For a moment, I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe too deeply because I didn't dare wake him.
The back of my truck was wrapped in blankets and half-light, the windows fogged, dawn leaking in through pale gold seams. The ocean murmured somewhere beyond the tailgate, low and steady, like it was keeping watch.
My world narrowed down to one quiet miracle. Elliot.
I shifted enough to ease the cramp in my shoulder, and his body responded instantly. His arm tightened around mine in his sleep, pulling me closer like his nervous system recognized mine even before his mind did.
My chest felt stupid and fragile. God, how I wanted to stay in this moment forever. I pressed my face into his hair and breathed him in. Salt, lavender and honey. Elliot was my oxygen.
He stirred slowly. Not fully awake. Just a soft, questioning sound in the back of his throat. His head tipped back slightly against my shoulder, his lashes fluttering.
Mmh,” he murmured.
I smiled into his hair. My hand slid up his stomach, slow and grounding, thumb brushing gentle circles like I was reminding both of us we were still here. Safe and together.
“You okay, baby boy?” I whispered.
He shifted, turning in my arms, clumsy and soft with sleep. His hair was rumpled. His eyes half lidded. Mouth parted like he hadn’t quite decided whether he was dreaming or not.
Hazel orbs focused on me. A smile tipped up his lips. Like seeing me was the best possible answer to whatever his brain had been holding onto.
My heart cracked in two.
“Morning,” he breathed.
“Morning,” I murmured back.
I tucked a stray curl behind his ear and just looked at him. He was beautiful like this. Unarmored. Open. Mine in a way that wasn’t about possession but choice. I leaned in and kissed him. It wasn’t deep, just a slow press of my mouth to his like a punctuation. A promise I intended to keep.
When I pulled back, I didn’t go far, just hovered there, memorizing him in the new light of day. Then started kissing his freckles. One by one. On his cheeks, the bridge of his nose. Down to the corners of his mouth, just because I could.
He squirmed and laughed softly, “Daddy, that tickles.”
“That’s the point,” I murmured, pressing another kiss under his eye. “You’re unbearably cute when you’re not fully awake.”
He hid his face against my chest, smiling broadly. My arms tightened around him instinctively. He was my everything.
I pressed my mouth to his ear and whispered, “I thought you’d like to watch the sunrise with me.”
He went very still. Pulled back just enough to look at me, eyes glass-bright in the dawn.
“You remembered.”
“Of course I did,” I replied and kissed him again. Slower this time, full of everything I wasn’t afraid of anymore.
We untangled ourselves from the blankets, clumsy and quiet, slow with sleep and got dressed. Once I was ready, I slipped out of the truck with the camping stove intent on heating some water to fill a couple of flasks with coffee while Elliot got dressed.
It didn’t take long before his shriek reached my eyes from the truck, swiftly followed by a bellowed. “Anthony!”
Chuckling, I opened the door, “Yes, baby?”
Elliot sat there in pink boxer-briefs blanket draped over his shoulders. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?” He crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for my response.
“I’m making flasks of coffee to take with us, so you better hurry up.”
He shook his head, muttering under his breath as he shifted around until his ass was facing me. “About this.” He pulled his briefs down and deftly pulled his cheeks apart and ground out, “That.”
“Oh, that?”
