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“Just some twat in a car who probably thought it was hilarious to drive into the puddle I was walking past.”
Shiloh swore quietly under his breath with hot rage that made Dom’s heart pound because, although Shiloh would never love him the way he wanted to be loved, he still cared about Dom more than anyone they knew.
“Want to come over? Dad’s been making a fuss about his guitar being out of tune. And he made that chicken and dumplings thing you love so much.”
Dom groaned loudly. He’d seen the dish on some American film when they were kids, and Dom had developed a quiet obsession. His parents told him to get over it because to his dad, if it wasn’t gnocchi, it didn’t count as a dumpling. But Benjamin had quietly searched down a recipe, then perfected it.
He’d surprised Dom on his birthday when he was fourteen, and ever since, he used it as a bribery tool when he needed a favor.
And usually, that favor was tuning his guitar.
Dom had been confused, of course, when he first met Shiloh and he told him that his dad was a musician.
“But…he can’t hear anything,” Dom had argued. “How can he play?”
Shiloh had just rolled his eyes and said you didn’t need to hear music to enjoy it—which sounded ridiculous. But Shiloh invited him over so his dad could show him what it was like.
Dom was nervous, but Benjamin beckoned him over, then had Dom lay his hand on the side whilst he began to strum. Dom had been half expecting something close to cat shrieking sounds, but the man’s fingers had danced over the strings of his Spanish guitar, the scales cascading like water along a rushing stream. He felt the way the notes rose and fell in vibrations under his fingers, and in that moment, he understood.
‘I want to learn too,’ Dom had signed to Benjamin a few weeks later—one of the first proper sentences he’d managed in BSL.
Benjamin had taken the request just as seriously as when Dom had asked to learn how to collect eggs, and how much to water the squash, and how to harvest honey without being attacked by a swarm. So really, there was very little Dom would ever say no to whenever Benjamin asked.
Dom also didn’t need to be bribed with chicken and dumplings, but it did put a bit of a spring in his step as he hurried through his shower. When he was mostly dry, he threw on a warm jumper and some jeans and began the walk up the hill.
They always called the Evanses’ farm ‘the hill’, though it wasn’t really much of one. It was just tall enough to stand out a bit and make it easy to spot from the road. Of course, they were also liberal with the word farm since it wasn’t anything more than a small patch of land that only grew enough vegetables for the local market stall.
But they had always gotten by with what they had.
It was a brisk walk over, but Dom found he rather needed it after his long day. He knew his mood was because how deeply in love with Shiloh he’d always been and how hopeless it was. And he supposed it would have been a lot easier if Shiloh had been the sort of person to notice years ago and just rejected him to his face.
Dom had always been pragmatic, so he would have been able to move on. But Shiloh had always stayed close, had always gone out of his way to make Dom feel like he was worth something, and that little spark of hope remained.
The horrible little voice in his head tortured him withmaybe.Maybethere was a chance.MaybeShiloh hadn’t said anything over the years because he was just too afraid of ruining what they had.Maybehe just didn’t know that Dom was arse over tit mad for him and would be until the day he died.
The last one was the least likely, though it would have been the kindest one of all.
Dom had just never been a subtle person, try as he might. He was bumbling and awkward and wore his heart on his sleeve. He knew the way he looked at Shiloh, the way he trailed after him like a lost puppy, like he couldn’t breathe without talking to him at least once a day. And there was no way in hell Shiloh didn’t already know.
He was just too kind to break Dom’s heart, and Dom wasn’t brave enough to ask Shiloh to do exactly that.
Tapping his fingers on his thigh in a little pattern, Dom picked up speed. The crisp autumn air made the tips of his ears cold where his wet hair rested against them, and he fought the urge to rub at them as he climbed the steps to the Evanses’ front door and rang the bell.
There was never any sound. Benjamin had rigged it so it only flashed the lights, which worked for everyone. Dom only knew when someone was coming by the heavy footfalls on the wood floors just beyond the door.
The one thing he’d quickly learned about a Deaf house was that it wasn’t quiet. At all. Shiloh had grown up used to it, but Dom had been overwhelmed by the sheer volume ofeverything. They stomped to get each other’s attention, and knocked on the walls, and the TV was always at top volume. Benjamin would sometimes turn on the hoover or the blender and forget about it, and whenever Dom stayed over, he’d wake with the sun as Benjamin got to work on morning chores, right outside Shiloh’s window.
Shoving his hands into his pockets, he grinned when the door cracked open, and Shiloh’s face appeared. He raked his gaze up and down Dom’s body, then scoffed and pulled him inside. “You’re frozen.”
“Nah. Just had a quick shower is all, and the wind got cold.” He fluffed his hair, which was still wet but a little stiff at the ends, and batted Shiloh’s hand away when he tried to touch his cheeks. “I’m not going to catch hypothermia from a four-minute walk, mate.”
Shiloh scoffed again, then backed up. “Weren’t you going to catch it from a puddle outside?”
Dom waved him off. “Completely different. Anyway”—he gave Shiloh’s work clothes a once over—“aren’t you done for the night?”
“I’m just fixing part of the fencing round the girls’ coop,” he said. “Dad’s in the kitchen. You should eat before he gets you going on his guitar.” Shiloh took another step toward the back door, then froze. “When you’re done, I, erm…I have something to show you.”
Dom’s brows lifted. “Oh yeah?”
