My mouth goes dry. My pulse skyrockets. I don’t move. I don’t breathe. I stand there like someone hitpauseon my nervous system while the rest of the world keeps playing.
Nolan shifts beside me, a subtle, almost imperceptible movement. And when he steps in close without a word, it’s not nothing. It’s presence. Steady. Quiet. He knows I’m one breath away from falling apart and he chooses to be the breath that holds me together.
Quinn’s eyes lock on mine. For a second—a mere second–his smile falters.
Good.
I might look like I’m holding it together, but inside I’m collapsing. Not because I want him back. Because I want to understand how someone who once whispered promises into my ear could move on like I was a chapter he skipped by mistake.
Three months.
That’s all it took for him to trade in heartbreak for a hashtag engagement shoot.
Fuck. That.
My jaw tightens. My chin lifts.
“Hey,” I say, and it comes out too light, too airy. Like I’ve inhaled helium. “Hi, Quinn.”
He looks… a bit pompous. That smile curving his lips is a mask, and I know it because I used to watch him rehearse it in the mirror before meetings.
“This is Paisley.” He lifts her hand with theatrical flair, and the diamond on her ring finger glints in the light like a blade, ready to be shoved straight through my heart. “My fiancée.”
“Oh, wow. Congratulations,” I manage, though it tastes like lemon peel and bile. “That’s… really great.”
Paisley offers me a polite, noncommittal smile—the kind you givesomeone right before you judge their entire outfit. “Wejustgot back from a weekend in Montauk. He proposed on the cliffs at sunset.”
Because of course he did.
Next to me, Nolan is a wolf catching the scent of something off. He clocks the entire exchange with terrifying efficiency. A strong arm snakes around my waist in one slow, deliberate motion. I look up at him. He winks, and that dimple I refuse to find charming makes a dangerous appearance.
My heart flips. Nolan somehow felt the ground shift beneath me and he stepped in without a word, and that’s unwinding something tight in my chest, tugging at threads I thought I’d knotted down.
I look up at him. He winks.
This infuriating, impossible man, is doing things to my resolve. He’s supposed to be the enemy.
But all I can think is?—
God, it would be so easy to fall for you.
“Amazing,” I say to Paisley, because I don’t know where else to aim the awkwardness. “Well, we were just heading home.”
Quinn’s eyes narrow with curiosity as they size up Nolan. “So… you’re together?”
Nolan doesn’t hesitate. He slides his hand from my waist, extends it toward Quinn like he’s closing a deal.
“Nolan Rhodes,” he says. Cool. Collected, flat enough to be convincing. “We were grabbing drinks. Celebrating.”
“Celebrating?” Quinn repeats, his expression faltering.
Nolan’s smile curls, amused. “Her brilliance. My luck. The beginning of her ‘no more mediocre men’ era.”
Paisley blinks.
I cough into my sleeve to hide my laugh. Nolan’s hand slips into mine as though it’s always belonged there, and I let him.
Quinn shifts. “Well. Glad you found someone who can… handle your life.”
