The words cut deep.
“Claire—”
She held up a hand. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just—” She shook her head. “I’m being honest about how I feel about what you did.” She paused. “I loved you, whoever you are now.I loved you.And when Derek said your name, when I realized you’d been deceiving me the whole time...” She pressed a hand to her chest. “It felt like dying. Like losing Lily all over again. Like I couldn’t trust my own judgment anymore.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I know you are.” Claire wiped her face. “But sorry doesn’t fix it. Sorry doesn’t make me trust you again.”
Garrett’s throat was tight. “That’s totally fair.”
“But,” Claire said, and his heart stuttered, “Vivi said something else when she came to see me. She said that what we had is worth fighting for.” She looked at him. “Is it? Is it worth fighting for?”
“Yes,” Garrett said without hesitation. “If you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”
“How?”
“However you need me to. Therapy. Time. Space.”
“I feel like I don’t know you.”
“You don’t. But I want you to. I joined the Navy and became a SEAL. I spent fifteen years learning how to protect people. How to be strong enough that no one I cared about would die on my watch again.” Garrett’s voice was rough. “And then Vivi showed up with your file.”
“So you took the mission.”
“I demanded the mission. Told Vivi if anyone else ran point, I’d quit.” He looked at Claire. “Then I met you, and you were so much more than I expected. Stronger. Smarter. More beautiful.” He paused. “I was terrified that if you knew who I was, you’d see me as Bobby, so I didn’t tell you. I told myself it was to protect the mission, to keep you focused, but really—” His voice cracked. “Really, I was just scared you’d reject me if you knew the truth.”
“I might have,” Claire said quietly. “At first. The guilt about Lily—about surviving when she didn’t—it’s shaped my whole life. If I’d known you were her brother...” She trailed off. “I don’t know how I would have reacted.”
“That’s what I told myself. That I was protecting you from that conflict.” Garrett met her eyes. “But I was wrong. You deserved the truth. Deserved to make your own choice. I took that from you, and know it was wrong.”
Claire looked at Lily’s grave. At the tulips they’d both brought. “She would have liked you. The you that you are now. Garrett.”
“You think so?”
“She always said her brother was too serious. Too hard on himself.” Claire smiled slightly. “She’d probably tease you about the codename. ‘Wolf? Really, Bobby? That’s so dramatic.’”
Garrett laughed despite himself. “Yeah. She would.”
“I requested a transfer,” Claire said. “To the Missoula FBI field office.”
Garrett’s heart stopped. “What?”
“It was approved last week. I start the first of January.” She looked at him. “I’m moving to Montana.”
The sun felt warmer on his face. “Why?”
“Because Shadow Point Security is there, and a certain commander whom I’m still angry with and who I don’t completely trust yet is, too. But who I—” She stopped. “Who I’m not ready to give up on.”
Hope flared in Garrett’s chest. “That’s…more than I deserve.”
“It is, and I need time,” she said quickly. “And honesty. Complete honesty. No more secrets. No more lies—even the ones you think are protecting me.”
“No more secrets,” Garrett agreed. “I promise.”
“I mean it. If we do this—if we try—you have to be all in. No holding back. No ‘I’ll tell her later.’ Everything.”
“Everything,” he said, nodding like he’d lost his senses. “I’m Garrett Cross. Former Navy SEAL. Commander of Shadow Point Security. Brother of Lily Harper. And I’m in love with Claire Dawson. Have been since the moment she learned her call sign was Paperclip and looked like she wanted to fight me about it.”
