Rediscovery Read Online Free PDF Page A

repaired the web. Those are interesting too, but they aren’t the even perfection of a fresh web.”
     
    “I remember coming here with my parents when I was a kid and trying to see how many different kinds of birds we could see,” Michael said with a smile as they left the spider web and walked on. “I read somewhere that over three hundred species of birds have been spotted within the park. We never saw anywhere near that many, of course, but we got pretty good at identifying the common ones.”
     
    “There’s a bench over there,” Lee said, pointing to a shaded rest area under the branches of a huge live oak tree. “Let’s sit for a few minutes and see what comes to visit us.”
     
    “I don’t even know if I’ll recognize any but the most obvious anymore,” Michael warned.
     
    “It isn’t about knowing every kind of bird,” Lee said, “but about taking the time to look around you again. You knew how to look as a child. Let that come back.”
     
    “The best place for serious observation is the tower in the center of the park,” Michael suggested.
     
    “Michael,” Lee scolded, “relax and look up at the tree over your head. There’s plenty to observe right there.”
     
    Michael leaned back, bracing his hands behind him so he could peer up into the branches of the tree. A cardinal flitted by, followed shortly by a raucous blue jay. Michael chuckled at the noise, hearing Lee sharing his laughter behind him.
     
    “Look over there,” Lee said softly, drawing Michael’s attention to the next tree. “It’s a hawk, I think, although I don’t know what kind.”
     
    “A broad-winged hawk,” Michael said, recognizing the bird. “I don’t remember a lot of birds from when I was younger, but I remember that one.” He sat up and looked a little closer. “It looks like a juvenile. It’s small, and its feathers aren’t the right color yet.”
     
    Lee smiled and rested his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “You remember more than you realize. Do you want to keep watching or walk on?”
     
    “Let’s stay a little longer,” Michael said, looking around with greater interest.
     
    They lingered for another half an hour, Michael growing more and more excited as he saw birds he had not seen in fifteen years or more. “Yes, I know, they’re probably all around me in Houston,” he added when he shared his excitement with Lee, “but now I’m looking again.”
     
    “That’s the important thing,” Lee said, his hand sliding down Michael’s arm. “The past is done. You can’t change it now, but you can choose not to repeat mistakes you’ve made and learned from.”
     
    “I thought that’s what I was doing when I avoided you at first at the con,” Michael admitted. “I saw the leather, not in the typical cowboy style, and I walked away rather than get sucked back in.”
     
    “Back in?” Lee asked.
     
    Michael nodded. “I dated a guy in college who was a real leather freak. It was kind of fun at first, getting dressed up, going to clubs. What’s the harm in a pair of leather pants, right?”
     
    “I’m not going to argue that one with you,” Lee said with a grin, “but the leather pants weren’t the problem.”
     
    “No,” Michael agreed, “I was fine with the leather pants. I was even fine with the occasional bit of role play. He tied me up a couple of times, which didn’t do all that much for me, but it did wonders for the sex because he was so into it.”
     
    “There’s definitely something to be said for a partner who’s really into what you’re doing,” Lee said with a laugh. “It can make you feel sexy as hell. So what happened?”
     
    “He talked me into going to a different club,” Michael said. “An S/M club. I was twenty-one, barely old enough to drink. My boyfriend tried to style himself as a Dom, but he wasn’t any older than I was, and the real Doms descended on us like flies on honey. Nothing awful happened. I was obviously freaked out, too