"Yeah?"
Maddox was staring out at the trees, her jaw working like she was gathering courage for something. "Your lease. When does it end?"
"End of next month." Jade studied Maddox's profile, sensing something significant coming. "Why?"
Maddox turned to face her, and in the fading light, Jade could see the vulnerability there, the same look Maddox got when she was about to take a leap she wasn't entirely sure she'd survive.
"You could..." Maddox paused, then seemed to decide something. "You could stay here. Move in, I mean. If you want."
Jade's heart stopped, then started again, faster. "You're asking me to move in?"
"Yes." Maddox's voice was even now. "I'm asking. If it's too soon, we can?—"
"It's not too soon." Jade set down her wine glass before she spilled any. "Yes. I want to."
They stared at each other for a beat, both slightly stunned that this was actually happening. Then Maddox was grinning and Jade was laughing and Zeus was on his feet, his tail wagging because clearly something exciting was happening.
“We’re really doing this?” Jade asked.
“Looks like it.” Maddox stood, pulling Jade up with her. “Just another step to building a life.”
“Yeah.” Jade wrapped her arms around Maddox’s neck.
The kiss was deeper this time, full of promise and certainty and the future they were choosing together. When they broke apart, Zeus pushed between them.
“You, too, buddy,” Maddox said, crouching to scratch Zeus's ears. "All of us. Our pack is complete."
Jade looked at them, first to Maddox and Zeus, then this house surrounded by trees, and the evening light turning everything golden. She felt a calm weight anchor itself inside her.
Home. This was home.
Not just the place, but the people and the life they were building together.
She'd come to Phoenix Ridge six months ago running from a relationship that made her feel like she was too much. And in that wreckage and hurt, she'd found this: a woman who needed exactly what she had to give, a job that valued her work, and a community that embraced her.
It was a future worth choosing.
"Come on," Maddox said, straightening up and taking Jade's hand. "Let's figure out how we make this place ours."
They went inside, Zeus plodding between them, and started planning their shared future and the practical details about furniture placement and whose coffee maker they'd keep. But underneath the logistics ran something bigger, a commitment, both of them deciding to build a life together, consciously and completely.
Jade had her answer for Diana.
Yes. To all of it. Yes.
Later, after they'd cleaned up the dinner dishes and refilled their wine glasses, they drifted to the back porch like they always did. Maddox's thinking space, she'd called it once. The place where hard conversations happened and where walls came down.
The summer evening had gone soft around the edges, twilight stretching long and comfortable. Zeus had claimed his usual spot at their feet, his breathing already evening out into something close to sleep. Jade held her wine glass between both palms, watching the last of the light catch in the burgundy liquid. The day had been full of big words—contract, commitment, permanence—and now they sat quiet in the aftermath.
It should've felt overwhelming. Instead, it felt right.
Maddox was quiet beside her, staring out at the trees, the kind of stillness where Maddox was gathering her words. Jade waited patiently.
"Can I say something?" Maddox finally asked, her voice low.
Jade turned to look at her, reading the vulnerability in the set of her shoulders and the way her jaw worked. "Always."
Maddox took a breath and set down her wine glass. "I've been thinking. About us. And about how we started."
