I felt simultaneous relief and panic. Six more weeks of this careful dance around each other.
"She'll stay here," I said before fully processing the decision. "Until it's habitable."
The supervisor nodded and left. Serena turned to me, expression unreadable.
"Brad, I can find somewhere else—"
"Where exactly? Every landlord in town is bleeding storm victims dry." My bad knee throbbed; I shifted my weight, trying not to show it. She noticed anyway—she always noticed. "Besides, you leave now and Finn will—"
"Just Finn?"
The question sliced through my defenses. She stood there in my sweatshirt, waiting for me to be brave enough to tell the truth.
Before I could find the words—or the courage—Finn rocketed into Serena, arms locking around her waist like he could anchor her there.
"You're staying! Dad said so! You're staying!"
She held him close, her eyes finding mine over his head—soft and sad and full of something I couldn't name but felt in my bones.
"Yeah, warrior," she whispered. "Looks like I'm staying."
That evening, we fell into new roles without explicitly discussing them. Serena cooked dinner—she'd taken over when my knee made standing painful—while I helped Finn with homework. We orbited each other like binary stars, gravitationally bound but never touching, the two feet between us might as well have been an ocean.
My knee screamed every time I shifted, but I'd chew glass before admitting it.
Theo burst through the door without knocking, snow in his hair and chaos in his wake. He stopped mid-stride, scanning our domestic tableau with the expression of a cat who'd discovered an unguarded fish tank.
"Jesus, the tension in here could power half of Colorado." He dumped grocery bags on the counter with theatrical flair. "I brought whiskey, frozen pizzas, and hot gossip. Patricia's been asking about you, Brad. Says you're looking 'deliciously brooding' these days."
Serena's knife came down hard enough to crack the cutting board.
"Pass," I said.
"She's gorgeous, owns three gyms, and actually understands offside rules—"
"I said pass."
"Fascinating." Theo's grin turned predatory. "Absolutely fascinating." He pivoted to Serena like a heat-seeking missile. "Maria sent wine. Said you'd need it 'living with those Wilder boys and their emotional constipation.'"
"Maria's never even met—"
"We've been texting. Lovely woman. We're doing tequila shots once the roads clear."
"You and Maria?" Serena looked horrified. "That's a terrible idea."
"Or brilliant. We'll see." He studied the careful distance between Serena and me. "Everything okay here? You both seem... tense."
"Everything's fine," we said in unison.
"Right. Fine. That's why you're standing exactly six feet apart like there's a force field between you."
"Theo," I warned.
"I'm just saying, if you need someone to watch Finn for a few hours so you can... talk through this tension..."
"We don't need—"
"Actually," Serena interrupted, "I need to get some things from my cabin. Check on the damage."
