Page 59 of Tender
Cosimo wanted to kiss him. But he didn’t. “Come on. Let’s get out on the water before I get distracted by those pretty eyes again.”
Miles swallowed thickly, then followed along as Cosimo tugged on his hand. “Is it loud?”
Cosimo shrugged. “If we’re at full speed, yeah. But it doesn’t go that fast either. It’s not a speed boat.”
The dock was swaying slightly, so Cosimo kept a firm grip on him as he opened the boat door and walked him to the captain’s chair. Miles looked a little green around the gills, so Cosimo sat beside him and hooked a knuckle under his chin.
“We can stay here if you want,” he said, pitching his voice to make sure Miles could hear him. “If you don’t think you’ll like it.”
Miles’s eyes darkened just a fraction. Determination, Cosimo realized. “I want to try. I missed out on so fucking much. I think this sounds like fun. And…”
Cosimo waited as Miles worked through whatever it was he was thinking.
“I want to do this with you.”
His heart hammered in his chest, and he did everything he could to ignore the urge to lean in and kiss him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MILES
The one thinghe hadn’t expected was a boat day. Or date? It was hard to tell. Cosimo was closed off, but he was also really touchy-feely with him the same way Emmett had been before he realized that the older man wanted him.
He was attentive though, and careful with him in ways that Miles wasn’t expecting. The boat was too loud for him to hear anything as they headed out into open water, and he hadn’t realized he was petrified of being out in the ocean until they got there.
But after a short while, Cosimo killed the engine, dropped anchor, and they floated in water Cosimo insisted would only come up to his chest.
“It’s not the Mariana trench,” Cosimo said when Miles was peering over the edge. It was nice to be able to hear him properly out there with the engine now silent. “Can you swim?”
He could. That was one thing all the kids in his first group home had been taught. It had been harder for him because his CIs weren’t waterproof, so he had to try and read the lips of his very impatient instructors. But his desire to not drown was helpful. He learned mostly with intuition and his ability to float like no one else could.
“I like the ocean. I just, you know, don’t like what might be lurking under the water.”
Cosimo wrapped both arms around Miles’s waist and hooked his chin on his shoulder. “Like them?”
Miles squinted through his sunglasses and then saw them. Dorsal fins. Sharks? No. The curved body said otherwise. “Oh my god, dolphins?”
Cosimo chuckled against his ear. Miles could hear it, but he could also feel the rumble against his back. He loved the man’s laughter. “Don’t tell me they’re your favorite.”
“No.” Miles smiled softly, then lifted his hand and signed, ‘Jellyfish.’
Though he couldn’t hear it, he felt Cosimo suck in a sharp breath, then sigh it out. “Emmett taught you that one, didn’t he?”
“He did.”
After what felt like a short forever, Cosimo trailed fingers down Miles’s arm, stopping when they met his watch. “This is nice.”
“I didn’t steal it if that’s what you’re thinking,” Miles said sharply.
Cosimo sucked in a breath. “Is that what I said?”
“No, but…” He trailed off. That wasn’t really fair, he knew. But he’d been accused of it several times when he was a child, and more than once as an adult. A man like him had no business owning a Rolex. Even if it was old and slightly tarnished.
Spinning him around gently, Cosimo looked into his eyes. “It looks important.”
“It was my grandpa’s. He and my grandma took me in when I was little. After…” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “When CPS came and took me from my mom, my grandparents got custody of me. My grandpa died, and my grandma had to go into a memory care facility.” He took a long breath. “CPScame and got me again. They only let me take a backpack with my stuff in it. I don’t remember a lot, but I remember taking the watch and hiding it in the front pocket of my teddy bear. He wore overalls,” Miles said with a small grin, “so it was easy to hide. No one ever found it. At least, not when I was that little.”
Cosimo reached up and brushed hair off Miles’s forehead. “That must have been hard.”
