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“Alright, what’s the plan now, Robolad?” Bren asked, halfway over A.J.’s shoulder.

“I show my boyfriend how . . . big and strong I am by . . . drowning him in the lake.” Even with all his effort, they wobbled with each of the few steps he was able to take before his body gave out.

Bren’s feet hit the ground and he wrapped his arms around the small of A.J.’s back to keep him from falling on his ass.

“If you wanted me to hold you, all you had to do was ask,” Bren said, eyebrows wiggling.

“Better let go before Dustin gets—”

They were too late. A drawn-out cry of “gay” boomed across the water. It was echoed by Suveer joining in, then the aggressively adorable couple went back to pushing each other off the dock.

“Do you ever wish we were more like them?” A.J. asked as Bren helped him up to his feet.

Bren turned to watch Suveer pull down Dustin’s trunks and use the ensuing shock to shove him into the lake. Nat, whose head had been bobbing through the water, closer to the dock, made a sound like a dying animal and disappeared beneath the surface.

“If I wanted stupid, I woulda just shagged Mickie and gotten it over with.”

“I’m telling Dustin you called him stupid,” A.J. said, trotting towards the waterline.

The bottoms of his feet weren’t even wet when Bren’s shouted, “Hey, Dustin! You’re touched in the head, mate!”

“Hell yeah, he is!” Suveer called back, helping Nat onto the dock.

Bren laughed as he joined A.J. on the shoreline, his hand patting A.J.’s butt like a jock after the big game.

“They’re just built different.”

A.J. grinned and returned the butt-slapping tradition with a resonant crack.

“Yeah. But so are we.”

***

“Arlo?”

“Mm?”

The warm but no longer sticky air let A.J. know it was early morning as his eyes fluttered open to stare at the half-lit room. The fact that you had to unplug from the modern world whenever you came to the cabin was always one of A.J.’s favourite things about it, but would it really kill the fantasy if his parents had installed enough wiring to run an AC unit?

“Did I wake you?” Bren’s voice pulled him out of sleep into its warmth.

A.J. rolled towards him, grasping for his body, and found nothing but crumpled blankets. Bren was already dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Is everything OK?” A.J. asked, yawning.

“Yeah, grand. Just—” He turned a cream-coloured envelope in his hands. “Can we go for a walk?”

A.J. was already out of bed before his eyes had focused.

***

When they got to the beach, the sun was cresting the horizon, bathing everything in a rich orange glow. A.J. wasn’t sure where Bren ended and the morning began.

The rippling waters of Lake Diefenbaker spread before them as if someone had filled it with glittering carnelians after they’d gone to bed.

“So, can you just, read the damn thing for me?” Bren asked, pouring another handful of night-cooled sand onto their bare feet.

“Are you sure? I mean, shouldn’t you be the one to read it?” A.J. wiggled his toes next to Bren as he turned the letter over in his hand. “I didn’t even meet her.”