“You don’t care enough to irritate me on purpose. Sid’s always been a pain in the arse, but he’s even worse now Anna’s told him we’re together.”
“Maybe you should’ve told him yourself then.” Dante stood, waiting for Benjamin to dismiss him. Talking about Sid distracted him enough that Benjamin’s conversation was white noise. All he heard were the last four words.
“You can go now.”
Dante didn’t need telling twice. He backed up and speed-walked out of Benjamin’s office, leaving the grand old building behind as he escaped to the sector of the huge estate where he belonged. The lake, the greenhouses, the barn, he passed them all on his way to the place he’d left his heart that afternoon.
On his wayhome.
Sid’s porch was a riot of colour. The autumn bulbs they’d planted had bloomed into daffodils and snakehead fritillary. Another day, Dante might’ve stopped and snapped a picture for the overflowing folder on his phone, but the pull in his chest for Sid was too strong to ignore, even for the sake of botanical porn.
He let himself into the bungalow, instinct carrying him from the front door to the back. Sid was on the decking, leaning against the wall, face tipped to the sky, eyes closed. He didn’t seem to have heard Dante coming, so Dante took a detour to the kitchen, rolled a joint, and retrieved the device Sid used to inject medication into his abdomen.Copaxone. Whatever it was, it seemed to work for Sid when he remembered to take it, and when he didn’t?
Dante had his back.
He returned to the garden and knelt at Sid’s feet, laying a hand on his knee.
Sid startled awake. “Wha—?”
“Easy.” Dante grinned and caught Sid’s flailing hand in his. “It’s just me.”
Sid blinked hard. Some days, awareness took a while to come back after he’d slept, but he’d had a good day, a good week, a good month, and a heartbeat later, his answering smile put the fast-fading sun to shame. “How did it go?”
“You really don’t know?” Dante lifted Sid’s T-shirt and shot the medication into Sid’s abdomen with a practised hand.
Sid didn’t flinch. “I told you this morning,” he said, “Benjamin excluded me from the meeting, and he was probably right because I’d have throat punched anyone who argued against giving you a permanent job.”
“Well... you can stand down. There’s no need for violence because I just signed the contract he offered me.”
“For real?”
Dante nodded, his own wide grin hurting his cheeks. “For real. He made me assistant gardener and gave me a van to drive around in.”
“What kind of van?”
“A green one. I’m gonna look like a zookeeper.”
Sid laughed, a real, deep belly chuckle that sparked more joy in Dante than he ever thought possible. “You think that’s my sister’s roundabout way of keeping me off the road?”
“Maybe, but I’m not complaining. No offence, but you’re a fucking liability.”
Sid scowled. It didn’t reach his eyes, though. He’d already told Dante he had zero attachment to driving if someone else was around to get him where he needed to go, and Dante planned on being that someone for as long as Sid wanted him to be.
“I love you.” The words fell from him without context.
Sid’s mock scowl vanished, and his smile came back full force. “I love you too. Come here.”
He held out his hands, coaxing Dante to straddle his lap.
Dante happily let him, though he kept his weight from crushing Sid as he retrieved the joint from behind his ear and lit up.
They smoked in companionable silence, the weed buzz entwining with the ever-present compulsion to be as close to each other as possible. Sid finished the joint. Dante ashed it and flicked it with pinpoint precision into the plant pot by the door. They kissed, hands roaming with lazy affection. Dante didn’t push, he never did, allowing Sid’s body to map their path. Sometimes nothing happened. Sometimes everything did.
Sometimes they just kissed until they ran out of air and hours in the day.
Dante never got bored. How could he when Sid’s hand in his gave him goddamn wings?
Night fell, eclipsing the spring sunshine and bringing with it a sharp drop in temperature that would do Sid no good if they stayed out too long.