Page 28 of Off-Limits Daddy
“Don’t—don’t make a big deal,” Ari wheezed, voice raw, trying to sit up straighter like he wasn’t fighting to get his breath back.
The EMT was reassuring, competent. “Breathe for me. You inhaled water. You don’t get to argue with oxygen, man.”
Some guy nearby said, “He was trying to do that stupid jump off the top piling. Nobody does that—it’s, like, half rotted through?—”
Of course he was. Of course he was doing something reckless, not to show off.
Because that’s what Ari did when he didn’t want anyone to see how restless he was. Always pushing, always testing—everything and everyone. Including me.
And maybe I was the idiot for thinking I could stay on the sidelines and pretend I didn’t see it.
Didn’t stop me from crouching down beside him, steadying myself with a hand in the grass. Close enough to touch. Close enough to see the shiver working its way through him.
“You good?” I asked, keeping my voice level, the kind of calm that took effort when every instinct I had wanted to haul him close andmakehim good.
Ari’s eyes flicked up—wild, stubborn, alive. Beautiful, even now. Damn him.
“Peachy,” he rasped, like he wasn’t half-drowned with his chest heaving.
My lips twitched, half against my will. “Don’t get smart with me.”
“When am I not?”
Then the cough hit, dragging him forward, the fight and the defiance curling into one miserable knot—and all I wanted was to catch him, hold him,keephim. I was already his, whether he knew it or not.
“We need to take him in,” the paramedic said, voice clipped, professional. “Water like that? Dry drowning’s not a joke. Observation’s the right move.”
“I’m fine,” Ari rasped, and then coughed hard enough to prove himself a liar.
“You’re going,” I said, gruffer than I meant to.
That earned me a sideways look from the EMT—not annoyed, not surprised, just knowing. In a small town, everyone knew everyone, or thought they did.
“Neighbor?” he asked, but it wasn’t really a question.
It didn't matter. I gave the word anyway, rough-edged. “Yeah.”
That earned me one of those looks from the EMT that said,Whatever you need to call it, man.
Ari slumped back, frustration etched in every line of his face, like he wanted to sink through the grass and disappear. Probably wishing I’d been anyone else.
And Ishould’veleft it there.
But I didn’t.
My hand moved before I could stop it, brushing wet curls back from his forehead, fingers curling lightly at the nape of his neck. Not guiding. Not restraining. Just...claiming.
Felt him go still under the touch.
His breath caught—not from the coughing this time—and his eyes flicked up to mine, bright and confused as hell.
He didn’t say a word—so unlike him.
But he didn’t need to.
That touch said enough.
Mine.
