* * * *
By late afternoon the next day, Mark seemed amused as hell.
“What?” Francis from his spot on a picnic blanket on the backyard.
“Did you know,” Mark started and handed him a bottle of water. “That each of your friends has given me the shovel talk.”
Francis’s jaw dropped. “All of them?”
“Yup. Each one, separately. I’ve gotten six people telling me they’d bury me if I ever hurt you. All this in the last, oh, eight hours.” Mark’s eyes twinkled with obvious humor, before he got serious and leaned in to kiss Francis. “They love you very much. I’m so happy you have them.”
Francis groaned and flopped onto his back in a dramatic fashion.
“Don’t you apologize,” Mark said just as he was about to open his mouth. “I don’t have anyone like that in my corner.”
Francis turned his head so he could look at Mark’s face. “You’re so very wrong, you don’t even know it.”
“How do you reckon that?” Mark plucked at the edge of the blanket instead of making eye contact.