Just that. No emoji, no extra words, but I could hear her voice in it. Soft, certain, like she already knew she was coming home.
I set my phone down, smiling to myself.
“Looks like we’ve got our girl back, Honey.”
The kitten purred, laying her chin right on the edge of my head. Probably relieved that her mom was home.
Chapter Sixty
Aurora / Joshua
Aurora
The elevator doors slid open, and there he was: Alex. Tall. Stoic. Hands shoved in his pockets, like always, the definition of unreadable.
He glanced down, eyes flicking over me. “Where you heading, little one?”
Little one?
I blinked. Okay, fair. He was six foot four, built like someone who could bench-press a small car, and I was… very much not.
Still, the nickname caught me off guard enough that I mumbled, “Up.”
He didn’t comment, just nodded once and stepped aside as I pressed the button for Joshua’s floor. The elevator hummed as it moved up, silence stretching between us, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Not really. Alex had that quiet kind of energy, heavy but calm.
When the doors opened, we both stepped out at the same time.
“Oh,” I said softly. “You’re—”
“Yeah,” he said. “Visiting Lockhart.”
Right. Of course. Who else?I should’ve known the moment I saw him.
“You gonna try to talk to him today? I can leave,” he said, voice lower than usual.
My cheeks warmed. “I—uh—I already did that yesterday.”
His brow lifted just a little. “That so?”
I nodded, clutching my bag tighter.
He studied me for a beat, as if he were piecing together a puzzle. He exhaled. “You didn’t talk on his bed, did you?”
My head snapped up. “No! On the couch!”
“Talked?” he pressed, leaning slightly against the wall with that oddly protective look on his face.
I fiddled with my sleeves. “Kinda.”
“Kinda,” he echoed, voice dripping with another protective, brotherly warning. “He better’ve apologised properly, cause sex or whatever he did to you doesn’t count as an apology.”
“He did!” I said quickly. “He really did.”
Alex studied my face for a second longer, then nodded once, satisfied. The softest version of approval I’d ever get from him.
“Alright,” he said, pulling a spare keycard from his pocket. He tapped it against the lock, the light turning green. He held the door open for me, and I swear, for someone so brooding, his tone softened just enough to make it feel like an older brother watching his little sister finally walk into something right.
“Thank you, Alex,” I said quietly.
