“I knew you were perfect, but damn,” I sighed. Dane was an amazing man, but sharing a hobby with him made me giddy.
Dane shifted, his hand moving to rub the back of his neck. “I’ll be right back.” He slipped from under the blanket, and I heard his footsteps fade toward the bathroom.
The moment the door clicked shut, the air changed. Kade’s playful energy dipped, replaced by something sharper, more deliberate. He turned to face me fully, his face serious.
“I need you to understand something,” he said quietly.
“What’s up?”
“Dane doesn’t let people in. Ever. He barely lets me in. I kind of just… exist near him. This?” he gestured around the fort. “It’s a big deal.”
I swallowed. “Kade—”
“I’m not trying to scare you off,” he interrupted, his voice low but firm. “I’m telling you this because if you hurt him, if you make him think he can have this and then take it away…” He paused, his jaw working.
The weight of his words settled over me like the blanket above us—heavy, protective, suffocating.
“I’m not going to hurt him,” I whispered.I’m just happy to be here.
“Okay. Just hear me on this. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect him. Even from you.”
Before I could respond, the bathroom door opened. Footsteps padded back toward us. Kade leaned back against the pillows, rolling his shoulders like he was shaking off the heaviness of what we’d just discussed.
Kade’s expression shifted instantly—back to that easy, chaotic grin. “So,” he said louder, grabbing another handful of chips, “are we gonna talk about how my dick’s bigger than Dane’s?”
Dane ducked back into the fort, eyeing us both suspiciously. His gaze lingered on me, searching, but I forced a smile. He settled beside me, his warmth pressing against my side.
“That’s a lie.”
“Your turn,” I said to him, trying to shake off the tension.
“Alright. Vera—what’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?”
I groaned. “Do I have to answer that?”
“Rules are rules,” Dane murmured, his lips quirking.
And just like that, the heaviness lifted. We fell back into the rhythm of questions and answers, laughter and teasing. Kade’s warning still echoed in the back of my mind, but for now, I let myself sink into the safety of the fort, the warmth of Dane’s body beside me, and the strange, fragile trust building between the three of us.
Hours passed. The lantern faded. Our voices grew quieter, softer, until we were barely whispering in the dark.
“I haven’t felt this safe in years,” I admitted, my voice small.
Dane’s arm tightened around me. “Good.”
Kade was on his side, propped up on one elbow, watching me from my right.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “For this. For all of it.”
Kade didn’t wink this time. Instead, his gaze held mine. “You know what the scariest part of Fort Ghost was?” His voice was a whisper, low enough that it felt like a secret meant only for me.
I turned my head toward him, my breath catching. “What?”
“Knowing it had to end.” He shifted, his hand coming to rest on the blanket between us, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his palm. “Every morning, we’d wake up and the blanket would be gone. The real world would come crashing back in—foster parents, locked cabinets, all of it. And for years, I told myself I didn’t need it anymore. That I’d outgrown hiding in forts.”
His jaw tightened, and for a moment, I saw the ghost of the boy who’d stolen food just to survive.
“Then you walked into that party,” he continued, his voice rougher, “and I realized I’ve just been waiting for someone worth building a new fort for.”
