Page 3 of Touch In Excess

Skye blinked as the world began to right itself and his vertigo took a step back. His eyes stopped shaking as he breathed deeply. The man was still crouched beside him, hands hovering in the air like he was afraid to touch.

“Okay, I’m gonna call 9-1—” Skye could only just hear him over the sound of his tinnitus.

“No,” Skye managed. He unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth and did a quick mental assessment. His head didn’t hurt, but his elbow was stinging, and he was pretty sure he could feel blood dripping down the outside of his knee.

There was also definitely some road rash, and maybe a bruised shoulder, but nothing that needed a hospital.

“I really don’t want the ambulance bill.” He blinked both eyes open and studied the man beside him. He looked young, with thick, very dark black curls in tight ringlets tied at the nape of his neck in a messy bun, amber-brown eyes, olive-brown skin beneath the thick layer of plaster-paint, and full lips that stretched into a nervous smile.

He was wearing a tattered T-shirt and grey sweats, and he was kneeling beside Skye, which stretched the fabric and showed off a sizable bulge.

Fuck, why was he noticing that?

Skye cut his gaze away as he pushed himself up to sit, rolling his shoulders. The pain was a lot, but it was already starting to ease up. The cuts were the worst, and he hissed as he tried to bend his knee.

“You’re bleeding,” the man said.

Skye wanted to snap at him, thank him for being fucking obvious, but that wasn’t fair. Instead, he nodded and stretched his leg out. Now that the pain was starting to recede, embarrassment was trickling in. The man was objectively and absurdly good-looking, and Skye had just eaten a massive pile of shit in front of him.

“I’ve had worse.”

“Do you fall a lot?”

Skye grimaced. “Why? Do I look like the kind of guy who does?”

The man cocked his head to the side, then said, “You look like you’ve done this before.”

Skye couldn’t help it. He burst into laughter, covering his face with both hands. “Yeah. That about sums it up.” He took a breath, then dropped his hands and said, “Hi. I’m Skye, and I get vertigo attacks, which is how I ended up covered in cuts and embarrassed as fuck on your really nice lawn.”

The man’s eyes brightened. “I’m Rami.” He rolled theRjust slightly. Skye couldn’t hear it, but he caught a glimpse of Rami’s tongue touching his front teeth as he pronounced it.

“Rami,” Skye tried.

Rami’s eyes crinkled in the corners. “You say that nice. Most white people make a mess of my name.”

Skye had no idea how to answer that. He glanced around him, then realized his jog back to the parking lot where he was going to call his ride was a good mile, and there wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to make it on foot.

“Do you mind if I sit here and wait for my ride?”

Rami’s brow furrowed. “You don’t have a car?”

Skye shook his head and tapped his temple. “Not safe.”

Rami reared back a little. “My brother’s Deaf, and he drives.”

It was in that moment Skye realized one of his hearing aids was askew, and he’d tapped just above it. “No,” he said, fixing it. “My vertigo, not my hearing loss.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Rami didn’t actually look sorry, but Skye didn’t mind. “You can wait with me out here if you want. I’m just working.” He hopped up and offered a hand. They were calloused and felt strange with all the plaster stuck to them. It was thick on his skin, and Skye knew that sensation would have driven him up the wall. “Do you like sign language?”

“Like as a concept or a preference?” Skye asked.

Rami’s smile got wider. “Both?”

Skye laughed. He wasn’t expecting that. “Great concept, and it’s great for communication on bad hearing days. But I’m still kind of a beginner.”

“I learned with my brother when we were kids,” Rami said, jerking his head toward the driveway. There was a little path that curved around bushes and then an archway that opened up to a courtyard. Scattered across the grass were several sculptures that looked half-finished. “I’m not fluent, but I’m pretty good.”

“I’m in my fourth year,” Skye confessed, looking around in some wonder. The house was gorgeous but in need of some very obvious repair. There was wood rot and rust from being so close to the ocean, and it looked like the lawn hadn’t been maintained other than a very choppy mowing job where Rami was working.

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