SAM
When Luke rings to tell us to come over and do dinner, Jeremy grumbles and moves reluctantly. His feet chrr against the floor and it makes my teeth ache. “Lift your feet,” I say. “It’s hard to believe you’re so good at footwork when you can’t even seem to walk over carpet.”
Jeremy blinks up at me. “Huh?” Then he shrugs and we head out the door.
At Luke’s I don’t bother knocking; I push open the door he’s left ajar and we walk in. “Luke?”
“Dining room,” comes the answer.
There’s a familiar smell in the air, and I follow it to the table where there are 2 big bundles of fish and chips. Luke isn’t there, but I hear him crashing about in his kitchen.
Jeremy whoops in delight. “Damn, Luke’s the best.” Then louder so Luke hears him. “You’re the awesomest.”
“I know,” he calls back.
Jeremy pulls out a chair and immediately starts unwrapping to get to the deep-fried goodness. Just as I take my place, Luke strolls in and I pause halfway to the seat. He’s changed since getting home: low-slung jeans, a singlet, and sandals.
I’ve always wished to have a body like Luke’s, so tight and defined without appearing too bulky, but now I’m really wishing for it. He just looks so good. Not that that’s something I could ever tell another guy. But damn.
Before anyone starts to wonder why I’m ogling Luke’s corded arm muscles, I focus on a piece of crumbed fish lying on top of crinkle-cut chips.
But my mind goes blank again as Luke reaches out and takes some chips. Even his hands are perfect—
I jerk out of the thought, blurting the first thing that comes to my mind. “So how did Jeremy get out of making dinner? I was looking forward to watching him suffer through it.” I wink at my boy, who rolls his eyes like I’m the lamest thing around.
I sigh, and grab for some chips.
Luke looks from Jeremy to me and shakes his head. “Next time I’ll tough it out. Maybe potato peeling would be good for his character growth.” He dips a chip in a puddle of tomato sauce he squeezed onto the paper. “But I missed doing this with you. When I drove past Fins I got all nostalgic.” He laughs at himself, and then gestures to the fish and chips. “And there you go.”
His dimples grow fainter, but they’re still there when he looks at me. Our gazes meet, and it’s like we have an unspoken conversation, where I’m telling him I’ve missed this too and I’m glad he’s missed it just as much.
He nods and sucks in breath, forcing his mood into something more upbeat. “So, last day at school for you tomorrow, Jeremy. That’ll be nice.” He turns a smirk on me. “And what crazy shenanigans do you have planned?”
“Nothing much.” But that’s not true. Tomorrow, I’m going off-the-charts crazy. And I’m looking forward to it.
My fingers are greasy from the chips and I wipe them on my pants before grabbing some crumbed fish. I bite into it and it’s like I’ve gone back in time, to the first time we all ate fish and chips together on the Petone foreshore and got half-mauled by seagulls.
I chuckle at the memory. Luke had freaked out, sending Jeremy and I into hysterics. My laughter only abated when Luke reached over and covered my mouth with his palm, scowling like no one’s business.
When I think back to it, I can still feel the firmness of his hand against my lips. The action had taken me and him by surprise, and if it’d been something guys could do together, I would’ve licked his palm to make him jerk it away.
But that would have come across weird.
“What are you thinking about, Sam?” Luke asks as he squirts more tomato sauce onto the paper.
Heat suddenly creeps up my neck and I try to shrug it away. “Oh, just, stuff. How we used to do this.”
Jeremy pipes up. “I remember the time you guys left me in the fish and chip shop. I still can’t believe you forgot you had a kid with you.”
More heat blooms over my cheeks, and I’m glad Luke is getting red as well. “We’re sorry about that,” Luke says. “Your dad and I just got caught up in our conversation.”
“We only drove half a block before we realized,” I say, wincing as I do.
Jeremy gives us a droll stare. “Must have been some conversation.”
It had been. Actually, it was more bantering, really. I can’t really remember what it was about exactly, only that I kept laughing and shaking my head and telling Luke he had it all wrong, which he insisted wasn’t true. And the 20 minutes or so we’d talked had only felt like 3.
“Of all the awesome things you could remember of your childhood,” I murmur, “you have to remember that one.”
Jeremy shakes his head at me. Then he turns to Luke. “Your turn, what fish-and-chips story do you remember?”
Luke leans back in his chair, and then he eats another chip without comment. But his lips twitch at the corners and his dimples deepen. He picks up some more chips and focuses on them as he speaks. “I remember the time you got food poisoning, Jeremy. You’d eaten something funky in the morning and when I brought home dinner, you took one look at it and ran to the bathroom to throw up.”
He throws a chip into his mouth. “Your dad and I spent the night taking turns to clean up after your bouts in the bathroom. It wasn’t pretty.”
“Gross.”
I laugh at Jeremy, but I can’t pull my gaze away from Luke. Thinking back to that night a couple of years ago, there is another memory that arises. Luke resting on our couch, twisting and turning to find a comfortable position. I’d stumbled from my room to get a drink of water and had seen him squirming on the couch, bathed in milky moonlight coming though the windows.
I’d stood in the doorway to the lounge and watched him. I wanted to tell him to get up and share my bed. I’d even stepped into the room to do it too. And then Jeremy had his next bout and Luke jumped off the couch in an adorably sweet daze and stumbled over to me. “Need help, yeah?” he said, assuming that’s why I’d come in.
I’d just nodded, and together we got Jeremy’s bed sheets changed and the bathroom wiped down.
Luke glances up at me. “Now it’s your turn, Sam. Tell us your memory.”
And with a laugh that unleashes something tender inside, I tell them. But I face Jeremy as I describe how the birds had pecked at Luke’s fingers when he stubbornly tried to save his chip. I face him because if I look up at Luke right now, I’m going to blush—and I don’t want any questions to come out of that.