For a second, it’s just me and Silas.
The ghost I haven’t stopped dreaming about. The manwho gave me a taste of real love and then ripped it away with a message that still haunts my nights.
His face doesn’t change much—just the barest twitch at the corner of his mouth. But his eyes… they go wide for a heartbeat, then shutter fast, as if he regrets being seen. Like seeing mehurts.
Good. That single petty thought filters in, and I reel my emotions back in before they can spill out all over the floor.
I blink once, slow. Let my chin lift. And then I lookaway. I turn back to Nathan, and I smile.
Even if my chest aches like a cracked rib, I refuse to let Silas take this from me too. I am not the broken kid he left behind.
I’m Luke fucking Maddox.
“Sorry,” I say, voice steady, even if I feel as though I’ve been gutted. “Thought I recognized someone. You were saying?”
Nathan blinks at me, but picks up where he left off, telling me about his dog back home who learned to open the fridge. I laugh in the right places, sip my drink, nod along.
But it’s different now. I can feel it. The space between us. It’s friendly. Easy. Comfortable. Andwrong.
Because no matter how warm Nathan’s smile is or how nice it feels to be seen, it’s not the kind of heat that crackles in the air. It’s not the gravity that pulls me in without trying. It’s not him.
Silas never had to speak to set my heart racing.
This—whatever this is—it’s not that. And that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. Maybe this is what healing looks like. Taking a chance. Showing up. Learning the difference between a spark and a flicker. I won’t know until I try, right?
Ifinish the last sip of my drink and set the glass down a little too carefully, my pulse thudding in my ears. Nathan’s still smiling, still talking, still trying. Even though I’ve clearly gone on auto pilot. He deserves better than a ghost sitting across from him.
“Hey,” I say, cutting in gently. “This has been really nice. Seriously. But would you maybe want to get out of here? Go for a walk?”
Nathan blinks, surprised, then nods. “Yeah. Yeah, sure.”
I stand, sliding out of the booth first, before dropping some money on the table for our bill. The second my feet hit the floor, I feel it—him.The weight of his stare dragging across my spine similar to heat from a flame I can’t un-feel.
But I don’t look. I don’tneedto. Because even though it rattles me, even though the part of me that still aches wants to turn and look, I don’t give him that. Not tonight.
I let itfuelme.
One step. Then another.
Head high. Shoulders back.
I walk past the bar without flinching, even though I can feel Silas’s eyes like a brand on my skin. Nathan walks beside me, quiet for once, maybe sensing the tension that buzzes like a live wire in the air. It would be hard to miss.
I push the door open and breathe in the cold night air.
As it closes behind us, I don’t look back. But my hands shake as I shove them into my pockets. Because walking away from Silas Gray? That might be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
The wind bites the second we hit the street, slicing through my jacket.
Nathan walks beside me in silence for half a block before glancing over. “Was that an ex?”
I force a laugh. “What gave it away? The way I bolted like a dog from a running vacuum?”
His mouth quirks. “Nah. You were smooth. It was the look on your face. You went all ghost-white for a second.”
I exhale through my nose, trying to laugh it off again, but it just sounds hollow. “Something like that.”
We reach the end of the block and pause at the corner. A bus rumbles by, headlights flashing across our faces.
