Leo gave a single quiet huff, as if to file an official note, then settled again.
They broke for air and didn’t go far. Foreheads nearly touched. Erin’s chest rose against Jamie’s and it felt like the only steady thing in the world.
“I keep hearing you say you can’t,” Erin whispered. “It’s the only thing that’s been in my head.”
“When I said it,” Jamie said, “I meant I couldn’t do casual. I couldn’t risk wrecking us for a moment. I did a horrible job saying that.”
Erin’s mouth tipped at one corner, the smallest sign of relief. “Yes.”
“I’m better on second drafts,” Jamie said. “Usually.”
Erin searched her face like she was checking the truth of it. Her thumb brushed Jamie’s jaw once, a soft stroke that made Jamie’s knees feel unreliable.
“I need slow,” Erin said. “I need to keep my job and my head. I can’t be a secret you use and then shrug off in the daylight.”
“You won’t be,” Jamie said. “No disappearing. No pretending you’re a stranger when it’s convenient. If work gets in the way, we name it and navigate it. If you need pause, you say it. If I need to step back for an hour to file a story, I say that too. I can’t promise perfection. I can promise honesty.”
Erin nodded once, like she was locking that in place. Her hand slid fromJamie’s jaw to the open collar of her shirt, lingering where damp hair met warm skin. “You’re shaking.”
“I’m standing very close to you,” Jamie said. “And I’m terrified and happy and wet and freezing.”
Erin let out a breath that sounded almost like a laugh. “Come here.”
She tugged Jamie forward by the front of her shirt and kissed her again, a little rougher now, like she’d made up her mind. Jamie opened to it, answered with a low sound she didn’t know she could make. Erin angled them sideways and they edged onto the couch, still tangled. The kiss went hot and unhurried at the same time, a pull that said yes without pretending there weren’t a hundred reasons to be careful.
Jamie’s hand slipped under the hem of Erin’s hoodie to the warm skin at her waist. Erin sucked in a breath and pressed closer. Jamie’s thumb traced a slow line there, a question. Erin’s fingers tightened in Jamie’s hair. She answered by deepening the kiss, mouth coaxing, tongue teasing, a patient heat that made Jamie feel both grounded and undone. She tasted sugar on Erin’s lip and chased it, smiling into the kiss when Erin did too.
When Jamie finally forced herself to breathe, she didn’t go far. She dropped a line of soft kisses along Erin’s jaw and down to the curve where throat met collarbone. Erin’s pulse jumped under her mouth. She lingered there, open-mouthed for a second, feeling the thrum against her lower lip, then pulled back before the moment tipped into a place they couldn’t control.
Erin’s eyes were dark and blown wide. She looked at Jamie like the room had shifted. Maybe it had.
“Hi,” Jamie whispered, a little dazed.
“Hi,” Erin said, the word coming out warm and wrecked.
They stayed close, breathing the same air, until their heartbeats came down. Leo climbed onto the cushion beside them and pressed in like a polite chaperone. It forced a small gap between their hips. That was probably good. Slow had to mean something.
Jamie brushed a damp strand of hair back from Erin’s forehead. “I saw the cannoli box,” she said. “How was it?”
“I didn’t taste it,” Erin said. “That’s a first. Mondays are usually sacred.”
“We can fix next Monday,” Jamie said.
Erin’s mouth softened. “And this Monday?”
“This Monday I’d like to sit here with you and not pretend this isn’t happening,” Jamie said. “I’d like to be honest and a little stupid about you. I’d like to keep kissing you, but I’ll follow your lead.”
Erin swallowed and nodded. “Stay. Just for a while.”
“Okay.”
Jamie slid back enough to toe off her socks and tuck her feet under her. Erin folded one leg beneath her too. Leo sighed, heavy and satisfied, and dropped his chin on Jamie’s thigh like he’d assigned himself guard duty.
They didn’t fix anything in the next few minutes. They didn’t try to. The apartment hummed soft. Rain tapped at the window. Somewhere in the building a neighbor laughed, then a cabinet closed. It all felt very far away.
Erin reached for the bakery box and closed the lid, like saving something for later. She set her palm back on Jamie’s chest, right over her heart, a question without words. Jamie covered it with her own and held there.
“I meant what I said,” Jamie murmured. “I’m scared. I want you anyway.”
