pressed back. Oh god. His cock pushed against mine, through our clothes. Like teenagers, like all of this caught us off guard and we didn’t know what to do with it.

Maybe because that’s exactly what happened.

Finally Rhett broke the kiss, and I sat, eyes closed, arms around his neck, our foreheads touching.

I realized I was panting.

“Oscar…” he said.

“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t say anything I don’t want to hear.” I put my finger over his lip. His beautiful pouty kissable lips. I shook my head.

“Okay,” he said, and with that, he pulled me even closer than before.