Chapter Text
Steve unlocked his front door, looking over his shoulder at Danny. “I’m just saying, if you hadn’t been a jerk to him, he wouldn’t have kicked us out.”
“Explain to me again why Kamekona can kick us out of our own restaurant?”
“Suitcases full of cash,” Steve said, closing the door once Danny was inside. “And he didn’t really order us so much as suggest maybe we’d like a night off.
“Felt more like an order.”
“Danny, did you really want to stay and listen to Kamekona direct the workmen on moving lights?”
Danny pulled an exaggerated frown. “No.”
“Okay, then, how about you let it go?” As Danny opened his mouth to no doubt not let it go, Steve added, “I’ll even make you dinner if you let it go.”
He considered that for a moment, then nodded. “Great,” Steve said. “Grab some beers and I’ll meet you on the lanai.”
***
Steve dropped his fork on his plate and leaned back, taking a long drink of his Longboard. The breeze off the ocean kept the lanai from being too warm, even with the grill still cooling, and the sound of waves was as soothing as ever.
He looked over at Danny to find a strange expression on his face. “What? Steve asked.
Danny shook his head. “Just wondering if I was going to have to restrain you before you went all SEAL on me and decided to go for a midnight swim.”
While there were a few ways that he wouldn’t mind Danny restraining him, some things were definitely better left unsaid. “Sorry,” Steve said. “I’m too full and too comfortable to go for a swim.”
Danny made an exaggerated point of looking around. “Funny,” he said, after a moment, “I totally expected someone to come out of the water and take away your trident for saying that.”
Steve rolled his eyes, finishing his beer before he said, “You have very strange ideas about how the Navy works, Danno.”
“Maybe,” Danny said, finishing his own beer. “I get what you mean about being comfortable, though.” He sunk into the chair like he was boneless. “It’s nice, and not something we’ll be doing a lot of after the restaurant opens.”
Given their tendency to be working until all hours, it wasn’t something they could count on doing that often now, but he had a point. “Of course, we’ll be doing a lot of this,” Steve said, as he picked up his plate. He stood, grabbing Danny’s plate in the process.
The clink of glass followed Steve into the kitchen, as Danny brought the empty beer bottles in. They moved around the kitchen with a practiced ease that somehow seemed more intimate this time.
Or maybe Steve was just projecting.
He took his time washing and drying the last dish, the silence behind him unnerving. Danny was still there--his presence was unmissable, the way he breathed and something that always seemed to be in the air around him unmistakable.
But he was being uncommonly quiet.
Steve finished drying the dish at last and turned, gripping the edge of the sink behind him, to look at Danny. His expression was...odd. Not exactly unreadable; more like there was something there that Steve was misreading, because it couldn’t be what he thought.
Clearly they’d both had a little too much beer.
“So, uh...you wanna crash on my couch?” Steve asked.
Danny’s laughter seemed out of proportion for the question. “Sure,” he said. “Your couch. Yeah. That, uh...yeah.”
Steve scratched the back of his neck, then spied the left over salad on the table on the lanai. He went outside, picked it up, and turned around, only to run right into Danny.
The salad hit the ground as Steve gripped Danny’s biceps to keep both of them from falling over. Danny’s hands went to Steve’s waist, and whatever Steve had tried to convince himself wasn’t in that look a minute ago, it was even harder to convince himself this close.
“Sorry,” Steve said, his abdomen contracting at the feel of Danny’s thumbs sliding across it just a bit. “I’ll, um...I’ll get something to clean that up.”
He let go of Danny’s arms and stepped back, but his path to the kitchen had him brushing against Danny. Just as the contact ended, Danny’s hand wrapped around Steve’s arm, pulling him back.
Before Steve could say anything, Danny pulled him into a kiss, and oh hell yeah, what he’d thought he’d seen was in every bit of that first touch of their lips, in the way Danny didn’t so much as suggest Steve bend down to kiss him as yank his head in, in the way that Danny’s cock was rather insistent where it pressed against Steve’s stomach.
“So,” Steve muttered against Danny’s lips, because he couldn’t manage to pull away enough to actually make the words entirely understandable, “not the couch?”
“Not the couch,” Danny said, pushing his whole body against Steve to get him to go in the house.
They made it up the stairs without falling, though how the hell they did would remain one of life’s mysteries. Because the only thing in the world was the way Danny felt and tasted, and the sounds he made when Steve nipped at the back of his neck.
Who the hell could notice stairs when they had all that?
Steve’s shoulder slammed hard into the doorjamb on the way into the bedroom. He barely noticed, other than to recognize that they were finally in a room with a bed.
He turned them around and shoved at Danny, who fell backwards onto the bed, a reckless grin on his face as he started removing his clothes. Steve followed suit, and quickly landed naked on the bed beside an equally naked Danny, the first touch of skin on skin practically from head to toe robbing Steve of the ability to breathe for a second.
He’d imagined this, dreamed about it, and never once let himself think he’d have it.
But no, in his dreams it had always been perfect, and this, well, his shoulder still hurt a little from running into the door, and he couldn’t quite find a way to line their bodies up so he could both kiss Danny and get their cocks together in his hand.
Which somehow just made it that much better.
Okay, it might’ve been a while, but Steve could make this good. He knew how. He planted one more long kiss on Danny’s mouth before he slid down the length of Danny’s body, kissing every millimeter of skin he could manage along the way.
Danny’s cock was a thing of beauty up close, as was the low half-hiss, half-moan he let out when Steve wrapped his hand loosely around it. Steve flicked his tongue against the underside of the tip, and Danny’s hips jerked up, bumping the head against Steve’s mouth.
Steve shifted to the side, pinning Danny’s legs and thighs under him before taking the whole head of Danny’s cock into his mouth. Danny was muttering, only snippets of words like ‘fuck’ and ‘Jesus’ and ‘Steve’ coming through in the long stream of whatever he was saying.
Danny couldn’t shut up, even in bed. What a surprise.
The taste of him was stronger now, and Steve wanted more, wanted to suck and jerk Danny until Steve tasted everything Danny had to give. But it had been a while since he’d done this with a guy, and he also wanted it to be good.
Danny was getting close, and Steve pulled off him reluctantly, wrapping his hand a little tighter around Danny’s cock, moving it faster as he watched Danny fall apart.
He’d always known Danny was beautiful, but it was a new level of gorgeous when Danny came, muscles taut, the definition of them something normally hinted at under Danny’s shirts but never quite revealed.
Steve let go of Danny’s cock at last, wrapping his hand around his own cock instead, stroking himself as he watched Danny remember how to breathe. Steve’s breath hitched as Danny’s eyes opened, dark even in the bright moonlight, watching Steve’s hand move over his cock with an intense focus.
“Let me,” Danny said, voice hoarse. He reached out, and Steve shifted his way up the bed so Danny could wrap his hand around Steve’s cock, warm and rough and the best thing Steve had ever felt in his life.
He couldn’t last, no matter how much he wanted to. He came hard, shuddering as he collapsed onto Danny, letting the steady rise and fall of Danny’s chest slowly bring him down.
Steve rolled off onto his back after a moment, eyes closed, searching for the words to make this not awkward. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t both wanted it, but now that the urgent rush of need had passed...this was Danny. His best friend, his partner--twice over, in the field and in the restaurant.
Just how badly had they fucked this up?
Steve licked his lips, turning his head, Danny’s name on the tip of his tongue, only to find Danny fast asleep.
So...not awkward then.
Or at least not now. But he’d leave tomorrow’s worries for the morning. Right now he was going to enjoy the chance to sleep, naked and sated, next to Danny.
***
The first rays of daylight streamed into the room as Steve opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, trying to remember what was different about the morning.
Movement beside him provided the answer. Steve turned his head to see Danny laying on his back, spread out like he owned half the bed. Naked.
Steve was definitely going to need coffee to deal with whatever fallout came of this.
He got up quietly, grabbed a pair of sweats and put them on outside the room before he made it to the stairs. He avoided the creaky stair as he padded down to the downstairs bathroom to wash up before heading into the kitchen.
Experience had taught him that coffee would wake Danny up. But with any luck Steve would have some coffee in him by then and might have figured out the right thing to say.
He was no closer to finding the words by the time the coffee was done brewing, though. He’d just started drinking when Danny walked in, clothes wrinkled, hair slicked back with water, the picture perfect image of a morning after.
Steve gripped his mug to keep from grabbing Danny as he made a beeline for the coffee pot. A few sips in, Danny leaned back against the counter and closed his eyes, a faint smile on his face.
“Whoever invented caffeine,” Danny said, “deserves the best afterlife ever.”
Steve laughed. “I thought you didn’t believe in the afterlife.”
Danny shrugged. “Didn’t say I do.” He took another drink of coffee. “But if ever someone deserved it, whoever invented caffeine does.”
There was no sign of awkwardness from Danny, and Steve let his shoulders slip a fraction of an inch away from his ears. “I can make some eggs,” Steve offered.
There was no mistaking how Danny tensed up at that suggestion. “I should really go home and change.” He gulped his coffee.
“Right, I should probably get ready to go in, too.”
Danny finished off his coffee. “Listen,” he said, not quite meeting Steve’s eyes, “about last night….”
Steve waved a hand. “Don’t worry,” he said, forcing an airiness into his tone that was in direct opposition to the heavy weight in his stomach.
“Don’t worry?”
Danny’s tone was off, that awkwardness Steve had been dreading finally showing itself. “It doesn’t have to be a thing,” Steve said.
“A thing?”
“Yeah.” A voice in his head that somehow managed to sound like Mary told him to shut the hell up, but he ignored it. “I mean, it happens, right?”
He chanced a look at Danny, his face unreadable. “Right,” Danny said at last, placing his mug in the kitchen with a little more care than it probably warranted. “It happens,” he said, nodding.
“Yup, so we don’t really need to talk about it.”
Danny shook his head. “Apparently there’s nothing to talk about,” he said, his tone still a little odd. He pushed past Steve, managing somehow not to quite make any contact. “I’ll see you at HQ,” Danny said over his shoulder.
Danny’s name was on the tip of Steve’s tongue, to call him back and figure out what had just happened. He’d said what he thought Danny was leading up to before Danny had the chance, and yet Danny didn’t seem relieved, for all that he’d acted like he was fine.
Maybe he wanted to talk more, to go in depth on how this wouldn’t mess with their partnerships, with their friendship--Danny was generally the ‘talk it out until you die’ type. Maybe that was all it was.
If things were weird when they got to work, then Steve would bring it up and give Danny the chance to talk all he wanted.
***
Steve didn’t make it all the way to his office before Danny was heading him off. “Case,” Danny said, tossing the keys to the Camaro to Steve.
He caught them automatically, frowning as Danny walked past him like it was any other day. Danny turned when he was a few yards away and looked at Steve. “You coming?”
So much for things being awkward.
***
“The Governor and God, huh?”
“What’s that?”
“The woman,” Danny said. “She was flirting with you. Either that, or she was impressed for some ridiculous reason. Or,” he added, hand landing on Steve’s shoulder, “or you have hooked up with her. Which I know is the case here. You don’t have to answer. You can just grunt once if I’m right, okay?”
“Oh, God,” Steve said, with the most annoyed tone he could muster. Because the last thing he needed was Danny quizzing him about an old fling when Steve had spent the last week trying to forget about his recent fling with Danny. “It was a long time ago, okay? It was right after I got my trident. It was before Catherine. So it’s history. It’s ancient history.”
“You don’t have to justify anything to me,” Danny said.
“I’m not justifying. I’m not justifying. I‘m telling you, I’m just saying.”
There was a slight pause before Danny said, his voice tight, “Let me ask you a question. Did you know that she was gonna be on the island?”
“No, Danny, I did not know she was on the island.”
“Okay, well, look, in my experience, one-night stands can--”
Oh no, Danny was the last person Steve wanted to talk one-night stands with right now. He headed that off by admitting it was a little more.
But Danny wasn’t to be deterred. “The point is this, okay? This agent, this woman, she can help you solve your friend’s murder, and then the two of you can maybe get into some grown folks’ business, right?”
Okay, sure, they’d agreed what happened between them wasn’t a thing, but that was a far cry from Danny all but pushing him into someone else’s bed. “Get in the car, Danny.”
“Hold on,” Danny said. “I need you to stop living like a monk, okay?”
Really? Really? If he needed that so badly maybe he shouldn’t have decided to forget about the two of them having sex. “Danny, get in the car.”
“I’m gonna get you an orange robe, I’m gonna make you wear it to work every day.”
“I don’t live like a monk, all right?” Which Danny, of all people, should know.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
“How many dates you been on since you broke up with Lynn?”
Does sleeping with you count? “Please get in the car.”
Danny didn’t get in the car. “Zero. Zero. Zero.”
“Oh, yeah?” Steve said, getting in the car himself. “Look who’s counting.” Because Danny was clearly paying a lot of attention to Steve’s love life.
“What am I counting?” Danny asked. “There’s nothing to count. Zero and zero is zero. There’s no math.”
Clearly. Certainly not the two of them getting into some ‘grown folks’ business’ as Danny put it. “Forget it, okay?”
Steve locked the door as he shut the door on Danny still rambling about math. “Seriously?” Danny said as he leaned down to look in the window. “You’re a child.”
Steve rolled the passenger window down half an inch. “Are you gonna stop with this?”
“I’m just saying--”
Steve rolled the window up and started the car. Danny knocked on the window, and after a second Steve sighed and unlocked the door.
Danny got in, but he remained silent as Steve drove off. Which suited Steve fine, even if it gave him far too much time to wonder whether Danny was pushing him into someone else’s bed to move them past what happened, or if what happened was just because Danny felt sorry for Steve for being alone.
He wasn’t about to ask.
***
Steve woke up slowly, smelling Danny before he could even feel him. He’d never forget that smell, or the way Danny radiated heat like the sun, or how soft the hair was that covered his body, and yet it was nothing compared to the softness of the hair on Danny’s head as it slipped through Steve’s fingers.
“Mmm,” Danny said, leaning into Steve’s touch. “You keep petting me like that and I’m going to be expecting a bowl of cream. Or maybe some tuna.”
Steve laughed softly, running his hand down Danny’s abdomen. “You’re not a cat,” Steve said. “Well...a lion, maybe.”
“Well thank you very much for that confidence boost, babe,” Danny said, turning onto his side and meeting Steve’s eyes. “But I need you to do something for me, okay?”
“Anything.”
“Focus, Steve. Pay attention. Don’t lose yourself. Remember the mission. And snap out of it.”
Steve came around to the unnatural silence of the cocoon. He’d drifted off into his own head, exactly what they wanted. If he forgot where he was, what he was there for, they might get what they need.
He wasn’t about to give Greer and her buddies the satisfaction.
He concentrated, focusing on directing his own thoughts and memories, and avoiding letting himself drift.
***
“Uncle Steve!”
Steve bent down just enough to catch Charlie as he launched himself into Steve’s arms. Over Charlie’s shoulder, Grace was heading his way, Danny close behind as he rounded the Camaro.
Charlie was a warm, solid weight in Steve’s arms. He smelled like soda, which, judging by the slightly sticky feel of his hands on Steve’s back, was probably spilled in the car.
He put Charlie down and pulled Grace into a hug, smelling the strawberry and coconut of her shampoo. An odd combination, but one that was always unique to Grace.
“The barbeque is just starting to warm up,” Steve said to the kids. “If you hurry you’ll have time for a swim.”
They ran into the house, leaving Steve alone with Danny. “Hey,” Danny said, as he reached Steve. “What are you doing?”
“Huh?” Steve asked, momentarily mesmerized by how brightly blue Danny’s eyes were in the sun. “I’m standing here with you.”
“No, you’re not,” Danny said. “You’re in the cocoon, Steve. Focus. We need you back in one piece--mentally as well as physically.”
Just like that, the dark silence was back again, a never ending void with no sound but the beat of his own heart, and no smell other than the faint tinge of fear that he knew he couldn’t smell, but there it seemed to be all the same.
Still, he could manage. Danny was counting on it.
***
Steve coughed, waving his hand to try to get some of the smoke and dust to go away. It wasn’t the first time a building had fallen down around his and Danny’s heads, but at least this time Danny didn’t have a huge piece of rebar sticking out of him, so that was a step up.
“I think there’s some light up there,” Steve said, pointing ahead, his raspy voice sounding as scratchy as it felt.
Danny’s hand, warm and instantly comforting on Steve’s arm stopped Steve before he could go any further and forced him to turn around. “Hey,” Danny said, his hand on Steve’s cheek, making the dirt and dust scrap Steve’s skin a little, but it was worth it. “What did I tell you?” Danny said, searching Steve’s eyes.
“Not to blow anything up?”
“No, Steve, think. What do I keep telling you?”
“That I’m going to get you killed?”
Danny’s hand pulled away and landed a little harder, not a lot of force behind the slap, but enough that Steve’s cheek stung. “What was that for?” Steve asked.
“You’re not here, Steve. You’re still in that damn tank. Focus, dammit. I’m not losing you.”
The black silence returned, but Steve didn’t want it. He would go crazy if he kept staring into it. He had to lose himself just enough to survive, without losing himself completely.
As long as he kept losing himself in dreams of Danny, he’d be fine.
***
He was drowning, and there was nothing he would be able to do about it. He couldn’t get free, and Danny wasn’t going to--
A loud crack sounded above the water, and suddenly Steve was free. He struggled to the surface, and there was Danny, pulling him to safety, as always.
But it wasn’t real. None of it--his success in planting false intel, his escape attempt, it was all just another hallucination.
“Hey, you okay?”
Danny’s hands were on Steve’s knees, which...hurt. His knees hurt. In fact, his whole body felt like he’d been hit by a truck.
Pain was the one thing his hallucinations had lacked.
Danny’s fingers were gentle on Steve’s chin, but it still made the bruise there hurt. “Look at me,” Danny said. “Look at me. You all right?”
He was real. The mission had been a success, and Danny was there, not a hallucination. Real.
“What’s my name, huh?” Danny asked.
A ridiculous question that didn’t make any sense--someone could throw Steve’s damn brain in a blender he’d still know Danny anywhere.
“What’s my name?”
Right. He was waiting for an answer. “Danny,” Steve said, his throat killing him just to get the word out.
But pain was real, and he’d embrace it, as always.
“Good,” Danny said. “How long have we known each other?”
Forever. It wasn’t true, but it felt like it was. “Fifty years.”
“That’s not funny,” Danny said.
His tone was just right, so Danny, so real, just like the pain. “Feels like fifty years,” Steve said, just to get more of that tone.
“That’s not funny,” Danny said again. “I’m trying to be serious here.”
So was Steve, in a way, but if Danny wasn’t getting that, then all the better. “It’s gonna take more than a little brain scrub to make me forget you, pal. Okay?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Things that Steve didn’t need to be explaining here and now. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Danny said, and God something was clearly wrong with Steve because he loved that tone. “Sarcasm is not ‘nothing.’ It’s actually Greek for ‘tearing flesh.’’’
“Not being sarcastic.”
“You’re not being genuine. You certainly didn’t say it with any sort of affection towards me.”
He had all the affection in the world, but how much affection was something Danny didn’t need to know. “I got an idea,” Steve said. “Why don’t you throw me back in there until I actually do forget you.”
“Why don’t I let you drown next time? How about that?”
God, Steve could survive never seeing Danny naked again, never being pressed skin to skin, as long as he got to keep this.
Still, he had to make sure Danny knew some of it, at least. “Hey,” he said, waiting until Danny met his eyes before saying, “Thank you.”
Danny didn’t look impressed. “Come on,” Steve said, “I love y--”
The admission was lost under Danny’s, “You’re welcome,” which, by design or by accident, was for the best.
“You look ridiculous, by the way,” Danny said, bringing things back to normal.
Steve had to agree.
***
The sky was getting light by the time Danny pulled the Camaro up to Steve’s house and killed the engine. “Mind if I crash on your couch?” Danny asked, then yawned. “I think if I try to drive one more mile I’ll end up in the Pacific.”
“I could have driven,” Steve said, as he tried to open the door.
“You can’t even get the door open,” Danny said, reaching across Steve to pull on the handle.
Steve pushed the door open and put his feet on the ground, but gravity seemed odd now that his adrenaline rush had gone, and his feet were clumsy as he tried to stand.
“Come on,” Danny said, putting an arm around Steve’s waist that gave him no choice but to leave his arm around Danny’s shoulder.
Danny unlocked and opened the front door, shepherding Steve inside, pausing only to lock the door before guiding Steve to the stairs. “Come on, let’s get you upstairs and then I’m going to come crash on the couch.”
“You can use the spare room, you know,” Steve said. “You have to be used to the ocean by now.”
“Yeah, fine, spare room,” Danny said. “As soon as you’re in bed.”
If Danny felt any apprehension about being in a room where the two of them had sex days before, he didn’t show it. Then again, Steve was so tired he might have just missed it.
“You want a shower first?” Danny asked.
Water wasn’t exactly Steve’s favorite thing at the moment, but he was going to have to get past that, because he wasn’t giving up the ocean. Plus, he still smelled like that odd combination of chemicals and water from the tank, and he needed that gone. Now.
“Yeah,” Steve said, swaying a little, but managing to catch himself before he fell. “Yeah, I’ll just take a quick shower and then sleep. The bed in the spare room is made up,” he said as he stumbled off to the shower.
He smelled like his own soap and shampoo when he emerged, towel wrapped around his waist, to find Danny sitting on the bed. “Sorry,” Steve said, scrubbing his hair with a hand towel. “I thought you’d be passed out in the spare room by now.”
“You were a little unsteady and a lot tired,” Danny said. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t hear any loud thuds.”
Danny’s eyes dropped down to Steve’s chest and lower, before hastily moving back to Steve’s face. “Anyway,” Danny said, standing up, “now that you’re out safely, I’m going to go crash.”
“Night, Danno,” Steve said softly, even though the sun was up.
“Night.”
***
Steve made his way through the ship, rounding corners carefully, but there was no one. No sound, no nothing--it was like a ghost ship. Around the sixth corner, he found the door that led to the tank.
He opened it carefully, gun first, but all was silent inside. A body lay still in the middle of the tank, bobbing gently with the movement of the water.
“Danny!” Steve ran to the tank and jumped in, pulling Danny to the side and then out. There was no pulse, and despite the relative warmth of the water, Danny’s skin was cool and rigid.
“No!”
“Hey, Steve.”
Danny’s voice was faint, but firm, calling Steve out of his nightmare and into the light. “Hey, you with me now?” Danny asked, standing over the bed.
Steve scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, sorry,” he said, sinking back into his pillow, his muscles even more sore now than when he’d gone to bed. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s okay,” he said, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. Something in his tone, in his eyes, seemed like it should make sense, but it took a minute to work out.
He’d known the nightmares were coming and stayed on purpose.
It shouldn’t have made Steve feel safe. And yet….
“You think you can get back to sleep?” Danny asked.
Steve nodded, eyes slipping closed. “Yeah, I think so.”
The bed moved, and Steve reached out, his hand landing on Danny’s knee. “Can you stay?” Steve asked. “Just for a minute.”
“Yeah,” Danny said, and the bed moved some more, until Danny’s voice came from somewhere near the headboard. “I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”
Stee listened to the sound of Danny breathing, felt the warmth beside him, and that unmistakable scent, before he fell asleep.
***
The sun was on its way to the ocean by the time Steve woke without a nightmare. Danny was sitting on top of the covers, propped up by a pillow against the headboard.
The position looked uncomfortable, but Danny didn’t seem to mind. He was fast asleep, mouth hanging open just enough for Steve to get a hint of pink tongue inside.
He had to be exhausted. There’d been two more nightmares, and Danny had been right there for them, coaxing Steve back to sleep quickly.
He was so tempting in the morning, soft and rumpled, his hair a mess. Steve knew what it felt like to run his hands through that hair, to press himself hard against that body….
Way too tempting.
Steve got up, much more steady than he had been before. He went downstairs in search of coffee and food.
As expected, Danny appeared within two minutes of the coffee maker starting up. “Hey,” Steve said, taking in the rumpled clothes and mussed hair, so reminiscent of the night they’d slept together that it left an ache somewhere inside.
“Hey,” Danny said, heading for the coffee. He grabbed a mug and pulled the pot out, letting the coffee drip straight into the mug as he filled it from the pot at the same time.
When it was full, he put the pot back, added an ice cube from the freezer, then took a long drink.
“Better now?” Steve asked, not bothering to hid his amusement.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Steve cleared his throat. “Danny...thanks.”
Danny raised his eyebrows as he took a drink. “For what?”
“Being here last night. It...it helped.”
“You’re welcome,” Danny said, something a lot like fear in his eyes. Then the realization hit out of nowhere--Billy Selway.
Maybe Steve wasn’t the only one who needed to be close by last night. You see your best friend drown as a kid, you’re not going to easily get over seeing your best friend almost drowned as an adult.
“Are you okay?” Danny asked.
Steve gave the question the consideration it deserved. “I will be,” he said, turning to the fridge. “You want something to eat?”
“Sure.”
***