Ben laughed. “Here’s your eggs.”

“Just in time. I got a goddamn sales staff meeting to get to.”

“You want a piece of bread?”

“I got some. Sit down, eat yourself. Ronny?”

“It’s too early for me.”

“He’ll sip coffee till it’s fucking ten o’clock and then wonder why he’s hungry,” Ben said.

“Maybe you ought to cut out the language. Your mama don’t like it.”

Ben grunted, chewing like a machine. A half dozen eggs on his plate.

Mr. Nickelsen said, to Ronny, “You ought to eat something while it’s here, boy. You’re skinny as that coatrack.”

Ronny bit into a piece of bacon and savored it, watching Ben across the table hunched over his food, glancing at his dad. The posture of a small boy, set to imitate every move his father makes. The clock showed the time as before seven in the morning, light still gentle in the windows. Ronny felt a sense of peace rising into him, replacing the anxiety. They were treating him like one of the family. He had wanted a feeling like this for a long time.

When his dad walked out into the fog of morning, the meal over, Ben rinsed the plates and poured off the bacon grease into a jelly jar. Ronny put the plates into the dishwasher, and they bumped against each other, Ben still shirtless, his body such a rich object, Ronny could barely see anything else. Ben grinned slow and pressed Ronny against the kitchen counter, held him there. “You think we could go back upstairs?”

Ronny laughed, shaking his head. His voice failed, having the guy so near. Ben looked disappointed. When Ronny started to move away, Ben pulled him back. Pitching his voice low. “Stand here for a minute. Don’t be so fucking twitchy.”

Ronny touched Ben’s bare skin, stood close, and breathed, his hands on the broad back. “All right.”

“Nothing needs doing right this second except me. All I want is you just standing right there.”

“I can do that.”

“Good.” After a while, Ben chuckled. “Man. What does this feel like to you?”

After a moment, Ronny answered. “Like I’m tuning into you, kind of. Like my body knows you’re there and the longer you stand there the more I feel you, the deeper it goes.”

“Does it tickle?”

Ronny laughed a moment. “Yeah. Almost. Down here, in here, somewhere.”

“I feel like I’m not going to be able to fucking breathe,” Ben said. “Did you ever feel like this?”

“Before? No.”

After a minute, Ben wet his lips. “You have to ask me, shithead.”

Ronny’s voice was shaking. “Did you ever feel like this?”

“Hell fucking no.”

Ronny put his head down against Ben’s shoulder. Ben touched a hand to each of Ronny’s arms, held him.

“Don’t even think about trying to move,” Ben said. “I’m listening for Mom, if she needs us, I’ll know.”

A long while passed and they stood there. All golden. When they heard her stirring, Ben headed through the door, stepping away from Ronny, who was heated down the front of his body. Ronny’s eyes filled and he wiped them and they filled again. He stood there trying to breathe calmly.