Ronny kissed his chest, waited.

“She’s better today but she’ll be worse tomorrow.”

“That’s the treatment, Ben. You don’t know how sick she is right now from the cancer.”

He thought about it and nodded. But he couldn’t manage to say anything.

They lay together, listening to the sounds from outside, children’s voices somewhere, playing, the sound of a lawn mower, a few cars passing on the street. The day was warm but they kept close to each other anyway, and Ben stripped off Ronny’s shirt and threw it on the floor, so their skins were touching. The quiet they felt with one another felt like something alive around them; sweet to lie still like that, to breathe together. Ben grew calmer, and Ronny pushed up from his chest, looked at him, kissed him gently.

“Nina says you’re too much. Way too good to be true.” Ben giggled, wiping his eyes on the back of his hands. “She’s almost right.”

“Almost?”

Ben grabbed him and they wrestled and Ben flung Ronny around a bit and fake-punched him a few times and felt all the better for it, judging from his satisfied grunts. He worked himself into a sweat. They fumbled together quickly for the rest, conscious that Ben at least needed to get downstairs to his mother again.

“By the way,” Ben said, sitting next to Ronny, who was still lying in bed while Ben pulled on his underwear. “We’re busted.”

“What?”

“Nina hangs out with a lot of gay people in Greensboro. She spotted you right away.”

“She didn’t say anything to me.”

“She knows I’d get pissed if she did. She won’t make you talk about it, unless you bring it up.”

“You told her the truth?”

He chuckled. “She asked me if I really wanted her to believe I was sleeping in my room with a gay guy and not having sex.”

“Man.”

“I didn’t actually admit to anything, and she didn’t push. She just wanted me to know.”

“Jesus.”

“I don’t feel too freaked about it,” Ben said.

Ronny lay there quietly after Ben had gone downstairs again; there was a sense that he was brimming over, that he could scarcely contain all this feeling. Afternoon light and heat dazed him; he was actually warmer when Ben was gone, even though they had lain so close together, their skins touching. He fell asleep, and Ben came to wake him later, around five, when Mr. Nickelsen came home. He opened his eyes to find Ben there, sitting on the edge of the bed, hand in Ronny’s hair. “Wake up, sleepy.”

“Oh, man. That was cool.”

“We want you to come have a beer with us. You lazy fuck.”

“Nice nap,” Ronny said.

“I hope so. You were up here two hours.”

“Man.”

“You ready for me to pull you up?”

“Well—”

Ben pulled him up and Ronny grabbed his shirt.