Read The Lord Won't Mind (The Peter & Charlie Trilogy) for Free Online

here for me.” Charlie started the car and set it in motion. Being out of doors, going through the familiar maneuvers of driving, Charlie was restored to his accustomed sense of normalcy. The fact that they had held each other in their arms, kissed, known passionately each other’s bodies gave them as a pair a special mysterious awareness of each other, but it had no extension into everyday life. They were just good friends, going for a drive on a hot summer afternoon.
    “Do you think C. B. will know what’s happened?” Peter asked.
    “With us? Heavens no. She could never even dream of it.”
    “I’m not so sure. She’s said a lot of things that didn’t mean anything to me at the time. Almost as if she’d been planning it.”
    “I know what you mean, but you don’t understand. It’s hard to explain. She has a sort of romantic—well, ideal. It’s all involved with young men, watching them develop and all that. She has no use for females. I don’t think she ever thinks about sex.”
    “That may be. But there’s something else. I felt all along as if she was preparing me for something. She has a way of putting ideas in your head and then watching to see how they work out.”
    “She has that, all right. They usually work out the way she wants them to. She’s fascinated by you. She’s decided to make you one of her projects. I’m supposed to sort of draw you out and broaden your experience.” They glanced at each other and burst into roars of laughter, sharing youth’s joke on its inexplicable elders.
    “You’ve certainly made a good start,” Peter said.
    “I’m not so sure you’re not going to broaden mine.”
    “Oh, you’ve obviously done everything. I might as well tell you—I’ve always longed for something like this to happen, without quite admitting it to myself. Does that mean I’m a fairy or something? Not that I really care so long as it’s with you.”
    “You’re no more a fairy than I am,” Charlie said sharply. “It’s something that happens to everybody.”
    “Well, you know more about it than I do. But I don’t think that’s really the way I feel. Anyway, I don’t care. I feel so damn happy. You have a job waiting in New York, don’t you?”
    “Yes. Publishing. In the fall. I was supposed to be there now, but C. B. arranged everything.” He drove through a tunnel of trees past big, old-fashioned properties like C. B.’s. He turned into a street with shops. “This is the town, what there is of it. We might as well go look at the ocean. Then I’ll take you to the club and introduce you to the gang.”
    “Are you going to live with C. B.?”
    “No, she’s found me a little apartment. She doesn’t think men should live with their families. It’s one of her ideas.”
    “It sounds great. I wish I knew what I was going to do.”
    “You’re going to West Point, aren’t you?”
    “Oh, that’s the idea. But I’m not. I’d rather shoot myself. C. B. wants me to go to Princeton. Did you like it?”
    “It was all right. But I’ve never much cared for school. I always wanted to get it over with and get out and do things.”
    “Me too. Except I don’t know what I want to do.”
    “I do. I know just what I want to do, but for God’s sake don’t tell C. B.; I’m going to be an actor. The job is just an excuse to go to New York. Broadway people have seen me at Princeton. They think I’m good.”
    “An actor! That’s amazing. I suppose that means you’ll be a big movie star. I wouldn’t like that.”
    “Why not?”
    “Everybody after you. Too much competition.” Peter put his hand in Charlie’s lap and grasped his sex. It responded immediately. Charlie shifted in his seat to ease his trousers.
    “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not interested in movies. That would kill C. B. I want to work in the theater. I don’t think she’ll really mind if I’m a success.”
    “Why should she?”
    “Oh, she has ideas about what’s proper. I once wanted to be