Dak wanted to change the topic even though he brought it up in the first place. He was still smarting from the night before. All hints of mushiness aside, what he would have liked most was a hug from his best friend, Brody. He loved the long arms when they wrapped around his body. Instead, Brody rambled on about other potential dates from towns an hour away from Coldbrook Bend.

“So who was that guy kissing other guys in your family photos, Brody? Have you got a gay uncle you didn’t know about? I can’t believe Mrs. Sexton would hold out on you. Maybe it was just a joke.”

Dak stared at Brody seated on the opposite side of the table. There was something about the way he moved his mouth and shaped his lips. It was so expressive. That’s how he got the lead roles in plays in high school. Mr. Granger, the drama coach, said Brody’s face could tell an entire story by itself. He didn’t need costumes or props.

Brody said, “It’s not a joke. I didn’t show you, but there’s at least three other photos of them in there, and in one they just have their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders pressing their cheeks together while they smile for the camera like any happy couple.”

Dak knew that his belly was full, and he didn’t need any more to eat, but the cookies were there. They were calling his name. They made him think about happy days as a kid when his parents were both still around. He stuffed another cookie into his mouth and smiled when the sweet filling dissolved on his tongue. Brody was silent, rubbing his chin. After he swallowed the cookie, Dak said, “I still think she wouldn’t hide anything. There must be an explanation.”

“I know who the one guy is. It’s my great-uncle, Clyde. Can I tell you something, Dak?”

“Sure, of course. You know you can tell me anything.” Dak wiped at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

Brody sounded like a man in pain when he grunted out, “For ten days I’ve been talking about what an incredible woman my mom was. That’s true, but she wasn’t a saint. She wasn’t perfect. She screwed shit up.” Brody’s face started to flush, and a tear welled up in the corner of his right eye. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be struck by lightning for saying it, but I had to say something. She could have lied about this. Dak. She could have lied.” Brody laid his head down on the table, and his shoulders started to shake.

“Aw damn, Brody, don’t do that. Guys aren’t supposed to…I mean, don’t do that. I don’t handle it very well. I never know what to do.” Dak stood up and skirted the table to place a hand on Brody’s shoulder. He awkwardly patted the back of Brody’s head with his other hand. “I know she wasn’t perfect. Nobody is, but she made me chocolate chip cookies. Only the best people bake cookies for me.”

Brody couldn’t stop himself from chuckling softly. He looked up and said, “She did bake great cookies.”

“Hey, do you remember that first summer after my parents moved us to town? You were upstairs in that bedroom of yours working on building some little city or something in the middle of the floor, and I came running all the way to your house after those thugs caught hold of me.”

“Are you sure I was like that?” asked Brody.

“Oh yeah. Sometimes getting you out of the house in the sunshine was like trying to drag a guy out of a life raft. You’re still a little pale these days. You could use a little more sun.”

Brody ignored the comment about his complexion. “So what happened when you got to my house?”

“It was a Sunday, so your mom was home. As soon as I got close, I could smell those cookies. I knocked on the door, and she let me in. She cleaned up the stain on my lip from the bloody nose those guys gave me, and then I got to eat cookies and drink milk. Pretty soon I’d calmed down, and then you appeared.”

Brody tilted his head to the right. “I’m not sure I remember it all the same way.”

“You were a good guy, too. You started coming up with all sorts of ways to build machines to trap the goons and dump them in the river with concrete boots on their feet. You stood up for me, too.”

Brody chuckled softly. “I do remember that part.”

“Yep, your mom was a good woman. Our town’s gonna miss her, too. Who’s running the library now?”

“They put her assistant in charge on a temporary basis. I suspect they’ll do a job search for somebody soon.”

Dak continued his comments. He was enjoying reliving the past, and he didn’t want to leave the hazy warm sensations too soon. His apartment was empty and located in a rougher part of town. It was the only place he could find in Coldbrook Bend that would rent for just the two weeks he had off from the tow boat.

Dak stood up to retrieve the milk jug from the fridge and pour another glass. He asked, “You want some?”

Brody shook his head. “You might wanna check the date on that. It was here when Mom had her stroke. That’s been awhile.”

“I’m not sick so far, and I didn’t smell anything funny.” Dak poured himself another glass and sat down. “And you were always building stuff as a kid. I’m sorry I smashed your truck, but I bet you could build an even better one now out of toothpicks and dryer lint.”

“It’s what got me my job.”

“What?” asked Dak wiping milk from his upper lip.

“The manager job at Home Pro. Of course, it helped to do the grunt work for a year, but I know what every part and piece is. Do you need a spud wrench? I got it. Do you need a cat’s paw? I can point you in the direction of those, too.”

“Nah, I’ll leave the kitty body parts to you,” laughed Dak. “If you wanna know what any part is on a towboat or a barge, I can tell you. Building a house? I’m clueless. A guy who’s only onshore for two weeks at a time doesn’t have much need for a house. He doesn’t learn much about other tools either.”

“With a house, you could have some place to come home to,” said Brody.

Dak shrugged. “You leave it vacant for a month, and the yard gets long, and the dust piles an inch high. The toilets stop flushing right, and the tap water turns brown. At least that’s what my friend Oscar on the boat says.”

“He’s one that you…” Brody stopped himself. “Damn, none of my business.”

Dak threw his head back and laughed out loud. “You wanna know whether he sucked my dick. Feeling a little nosy that way?”

“You brought it up,” said Brody.

“I was just reading the winds, and yeah, so I’m not keeping secrets like your great-uncle, He did suck me off. I went back and had him do it again, too. He’s fun. His lips are thick, and he knows what to do with his tongue. He doesn’t have much of a gag reflex. He’s better than asshole Leo. There’s a hot mouth attached to a lousy man.”

Dak loved the look on his friend’s face. Brody’s mouth dropped open for a moment, then he blushed, and he shifted in his seat. Dak wanted to climb across the table and whip it out for his buddy. It might break the tension, or it might scuttle the friendship. He couldn’t risk the latter.

Dak smiled when Brody made another quick change in the conversation. “And those guys from Durgin at the football game. Damn, they put you through hell, too. I brought you home and cleaned you up from that.”

“Phobic bitches,” growled Dak. “They picked on Ernie in the band. I just issued a little correction. I was their river rat from hell.”

“And got a few bruises and a cracked rib in the process.”

Dak remembered how Brody fussed over him like a mother hen. They were both juniors in high school, and Brody’s mom was out of town overnight for a work event. He remembered how Brody peeled off his shirt and felt around gently to try and figure out if Dak had to go the emergency room or not. Dak was rock hard from the attention, and he secretly wanted it to turn into so much more, but Brody was a shy fish then. He wasn’t biting.

“The next morning you woke up moaning and groaning. I had to take you to the ER,” said Brody.

“Yeah, having the ribs wrapped was annoying, but it was worth it to put some hurt on those assholes.” Dak drained the last of his milk and asked, “So who do you think was your uncle’s lover?”

Brody shrugged. “Who knows. I bet that photo is at least thirty years old.”

Dak leaned across the old Formica table and asked, “You aren’t the least bit curious? That’s not like you. I remember back in the fourth or fifth grade you told me you always wished you could find a real-life mystery to solve just like in the books you read.”

Brody sighed. “Yeah, I am a little curious, but I don’t think I’m half as curious about who the lover was as I am about why my mom hid the truth from me. I mean, I went to his funeral.”

“Your great-uncle’s funeral? When was that?”

“I guess I was about ten. So that would be the late 90s, right?”

Dak laughed. “You’re getting old just like me. You can’t even add and subtract numbers now. Yep, that would be around 1997 or so.”

“My mom said he’d been sick for awhile, but that’s all I remember. The casket was closed, so I didn’t have to look at a dead body. I was happy about that.”

Dak smirked. “You were the little haunted house princess. It’s pretty easy to spook you.”

Brody made another hairpin turn in the conversation when he asked, “So you’re gonna make up with Lewis?”

“Don’t know on that one,” said Dak. “I really would like to see if we fight for it all whether that would lead to happily ever after. The only problem is I’m not sure Lewis is the one I want the happily ever after with. He’s a little, I don’t know, ick. He’s so fru-fru in bed.”

Brody laughed. “And what’s all this happily ever after stuff? I never knew you were a romantic. You’re not the guy that would scatter rose petals on the floor. Are you Dak? Have you started reading those romance books like you can pick up at that ratty used bookstore downtown? Is that where you get them?”

Dak leaned further across the table and whispered, “Gay ones. Have you ever seen a romance with gay boys at that store downtown? It’s the 21st century now. I get ‘em online.”

“Whatever happened to good old-fashioned porn?”

“Well, yeah, that, too,” said Dak. “It’s a long time on the boat, though. A whole month. Believe it or not, you get a little tired of the porn eventually.”

Brody tried to appear shocked and failed miserably. He said, “No, porn boring?” and then broke down laughing. “I just never thought you were a big reader.”

“There’s a lot you might not know about me. As I said, this is private in here.” Dak pounded at his chest again. “Someday a good man is gonna find out what’s inside. It looks like I’ve got a hell of a lot of frogs to kiss before then.”

The tone of Brody’s voice dropped down a register. He said, “Maybe you just need to slow down and not cling to the first body that walks into the room. Take a look around and try to see what you might have missed.” Brody laced his fingers together and stared across the table.

Dak shrugged. Brody had a point. Dak was starting to lose count of his boyfriends and crazy crushes. He was always sure the newest one was going to lead to picket fences, a dog, and maybe even a snot-nosed kid, and then a week or a month later, Dak was running back to Brody’s apartment with his humbled tail tucked between his legs. “Maybe you’ve got a point. First, I’ll see if there’s any reason to wring anything more out of Lewis, or if it just amounts to beating a dead horse.”

“From your attitude, I think I know the answer to that. I haven’t had a real boyfriend for over a year, but it doesn’t sound like you’re any closer to happily ever after than me.”