June, the summer before college

Mason Maloney

I was not an outdoorsy kind of guy, that was for sure. So when my parents broke the news that we were going to be staying in an old wooden cabin in the woods and called it "vacation" I wasn't too thrilled. The only thing that made it better was that they suggested Sam come along with us.

Being stuck in the back of the car in between Nathan and Sam for the four hour ride to the camp ground wasn't the most pleasing thing either. I was practically on top of Sam because Nathan was making it clear that he wanted his space as he spread out in his seat. I bit my tongue so I wouldn't start a fight in such a small space.

"Should we play a car game?" Mom asked, turning around to face us.

Nathan and I gave her matching looks of blank stares

"Can you guys act at least a little bit excited? This is going to be a fun trip!" Mom exclaimed.

"Not if we get eaten by a bear," Nathan muttered, looking out the window.

"We're not going to get eaten by a bear," Mom denied with a scoff. "I bet Sam wants to play a car game."

The three of us looked to Sam who put an awkward smile on his face.

"Sure, sounds great Mrs. Maloney," Sam replied, though he wasn't very convincing.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't do that to him, Mom."

"Wyoming!" Mom shouted out.

"What?"

"The license plate game," she responded. "You just call out the different states that you see."

"Michigan," Dad said, pointing to the car in front of us.

"Rhode Island," Nathan mumbled about the car that just passed us.

I sighed and rested my head on Sam's shoulder, causing him to toss his arm around me.

"This isn't a state, but there's a Quebec license plate up there," Sam pointed out.

"That counts!" Mom said.

"Counts toward what?" I asked.

Mom just shrugged.

This game went on for a while. I didn't keep track of all the states they were able to find, but it took up a lot of our time.

By the time we finally arrived to the camp ground, we were all anxious to get out of the car. Dad pulled up to the cabin after we had gotten the keys and we immediately went inside.

It was a quaint little cabin with only one main area, two small bedrooms, and a bathroom. It was better than having to sleep in a tent, so I wasn't going to complain about it. The bedroom I had to share with Nathan and Sam had a queen sized bed on one side and a twin over in the corner near the window.

"This isn't so bad," Dad said as he poked his head into the room where Sam, Nathan, and I were putting down our things. "And Mase, you and Sam are not to share a bed."

I groaned aloud and gave Dad an annoyed look as he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"I'll let you two have the bed if you promise not to do anything gross," Nathan offered with a stern look.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that, these walls are paper thin," Sam replied, sitting down on the bed.

"Just don't do it while I'm in the room," Nathan told him.

I sighed, sitting down beside Sam. "Trust me, you being here would be a mood killer."

We sat in silence for a few moments before Nathan let out a loud groan and heaved himself off his bed. He tapped my shoulder and motioned for Sam and I to follow him.

"Let's go see what's around this place," Nathan suggested in a bored tone.

I shared a look with Sam and he just shrugged, standing up from the bed and holding his hand out for me to take.

Sam and I walked hand in hand behind Nathan. My brother led us through the camp ground past the other cabins and down toward the lake where there were quite a few children splashing around.

We continued walking down the grass toward a group of guys around our age tossing around a football.

Leave it to Nathan to find the one group in this entire camp playing football.

"Nate we're not going over there," I groaned as he set his sights on the group.

"Just one game, Mase," Nathan countered, continuing toward the group.

I glanced up at Sam with a look of annoyance to which he just smiled, signaling he was on Nathan's side with this. I wish I could say life was easier when the two of them didn't get along, but that would be a lie.

Sam and I walked hand in hand to catch up to Nathan, who was already speaking to the group of guys. When Sam and I arrived, a few of the guys glanced down at our hands, but no one commented on it.

"Wanna play some two hand touch?" Nathan asked Sam and we stopped beside him.

"No," I answered for him. "You can't. Your shoulder."

Sam's shoulder was still in the process of healing because there were some complications that set the healing process back. He went to physical therapy every week and it was healing nicely now, but I didn't want him to lose any of the progress he made just because he wanted to play a stupid pick-up football game with random people.

"It's fine," Sam said, waving me off.

I raised my eyebrows at him in a stern look, taking my hand out of his to cross my arms over my chest.

"Uh oh, I got you in trouble," Nathan said, nudging Sam in the arm with his elbow.

Sam ignored him. "I won't throw," he assured me.

"And what if you get tackled?" I asked.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "It's called two hand touch for a reason, Mase."

"You're not helping," Sam told him.

"You three playing?" one of the guys from the group called out from a few feet away, seemingly not noticing our argument.

"Yeah, be there in a sec," Nathan replied before turning back to Sam and me. "Let's go."

"I'm not playing," I said.

"Come on, Mase. It'll be fun," Sam urged me with one of his heart stopping smiles, tugging on my hand.

"All you have to do is catch my passes," Nathan said.

I scoffed. "You say that like it's gonna be easy for me."

Nathan ignored my comment and motioned for Sam and I to follow him. I groaned but followed behind my brother and my boyfriend anyway. The group of guys introduced themselves, but I couldn't be bothered to pay attention. The guys all appeared to be our age except one seemed to be a few years younger. There were five of them which I assumed were all related.

"Should there be a wager?" one of the guys asked with a mischievous smile.

Nathan scoffed, placing his hands on his hips. "Like what?"

"Losers buy dinner?"

"Fine. But one of you needs to come on our team. We're not playing five on three," Nathan told him.

"You can take Jamie or Phillip," the guy offered.

The guys laughed, except for the two named who glared at their relative.

"We'll take the kid," Nathan replied, motioning with his hand for the kid, I didn't know whether it was Jamie or Phillip, to stand beside him.

"You're sure?" the guy said with a laugh. "I think you might be making this easy for us."

Nathan and Sam shared coy looks, chuckling with each other. The sight would have warmed my heart if I wasn't so annoyed.

"I think we'll be fine," Sam spoke up with another chuckle.

"Alright, you guys can have the ball first."

The two teams separated, presumably so we could discuss strategies, but I had no idea. I wasn't a football kind of guy.

"You're Jamie, right?" Nathan asked the kid, leaning down slightly to be closer to eye level.

Jamie nodded, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Alright," Nathan continued. "You and Sam are gonna receive. For the first play stay by me, I'm gonna fake the hand off to you."

Then Nathan turned to Sam. "You fake to left then go deep to the right. It's going to you and I'm throwing long." Sam just nodded.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" I asked him with a scoff.

"If you just waited a second, I was getting to you, impatient brother," Nathan sarcastically remarked. "You snap me the ball then run left." Nathan shoved the football into my hands.

Once we were all sure what we were doing, though I wasn't entirely sure what my purpose was, we lined up. Nathan called the play and I snapped the ball backward to him, Nathan catching it with ease and faking the hand off to Jamie. I took off running left while Sam sprinted ahead of me and then off to the right. 

Sam was a lot faster than I gave him credit for. He was down the makeshift field within a few seconds and Nathan quickly whipped the ball toward him. The ball flew through the air and straight into Sam's waiting hands. No one could catch up to him as he brought the ball in a for a touchdown.

The guy from the other team who we were talking to earlier looked to Nathan in shock while my brother held a smug expression on his face.

"That was awesome!" Jamie exclaimed, jumping up and down.

I let out a small chuckle as the rest of the other team seemed astonished by Nathan's throwing ability. Sam jogged back over to us with a wide smile, handing the ball over to one of the kids on the other team.

"Where did you say you were playing in the fall?" one of the guys asked.

Nathan shrugged. "I didn't say."

"Okay, so where?"

"Louisiana State," Nathan replied, the smug look never leaving his face. "Sam will be at UCF."

The kid's face dropped. "You're kidding."

Another guy from his team smacked him in the back of the head. "You got us in a game against two D1 players."

Sam just chuckled and playfully shook his head. "So, are we going to continue?"

He looked so attractive with the orange light from the sun illuminating his skin. His hair was getting long which caused him to constantly run his fingers through it, making it slightly messy with a few strands falling in his face. Just as I was zoning out on my hot boyfriend, he came over to me and smacked my ass.

"Let's go, Mase," he said with a cheeky smile.

"Do you do that with all of your teammates?" I teased as I followed closely behind him.

Sam laughed and turned to face me, walking backwards. "It's a football thing."

His handsome smile pulled me closer to him. There were times when I couldn't control my urges to kiss him for no reason at all. This was one of those times. I quickly caught up to him, placing my hand on the back of his neck and connecting our lips. Sam instantly put his hands on my hips, bringing us closer together.

"Hey!" Nathan yelled at us just as Sam was responding to the kiss. 

We pulled apart to look at my brother who was pointing an accusatory finger at us while the others stared with wide eyes. 

"You two can make out later. We have a football game to win. Get over here," Nathan demanded.

Sam smirked and gave me a quick peck on the lips before pulling away from me and heading toward where the rest of the group was.

The rest of the game was pretty uneventful for me. All I did was snap the ball to Nathan while Sam and Jamie caught his passes for touchdowns, and ran after the guys who had the ball when we were on defense. All in all, I didn't do much, but we ended up winning and the guys on the other team bought us loads of food from a local restaurant. The guys actually weren't that awful to be around once they got over their awkwardness about Sam and me.

Once we got back to the cabin, it was quite late. My parents were out on the camp ground having a fire with some of the people they had met here, while Nathan, Sam, and I sat around our room.

Sam and I lay together on the bed, Sam with his arm around me while my head was on his chest and our legs were intertwined. Nathan sat in his bed and glared at us.

"What?" I snapped at him, not too harshly.

"You guys are boring," Nathan complained.

Sam laughed lightly. "What do you suggest we do?"

Nathan groaned and threw himself backward on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. "There's nothing to do!"

"I could think of plenty to do, but we can't do it with you here," Sam countered with a coy smile. I scoffed and smacked his chest lightly.

Nathan sent another glare toward us. "You're gross."

"I'm just being honest," Sam replied.

After that encounter, Nathan ignored us and eventually fell asleep. I was on the cusp of falling asleep when Sam lightly shook me.

"Mase," he whispered.

"Hm?"

"Nathan's asleep..."

I looked up at Sam with squinted eyes. "I'm not having sex with you with my brother in the room."

Sam rolled his eyes. "I wasn't going to suggest that."

"Sure..."

"I was gonna say we should go for a swim," Sam said, his tone playful and light.

I sat up, giving him a confused look. "Now?"

Sam just nodded, sending me a hopeful smile. I really couldn't say no to that face and that was how we ended up quietly sneaking out of the cabin with a couple of towels and walking down to the lake. 

We placed our towels down on the dock and began taking our clothes off. Sam watched me with a close-lipped smile as I stripped off my shirt.

"You're so hot, Mase," he said, looking me up and down.

I rolled my eyes and tossed my shirt at him. "Shut up."

He chuckled and put my shirt down by my towel before taking his own shirt off and walking over to me.

"You're calling me hot while you're out here looking like that," I said, pointing to his well-defined chest.

Sam smiled and shook his head at me before capturing my lips in a kiss. He placed one hand on my cheek while the other was on my hip, pulling me closer so there was no space between our bodies. I instantly responded to the kiss, my lips moving in sync with his. Just as I tried to quicken the pace, Sam pulled away, the smile still on his face. He leaned down and kissed my shoulder before backing away to take off the rest of his clothes.

Once we were both down to nothing, we jumped into the lake. The water was colder than I expected, my skin instantly filling with goosebumps. Sam and I surfaced at the same time. He shook his head to get his hair out of his face, pushing it back and splashing water in my face in the process.

"Sam," I groaned, using my hands to wipe the water out of my eyes.

Sam giggled and swam over to me, grabbing my waist and pulling me against him. "Sorry."

I smiled at him, kissing the corner of his mouth, then his cheek, and the side of his neck.

"It's cold," I told him with a shiver.

"I know," he replied. "There's no chance of me getting a hard on in here..."

I scoffed, pushing him away from me. "You're gross."

He just laughed, coming after me again.

"Stay away," I said, swimming backward.

"I need you for warmth," Sam responded, grabbing onto me again and kissing my neck as soon as I was close enough.

"If you give me a hickey I'll kill you," I warned him, though my voice was light with a small giggle.

Sam smiled against my skin. "What if I give you two?"

I pushed his face back, Sam laughing and then kissing the palm of my hand.

The two of us swam around for a little while longer before we decided we were too cold. Once we were back inside, I got changed into sweatpants and one of Sam's long sleeve shirts while he was in a similar outfit.

"Is that mine?" he asked as I got into bed beside him, gesturing toward the shirt.

"Yeah, I took it," I told him, pulling on his arm to put it around me as I got situated under the blankets.

"News to me," he said.

Sam turned as around so that we were on our sides while he was behind me, our legs intertwined as he wrapped his arm around me. He kissed the back of my neck before resting his head behind me. 

The feeling of being in his arms was euphoric. I felt safe and secure with him so close to me. It was my favorite place and there was nowhere I'd rather be.

"I love you, Sam," I said with a yawn, a smile taking over my face.

Sam pulled me tighter against him.

"I love you too."

And that night, like every other night I spent like this with Sam, I slept with a smile on my face.

**

Knight reached 2 million reads!!! Thank you so much to everyone who has ever read this book! I never imagined getting this many reads on my work so thank you. Here's the second bonus chapter to celebrate.

Also, I meant to say this before I started posting the bonus chapters but I forgot: the bonus chapters WILL NOT BE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. There will be a time reference at the beginning of every chapter, so hopefully there won;t be any confusion. For example, this chapter takes place before the Epilogue and the first bonus chapter. The reason I'm doing it like this is because I write these chapters as I get inspiration/ideas about them and my mind is not a perfect thing that gives me ideas in the correct order so these will probably be all over the place.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the chapter!