The Last of The Summer Sun (Patreon)

All characters are consenting adults (18+)

The end of the summer was fast approaching, and so too was the day in which I’d say goodbye to the farm and everybody I’d met during my stay. It was bittersweet. Two months of hard work had certainly been difficult, and there were times when I had contemplated calling my mom to come and collect me, but I’d stayed the course, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little bit proud of myself.

David, my mother’s ‘friend’, who had given me the opportunity to come and work with him, had been more of a hard ass than I had expected. I knew very little about the man, considering my father refused to hear his name mentioned back home, which led me to believe that perhaps David and my mom had been a little more than friends once upon a time. Regardless, he expected hard work, and in return, I couldn’t fault the care I’d received.

Aside from David, there were plenty of other friends to be made on the farm. Gruelling days under the scorching heat provided a breeding ground for new friendships, and although many of the workers were far older than me, I became quite close with a very good boy named Ruck.

Ruck, as you might have guessed, was the resident German Shepard, who, like me, preferred to bask in the shade rather than sweat out in the open. I’d lost count of how many times David had searched for me, only to find me hiding in the shed with Ruck.

“You’re eighteen years old” he told me one sweltering afternoon, as I lay with Ruck behind a stack of hay bales. “You’re not a child, and I won’t treat you like one”.

He was right. I wasn’t a child, nor did he treat me like one. Five AM rises, torturous labour, and less-than-pleasant food wasn’t exactly a fun summer camp, but if nothing else, I’d built a pretty impressive body, and that’s what I was focusing on in my bedroom when Teddy appeared behind me.

To say that the two of us were destined to be mortal enemies was the understatement of the year. From the very first second I laid eyes on David’s eldest son, with his stupid smug grin, his silly cowboy hat, his raggedy dungarees and that ridiculous length of straw that he insisted on chewing on, I knew that we’d have problems.

“You’re going home soon” he said, chewing. Why did he always chew that damn straw? It was almost like he thought he was living out some sort of movie scene. A cowboy from the mid-west, with messy locks of blond hair, and a body so golden that he looked as though he’d been toasted.

“Gonna miss me?” I grinned, because although we didn’t see eye to eye, our humour was similar.

“Oh yeah” he nodded, walking further into the room. “I’ll miss your annoyin’ accent. Your complainin’. Your snorin’”

“I don’t snore”

“How do you know?”

“Because I… I just don’t”.

“Yeah, you do”.

“No, I don’t”.

I watched him through the tall mirror. He sat down on my bed and took off his hat. Admittedly, I hated the hat when I first arrived. It was just another prop that he used to try to make himself look like a real cowboy, and I found the whole thing stupid. Now, however, I accepted the fact that it suited him.

“My old man says you ain’t coming back next year” he continued, and I shrugged.

“Why would I?” I asked, “I’ll be going to college, and I was just doing this for the money, anyway”.

Teddy didn’t answer. I took a look back over my shoulder and watched him as he stared at the floor. For somebody who had found every excuse under the sun to argue with me about every tiny inconvenience, I had expected him to be a little more upbeat now that I was leaving in a few days.

“Won’t you miss Ruck?” He asked, keeping his eyes on his boots.

“Yeah, I’ll miss him more than I’ll miss you” I laughed.

“So, come back next year” he said, and I cocked a brow.

“Why would you want me to come back?” I asked, turning to him, “you said yourself that I’m… What was it? The most annoying, entitled, spoiled city boy you’ve ever met?”

He smiled at me. I’d always liked his smile, especially the way his cheeks dipped into little dimples when he did it. I felt a flurry of butterflies in my stomach and turned back around.

“You’re all of those things” he said, and got to his feet, standing directly behind me and looking at me through the mirror. “But you’ve grown on me like some type of nasty fungus”.

“Fuck you” I laughed, and he beamed.

“Dad wants you down for lunch” he told me, walking back toward the door.

“Did you make it or did he?”

He stopped and scoffed. “You think I’m gonna make you lunch?”.

I smiled to myself and shook my head before eyeing the spot where Teddy had been sitting. An idea shot through my mind, but I pushed it from my head and grabbed my t-shirt. Despite the fact that both Teddy and his dad dressed like they were living in the eighteenth century, I preferred to stick with jeans and t-shirts. A few minutes later I joined them at the table.

“We’ll miss you here, bud” David said, passing me a bowl of egg salad. There was a time when I would have passed it back, but feeding time on the farm came seldom, so I’d learned to eat when I had the chance.

“Really?” I joked, “and there’s me thinking you all hated me”.

David, with his shovel like hands, took the bowl back and handed it to his son before chuckling. “Hate you?” He smiled, “no, we don’t hate you. In fact, you’ve been more help this summer than this little shit”.

Teddy scowled, but I smiled. Compliments from David were almost as rare as lunches, so I took what I could get, and we continued to eat in silence, before I felt something against my bare foot. For a moment, I simply ignored it, assuming that Ruck had gotten in and was begging at my feet for food, but the longer it went on, the more I began to realise that it wasn’t Ruck at all.

“So, what’s the plans for the afternoon, boys?” David asked, because although Teddy was twenty, and I was also a grown man, he insisted on referring to us as boys.

“I wanna mend the rafter in the barn” Teddy told him through bites, but his eyes were on me, and when I noticed it, I stared back. “Wanna help?” He asked me.

My mind wasn’t on the question, it was on Teddy’s foot, which continued to brush off my own one. Was it a mistake? Had he simply not noticed that he was literally caressing my feet with his?

“Sure” I said, feeling both awkward and somewhat intrigued.

“Cool”.

“Yeah, cool”.

“Good work, boys” David nodded, and the lunch continued without a hitch.

Summer may have been drawing to a close, but the sun refused to back down without a fight. Sweat was already dampening my t-shirt by the time Teddy and I walked across the farm and toward the barn.

“You wouldn’t be so damn warm if you wore normal clothes” he told me, as I helped him drag the chunk of wood from the door.

“You call that normal?” I scoffed, pointing to his denim dungarees, where his bare chest and nipples could be seen clearly.

“I bet you’re sweating your balls off in those” he grinned, pointing at my jeans, and he was correct. “You city boys and your fashion” he chuckled, and walked inside. I followed behind, pulling the crotch away to let my nuts breathe.

Aside from the fact that Teddy was, admittedly, quite handsome, his voice was the one thing I liked the most about him. His dad had a heavy southern drawl, but there was something pleasant about the way Teddy spoke. It reminded me of caramel, and for that, I had no explanation.

“Help me with this” he said, climbing onto an old chair and pushing up the broken rafter. I pulled over another chair and got up next to him, and suddenly, we were closer than we’d ever been before.

The sweet scent of Teddy’s fresh sweat lingered around him as he did whatever it was he was trying to do. With his arms over his head, I got to inhale waves of his warm musk, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it.

“Hold it there” he said, and I obeyed as he jumped down and found the hammer and nails. “Now don’t move or I’ll poke a nail through your hand” he warned, and I gulped as he began to hammer.

It took less than an hour for the job to be done. Truth be told, I simply stood around for most of it, which explained the beads of sweat rolling down the side of Teddy’s face and leaving damp streaks down his sun-kissed skin. He wiped his wet, golden hair from his forehead as he jumped down.

“You know, you’re about as useful as a cock flavoured lollipop” he said, and just like always, it was difficult to tell whether he was joking or serious, until he flashed his perfect teeth.

“I bet you’d love a cock flavoured lollipop” I joked back, and playfully, Teddy shoved me.

“You wish” he scoffed, as I shoved him back. “You know you could still come back next year, even if you’re in college” he said, hunching his shoulders as he dug his hands into his pockets.

“You’re real concerned about me coming back” I laughed, as we walked back toward the door. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a crush on me” I grinned.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” He asked, trailing behind slightly, and the words made me stop in my tracks.

“What?” I replied, and looked back at him, expecting him to crack up. Instead, Teddy was stone faced and looked almost sad.

“Nothing” he mumbled, and walked, faster than me, back toward the house. My heart leapt as I hurried after him.

“Wait, Teddy!” I called, but he refused to stop. “Teddy, wait!”

I only caught up with him as he reached the back door to the house. “What are you saying?” I asked, my heart thumping.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment, and just as Teddy opened his mouth to reply, David opened the door and glared at us.

“Don’t you two have work to do?” He growled, because David’s good moods never lasted long.

“Yes sir” Teddy mumbled, and gave me one last look before disappearing inside.

“And you?” David snapped.

“Yeah” I replied mindlessly, because my focus was now solely on what Teddy had just said.

“Well, get to it!” He barked, heading off toward the farm.

“I plan to” I said to myself.