He wants to know about me, all my secrets, and I have plenty. The question is, do I want to share them? I lie there quietly for a few moments trying to decide how much or how little I want to share with him. He’s told me so much about himself and his family that I know the right thing to do is be as equally honest as he has been. But what if he doesn’t like what he hears?

“Come on, bright eyes. I’ve told you my secrets and my demons. Now share yours with me. It won’t change how I feel about you, I promise.”

I hear him, but I’m still not sure. “How can you promise that when you don’t even know what I’m going to say? Honestly, Roger—” I slap my hand over my mouth immediately. I didn’t mean to call him Roger. I know he hates being called that. “I’m sorry. I meant to say Rocky.”

His hand reaches up to mine and pulls it away from my mouth. “You can call me Roger. I like how it rolls off your tongue.”

I sigh and relax, deciding I’m willing to share as much as he is willing to hear. But before I can, Rocky sits up. “Did you hear that?” he says.

“No, what was I supposed to hear?” I ask, confused.

“The ducks. Those were male ducks flying overhead.”

I’m taken aback. How does this crazy rocker know the sound male ducks make? He must be joking with me. “How do you know what male ducks sound like? Don’t all ducks sound the same?”

Rocky chuckles. “No, male ducks make more of a squeaking sound, whereas females have more of a quack sound.”

My hand slaps his shoulder. “You’re so full of shit.”

Rocky flops back down onto his back, but this time pulling me with him. “I am so not full of shit. Google it.”

If he thinks I won’t google it, he has another thing coming, and when I find out he’s pulling my leg, I’m going to give him a rash of shit about it. “So, you want to know all about me, do you?” My eyes are locked with is as he nods his head. “Well,” I start, “my parents live in Payson. My dad is a doctor, who retired from the military and runs a private practice up there. Rusty and I are adopted because our adoptive mom couldn’t have kids, but I don’t think of him as anything other than my blood brother.”

Rocky tilts his head up to me and gently kisses my lips. “How old were you when you were adopted?”

When he’s done kissing me, I reply. “I was eight, and Rusty was thirteen. He had already lived with the Wallaces for few years before they adopted me.” I would normally stop here and not say anything else, but that wouldn’t be fair to Rocky. If he can trust me with his secrets, I can trust him with mine. “My biological parents died when I was six. Mom died from cancer, and Dad committed suicide not long after. That’s when I became a ward of the courts. My dad was an only child, and his parents were dead before I was even born. My mom’s brother, Justin, couldn’t or wouldn’t take care of me, and my grandparents lived in an old folks home and suffered from dementia. I didn’t understand back then why no one wanted me and why I had to go live in a foster home.”

It still hurts to think back to that time in my life. I feel the tears well in my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. Rocky rolls, placing my body beneath his as he kisses me. “I’m so sorry, bright eyes. I can’t even imagine,” is all he says.

“That wasn’t the half of it.” I continue, “My first foster home was horrible. My foster parents, Jack and Shirley fought all the time. There were three of us kids there; I was the youngest. They were shitty parents and didn’t do anything for us kids. Half the time, I was late for school because Shirley couldn’t get her ass out of bed before eight. I remember this one time when they were actually being nice and took us to the park. There were all these geese, and Jack told us kids to go play with them. I thought they were so beautiful that I ran toward them until this one gander raised his head and started honking at me. It scared the shit out of me, but Jack, he just laughed and thought it was funny. Peter, one of the boys who lived with us, started screaming at the gander and ran toward it, trying to scare it away from me, but the gander wasn’t having any of it and chased after Peter. We both took off running, but he kept chasing us, and Jack, he was awful. He laughed and called us names for being scared of an animal. I kind of hate parks because of that.

“Anyways, I lived with them for about a year until social services pulled me from their home because the school filed a complaint since us kids weren’t getting to school on time. After that, I ended up with the Wallaces, and they officially adopted me a year later. I guess being with that crappy family taught me to be independent because my mom once told me that growing up, I was always adamant about doing everything on my own without the help from anyone. It was my sixteenth birthday before I was ready to believe that someone would love me for me and I didn’t have to be afraid of losing anyone else I cared about.”

Pulling out of his arms, I stand. “Enough about me today. Come on,” I say as I take off running toward the pedal boat area of the park. “I’ll race you. First one there gets to relax while the other pedals.”

Rocky doesn’t even grab the blanket that is spread out on the ground. Instead, he kicks it into high gear trying to catch up to me. Just when I think I’m going to win, two arms wrap around my waist and swing me to the right, placing me behind him before he sprints to the ticket booth.

“Hey, you cheated.” I’m out of breath from trying to catch back up to him.

“Nope, I improvised, but that’s okay, bright eyes. I’ll still pedal you around the pond.”

For an hour, I sit back as Rocky pedals us around the pond. I try to pitch in a few times and help, but each time, Rocky squeezes my hand and tells me to just sit back and relax. Ducks float past us along with a few coots. We even spot a few fish making their way to the top of the water to snatch pieces of bread that someone must have tossed into the pond earlier. It’s peaceful. The sounds of birds chirping and the wind blowing across the water are hypnotizing, and so is the gorgeous man across from me.