Luc looks at Dean. Dean’s jaw tightens, then loosens. “We’re supposed to meet Mikey in a bit.”
“Right,” Luc says with zero conviction. “We’ll catch up later.”
Lily feigns insult, “Your loss boys,” and then guides me away. We don’t get far before I glance over my shoulder. Dean is still watching me. His face is unreadable, but his posture isn’t.
He looks like someone trying to decide which direction to walk. Then Luc bumps him with an elbow and says something that makes Dean shake his head like a man who doesn’t know what to do with hope. And they disappear into the shop.
The riverfront is lush and bright, the Mississippi rolling wide and lazy like it owns time itself. We sit on a bench under a tree and eat something fried out of a paper tray that Lily insists she heard is “a Memphis requirement.”
My phone buzzes.
Dean: You good
Two words. No emoji. No punctuation. Yet my heart does that stupid, reckless thing anyway. I stare at it. Then type back: Yeah. You?
Three dots appear.
Dean: Yeah.
I can hear the lie in it.
Lily watches me out of the corner of her eye, but she doesn’t say anything. Just reaches over and bumps my shoulder gently with hers like a quiet I see you.
The afternoon drifts by in warm pieces: Lily telling me about Larkin’s first word (“Mama,” because of course), me telling her about my sister’s latest chaos spree (“Quinn once tried to dye our dog purple… with Kool-Aid”), both of us laughing until our sides hurt.
It feels good. Safe. And somewhere under the laughter, something in me settles. Not because things are solved. Not because Dean suddenly became a different man. But because I’m not carrying all of it alone anymore. As the sun starts to slide lower, Lily checks her phone and smiles. “Luc says they’re ordering takeout upstairs if we want to join.”
I stand, brushing crumbs from my shorts. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
We walk back toward the hotel with that easy, floating tiredness you get after a good day. A quiet day. A day that doesn’t demand anything from you except presence.
And as we step into the lobby, I see Dean again. He’s coming out of the elevator with Luc, a bag in one hand, sunglasses pushed up into his hair. When he sees me, his whole body stills for half a beat.
Then he moves. It’s nothing dramatic. Nothing obvious. He just crosses the marble floor and stops in front of me like gravity pulled him there.
“You okay?” his voice quiet and gentle. His eyes are on mine. Not my mouth. Like he’s learning.
“Yeah.” I nod, my mouth curving up. “We had a good day.”
Something eases in his shoulders. “Good.” A beat of silence.
Luc clears his throat loudly. “Alright, lovers. Takeout’s upstairs. Larkin fell asleep mid-banana.”
“Who you calling lovers?” Dean mutters, but there’s no bite to it.
Luc grins knowingly at me as he passes. Lily follows him, already laughing. Dean and I are left in the lobby in a pocket of quiet. He shifts, like he’s about to say something and doesn’t know how to shape it. So, I do what I’m learning to do with him. I wait. And as expected, he finally speaks, low enough that only I can hear. “I’m glad you went out today.”
My chest loosens. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, Lily’s great.” He nods once, gaze dropping to the floor. “Yesterday was better though. With you.”
I blink, startled. Then laugh softly. “Yesterday was nice.”
His eyes lift again. Something cautious lives there. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I, nod and smile.
He studies me like he’s trying to decide if that’s permission. “Okay.” He rakes a hand through his hair. “So, you in for takeout?”
