(Replying to Rocky):
She’s it, man. Always was. Now quit grinning like a Hallmark grandma and text me the film schedule for the week.
Incoming call—
Kallie.
He ignored it.
Again—Kallie, calling.
A third time.
Dylan sighed and finally accepted it.
“About damn time,” Kallie’s voice came through, breathless like she’d sprinted through her penthouse. “I’ve been trying toreach you for fifteen minutes. Did you see it? Do you understand what just happened?”
Dylan leaned against the wall, towel slipping a little lower as he scrubbed a hand through his damp hair. “Yeah,” he said, voice thick. “I saw it.”
“You’re tagged, McKenzie. OnInstagram. That’s public. That’s not just a soft-launch anymore—that’s ahard commit, babe.”
“I know,” he said. And he did. He felt it in his chest like gravity.
“You okay?” Kallie’s voice softened.
He smiled, small and real. “I’m more than okay.”
“Good,” she said. “Because your entire fanbase is already feral in the comments. But screw them—she did this foryou, M. That girl just told the world you’re hers.”
Dylan glanced toward the door again, where the laughter kept bubbling over like it couldn’t be stopped.
“She’s always been mine,” he said quietly. “Now she’s just not hiding it.”
Dylan opened the door to the bedroom just in time to see Ashley kiss Ali on the cheek and bounce off the bed like she’d been launched, the other two girls still squealing through the FaceTime call as she darted out, phone in hand.
The door clicked shut behind her.
Ali blinked up at him, still flushed and glowing, a blanket bunched around her legs.
He didn’t say anything at first.
Just stood there in the soft light of her bedroom, his hair damp, towel riding low,, looking at her like she was his entire world.
She looked nervous and unsure. He wasn’t having that shit.
Dylan held up his phone.
Ali tilted her head.
He didn’t speak—just smirked faintly and tapped the screen, thumb clicking “Share to Story.”
A second later, her phone buzzed.
She looked down at the screen—and there it was.
@mac_mckenzie13 reposted your story.
Her breath caught. When she looked back up, he was already walking toward her. Slow. Intentional.
