“But?” I prodded.
“But ... it’s kind of complicated.” He met my eyes then, and the flirty veneer slipped. “I’m not exactly what his mom would’ve chosen for a sibling. I think he’s still trying to figure out what that means and where I fit in his life.”
I didn’t press, though I desperately wanted to pry. Instead, I swiped a fry through ketchup and popped it into my mouth.
“You’ve got good instincts,” I said quietly. “You’ll figure it out.”
He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Then he licked his lower lip, letting his gaze drag up my front. “I’ve got good taste.”
My heart did a slow, treacherous roll.
We finished the meal with lighter talk—music, food, the fact that I devoured my double cheeseburger with impressive speed. He paid without asking, tipping generously, and when we stepped out into the cool afternoon air, his hand found mine.
Not all the way. Just his pinkie brushing mine. I let my fingers drift toward his until they linked.
We didn’t speak on the walk back. Not about what we were. Not about what it meant that we hadn’t corrected anyone when they smiled in our direction and nodded greetings as they noticed our clasped hands. That we hadn’t defined anything at all.
But I felt it.
The shift.
Whatever had been brewing between us was no longer contained by four walls and a cup of morning coffee.
This was the part where pretend started to fray ... and I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to stitch it back together.
TWENTY-ONE
SELENE
By the timewe got back, the sun had dipped low enough that the living room glowed with that soft late-afternoon light—the kind that made everything feel a little slower, a little more golden around the edges. I dropped my keys in the bowl by the door and slipped off my shoes, trying to ignore how comfortable it all felt.
Austin followed behind me, pausing just inside the entryway. I could feel his gaze on my back before I turned. His hoodie was pushed up to his elbows, the worn fabric soft around his forearms, and his hair had gone tousled from the wind. He looked like he belonged here, and that was the part that kept knocking me off balance.
It wasn’t just that he was hot, or funny, or that we’d slept together again. It was that I liked him here. I liked the way he moved through the house like it was familiar now. Like the space bent around him instead of the other way around.
I busied myself putting the kettle on, more for something to do than out of need. He stepped into the kitchen behind me and leaned a hip against the counter, watching me with that crooked smile that always made my stomach dip.
“I thought you had things to do today,” I said, softer this time, more question than tease. “An actual life to get back to.”
Austin shrugged. “I ran a couple errands this morning while you worked. But afterward?” His voice dropped an octave. “I guess I just didn’t feel like being anywhere else.”
He said it so simply. No grand gesture. No practiced charm. Just truth, plain and unvarnished.
“You spent the majority of a Saturday with me,” I murmured, more to myself than to him. “That’s commitment.”
“You fed me. Let me touch your boobs. Let me help sort through haunted artifacts.” His grin was wide. “It was basically a dream date.”
I barked a laugh and swatted him, but the warmth he stirred didn’t fade. If anything, it made my chest go gooey.
He was younger than me—eight years, to be exact—and in most ways, I felt it. He moved with a kind of unbothered energy that hadn’t belonged to me in a long time. At least, not since Winnie was born. Not since the person I used to be slipped into the background beneath sticky fingers and grocery lists and late-night fevers.
But Austin made me feel something I hadn’t expected.
Alive.
It was there in the way he teased me. In the way he noticed when I was tired and handed me tea without a word. In the way he looked at me like I wasn’t just surviving womanhood and motherhood and personhood—I was still desirable, stillfun. His eyes settled on me like I was still capable of being more than someone’s caretaker.
Maybe that was what they meant byspring awakening. Ironic I seemed to be feeling it as autumn wrapped its cool arms around us.
