“I’m bi, well, probably more pan but whatever label you want, I like both men and women while Armie is all gay all the time.” I heard the affection in his voice when he spoke about his brother and mother. “I have to be honest here, I’m feeling all kinds of confused. I’ve been going back and forth for weeks about if you were really interested in me or not. You’ve been looking at me like I look at Nanotyranosaur bones. If I could ever find a Nanotyranosaur that is.”
“I’m not generally attracted to men with buns.”
“You need to move past my bun.” He gave my pinkie a squeeze. The chorus of the tiny frogs grew louder as the night nestled in. I chuckled. “So are you into me or what is going on? Because that kiss was slapping but then you kind of had a freak out.”
“It wasn’t a freak out it was…something else.”
“What kind of something else? Did you decide you didn’t like the kiss or my being so pushy?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“I’m a scientist. It’s what we do.”
I took a deep breath of sweet clear air then let it out. “I liked the kiss. And your behavior. It wasn’t you. It was a memory. My daughter.”
“Ah.” That was all he said.
“She died.”
“I am so sorry. Your wife left you after she passed?”
“No, no wife. Partner. Devon. Gay men couldn’t marry back then.” I took a deep breath, but the words were jammed up inside me. “I’m not sure I want to say more right now. I’ve never told anyone about any of this. I even lied to Landon when he asked me. Told him it was a relationship gone bad that drove me west. I guess in a way it was. After Kailey…”
He released my finger to drape an arm around my neck. We were of a similar height so it was easy to just let my head drop to the side to rest against his. My hat tipped up a bit on the other side of my head but that was fine.
“This is the most you’ve said to me at one time since I arrived here,” he pointed out a moment later. I smiled into the darkness. “Thank you for having enough trust in me to let me know something that touched you so deeply. Obviously, your daughter’s death and the fallout from that is something that will be with you forever. Please feel free to speak about it when you want, or don’t, either is fine. Just know that I’m as totally blown away by this thing we have going here as you are, and that I’m one hell of a listener.”
“When you shut up long enough for someone to speak,” I replied.
“I know it. Armie is the same way. My mother said she thought she’d go bonkers with two gay boys who chattered like magpies in her house.”
“My sister died ten years ago of bone cancer.”
“Shit, I’m sorry. Were you close?”
“Not really. She and my family were rigidly against my homosexual lifestyle.”
“Wow. Life has been rough for you.”
I shrugged. “No rougher on me than any other person. There have been good times.” I felt raw and open, like a fresh wound, and so to keep myself from bleeding out, I began stitching up things. Bishop, maybe sensing that I was pulling back, began to prattle on about excavations he had been on, life in the UK attending college, and his love of Fig Newtons.
Odd how his rambling about everything and anything seemed as pleasing as the song of the spring peepers. When had it changed from annoying to attractive? It had been ages since I’d felt this at peace. As he chattered about cookies, my eye caught something. The flash of a beam of light down around the area of the dig.
“Looks like the kids are back,” I said, my voice low and lazy.
“That’s odd.” He lifted his right arm to look at his watch. It was one of those digital ones that could access the internet and tell you how to weave a poncho. If there were internet out here which there wasn’t. “The movie didn’t even start until nine according to Perry.”
“Yeah, that’s right. They only have one theater, and the films always start at nine.” I stood a little straighter. Now that I was paying closer attention, I saw not two beams of light but a dozen or so. All smaller than headlights from a truck or van. “What the hell?” All I could think of would be someone rustling cattle, but the herd was—
“Fucking bone poachers!” Bishop snarled, all that laid-back Cali surfer vibe gone instantly. “We have to get down to camp. Now!”