I pushed the covers back. Padded down the hall, bare feet on cool hardwood.
He was wearing his jeans from last night. Nothing else. Standing at my counter with a spatula in one hand and a confused expression.
"You found the coffee."
He turned. That smile again. The one that still made everything flip.
"Eventually." He gestured at the cabinet he'd clearly been exploring. "Your organization system is... creative."
"It's not a system. It's intuition."
"It's chaos."
"Creative chaos." I crossed to him, still in his shirt from last night, and he pulled me close automatically. Like it was a habit already. Like we'd been doing this forever. "There's a method to it. You just have to understand the underlying logic."
"The underlying logic seems to be 'wherever Sloane's hand lands when she's not paying attention.'"
"Exactly. Intuitive."
He laughed and kissed my forehead.
"Breakfast is almost ready. I found eggs. And what I think is bread, but might be a science experiment."
"It's bread. Probably."
"Reassuring."
I leaned against the counter and watched him cook. Morning light turning his skin golden, catching the muscles of his back as he moved. He looked comfortable in my kitchen.
Like he belonged there.
This is real. This is actually happening.
I was happy.
The kind of happiness that wasn't complicated by guilt or fear or the constant drumbeat ofyou don't deserve this.
"What are you thinking about?" Garrett asked.
"Nothing." I sipped my coffee. "Everything. How strange it is that we're here."
"Good strange?"
"The best strange." I set down my mug. Crossed to him. Slid my arms around his waist from behind and pressed my cheek to his shoulder blade. "I keep waiting for something to go wrong."
He turned off the stove. Turned in my arms.
"Me too," he admitted. "Every morning I wake up expecting you to be gone."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I know." He touched my face. "But the fear doesn't listen to logic. Not yet."
"Then we'll teach it." I rose on my toes, kissed him softly. "Every morning. Every time we wake up and we're both still here. Eventually the fear will get tired of being wrong."
"You think so?"
"I think we've already survived the worst thing that could happen to us." I held his gaze. "We survived losing each other. If we can come back from that, we can handle anything."
