"That was nice," Dalla says, her arm linked through mine. "I'm glad you got to meet everyone."
"Your family is..."
"Insane?"
"I was going to say wonderful."
She laughs. "Same thing, really."
We walk in silence for a moment.
My mind keeps drifting back to the camera in the woods, the conversation with Runes, the threats we still don't understand.
But I push it away.
Right now, in this moment, I want to just be here with her.
"Thank you," I say quietly.
"For what?"
"For sharing them with me. Your family." I struggle to find the words. "I've never had that. A family that gathers for dinner and tells embarrassing stories and argues about nothing. It was... nice."
She stops walking, turning to face me. In the starlight, her eyes are impossibly blue.
"You have it now," she says simply. "If you want it."
My chest tightens. "Dalla..."
"I mean it. My family already loves you. Tindra wants to adopt you. My mom keeps asking when you're going to call her by her first name. Even my dad—" She laughs. "Okay, my dad is still terrifying. But he respects you. I can tell."
"And you?"
The question comes out before I can stop it.
She goes still, her breath catching. "What about me?"
"Do you...like what we have going on?" I can't finish the sentence. Can't put into words what I'm asking, what I'm terrified to hear the answer to.
She reaches up and cups my face in her hands. "I can see myself falling in love with you if you’re not careful, RJ."
The world stops.
"I know it might be fast for me to say that, but I’m being honest," she continues, words tumbling out. "I know we've only known each other a couple weeks. But I've never felt like this about anyone. And I don't want to pretend I don't, just because it's scary or complicated or?—"
I kiss her.
I kiss her until she stops talking, until she melts against me, until there's nothing in the universe except the two of us standing under the stars.
When I pull back, she's breathless.
"I feel the same," I say. "I think I have since Dublin. Since you looked at me in that garden and refused to be afraid."
She laughs, tears glittering in her eyes. "We're ridiculous."
"Completely."
"This is going to be complicated."
