It happened on a Thursday.
Not a special day. Not a stormy night or a drunken mistake. Just a slow, gray afternoon thick with humidity and too many close calls.
Eli had been in the garage for most of it, organizing boxes and pretending to clean while his body buzzed from sleeplessness and restraint. The house was quiet. His dad was gone again. Some zoning meeting, probably. And Dominic was home. Upstairs. Avoiding him.
But not completely.
Because Eli had caught the glances.
At breakfast, when their hands brushed near the coffee pot. When Eli came down the stairs shirtless and Dominic’s eyes tracked a little too long over his stomach. The way he’d said Eli’s name that morning—quiet, like it meant something.
Like maybe he’d finally stopped trying to lie to himself.
Eli wiped the sweat from his neck and tossed the rag onto the workbench. He was done waiting.
***
He found Dominic in the study.
The door was half-open. Dominic sat at the desk, back to him, reading over floor plans on his la
