"Goodnight, Lucy."
"Goodnight."
He left. The door clicked shut behind him.
I stood there for a long time, staring at the wood.
My forehead still burned where his lips had touched. My jaw still tingled where his fingers had traced. My whole body felt like a live wire, sparking with energy that had nowhere to go.
I pressed my forehead against the door and let out a breath I felt like I'd been holding for hours.
What had he meant by those things he’d said: things he never told me, things I didn’t know?"
I thought about all the time we'd spent together over the past weeks. All the conversations, the quiet moments, the way he'd woven himself into every part of my life. I thought I knew him until that moment. Thought I understood who he was, why he was here.
But there was something else. Something he was carrying that I couldn't see.
I pushed off from the door and walked to Gabrielle's room. Stood in the doorway, watching her sleep. I observed every single detail of her, the way her tiny chest rose and fell, peaceful and oblivious to the complicated adult drama unfolding around her.
"What am I doing, little one?" I whispered.
She didn't answer. Just slept on, dreaming whatever babies dream about.
I went to bed, but I didn’t sleep. I just lay there inthe dark, replaying every moment: the way it felt to have his hand on my face, the rough, wanting sound of his voice, and the brush of his lips against mine, so brief I might have imagined it.
We hadn’t really kissed, and we hadn’t said anything that mattered.
But my whole body was humming at a frequency only he could hear. And I knew, with a certainty that terrified me, that the next time he looked at me like that, I wouldn't step back.
I'd step forward.
And everything would change.
CHAPTER 15
Cal
I almost gotsomeone killed during drills.
Not literally. It was just a training exercise, a simulated structure fire with the new probies running point. But I was supposed to be leading, calling out positions, tracking everyone's movements. Instead, my mind kept sliding somewhere else entirely.
Lucy's face in the kitchen light. The way her breath had caught when I touched her. The softness of her skin under my fingers, the way she'd tilted her chin up, the way she'd looked at me like?—
"Primary search, north side clear!" Riley's voice crackled through the radio.
I should have responded. Should have logged her position, directed the next team, kept the whole operation moving. That was my job. That was what I'd done a thousand times without thinking.
Instead, I was standing in the middle of thetraining yard, hand on my radio, seeing nothing but the replay in my mind of an almost-kiss.
"Cap, you copy?" Riley again, an edge of confusion in her voice.
"Bennett." Owen, from somewhere to my left. "Cal."
I blinked. The yard came back into focus. The smoke machine was pumping gray clouds across the concrete, obscuring the training structure. Two probies were waiting at the entry point, looking at me for direction. Liam had the hose line ready, his expression somewhere between concerned and annoyed.
And I had no idea what had just happened. No idea where anyone was positioned, what the last update had been, how long I'd been standing here like a statue.
"Cap!"
