He exhales hard.
"She challenges me. She doesn’t just nod and smile. She calls me out. She sees through the charm, the sarcasm, the armor. She sees me. And instead of running… she leans in."
His eyes shut tight.
"I could love this woman for the rest of my life and never get bored. Never want for anything else."
A pause.
"A hell of a thing to feel about someone you’ve never even kissed."
The irony of it all—how deeply he feels for her without ever tasting her lips—only makes him ache more. The restraint has been killing him. The hesitation. The distance she puts between them every time they get close. But he gets it. Claire is a ghost neither of them knows how to stop mourning.
But she’s not the woman who’s been chasing Jaqueline through the backyard.
Sara is.
And that has to mean something.
"I have to ask her to stay," he whispers to the dark. "But not like it’s a favor. Not like it’s something I need from her."
His brows pull together.
"No... I need to show her it’s a choice. Her choice. Not guilt. Not obligation. I don’t want her to stay because of Jaqueline. I want her to stay because of me. Because she wants this. Wants us."
He rolls to his side, eyes heavy but mind wide awake.
“I have to figure out how to tell her that… without losing everything in the process.”
Jaxon and Jaqueline are sitting on the dock, watching the water lap quietly at the posts. He’s explaining how the tide pulls at the sand, reshapes it over time. How it’s both destruction and creation all at once. His voice is calm, but his thoughts are anything but.
Footsteps echo along the dock. Steady. Measured.
He doesn’t look up—until they stop halfway down.
And when he does… he forgets how to breathe.
Claire.
She’s just standing there, like she never left. Eyes steady. Smile soft. She looks over his shoulder, back toward the house.
When he glances at the back deck, Sara is coming out. She is walking toward them, slow and hesitant. The breeze catches her hair. The sun halos around her.
He turns back. Claire’s gaze has shifted.
To Jaqueline.
Then to Sara.
Then to him.
No words. Just eyes that say everything.
Claire’s smile is bittersweet—like she sees what this is. What it could be. What it already is.
And in a blink… she’s gone.
Jaxon’s eyes fly open. He bolts upright in bed, sweat slick across his head, heart thundering in his chest.
