I shake my head as I walk up the steps. “I’d say he found his new favourite person.”
Silas chuckles as he glances down at Winston, and the sound sends a rush of fuckingbutterfliesthrough my stomach as my gaze locks onto his beautiful smile.
I drop into a chair on the porch and reach into my backpack, pull out a couple beer, and hand him one.
He leans forward to take it, and when his fingers lightly brush mine, a surge of electricity shoots up my arm and spreads through my chest.
“Thanks,” he says, leaning back and cracking it open like that simple touch didn’t just send my pulse into complete chaos.
I smile and open mine as well, taking a drink while my attention snags on the sketchbook resting on his lap. Pencils are scattered across the small table between us alongside the pages of the report, and happiness and relief flow through me to know he’s still drawing.
“What are you working on?” I ask.
He shoves the sketchbook aside, tucking it against the chair as he shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says, casting a quick glance towards me. His gaze lingers on mine for a moment before he shrugs one shoulder and looks away. “Just… some things I like.”
I nod and watch him for a moment while he scratches Winston behind the ear again. Winston tips his head back to stare up at him with so much adoration in his eyes, I have to huff a laugh.
I’m not sure he’s ever looked at me like that.
But given who he’s looking at… I get it.
My gaze drifts down to the table again, the pages of the report scattered about like he’s been sifting through them.
“Thanks for texting me,” I say.
Silas gives me a small nod, with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Thanks for coming.”
I raise my beer towards him, and he taps his against mine in a quiet cheers.
I look around the space as I take a drink, and a quiet sense of familiarity settles over me. We used to sneak up here and sit just like this, passing beers back and forth and pretending we were old enough to be drinking them.
My eyes land on one of the large trees across the driveway, and I let out a chuckle as a memory comes flooding in, clear as day.
“Remember when we tried to build a fort in that tree,” I say, lifting my beer to gesture towards the wide maple across the drive, “but the wood we used was rotten and you fell through it and I thought you died?”
Silas laughs, and I turn my head to look at him, my heart lifting at the sound and the sight of joy in him as he recalls that almost fateful day.
“Yet all you did was sit in the tree and stare down at me,” he says.
“We were ten. I had no idea what to do!” I shake my head, staring at the base of the tree where he fell. “The way you landed and just lay there, I thought for sure you were dead.”
He chuckles and lifts his beer for a drink. “We were both almost dead when Papa came up to see what happened.”
I wince as I remember him rushing up the driveway after hearing Silas’s yell and the crash. When he realized we were both ok, he tore us a new one for climbing up there with rotten boards and zero sense. But the following week, he had fresh lumber and tools, and helped us build one in his backyard.
“We were idiots,” I say with a smile, thinking back on all the stupid shit we got ourselves into.
Silas huffs. “Yeah.” Then he looks at me, and the corner of his lips lifts in a small smile. “We had fun though.”
“Fuck yeah, we did,” I say. And as I look into his eyes, the easy closeness, laughter, and sense of home I always felt with him when we were kids rushes back in. “And we will again.”
He nods, and that simple act has me smiling back at him with relief, knowing that’s true.
Winston lifts a paw, placing it on Silas’s lap as he looks up at him, clearly upset that he stopped patting him. He leans againstSilas’s leg with all his weight, so Silas has to adjust to prop him up.
I huff as I watch Winston close his eyes and tip his head back into Silas’s touch when he scratches behind his floppy ear again, and his tongue lolls lazily out the side of his mouth.
“For fuck’s sake,” I mutter. “You know I named him Winston because I was kinda hoping he’d become a bit more… noble.”
