I exhaled.
And I looked at Alex.
Water dripping from his hair. Chest still heaving. That laugh still fading from his face, leaving behind something quieter. Something just for me.
Tonight.
Whatever happened tonight would change everything.
But right now—right now we'd just proven to everyone watching that we were exactly where we belonged.
Together.
Chapter 24: Alex
The knock came at 9:47 PM.
I'd been sitting on the edge of my bed for twenty minutes. Showered. Changed. Room straightened even though it was already straight—a habit I couldn't break. The nervous energy from the race had nowhere to go, so I'd folded laundry, wiped down my desk, reorganized books that were already alphabetized.
My body still ached from the 2K. Quads stiff, shoulders tight, that specific deep-muscle exhaustion that came from leaving everything on the water. The good kind of tired. The kind that meant I'd given it all.
The knock again. Three quick raps.
My pulse spiked. I knew who it was.
I crossed the room. Opened the door.
Liam.
He stood in the hallway in jeans and a dark hoodie, hands shoved in the front pocket. Hair still damp at the edges from a shower. The collar of a white t-shirt visible at his neck. Hesmelled like soap and cold air—like he'd walked the whole way from Riverside.
His eyes found mine and held.
Something passed between us. Not words. Not even a question. Just recognition. The same thing that had happened in the boat—that click of two people who'd stopped pretending they didn't know what this was.
"Hey," he said. Rough. Quiet.
"Hey."
He didn't ask to come in. I didn't ask if he was sure. He stepped forward and I stepped back and the door closed behind him with a soft click.
We stood there. Maybe three feet apart. My room felt smaller with him in it—his presence filling the space the way it always did, displacing the careful order I'd constructed.
"That race," he said.
"Yeah."
"I can't stop—" He stopped. Ran his hand through his damp hair. The gesture pulled his hoodie up just enough to expose a strip of stomach above his jeans. I couldn't not look. "My head's been going all day. Since we got out of the water."
"Mine too."
Liam nodded slowly. His jaw was doing that thing—working, like he was chewing on words he couldn't quite form.
"I keep thinking about what you said," he managed. "In the boat. After."
We're amazing together.
Made for each other.
