Bowl Full of Cherries (21 page)

They got Tyler to chug a beer, hoping to make him sloppier on the sled. And
still
he won their races. Before Tyler’s last ride down the hill, Sondra stood up off the cooler and planted herself onto the back of his sled. She threw herself tightly around him. They went flying together and landed unscathed.

“We should do that,” Rell said as his brother and cousin shouted with laughter at the bottom of the hill. He watched as Sondra pushed Tyler off the sled and into the glistening sea of snow. Tyler rolled onto his back and made a snow angel, sinking so far in a snowdrift that he practically disappeared. Sondra laughed and dove in after him, kicking up snow. They popped out of the snow together, both stumbling against the other.

“C’mon.” Rell sat himself back on the second sled and scooted forward, patting the seat behind him. “You want to ride with me?”

Tyler and Sondra were halfway back up the hill now, singing “God Rest Ye Merry
Sledding
Men” and howling with laughter at Tyler’s tipsy brilliance.

Crowley nodded and smiled. He wrapped his arms around Rell’s chest and put his legs up next to him. They were snug on the sled. There wasn’t a lot of room, but Rell loved having Crowley so close to him. He drank half a beer and handed the rest to Crowley who downed it with a gasp of “Ugh!” when he finished.

They used their legs to get it going, and then, they too were flying together down the hill. Crowley put his head against Rell’s back and it made Rell happy, feeling him there, feeling the pressure against his back. They were about halfway down when they hit something and the sled veered, throwing them off, the sled going in another direction.

They toppled ungracefully, their momentum sending them rolling together down the hill. Rell clung to Crowley and they balled up tightly, tumbling over one another, until they landed, out of breath and laughing, at the bottom of the hill in a ditch of snow, not unlike the one Tyler had jumped into before.

Rell, holding himself over Crowley, looked down and said, “I’m crazy about you.”

His words stilled Crowley’s laugh. He said, “That can’t be possible.”

Rell nodded. “It’s more than possible. I don’t know if Tyler and Sondra can see us, and I really, really don’t give a shit. Let them lecture. I just want to kiss you.”

So he did.

A
S
THEY
trudged back toward the house, tired but happy, Tyler leaned on his brother for support. “I think I possibly drank a little too much, good sir.”

“I think you probably did, Tyler,” Rell agreed, but he was grinning. Tyler wasn’t quite sloppy drunk, but he was tipsy. A small nap and he’d be good to go. There was one thing that could be said in favor of his hipster brother, the man had a liver of steel.

“Since I’m of the mildly inebriated persuasion,” Tyler continued, his vocal pattern fluttering as he spoke in his most official “lofty” voice, “I think you should know that I don’t think you’re the worst grub on the planet.”

“Oh, wow. What is this? The Christmas spirit?”

“Hold on, there’s
more
.” Tyler laughed brightly at this. “Get it? Like a… like a guy on the TV that sells stuff?”

“An infomercial?”

“Right! ‘Hold on, there’s more.’”

“I think that’s ‘but wait, there’s more.’”

“Oh yeah.” Tyler nodded and snorted. Rell continued to trudge forward, supporting his twin’s weight and pulling the sleigh along behind him. Sondra, who had been much less tipsy to begin with, quickly sobered as they trudged along. She asked Crowley if he could pull her up the street on the sled and he obliged.

“So what’s the ‘more’ in the ‘but wait, there’s more,’ Tyler?” Rell asked.

“Remember when I said that Jes and the kids ate the reserve pie?”

“Yeah,” Rell muttered. He was still peeved the rules of piedom had changed on him midseason.

“I lied,” Tyler said proudly. “I totally lied to you. I ate it. I ate the whole damn thing.”

Before he’d even stopped to think about it, Rell had shoved Tyler into a snow bank and walked on. His brother howled with laughter.

“R
IGHT
NOW
!”
Sondra said suddenly. Tyler, who’d been sleeping off his beer buzz, startled awake. He blinked, a little wild-eyed, and smacked his lips, looking around at them like he didn’t know who they were. They were all taking advantage of the fire, warming themselves after the drunken sledding, which Crowley could now say was every bit as awesome as they’d promised it would be.

“Are you having a stroke, Sondra?” Rell asked her. He was sitting close to the fire, leaning back on his arms, and he cocked his head at his cousin. She ignored him.

“The light’s perfect. I just heard Mom and CeCe go into the kitchen. C’mon, let’s go, right now.”

Crowley looked over at Rell, feeling the blush starting in his cheeks. He was the one who had asked for this opportunity. And he wanted it. He definitely wanted it. But he hadn’t expected it to happen so
suddenly.
One minute they were drinking peppermint schnapps and the next, Sondra was saying “nude photos now!”

Tyler made a noise, pulling the hand-knitted Afghan he’d given his mother for Christmas over his shoulder. He grumbled, “And what exactly are we doing in Aunt Megs’s room?”

“Nothing,” Crowley, startled, lied. He realized he’d never told Tyler about his plans to go
au naturel
for the camera. Tyler could be
opinionated—
and at that moment, all Crowley wanted was the support of the people he cared about the most. But with Tyler’s suspicious blue gaze on his face, Crowley found himself getting fidgety. The lying thing. He never did have follow-up answers, even if the question was, “Oh, yeah?”

“Oh, yeah?” Tyler asked, as if reading his mind.

Crowley, his blood running cold said, “Um… I’m going to… model for Sondra.”

Tyler shook his head very slowly, as if he could not believe what he was hearing. “What in the hell has my family done to you, Mr. Fredericks?”

“I’
LL
GIVE
you a minute to get undressed,” Sondra told Crowley. “You can wear a robe or a towel for a while if you want, but sometimes my models find it easier if they move around freely. Just sort of
be
naked for a while.”

Both of Crowley’s eyebrows rose, and Sondra laughed.

“Maybe it’s not your style. I’m just letting you know that if you want to get naked and be naked, I’m okay with that.”

She quietly shut the door to the bedroom, and Crowley turned to find both of the Lang twins looking at him. Tyler was sitting on the bed, his arms crossed. Crowley could tell he was trying to keep his expression mild. Rell stood nearby, hands in his pockets, a gentle, understanding smile on his face.

“I don’t think this is a
bad
idea,” Tyler started, which from experience told Crowley he
did
think it was a bad idea and he was about to lay out all of his reasons why. “But have you
really
thought about this? I mean, Sondra puts those pictures everywhere. She’s got a whole website dedicated to
The Beautiful Body Experiment
. She showed it to me. She’ll tweet them. Are you… going to be okay with that?”

That was something Crowley hadn’t considered—not just the website, but social media. He’d once again be circulating the Internet. Except, instead of the shamed fat boy being laughed at and shared on people’s walls on Facebook, Crowley would be the one in control. They may laugh, or they may be inspired, but no one was holding him down. No one was humiliating him. It was Sondra’s camera, but it was Crowley’s body. And Crowley was choosing this.

With aching slowness, Crowley tugged at the hem of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head. This was his answer. He knew he wasn’t a teenager anymore. Knew he’d shed some of the pounds. But in this room, with two of his favorite people in the world, he was more self-conscious than ever.

He stared at Rell, waiting for his lips to twitch, waiting to hear laughter. Instead, Rell swallowed and turned his head, very slowly, toward his twin.

“Get out of here.”

“What?” Tyler asked, quirking an eyebrow behind his glasses.

“I don’t want you in here for this.”

“Oh, you don’t?” Tyler snorted. “Good thing you’re neither Lord and Master of this house, nor the one running my social calendar. If I want to be here—”

“I’m about to go over and kiss your roommate stupid,” Rell told him. “There will be tongue. You will be awkward about it. Probably an ass.”

Tyler made a bleating sound of protest, but Rell continued.

“And frankly, I don’t want you seeing his junk.”

“The whole damn Internet is going to see his junk.”

“Possibly,” Rell said. “If that’s what he wants. But right now, I don’t want you to see it.”

Crowley couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. It was familiar and comfortable, the way the brothers antagonized each other.

“Guys,” Crowley said with a smile. He deftly unbuttoned and unzipped his pants. “I’ve got a solution. Tyler, if you really want to stay, why don’t you close your eyes—”

“Are you serious?” Tyler asked.

“Just for a minute. Just so Rell can have first look.”

“I don’t want him here,” Rell said huffily.

“Look, I’m about to pass out again just standing here without my shirt on. So you two need to get along, for half a second, please, so I don’t chicken out.” He was firm as he said, “This? What I’m doing? It’s about
me
. Not about you guys. Don’t make me kick you both out.”

That startled the blue-eyed twins into silence and Tyler, with only a little grunt of protest, made a show of covering his eyes so his brother could be the first one to see Crowley naked. Drawing all his strength, Crowley beckoned Rell, who was off the bed like the comforter burned his backside. He moved his hands away so Rell could ease the pants slowly down his body.

The first thing he thought was that it sure was cold being naked in this large room. And then he thought,
shit
, the way Rell touched him was giving him an erection. When he’d imagined this, there’d been no erection.

“Stop,” he murmured as Rell kissed his hair-roughed thighs. Gently he wove his fingers into Rell’s hair. “Please stop.”

“Goddamn, Crowley. You look so good. You taste even better.”

“It’s
not
that big of a room,” Tyler said loudly. “Your whispers carry. I don’t even want to
know
what you’re
tasting
right now, Averell Lang. Fine, you know what, I will remove myself from this because obviously you’re going to be doing porn instead of art.”

“No we’re not,” Crowley said, tearing himself away from Rell when all Crowley wanted to do was push closer to him. He breathed deeply and took one of the silk robes off the back of the chair. It was very girly, but he didn’t care. He needed to cover up again.

Rell groaned. “Can’t we kick Tyler out?”

“No,” Crowley said. “I’m afraid he’s right.”

“Don’t ever say that,” Rell begged.

“I’m afraid it will become something it’s not supposed to be if it’s just you and I….”

“And Sondra will encourage that ‘something,’ I bet.” Tyler fell back against the bed. “Can I stop covering my eyes now? My glasses are all smudged.”

“Yes,” Crowley said.

The robe, which was silver and shimmery, barely touched the tops of his thighs. Looking down, he saw that it didn’t really hide anything, but he felt better anyway. He chanced a glance over at Rell. He smiled. In spite of the robe, Rell’s eyes lingered on his body, following curves and angles he was used to concealing. He felt celebrated.

Rell waited until his brother sat up before he scooped Crowley into a kiss, pulling him right up close, not hesitating for a second before he pressed his lips against Crowley’s.

“You’re not chasing me away,” Tyler told him. “Even if you—Jesus, Rell. Tongue much?”

When Rell broke the kiss, Crowley was delirious with pleasure.

S
ONDRA
,
IT
turned out, really was a professional. Crowley didn’t know anything about posing for photographs. He’d actually, up until that point, avoided being in them at all if he could help it. Sondra was patient, and she was incredibly good at giving direction. Instead of “turn your head” she would say, “Could you turn your face to the right about an inch and tilt your chin up? That’s perfect. Now cut your eyes over to me and smile.”

That was the hardest part. He could stand the way she wanted. And lay the way she wanted. And move his limbs the way she wanted, but when it came time to smile, she always frowned behind her camera like he was doing something wrong.

“Are you all right?” she’d ask. “Do we need to stop?”

He was having an incredible time; that was what was so weird about her question.

He was naked—totally naked—in front of his best friend and the man he hoped would be his boyfriend and Sondra and her camera, but he was comfortable. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t thinking about his stomach or his ass or his arms and how they looked to other people. He just
was
. But for some reason, his smile wasn’t right.