“Oh, he does. It’s how I knew I could leave him to rest. We’re only nice to each other when the world is caving in.”
“You think he’s okay then?”
“For now... until next time, at least. Summer is awful for him if he gets overwhelmed. He’s usually pretty good at keeping cool, though, unless he’s super stressed. I’m sorry if it freaked you out—it doesn’t happen often, but I know it’s scary when it does,believeme.”
Dante believed her. Like Sid, she had an honest face, and matched with the afternoon he’d spent terrified Sid would pass out or stop breathing, scary didn’t come close. “I didn’t know about the heat thing. If I had, maybe—”
“Nope.” Anna gripped Dante’s elbow, forcing him to a stop. “Bar locking him inside with seventeen fans, there’s nothing you can do to prevent this. It’s Sid’s responsibility to be sensible and to ask for help when every tool he has doesn’t work. The fact that you care is enough, and he’ll tell you so himself when he’s back in the land of the living.”
“How long will that take?”
Anna shrugged. “Depends, but if he’s with it enough to tell me to fuck off, it’s a good sign. And the weather’s going to break tonight too.”
Dante glanced at the orange, cloudless sky. “Is it?”
“Yup. Wind and rain tomorrow, which brings its own problems, so don’t let him convince you it’s okay for him to prance around outside half-dressed.”
Dante pictured Sid half-dressed, then wished he hadn’t, as he had a razor-sharp memory of exactly how Sid looked without a shirt on.Man, his skin. Only Sid’s distress had kept Dante’s reaction in check.I want—
“Look...” Anna halted Dante’s thirst train. “Sid hasn’t said much about you since you started, but the fact that he doesn’t complain about your very existence means he likes you. Which meansIlike you, and I wasn’t joking about being friends, so if you need anything, take my number from the pad by Sid’s phone and give me a call, okay?”
It was the second time in twenty-four hours someone unexpected had offered Dante that lifeline, and he still didn’t know what to do with it. He found a smile he hoped didn’t make him look constipated. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. And even if you don’t take me up on that, definitely call me if you’re ever worried about Sid. He hides a lot, so if he’s struggling and he’s letting you see it, he’sreallystruggling, you know?”
Dante nodded. “I understand.”
“I know you do. That’s why I like you.” Anna punched his arm lightly and pointed to Benjamin who was approaching from the main house. “And that’s my cue. It was nice to meet you, Dante. Don’t be a stranger.”
She walked away, straight into Benjamin’s path. His face lit up like he’d seen the moon for the first time. Dante rolled his eyes and turned his back on them, trying not to wonder if Sid knew his boss was banging his sister.It’s none of your business.And he wasn’t a man who kept knowledge like that on tap for his own gain.
Not anymore.
He pushed Anna and Benjamin out of his mind and let himself be drawn back to Sid’s bungalow.Leave him alone. His sister literally just checked on him.
Dante jimmied the front door open and stepped inside, waiting, watching, listening for any sign Sid was up and around and not in the mood for employees breaking into his house. But the house remained as silent and still as it had the last six times Dante had let himself in.
Steeling himself for the sight of the empty couch, Dante slipped past the living room and followed the short corridor to the bedroom. The door was ajar. He pushed it open and peeked inside, squinting in the darkness from the closed curtains.
Sid was dead asleep on his stomach, one arm beneath his head, the other hanging off the side of the bed, his strong back exposed to the cooling night air.Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.
Fuck it.
Dante stepped into the room and grasped Sid’s wrist, bending his dangling arm to rest it on the bed. Sid’s broad, sun-kissed back called to him, but he retracted his hand before he could do something creepy as fuck and covered Sid with the thin cotton sheet beneath his bunched-up duvet.You’re such a hero, Pope.
Shaking his head, Dante straightened and left Sid alone. He went to the kitchen and found the food he’d dumped on the counter when he’d found Sid collapsed on the floor had been neatly stowed in the fridge.
He put a sandwich on a plate, covered it with foil, and took it back to the bedroom with a bottle of water.
Sid hadn’t moved. Dante put the plate and bottle down and lingered a moment, watching for the rise and fall of Sid’s back. Long heartbeats passed with nothing. Dante crouched low, as he had so many times that day, shaking hands curled into fists as panic crawled in his blood, giving life to the dormant anxiety years of therapy would never entirely kill. He leaned forward, closer and closer, tilting his head to bring his ear to Sid’s mouth.Show me you’re okay, Sid, and I’ll say please to you every day I fucking see you.And finally,finally, he heard it—the slow, sweet sound of Sid’s breath.
Relief left Dante dizzy.
He retreated from Sid’s room and left the bungalow, locking the door behind him. It had grown dark while he’d been with Sid, and his usual pattern took him home to turn all the lights on and the TV up loud to keep him company until it was time for bed. But he left the lights off this time and sat on his own kitchen floor, counting the stars in the sky outside and drifting in the light of the moon. He checked on Sid three times in the night and each time found him the same.
It was nearly dawn when his phone pinged with a reply to a message he’d long forgotten.
Sid:you did everything right x