“I’ll bet.” The first sign of Sid’s warm smile peeked through his frown. “Okay, well, here’s the thing: I didn’t sleep well because I was worried I’d messed this up.” He gestured between them. “And now I can see I’m forgiven, I’m so fucking tired I can see three of you. I need to go lie down for a few hours. Will you be all right on your own?”
“Will you?” Dante blurted before it occurred to him how it sounded.Nice. After everything he’s just said, you’re pretty much implying you want to lie down with him.
If only it weren’t true.
But the innuendo in Dante’s words passed Sid by. He nodded tiredly and rubbed his face again. “I’ll be fine in a bit. I’ll find you, okay?”
“Okay.” Dante watched as Sid backed up and left the shed, shadowing him to the door as he picked his way across the yard to the bungalows. To anyone else, perhaps the way Sid moved would’ve seemed normal, but not Dante. He catalogued every faint limp and drag, each slight waver that knocked Sid off balance, all the while dampening down the instinct thatscreamedat him to chase Sid down and take his arm.
Take his weight.
Take his pain.
Dante had never wanted to bear someone’s pain for them before, and the new emotion choked him. He rubbed his chest, but that made him think of Sid more, so he let his hand drop and curl into a fist again, as though violence could overcome whatever the hell was going down in his heart.
Lavender. That’s all he wants from you.
Dante sucked a deep breath and forced himself to look away as Sid kept walking. He grabbed the tools he needed and headed in the opposite direction, to the lavender borders near the gift shop. They were also on the very edge of the boundary that separated Dante from the delicate general public he wasn’t supposed to contaminate.
He was unsurprised when Benjamin popped up an hour later.
“What happened to you two this morning?”
Dante set a bunch of dwarf lavender in the crate he’d brought from the shed and spared Benjamin a bored glance. “When?”
“At breakfast time. Did you start work early? Sid’s supposed to tell me if he does that so I can keep track of you.”
Dante considered his options. Telling Benjamin the truth was out of the question, but so was throwing Sid under the bus. Wherever he’d been that morning and whatever he thought had happened last night, if he’d missed breakfast, it was Dante’s fault. “I overslept. Sid missed breakfast because he came to wake me up.”
“That took him an hour?”
“I’m a heavy sleeper,” Dante lied. “I told him I won’t lock the door next time so he can barge in and pour water on my head.”
Benjamin eyed him, clearly wanting to believe the worst of Dante and somehow smelling a hint of deception. Dante noted the trait, as he always did about everyone, not just posh gits filling their social action quotas. It was a hard habit to break.
“Where’s Sid now?” Benjamin looked around. “I haven’t seen him at all today.”
The truth came easier this time. Loyalty be damned, whoever was to blame, Dante knew Benjamin needed to know if Sid was struggling. “He’s tired, so he went home for a bit. He said he’d be back later.”
Benjamin’s gaze sharpened. “Was he walking okay?”
“Mostly.”
“And his balance?”
“Same.” Dante went back to the lavender and cut another large bunch. “I haven’t checked on him, though. Do you want me to?”
Please say yes.
Please say no.
Benjamin sighed. “He’s probably asleep on the couch, but actually, yes, could you? I have an off-site meeting I’m already late for and I won’t be back until this afternoon.”
“I can take him some lunch,” Dante said.
“That’s a good idea. He’s not always a fan of a welfare check, but he likes his food.”
“I know.”