Julia reaches across the table and covers my hand with hers.
“Then you show her who you are when things aren’t fun,” she says. “When it’s quiet. When it’s inconvenient. When she’s not dazzling, and neither are you.”
I swallow. “I want her to take me seriously.”
Her smile turns proud. “Then take yourself seriously first.”
From down the hall, I hear Boone’s voice. Caleb’s quieter reply. Delaney’s laugh, soft and real, drifting through the house.
I glance toward the sound without meaning to.
Julia notices.
“You’re not just talking about her, are you?” she asks gently.
I freeze for half a second.
Then I exhale.
“No,” I admit. “I’m not.”
Her expression doesn’t change.
“It’s Boone,” I say. “And Caleb.”
I brace myself anyway. Old instincts die hard.
Julia tilts her head slightly. “All of you?”
“Yes.”
“And she knows what she’s choosing?” she asks.
I nod immediately. “Yes. We’ve talked. Really talked. No secrets. No pretending.”
She studies my face for a long moment, searching for more. Recklessness. Avoidance. A joke waiting in the wings.
She finds none of it.
“Huh,” she says.
That’s it.
Justhuh.
“That’s… not what you were expecting me to say, is it?” I ask carefully.
Julia smiles into her tea. “I was expecting you to tell me you finally stopped running from something that mattered.”
I blink. “You’re… okay with it?”
She sets her mug down and looks at me fully. “Silas, I’ve known Boone and Caleb since you were all half-feral teenagers. I know who they are. I know how they love. And I know you.”
She squeezes my hand again. “If you’re telling me this because it feels real and intentional, and not because you’re hiding, then yes. I’m okay with it.”
My chest loosens in a way that I didn’t realize was tight.
“She’s been hurt,” I say quietly.
