Page 95 of Missed Sunrise
“He finished Bree’s tattoo,” I surmised as I caught up to the present. “I missed it.”
“He did. You did,” Vinh confirmed.
The urge to sit up and see it hit me, but it was far outpaced by my desire to never leave this spot on the floor where Liem Lott was asleep on my shoulder.
But Vinh decided for me, and it was a good offer, too, when he said, “Let’s get these two to bed. You’re welcome to stay on the couch tonight.”
I looked from Liem to his brother and stupidly repeated, “The couch.”
Vinh smirked. “The couch. Anywhere else you might stay isn’t within my permission to give.”
I met his dark gaze for a breath and then spoke true, my contentment lending itself to candidness. “You’re a good brother.”
His answering smile was immediate and genuine. “So are you, Cody.”
I broke his intense stare, swallowing thickly as I looked at Bree where she had fallen asleep on the bench, her back rising and falling steadily. “Thank you,” I whispered so quietly, I wasn’t even sure he’d heard me. Those words didn’t ring as true as I’d like, but I vowed to prove him right. To prove myself worthy of this.
Of all of this.
Vinh rose to his feet and slowly decreased the volume of the laptop, keeping his eye on Bree the entire time. He smiled slightly to himself when she didn’t wake and then closed it before scooping her up gently. There was a wrap around her thigh, protecting the tattoo. Vinh met my gaze and nodded goodbye before carrying her from the room.
My ass was numb from sitting on the hard floor, and my lower back was close to screaming, but every other part of me, inside and out, sang in drowsy joy at my current circumstances.
The last two days had been a test. For myself.
To plan, to dream, to do the thing I hated and examine my thoughts and instincts.
To follow through.
I’d run with Dad each morning, taking us on a broader circuit around downtown Bay Springs so I could still catch glimpses of Liem at the gazebo. So I could watch the same sunrise with him from the same place.
Liem’s thigh muscle flexed under my hand as if he’d heard my thoughts and then relaxed. He’d spoken true that day on the golf cart; he really could get comfortable anywhere.
Even in total darkness, leaned against my thorns.
I was trying to find peace with those thorns, too, but they always sharpened when I was alone at night and tended to turn inward. Poking and slicing away as I lay awake on that bed on the houseboat, replaying my failures instead of sleeping.
Relying solely on touch, I took my sweet-ass time wrapping my arm around Liem’s waist. Then, by the power of leg day and the slightness of Liem Lott, I snaked my other arm under his knees and lifted him into my arms as I rose from the floor.
He sighed contentedly and burrowed into my chest, and I froze.
Any existence where I could simply hold Liem Lott in my arms with the scent of cookies and charcoal, sea salt andperfect— everything that was him—surrounding us couldn’t be all bad.
I turned toward the moonlight coming through the windows just enough to illuminate his hands resting loosely against my chest, his loose hair swaying as we breathed. The same hair that tickled my arm as I carefully—and so, so slowly—made my way to his bedroom.
The door I’d peeked through earlier was still ajar, so I walked right through it, wishing so badly I could make out the details of his space. To see what I’d only glimpsed a few times before. The large bay window to my right was east facing, immediately conjuring fantasies of Liem in his bed and bathed in morning sunlight.
It was a potent cocktail of hope and fear, and I was nearly drunk on it.
“Dezi?” he asked sleepily against my chest, breaking me from my reverie and grounding me as he traced a line over my heart. I shivered almost violently, an intrusive, sudden urge to dump him onto his bed and make a fucking run for it brushing over me.
Curbing that fight-and-flight notion, I carried him to his bed, placed a knee on its edge for leverage, and laid him down in the middle.
But then I hesitated. He was right there, inches away, perfectly caged below me.
His eyes met mine in the dim light, and he propped himself on his elbows. His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths as I hovered over him, the riot in my head turning to white noise as so many wants warred with one another.
Take.
