Mavis clapped her hands once.“Excellent.See you at lunch?”
I laughed despite myself.“You two are impossible.”
“And indispensable,” Dixie said, already heading for the door.
As they left, the room felt lighter.Quieter.
I turned back to my desk, to the work that grounded me.
And somewhere down the hall, I knew Creed was adjusting—not because I’d pushed him, but because I hadn’t needed to.
Chapter 15
The next few weekswere a blur of warmth, laughter, and the kind of happiness that felt too fragile to last.
Creed was everywhere, slipping into the spaces of my life with such ease that I couldn’t remember when he hadn’t been there.This wasn’t how he used to move, and yet he was choosing it anyway.
It wasn’t just that we were spending time together.It was how we were spending it.
At work, he held my hand as we walked the halls, easy, unannounced, like it was simply where his hand belonged.
And at home—God, at home, it was even more dangerous.
Dangerous because it felt so damn right.Because he was there.
He was there when we finished decorating the Christmas tree, lifting the girls onto his shoulders so they could hang ornaments on the highest branches, his deep laughter mixing with their giggles.
Creed was with us when we bundled up and drove through the glowing Christmas light displays, his arm draped over my seat, his voice rumbling through the car as he told stories that had the twins in fits of laughter.
When we took the girls to see Santa, his large hands curled around theirs as they pulled him eagerly toward the line, firing off questions about whether he’d ever met therealSanta before.
And every single night, when the house was quiet and the girls were asleep, he was there pressing me against the walls, against the fragile rules I had set for myself.
And I let him because I wanted him.Because this man had become the gravity holding my world in place.
Through permission slips and glitter-covered backpacks, through calendar reminders and half-forgotten bake sales.Life didn’t pause for emotional recalibration.It just...kept going.
