Coop rose, wiping his hands off on a napkin. “You love her, Arch?”
Direct.
Blunt.
No room to dodge.
I didn’t answer right away. Not because I didn’t know. Because I did. Because she should be the first person I told, and she would be. For now, I just said, “Yes.” She would be the first one to get all of the words.
Coop held my gaze, then nodded once. “Then don’t screw it up.”
“Wow. Growth.” Jake pointed at him.
“Shut up,” Coop muttered, shooting him a middle finger. “You might have miles to go, some of us were already there.”
The tension broke just enough on a laugh. “No shit,” Jake said. “I’ll just have to keep on working.”
“All of us will,” Bubba said. “She’s worth it.”
Yes, she absolutely was.
After another half hour, they filtered out one by one—Jake still talking, Coop quieter than usual, Bubba giving me one last assessing look before heading down the hall—I stayed seated for a minute longer.
Downstairs, Jeremy would see them out and lock up the house. From where I sat, I couldn’t hear anything. Maybe they’d all left, could we get that lucky?
I tossed the empty box onto the table, killed the lights in the game room, and walked the hall slowly. My door was half open.
I didn’t push it wider right away. I just stood there.
Frankie was sprawled diagonally across my bed like she’d claimed it years ago. Tory curled against her ribs. Tiddles was a dramatic lump near her feet. Tabby tucked against her shoulder like a sentry.
She hadn’t even made it under the covers.
One arm was flung above her head. The other rested loosely against Tory’s back. Her hair fanned across my pillow like it belonged there. Likeshebelonged there.
I stepped inside quietly without turning on the lights. I didn’t want to wake her. I closed the door to the hall and locked it. Then I just sat on the edge of the platform steps and watched her breathe.
All the war downstairs. All the tension upstairs. All the complicated, messy, impossible dynamics we were standing inside of.
And here?
Peace.
She shifted in her sleep and murmured something unintelligible, brow faintly furrowing before relaxing again.
She was here.
And for now?
That was enough.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
FRANKIE
Homecoming week attempted to kill me slowly.
