Love Means No Shame - Andrew Grey

indicate Kirk.
61
Andrew Grey
    Geoff put the saddle on Kirk’s back. “That he does; he just loves attention.” Geoff fitted Kirk with his bit and bridle and then led him out of his stall and into the yard. “I thought we’d ride down to the creek.”
    “I’ll follow you then.” Eli mounted and walked his horse into the pasture with Geoff following a few seconds later, Kirk was jumpy, raring to go. “Meet you on the far side!” Geoff spurred Kirk on, and the horse took off, running like the wind across the field. Kirk flew under him, and he could feel his spirit meld with the horse, the two of them working together. As he approached the far end of the field, he reined Kirk in and turned to wait for Eli, who came galloping up a minute later, and Geoff got to watch as he and Twilight glided across the field. Wow, the man looked good in a saddle… hot, even.
    Before he could chastise himself for the thought, Eli approached, reining in Twilight. Grinning to beat the band, he puffed, “That felt so good.”
    “Didn’t it? And the best part is that we get to do it again on the way back.” Geoff found himself grinning. Eli’s excitement was contagious. “We’ll walk them to the creek and then head east for a while.” Geoff led the way along the trail, both of them quiet, getting a little lost in their thoughts under a canopy of green and a carpet of spring wildflowers. At the creek, they stopped for a few minutes, listening to the water, and then turned where the trail followed the creek. “In the summer when I was a kid, I used to play in the creek all the time.”
    “Wasn’t it cold?”

    “You bet it was, but I was a kid. I’d play in the water for hours until my teeth rattled.” Geoff smiled at the memory. “I used to ride back here with my dad and Len when it was hot, and we’d have a picnic in the clearing up ahead. I’d play in the water, and they’d 62
    Love Means … NO SHAME
talk.” Those were some of his fondest childhood memories. “What I wouldn’t give to be able to go riding just one more time with him.” “When did he die?”
    “About a month ago. He’d had cancer for a while. He was only forty-nine.” Geoff choked down the emotions that threatened to bubble to the surface. He looked at Eli and could almost see the questions spinning through the young man’s head.
    “I’m sorry about your dad. What happened to your mother?”
“She died when I was still a baby. I don’t have any memory of her, just the few pictures that are hanging on the wall in the living room.”
    They reached the clearing, and Geoff dismounted. Kirk started to wander around, munching on the fresh grass. “We can sit here if you want.” Eli dismounted and looked around, holding the reins.

    “They won’t go anywhere; they like it here.” Eli looked skeptical but flipped the reins over the saddle, and Twilight started to munch on the grass just like Kirk, happy as anything.

    Geoff sat on a fallen log, watching and listening to the water as Eli sat next to him. “I don’t want to pry, but can I ask you a question?” Eli asked. Geoff nodded slowly.
    “Is Len your uncle?”
This was the question Geoff had been dreading for some time.
    He’d already determined that he was going to tell Eli the truth, but he wasn’t sure how to make him understand. He’d done some Internet research, so he knew what the Amish taught about homosexuality, and if he was being frank with himself, he was concerned that the answer would drive Eli away. “No, Len was my dad’s partner.”
    Eli started to say something, but Geoff stopped him. “There’s something you have to understand, and I’m going to ask you to keep 63 Andrew Grey
    an open mind.” Eli nodded. “Len and my father were lovers. They loved each other, took care of each other, and raised me together for almost my whole life.”

    Eli’s mouth gaped open. “You mean Len and your dad were sodomites?”
    “We use the term ‘gay’, but yes.” Geoff watched as Eli swallowed hard, saying nothing, his expression unreadable. “I know what the Bible says about it, but there’s something else you need to know. Len and my dad loved each other deeply for more than twenty years. They helped each other, took care of each other when they were sick, took care of me—I just don’t see how that kind of love can be wrong.”
“I’ve heard about people like them, but I never met anyone like that before. Len seems so nice, I….” Eli’s words