Waiting For August

Part 31~Let's talk about sex

Catching up on all the chores I'd been neglecting has been on the top of my to-do list. I'd brushed all my girls out this morning and needed to make an appointment with a farrier. I could do Lulu-Belle myself, but I preferred to have someone come in to do the horses. I was a much better assistant in that regard and had no interest in getting kicked and a couple of the girls got a little testy when it came to having their hooves trimmed.

I had since moved on to cutting firewood and had worked up quite the sweat. Not that I minded. I had always enjoyed physical labor. I had a huge pile of wood that I wanted to get through before the first snow. I knocked off the last piece of wood for today and set the axe into the chopping block. I'd made some headway in the last hour and now had a lot of stacking to do. It was something I wasn't nearly as fond of. It was a job I usually saved for the young ones, but it was only mid-afternoon, which meant that I was still on my own.

Twenty minutes later I had stashed away all the firewood I had chopped that day, and I headed up to the house for a shower. As I approached, I heard a vehicle on the gravel drive and Ben and Jonah's gunmetal-grey jeep soon came into view. I waved to them as I strode into the house and headed straight to my bedroom. I smelled most foul, but I had come by it honestly and it wasn't anything that good ol' soap and water couldn't banish.

After my shower, I slipped into some clean jeans and a familiar Henley. I owned at least a half-dozen or more. I just couldn't stand having anything up tight around my neck.

Back in the kitchen I grabbed a beer before heading out to the porch to take a seat on the steps. I could see Ben and Jonah in the distance as they made their way up towards the house. They seemed to be in deep discussion about something. When they got as close as the garage they separated. Jonah headed back towards the driveway while Ben headed up to stand by me at the foot of the stairs. It was odd for them to be here in the middle of the afternoon on a Friday, but I also knew that Jackson tried to give his crew a three-day weekend whenever he could. Still, something was up. Ben was trying just a little too hard to act casually.

"Hey," he finally ventured. "Mind if we have a talk?"

I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time. I shook my head. I still had time. "Nope. What's up? Everything okay with you and Jonah?"

He nodded but beckoned me forward. "Let's take a walk."

"Uh. Oh-kay." I set my beer down close to the rail so it wouldn't get knocked over before getting up to follow him. He had an awfully serious look on his face. It made me nervous. He also didn't seem to know how to start whatever it was he wanted to say, as he kept frowning and opening and then immediately closing his mouth. Finally, he took a breath and decided to go for it.

"Do you remember how when we were in high school, we all sorta knew that Jonah preferred boys over girls? But how the three of us were all straight."

"Yeah. So?"

"And when I turned eighteen, how excited I was to find out who my mate was going to be, except there was no one for me until Jonah turned of age a couple months later."

"Sure."

"Well, the thing is... until the moment he became eighteen, I'd never thought about being with a guy. I mean, Jonah was my best friend. But when I realized that he was also my mate, I couldn't imagine myself being with anyone else."

We had passed the stable and were heading down towards the water, and I still wasn't sure what he was trying to tell me.

"And I think you will probably understand what that's like, because that must be how you and August feel about one another. You're both caught up in unfamiliar territory."