It resonated in a way I wasn’t ready for—that she’d seen me this way and put it down in graphite. Every line was proof she carried me with her, even when I wasn’t there. I didn’t know what to do with the weight of that, only that it shook me all the way through.
Instead, I kept it where it was and let my thumb rest on the margin, careful not to smudge.
“You drew me before?” I asked, not teasing, not fishing. Just—curious. Starved.
Her mouth curved. “Maybe once.” Pause. “Twice.”
“More than twice,” I guessed, because the spiral on the binding wasn’t new, and the graphite on her fingers looked permanent. “You keep me in here?”
“It’s easier than keeping you out,” she said, so quiet I almost missed it.
I blew out a breath that emptied everything I’d been holding. “You can keep me however you need.”
She huffed something that was almost a laugh, maybe to keep herself from doing anything else.
We went quiet again, the good kind. The kind that built something instead of breaking it.
“Things are moving fast with us,” she said softly.
I tightened my grip on her hand. “But this time, we don’t let anyone tear us apart. No one gets between us.”
“Agreed.” Her mouth curved into a grin. “How was practice?”
“Loud,” I said. “Coach was in a mood. Edge work until we wanted to puke. The guys went at each other as if it were playoffs, and coach finally barked at us to dial it back.”
Her mouth quirked. “And did you?”
“Not really.” I grinned.
She liked that more than she let on. I could tell by the way she leaned into me.
“I talked to Avery today,” she said after a beat. “At lunch.”
“What about?”
“Her and Jax. And everything else.” A spark lit her eyes, sly. “Avery’s going to stand up to Chase. Jax is going to talk to him too.”
“He better,” I groaned. “It’s a blow-up waiting to happen. At least if he’s straight about it, there’s a chance they’ll get through it.”
Her smile pulled to the side. “You all have your codes.”
“We do,” I admitted. “Some of them are worth something.”
She tipped her head. “You going to talk to the guys about… us?”
“No.” It was too easy to answer. “Not yet. My friends wouldn’t say anything, but Theo could let it slip to Tori without thinking. And if she knows, Elise knows. I’m not giving her that.”
Mila’s mouth tightened. “Yeah. Elise would have a huge issue with us.”
“We need to figure out what her angle is first. Until then, I’m not giving her anything she could use to get at you.”
A car rolled by out front, tires whispering over the curb. We both stilled the way you do when you’re listening for something particular. The headlights kept going, throwing shadows across the ceiling. It wasn’t her mom, not yet.
“How long?” I murmured.
“I don’t know. Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen.”
“Okay.” I sat forward, elbows on my knees, hands clasped, head hanging for a second while the reality of leaving this room in under a quarter hour dug its thumb under my ribs. “Then we use it.”
