Sam met Bill the next afternoon at the house in Las Palmas. They took a tour around the outside, now that they could see it.

"The guys pulled eleven truckloads of brush and junk out of here," Bill said as they walked. "And all that vegetation growing up against the house didn't do the walls much good." He pointed where one of the steel posts showed definite signs of rust.

"Okay," he said to Sam, gesturing at the front of the house. "The first thing we have to do is get rid of all this nonsense." He pointed at a couple of trellises that blocked several of the windows. "And this, for god's sake." He waved his arm, taking in the whole front façade. "Siding? Someone put aluminum siding on it? No, no, no. Stucco, wood, concrete- but not aluminum siding! Of any color."

Sam looked at him with a grin. "Okay, Bill, okay. Whatever you say." He looked at the house again. "Do I get to keep those cute little plaster cherubs up there over the door?"

An expression of horror spread over Bill's face until he realized Sam was kidding. He had to be kidding. "No," he said, "they're out of place over the door. I thought we'd take them inside and mount them over your bed."

They both had a good laugh and then continued around the house. "The structure is supposed to have clean, straight lines. The materials it's built from are supposed to stand alone, speak for themselves." He looked up. "And there aren't supposed to be K-Mart birdhouses hanging in the eaves."

They spent several hours at the house, Bill explaining what needed to be done, which walls removed or changed and where new sheets of glass needed to be. When they got to the kitchen, Bill said it would all have to be ripped out. "I think it's been remodeled several times, each time making it worse than the time before."

When they were finished, Sam had a pretty good idea of what the house was going to look like, and he was almost as excited about it as Bill was.

"Can I buy you a drink someplace?" Sam asked. "After all that explaining you must be thirsty."

"No thanks, Sam. I got a bunch of relatives coming for a barbeque, and I'd better get home before my idiot brother-in-law sets the house on fire trying to start the grill. Hey, want to come meet the family?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't think so, Bill, but maybe another time?"

"Anytime, Sam, anytime. The wife would love to meet you, and the kids would, too"

The next day Sam called Toby and asked him out to dinner.

"I can't, Sam. I have a meeting I have to go to." Hearing Sam's sigh on the other end of the line, he quickly added, "But I could tomorrow."

"Can I pick you up?"

"That'd be good." Toby went on to give Sam the address and added, "It's kind of a court," Toby said. "I'm in number 3, by the pool. It's my turn to pay, isn't it? Let's go to The Rainbow."

On Tuesday, Sam knocked on Toby's door exactly on time. Toby's apartment was pretty small, Sam thought when he was invited in, but the sparse furnishings and lack of clutter made it seem bigger. There were flowers on a table in the living room and a couple of original paintings on the walls, all of which gave the place character and made it feel lived in.

"Nice place," Sam said. "Nicely done."

Toby looked around and smiled. "I guess. It isn't what I'd like, of course, but junior accountants have to start somewhere. Come on, let's go."

At the restaurant they ordered martinis. "So," Sam said when the drinks had been served, "are you out at work?"

"Pretty much. I... Oh, no you don't, Mr. CIA Agent."

"Wha...?"

"It's your turn to talk." Toby let his voice drop into a low register. "'I'll tell you my whole life story, more than you ever wanted to know.' Remember? Well, talk."

Sam was not too comfortable talking about himself, but over dinner he managed to give Toby an outline of his life. It wasn't that he was secretive, it was just that he didn't think his life was very interesting, and he didn't want to bore anyone. He especially didn't want to bore Toby.

After he talked about Harry, Toby asked, "How old was Harry when he died?"

"Ninety-two. He lived a long and pretty good life. For that matter, so did I."

Toby's eyes dimmed. "Were you his lover?"

Sam's impulse was to laugh, but he saw how serious Toby was. "No. But that's not to say I didn't love him. I did. You can't be someone's companion and caretaker for twenty-four years without there being an element of love to it. But no, I wasn't his lover."

Toby sighed, and the sparkle came back into his eyes. "Have you ever had a lover?"

Sam thought for a moment. "Maybe once. But it didn't last very long, and it was a long time ago. You?"

"No." He paused as if he had to think about it. "Well, there was this one guy... We were pretty thick for a while-maybe a year or two."

Sam had a sudden insight. "Did he break your heart?"

Toby looked up sharply. "No!" There was a pause and then: "Yes." Another pause, then: "Maybe. I don't know. It was a long time ago, when I was in college. Anyway, after him I learned to be careful where men are concerned." He held Sam's eyes. "Very careful." There was another pause, a long one, letting his words sink into Sam's brain. Then, with a smile: "You want dessert? I'd like some ice cream."

They had ice cream: vanilla with chocolate sauce. While they were waiting for it to be served, Toby asked Sam where he lived. "I just realized you've been to my place and I don't have a clue as to where you live."

"Would you believe, at Some Guys?"

"Really? The resort? Are you rich?"

Sam shook his head. "Not really. I guess I have maybe more than a lot of guys, but rich? I don't think so. You know the place, Some Guys?"

"A little. When I first moved here I was kind of frisky, and a guy took me there." Toby shrugged. "He was staying there, so that's where we went. I went back a couple of times, you know, on a day pass. You can have a lot of fun there." He sat back while the waiter served the ice cream. "You like living there?"

Sam laughed. "What's not to like? As you said, you can have a lot of fun there." He tasted the ice cream and found it good. "But I don't exactly live there any more, or I won't after Friday."

"Why not?" Toby's eyes sparkled. "They throw you out for being rowdy?"

"Me? Hey, I'm a quiet, upstanding guy. No, I bought a condo, and escrow closes Friday." He grinned. "You want to come over and christen the condo?"

"I'd like to, except I have these meetings I have to go to in San Francisco. I fly out Thursday afternoon and won't get back until Monday."

Sam tried not to show his disappointment. "Maybe later?"

Toby nodded. "Definitely later."

Toby insisted on paying for dinner. It was only fair he said, because Sam had paid when they went to the Uptown Grill. When Sam took him home Toby didn't ask Sam in; however, he did lean over and give Sam a kiss. Sam savored that kiss all the way back to the resort.

Jay called Friday morning and asked Sam to dinner. "And perhaps afterward we can manage a reprise of last week?"

Sam smiled. "Three times? I don't know..."

On the other end of the phone, Jay laughed. "You'll do your best, Sam, I know you will. Take a nap this afternoon. Alone."

"Okay. But not at your place. I bought a condo, and I close on it this afternoon. We'll break it in."

"I can't wait. Shall we say seven? Where shall I pick you up?"

"I'm not sure where I'll be. I tell you what, give me a call when you're ready, and we'll work it out from there."

When he hung up, Sam called William to make arrangements for getting the keys to the condo and then went up to the office to tell Bob and Roger that everything had gone as planned and he'd be leaving that afternoon.. "It'll be nice having my own place, but, believe me, I'll sure miss this place. You guys have been so good to me." He grinned. "And so have some of your guests. Yeah, I'll miss it all."

Sam kissed them both, paid his bill and went back to his room to pack. By two o'clock Sam, his clothes, his books and his car were waiting outside the gate to Desert Pride.

William was right on time and handed Sam a couple of plastic cards. "Gate cards," he said. "Put one in that slot over there and, presto, the gate opens. You only get two, so don't lose them. The Home Owner's Association gets very huffy if you do and charges you a hundred dollars a card to replace them"

Inside, at Sam's condo, William handed him a set of keys, one for the front door and one for the mailbox. "That's it?" Sam asked, "two keys is all I get?"

William smiled. "That's it. And the one for the front door you'll probably throw away when you have the locks changed. By the way, I went over the inventory yesterday, and it all checked out. You need to do it again, just to be sure?"

Sam shook his head. "If you can't trust your realtor, who can you trust? By the way, was there any liquor on that inventory? I'd like to offer you a drink."

"No, you're on your own with that. Besides, I'm meeting a client at three." He pulled Sam into a hug. "I know you'll be happy here. Anything you need, just give me a call." Sam pushed his crotch into William's and kissed him.

"Real estate, Sam, real estate," William said with a chuckle.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about Red. Pass the kiss on to him for me, will you?"

It took Sam all of twenty minutes to get his stuff into the condo and put away. Then he went grocery and liquor shopping.

Jay called around five, and Sam gave him the address and gate code. Jay's only comment was, "Don't get drained before I get there."

When Jay arrived, he came bearing gifts: a huge bouquet of flowers, two bottles of iced Dom Pérignon and a half dozen Waterford flutes. "I knew decent glasses wouldn't come with a furnished place, so I brought these," he said, putting the flutes on the counter.

"You'd be surprised," Sam said, pulling out a vase and holding it up. "I mean it's glass, but fairly good glass." He put it on the sink counter and pulled Jay into an embrace. "Thank you," he said, kissing him, "for the glasses."

Jay pulled away and began opening one of the bottles of champagne. "Don't get me started yet, my sweet. Not until we've sampled the wine." He rinsed out two of the glasses and poured some of the pale bubbly liquid into them. He handed one to Sam, touched it with the rim of his, and said: "To your new home. May I visit often."

They both drank and Sam echoed: "Yes, often." He put the flowers in the vase, sipped his champagne and took Jay into his arms again. "You're very sweet; you know that?"

Jay smiled and ran his hand over Sam's fly and then, not finding what he was looking for, moved the hand down, along Sam's right thigh where he did find it. "No underwear," he murmured into Sam's mouth. "I like that in a man. Tells me that perhaps I might have my way with him."

Sam began to harden under Jay's touch.

Jay pulled back and looked at him. "Is that for me?" he asked. "Or just a reaction to the wine?"

"Both," Sam said, "but mostly for you."

Jay grinned and deftly opened Sam's shorts and let them drop to his feet. Putting his hands on Sam's butt, he lifted until Sam realized that Jay meant for him to sit on the counter. When Sam complied, Jay happily had his way with him.

They went to Le Vallauris and ate lamb with garlic-herb sauce and finished with chocolate soufflés and more champagne. Afterward they initiated Sam's living room, bedroom and, in the morning, his shower.

After a breakfast-scrambled eggs, sausage and coffee-that Sam prepared himself, Jay had to leave. He said he was flying to Boston that afternoon for a couple of weeks. When he kissed Sam at the door he patted Sam's crotch and said: "Save some of that for me, okay?" Another kiss and he was gone.

Sam puttered around the condo for the rest of the day, washing the sheets from the night before, scrubbing out the spa on the patio, filling it and moving some of the furniture around. When the doorbell rang at four o'clock, he was quite happy to quit.

When he answered the door, he found two very attractive men. "Hi," the blond one said, handing Sam a bottle of wine. "I'm Clark, and this is my partner, Jeff. We thought we'd come around and welcome you to Desert Pride. We live down there," he said, pointing, "Building 3, better known as Boys Town Three."

Sam accepted the wine and shook hands with both the men. "I'm Sam, and thank you very much-both for the wine and for the welcome. Come in."

"Oh, we don't want to bother you," the dark-haired one said. "We know how busy it is, moving in."

"No. Please. I'm looking for an excuse to take a break and have a drink."

The young men came in, and Sam settled them in the living room. Then he served them some of the Dom Pérignon that Jay had insisted Sam open for breakfast. Clark and Jeff were suitably impressed.

They made small talk for a while, and then Jeff said, "Listen, uh..."

"Sam"

"Sam." He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I've never been good with names. Anyway, we'd like to invite you to an informal little cookout we're having tomorrow. Just some steaks and salad. Down at the pool."

"Well, thank you very much. I'd like very much to come. What time?"

Jeff grinned. "Oh, any time. We'll probably eat around six, but it looks to be a warm day, so a lot of the guys will probably spend the afternoon swimming and sunning."

"Yeah," Clark broke in, "even if it is bad for you, you gotta have a tan." He glanced at Jeff who nodded. "You know about the pool don't you? The one by the West clubhouse? The one with the gym?"

Sam gave him a questioning look.

"You do know it's clothing-optional, right? Sometimes a new guy doesn't, and we just want to make sure... I mean, you can wear clothes if you want to."

Sam chuckled. "I can see where it might be something of a surprise to find a bunch of naked guys standing around, eating steak while I'm all dressed up. But I tell you what: for the past three weeks I've been living at Some Guys-you know, the resort?" He laughed. "So I guess you could say I'm pretty comfortable around a bunch of naked guys. Yes, I'd be happy to be there."

Clark and Jeff stayed another half hour and took their leave. Sam had a sandwich for dinner and went to bed early. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before.

Sunday was warm and still with hardly a breeze. Sam got up fairly early, and after a cup of coffee, put on a pair of shorts, sandals and a wife-beater and went for a walk. He went out the front gate and walked completely around the complex. He was quite impressed with the landscaping outside the main wall and happy that the builders-and the homeowner's association-had shown such respect for the street.

Back at the condo Sam showered, shaved and then began taking the pictures off the walls in preparation for taking them to the thrift shop. All of them, he'd decided, looked like they were done by machines or retarded artists-in-training. One even had a K-Mart price sticker on the back: $21.97. Probably, he thought, even the thrift shop wouldn't take that one.

He also went through the various linens in the cupboards and made three piles: rags, thrift shop and maybe okay-this last being the smallest of the piles. Then he went out and bought a case of a good red wine.

Around four he showered again, put on a pair of loose shorts, grabbed three bottles of the wine and made his way down to the pool. He was greeted by Clark.

"Hi, Sam, glad you came. Looks like everyone turned up, it's such a nice day." He accepted the wine and put it on a counter along with several other bottles and led Sam over to the gym. "Find a locker for your stuff and get natural like the rest of us. Then we'll introduce you around."

Sam found the locker room easily enough and went in to remove his shorts. He found a couple of other men there already naked.

"Hey, you must be the new guy," one of the naked men said. He shook Sam's hand and then stood back, looking him over. "Nice to have a new face around here."

The other man smiled. "Yeah, not to mention the rest of him!" He came forward and offered his hand. "Martin Shields. Your next-door neighbor. We met briefly when the realtor was showing you the place, but I didn't catch your name."

Sam smiled, frankly looking the man over. Nice, he thought. Maybe a year or two older than I am but in awfully good shape. Nice uncut dick, too. "Oh, yeah," he said, "out there at the pool. The name's Sam, Martin. So we live next door to each other. At least now I'll know who's banging on the wall when the opera's on too loud."

"Won't be me," Martin said with a laugh. "I like opera. Well, not at three in the morning." He looked Sam up and down. "On the other hand, maybe."

The other man grinned. "Don't mind Martin. He's always a little horny. I'm Pete Addison, by the way." He put a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Come on, let's go meet the other guys. And don't worry, you probably won't remember who's who, but that's okay. There won't be a test later. Besides, most of us answer to 'Hey, you.'"

"Among other things," Martin added with a roll of his eyes.

Sam was usually pretty good with names, but after fourteen or fifteen, he knew it was going to take more than just this one meeting to get them all straight in his mind. It was a very diverse group. Most of the men were in some semblance of good shape, although a couple of them, Sam thought, could certainly stand to loose ten or fifteen pounds. Most were in their late thirties to late fifties except for Clark, Jeff and a kid named Duane something, who looked to be in his teens, although it turned out that he was twenty-five. He was there with his partner, a man named Howard, who looked to be in his mid-fifties.

They spent the late afternoon in and around the pool, mostly discussing the affairs of the day-and of life. A few guys in the pool played grab-ass off and on, and a couple, Sam observed, disappeared into the gym. They reappeared sometime later, looking very satisfied with themselves. Sam smiled to himself. This was shaping up to be his kind of place.

When the sun went down, the temperature cooled quickly, and someone turned on the heaters in the covered area. Wine was served, and then the tables were set and the steaks and salad were served, along with some very potent garlic bread. It turned out that the party was actually being given in honor of the anniversary of one of the couples. Sam didn't get anything but their first names-Charlie and Ben-and never did figure out which was which.

All through dinner Sam was aware of Martin, the man he'd seen in the gym, looking at him. Might be worthwhile, he thought, but he ended up leaving with Pete, the other man he'd met in the gym. They went to Pete's place for drinks and ended up on the living room rug, in front of the fire. All in all, a very pleasant and satisfying evening for both of them.

Very early the next morning Sam's phone rang, waking him out of a pleasant, but dimly remembered, dream. He thought later it might have had something to do with that Duane kid from the night before-or maybe Toby; he couldn't be sure.

"Sam?" It was Bill Flint, the contractor. "Listen, I wondered if you'd like to be on hand for the start of the demolition this afternoon. We've finally finished that other job, so after I inspect it, we'll be over to your place. We're going to start on the aluminum siding."

Sam said he'd like that and would be there around one. After hanging up, he turned on his back and took himself in hand, but found that he really wasn't all that interested. Man, he thought, that Pete guy last night was really something. He smiled to himself, but not like Jay. Now there is a man with a mouth! Further reflection, however, made him decide that Pete was actually more fun. He was not only an enthusiastic cocksucker, he was a wild man when it was reciprocated. The more Sam thought about it, the more excited he became, finally throwing off the cover and taking hold of himself again. This time it resulted in a long, slow-and very explosive-session.

Later, he went to a couple of thrift shops and donated the stuff that he'd set aside over the weekend. That done, he had a light lunch and went to his house to meet Bill.

"Hey, Sam, you're just in time to see the first piece come off," Bill said as he spotted Sam coming through the gate. "Now we'll get to see what's under that stuff. By the way," he said pointing to the two well-built workers standing to one side with crowbars in their hands, "I don't think you've met these guys. They're going to be doing a lot of the work on your house." He waved the men over.

"Steve, David, this here's Sam, the owner, so be nice to him. However, you don't take orders from him, understand? He wants something, he'll go through me." He turned to Sam. "Okay, Sam? Believe me, it really does work better this way."

Sam smiled at the two workmen and shook their hands. "Sounds good to me. Right, men? I give you orders, you just remind me of what Bill said." He caught the eye of the one called David and thought he might take an order, but only after work hours. He gave him a very quick wink and got a smile back.

David and Steve pulled off the first piece of the siding and found that the concrete block under it had once been painted a sky blue. "Does it have to be that color?" Sam asked no one in particular.

"Ask Bill that one," Steve said, bending down and looking closely at the exposed blocks. "Wasn't always that color though. Look here where the crowbar scraped a little. Before it was blue, it was yellow."

Sam and Bill examined the blocks. "Yup," Bill said, scraping the block with his pocket knife. "When it was built they painted it yellow. See here? There's nothing but unpainted block under the yellow." He straightened up and looked at Sam. "You mind a yellow house?"

"I guess not," Sam said. "But maybe put a little more brown in it. Make it darker?"

Bill nodded. "Yeah, I guess we could stretch things that far. Okay guys, back to work. Let's see how much of that ugly siding we can get off today."

While the men were working, Sam went next door to Tom and Dan's. Sitting on the front patio taking the sun, they happily greeted Sam. "Want some iced tea?" Tom asked. "Fresh made."

Sam declined. "Can't stay long. Prime Timers mixer at Toucan's at five. Can't miss that." He was thinking maybe Toby would be there. "I just came over to ask if you knew when the house got painted blue. It was yellow to start with, so the contractor says. Who changed it?"

They both shrugged. "It's always been blue, far as I know," Tom said. "At least until Jack and Larry put that siding on it." He laughed. "Would you believe they bought that stuff from a traveling salesman? We made a lot of jokes about that. You know, like all the old jokes where the traveling salesman gives certain, shall we say, incentives to buy his stuff?"

Dan looked up. "Never did believe that, though. Don't think they ever did stuff like that."

Tom nodded. "Yeah, they were kind of like us: pretty thick with each other, but nobody else. Least not that we knew." He shrugged. "But, as they say, to each his own. Might have been kind of fun the other way. I don't know."

Sam nodded. "Fun when you're single." He saluted them and turned to go. "I want to keep an eye on what's going on over there. See you later."

He watched the workmen for a while and then took his leave so he could go home and shower before going to the mixer.